Meta

Charles Porch, who helped land Instagram’s biggest partnerships — including the launch of Beyoncé’s self-titled album on the social network — will now serve as OpenAI’s first VP of global creative partnerships.

The funding will go toward Meta’s pro-AI super PACs, including two new ones: Republican-focused “Forge the Future Project” and Democrat-focused “Making Our Tomorrow,” the New York Times reports. The PACs will back politicians who are friendly to AI and push back against legislation that could limit the growth of Meta’s AI business.

The Meta CEO walked through the public entrance of the LA Superior Court and past parent advocates and media waiting to learn if they’d get a seat to hear his testimony.

Just after we entered the courtroom, we learned that a juror has been hospitalized. The parties decided to postpone today’s testimony from former Meta employees to see if the juror can return. Regardless, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify tomorrow — either before the original juror, or an alternate.

Google, Reddit, Discord, and Meta have received “hundreds” of subpoenas from the DHS in recent months, according to a report from The New York Times. The agency is reportedly asking the platforms for the names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other information associated with accounts that “track or criticize” ICE.

Remember when EssilorLuxottica said it sold 2 million and would hit 10 million a year by 2027? 10M seems well within reach. “In 2025, we sold more than 7 million units of AI glasses, posting exponential growth,” said CEO Francesco Milleri. Prices may stay high in the short term, though, they hinted on the earnings call.

“Trying to isolate over 100mn people from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia,” WhatsApp says a statement to the Financial Times.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is suing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for their alleged roles urging Meta and Apple to remove a Facebook group and app documenting ICE agents. FIRE claims they unconstitutionally coerced companies to censor speech. In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused FIRE of spinning “this correct decision for Apple to remove these apps as them caving to pressure instead of helping prevent further harm to federal officers.”

Support for voice and video calls between individual chats is now available to some beta testers, allowing web users to place and receive calls without giving Meta so much personal data via the WhatsApp desktop app. It’ll roll out to more users “over the coming weeks,” according to WABetainfo.

The European Commission has weighed in on the November decision to block the likes of ChatGPT and Copilot from WhatsApp, and thinks it violates EU antitrust laws. It’s surprisingly fast for the organization, which called the issue “urgent” because of the risk of “irreparable” damage to competition in the nascent AI industry.

Jason Rubin became Oculus’ game studios boss in 2014, shortly after Facebook bought the company, and led VR content ever since, as well as brokering deals that might’ve led to a killer app — like Rock Band, Assassin’s Creed and more. But over a decade later, Meta’s gutting its studios. Rubin is leaving in March because “this seems like a good time.”

Sorry to Zuck-dunk two days in a row, but it’s fair to say that when the Meta CEO predicts AI is the next big thing in social media, you should take it with a grain of salt.

With news that Meta has spent millions on an ad campaign to persuade people that having data centers in their backyard isn’t all that bad, Mark’s next move is an obvious one.

It follows Snap in reaching an agreement to resolve the first of several cases slated to go to trial this year about social media’s alleged harm to users, an attorney for the 19-year-old plaintiff confirmed. That leaves Meta and YouTube as defendants in the case going to jury selection today.

Patent infringement lawsuits are heating up in the world of smart glasses, with Xreal suing Viture earlier this month and Meta being sued last year over the electromyography tech in the Neural Band used to control the Meta Ray-Ban Display.

Meta has bet big on AI everything, but also has Instagram boss Adam Mosseri out there warning creators about its impact. One commenter (and occasional Verge contributor!) sums up its position nicely:

“Ads on Threads expansion to all users will be gradual, with ad delivery initially remaining low as we reach global user availability in the coming months,” Meta says. It started testing ads on the platform last year.