Technology

YouTube has a problem: its recommendation algorithm assembles video playlists for pedophiles. Now a Republican senator has proposed an aggressive new law to solve the problem ― but could inadvertently imperil family vloggers’ livelihoods. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced his bill this month, days after a New York Times report revealed how YouTube’s automatic algorithms grab […]

After decades of improvement, America’s air may not be getting any cleaner. Over the last two years the nation had more polluted air days than just a few years earlier, federal data shows. While it remains unclear whether this is the beginning of a trend, health experts say it’s troubling to see air quality progress

SAN FRANCISCO — Google pledged $1 billion worth of land and money on Tuesday to build affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, the latest effort by tech industry leaders to address housing shortages near their headquarters. Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said in a blog post that the company planned to repurpose at

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook already rules daily communication for more than two billion people around the world. Now it wants its own currency, too. The social network unveiled an ambitious plan Tuesday to create a new digital currency similar to Bitcoin for global use, one that could drive more e-commerce on its services and

The Latest on Facebook‘s new digital currency. (all times local): 10:31 a.m. The head of Facebook‘s cryptocurrency operation said in a tweet that feedback from customers has been “loud and clear” about keeping social media and financial data separate. David Marcus said, “We understand we will have to earn your trust.” Facebook is currently under

Facebook already rules daily communication for more than two billion people around the world. Now it wants its own currency, too. Interested in Facebook? Add Facebook as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Facebook news, video, and analysis from ABC News. The social network unveiled an ambitious plan Tuesday to create

Facebook is unveiling a digital currency called Libra as the company seeks to make its ads more valuable by enabling smoother transactions and payments online, particularly among those without credit cards or bank accounts. Libra will use the same security and record-keeping principles as Bitcoin, the most popular digital currency system today. But unlike Bitcoin,

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook unveiled an ambitious plan on Tuesday to create an alternative financial system that relies on a cryptocurrency that the company has been secretly working on for more than a year. The effort, announced with 27 partners as diverse as Mastercard and Uber, could face immediate skepticism from people who question the

LOS ANGELES — Sign with us. We can offer you spectacular opportunities. Have I mentioned how brilliant you are? So went the courtship of the producer J.J. Abrams by Apple, NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia and other entertainment companies over the past six months, as the companies scrambled to secure creative content for their streaming services. The contest

Get the DealBook newsletter to make sense of major business and policy headlines — and the power-brokers who shape them.__________ With the federal government ramping up scrutiny of the power, influence and market dominance of the world’s largest technology companies, one interesting question will be whether any of the inquiries develops into a criminal investigation.