Good morning. It’s Thursday, February 12. Today we are covering:
WhatsApp is now fully blocked in Russia
Instagram Chief Says Social Media Is Not ‘Clinically Addictive’ in Landmark Trial
Musk announces xAI re-org following co-founder departures, SpaceX merger
Amazon limits on Claude Code frustrate employees, including some who have to sell it to cloud customers
Covering electricity price increases from our data centers
Let’s dive in
WhatsApp is now fully blocked in Russia
By Steve Dent via Engadget
WhatsApp has been fully blocked in Russia, cutting off access for up to 100 million users after authorities removed it from a key online directory, effectively wiping it from Russia’s internet.
Meta says the move is meant to push users toward Max, a state-backed, unencrypted messaging app, warning it will leave people with less private and secure communication.
The crackdown appears broader: Russia reportedly removed Telegram and erased Facebook and Instagram, while YouTube access has been degraded, amid a push to restrict apps from “unfriendly countries” and claims the shift will reduce fraud and terrorism.
𝕏: ⚠️ The #Kremlin’s blocking #Telegram & WhatsApp across Russia—cutting soldiers off from coordinating on the frontline, ruining warning systems for Belgorod, just to hide the truth of their collapsing economy. Even Putin’s supporters are outraged! #RussiaIsCollapsing #StandWithUkraine #MakeRussiaSmallAgain - Anna_From_Ukraine_Official (@AnnaFromUA_YT)
Instagram Chief Says Social Media Is Not ‘Clinically Addictive’ in Landmark Trial
By Eli Tan via The New York Times
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified that social media is not “clinically addictive,” arguing that compulsive use can resemble bingeing a TV show but shouldn’t be equated with a medical addiction.
His testimony is central to a bellwether “tech addiction” trial brought by a 20-year-old California plaintiff (K.G.M.) against Meta (Instagram/Facebook) and YouTube, with other suits nationwide alleging platforms are engineered like “digital casinos” and could unlock major damages and design changes.
Under questioning, Mosseri faced scrutiny over infinite scroll, beauty filters, and internal Meta discussions about lifting a ban on plastic-surgery-like effects, while citing teen-safety measures such as restricting adult-rated content, nighttime notification muting, and pre-release testing of youth-facing features.
𝕏: Survivor parents waited in line all night in the rain to see the head of Instagram testify in the landmark case against Big Tech. Instead of taking accountability, Zuck’s cronies are blaming victims of abuse. These parents deserve justice, and they deserve to see it firsthand. - Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn)
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Musk announces xAI re-org following co-founder departures, SpaceX merger
By Lora Kolodny via CNBC
Elon Musk said xAI has undergone a reorganization that “required parting ways with some people,” framing the shakeup as an effort to improve speed of execution while also saying the company is hiring aggressively.
The move follows the departures of two xAI co-founders, Jimmy Ba and Tony Wu, adding to a growing list of early exits as Musk declined to specify how many roles were cut versus voluntary departures.
The re-org lands days after Musk announced an all-stock merger in which SpaceX acquired xAI (which owns X and builds Grok), as the combined business faces looming IPO plans and ongoing regulatory probes tied to alleged misuse of Grok for non-consensual explicit imagery.
𝕏: xAI was reorganized a few days ago to improve speed of execution. As a company grows, especially as quickly as xAI, the structure must evolve just like any living organism. This unfortunately required parting ways with some people. We wish them well in future endeavors. We are hiring aggressively. Join xAI if the idea of mass drivers on the Moon appeals to you. - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
By Eugene Kim via Business Insider
Amazon engineers say internal rules effectively block them from using Anthropic’s Claude Code for production code or live products without formal approval, even as Amazon remains a major investor and partner to Anthropic.
Amazon guidance has pushed teams toward Kiro, its in-house coding assistant that runs on Claude models but uses AWS-built tooling; employees argue Claude Code can outperform Kiro, and about 1,500 staff endorsed calls to formally adopt Claude Code in internal forums.
The restrictions are especially awkward for teams selling Bedrock access to Claude Code, with employees warning it undermines credibility with customers and complaining about limited transparency, including language that reportedly suggested Claude Code had cleared review before being edited out.
𝕏: New: Amazon engineers are frustrated they can’t use Anthropic’s Claude Code in production without approval and are steered to AWS’s Kiro instead. Highlights the complexity of Amazon’s relationship with Anthropic. - Eugene Kim (@eugenekim222)
Covering electricity price increases from our data centers
Anthropic
Anthropic says it will cover consumer electricity price increases tied to its AI data centers, arguing that the U.S. will need roughly 50 gigawatts of new capacity soon and that ratepayers shouldn’t subsidize AI-driven infrastructure buildouts.
The company commits to paying 100% of grid interconnection upgrades (e.g., transmission and substations) and to procure net-new power generation to match its load, while also reimbursing utilities for demand-driven price effects when new supply isn’t online yet.
Anthropic also plans to reduce peak strain via curtailment and grid optimization tools, pair projects with local investment (jobs, water-efficient cooling, environmental mitigation), and back federal permitting and transmission reforms to accelerate new energy for everyone.
𝕏: Anthropic is the third major AI company in 30 days to make this exact pledge. Microsoft went first on January 13. OpenAI followed on January 21. Now Anthropic on February 11. Three companies, same playbook, same month. The timing tells you everything. POLITICO obtained a White House draft compact where the Trump administration is preparing a voluntary agreement requiring AI companies to pay 100% of new power generation costs… - Aakash Gupta (@aakashgupta)
Trending in AI
A New AI Superagent Race Is Pitting OpenAI and Anthropic Against Microsoft and Salesforce
Google says attackers used 100,000+ prompts to try to clone AI chatbot Gemini
China’s Zhipu Unveils New AI Model, Jolting Race With DeepSeek
Pentagon pushing AI companies to expand on classified networks, sources say
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