Entertainment
Meta faces employee backlash over tracking tool
In April, Reuters reported that Meta would track U.S. employees’ mouse movements and keystrokes to train its AI agents. Weeks later, Meta laid off 8,000 employees, citing its AI push. Now, the company is facing backlash from remaining employees over the tracking tool, called Model Capability Initiative (MCI), which may also violate European Union privacy rules, Reuters reports.
Last month, the company apparently told U.S. employees that it launched MCI to track how they work — including clicks and dropdown menu navigation — to build AI agents that can perform software tasks, Reuters reported. They were also told this would only impact employees in the U.S. and that privacy safeguards were in place.
Some employees have already complained about MCI, calling Meta an “Employee Data Extraction Factory,” Reuters reported. One complaint is that the tool is using so much data that workers’ home internet usage has spiked, and in some cases, using a month’s quota in days. Another complaint is that MCI is more over-reaching than Meta lets on, extending to code changes, a computer’s sleep and wake cycles, and URLs copied to a computer’s clipboard.
An internal post about this apparently disappeared, two Meta employees told Reuters. Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold told the outlet that the post was “fundamentally inaccurate.”
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In a document reviewed by Reuters, Meta stated that MCI would capture the contents of any email or direct message sent to U.S. employees, regardless of the sender’s location. According to a legal expert who spoke to Reuters, this may violate the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The question is whether data collection of EU resident data is considered “incidental” and whether the tool can pass a “purpose limitation” test.
Arnold told Reuters that MCI was installed only on U.S. employees’ computers and that, “In the interest of transparency, we notified non-U.S. employees that it was deployed on the computers of U.S. colleagues they may email or chat with in the normal course of business.”
“We carefully considered and mitigated potential privacy risks in both the development and deployment of this tool, and we are committed to complying with applicable laws and regulations,” Arnold stated to Reuters.
Earlier this month, Mashable reported that Meta (along with Google and TikTok) faces complaints from the EU regarding protections against financial scams.
Layoffs at other major tech companies this year, including Snapchat, Amazon, and Pinterest, have been pinned on AI. In 2025, AI was linked to 50,000 job cuts.
Entertainment
Wix cuts 1,000 employees in latest AI-fueled layoff
Website builder Wix has laid off 20 percent of its staff, amounting to 1,000 employees, Reuters and others have reported.
On May 28, Wix cofounder and CEO Avishai Abrahami shared his internal message to the Wix team on X, stating that the reasons behind the layoff are the strengthening of the Israeli shekel against the U.S. dollar (Wix is an Israeli company) and the “fast evolution of AI capabilities.”
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“As the majority of our teams are Israel-based, a very meaningful portion of our costs are shekel-denominated, while our revenue is largely dollar-denominated,” Abrahami wrote of the former. “This creates a structural pressure on our ability to operate at our current scale. It is a reality that directly shapes what is sustainable for our company.”
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In terms of AI, Abrahami wrote that companies need to adapt to AI changes in order to compete, and that “We are moving to a structure with fewer levels between any member of our leadership and the most junior person on the team.”
It’s only the latest announcement of a major tech company laying off workers to usher in AI, including Meta, Snap, Amazon, and Pinterest. A Dec. 2025 report stated that AI was linked to 50,000 job cuts last year.
Entertainment
Polymarket is trying to block VPNs as it faces potential legal trouble
Online prediction platform, Polymarket, is starting to block IP addresses from VPNs and asking some users to identify themselves, The Information first reported.
Due to regional regulations and international sanctions, Polymarket is blocked in 33 countries and several regions. But people in those places could, in theory, use a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, to mask their real location. According to The Information, Polymarket has now made it harder to use VPNs. It’s blocking certain IP addresses associated with VPNs and blocking accounts with suspicious connection patterns.
If it doesn’t start enforcing its official policy, Polymarket could risk regulatory action, The Information reported.
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Polymarket is also apparently asking some customers for their identities to “access faster trading technology,” the report states. This marks a shift from the market’s previous model of anonymous trading, TechRadar reported.
The news comes during a broader crackdown on VPNs in the U.S. and elsewhere. Utah now bans using VPNs to visit porn sites, though the law doesn’t go into effect for Aylo websites like Pornhub until Sept. The UK is also considering a VPN ban for children following a spike in usage after the enactment of its age verification law, the Online Safety Act.
Age verification laws require proof of age, like a government ID or a facial scan, to see explicit content or content otherwise deemed “harmful to minors.” Two studies on the burgeoning laws state that they don’t work to keep minors off porn sites, and instead infringe on adults’ First Amendment rights in the case of U.S. laws.
Last year, First Amendment experts warned Mashable of VPN bans as “second-order censorship.” When people work around the initial law, in this case, age verification, then further regulations ensue.
Entertainment
Cancel your Claude sub and get lifetime access to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and more for $60
TL;DR: ChatPlayground gives you access to 20+ AI tools like GPT and Claude, lets you send prompts to multiple tools, and has a lifetime subscription on sale for $60 through May 31.
Credit: ChatPlayground AI
Picking the right AI model for a task used to mean opening five different tabs and running the same prompt five different times. Most people end up paying for one subscription, defaulting to it out of habit, and wondering why the outputs feel inconsistent. ChatPlayground AI puts GPT, Claude Sonnet 4, Gemini 1.5 Flash, DeepSeek V3, Llama, Perplexity, and more AI models in one interface, lets you enter a single prompt, and shows you the results side by side so you can pick the best one. A lifetime Unlimited Plan is on sale for $59.97 right now (reg. $79).
The side-by-side comparison completely changes how you use AI for serious work. Instead of guessing which model handles a task best or burning through your daily limits trying to find out, you run the prompt once and choose the output that works. That matters most when you’re prompt engineering, drafting content, debugging code, or researching something where accuracy is non-negotiable.
Beyond comparisons, the platform includes prompt engineering tools to refine and optimize prompts for better results, image and PDF chat for context-aware responses, saved conversation history for ongoing projects, and AI image generation for creative work.
The Unlimited Plan removes message limits entirely, so it’s a great fit for teams running experiments or using AI heavily throughout the day. Priority access to new models and features is included, along with priority customer support. Available to both new and existing users, with unlimited devices supported and updates included. It runs on the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.
Instead of paying monthly for a single model and hoping it handles everything, why not get them all for life?
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Until May 31 at 11:59 p.m. PT, you can get a ChatPlayground AI lifetime subscription on sale for $59.97.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Topics
Artificial Intelligence
Meta faces employee backlash over tracking tool
Wix cuts 1,000 employees in latest AI-fueled layoff
