Large chunks of Reddit go into private mode in protest over API changes

If you've logged into Reddit in the last 24 hours there's a high chance one or more of your favourite communities has gone private and you're unable to view any posts. Over 7,000 subreddits, including some big mainstream ones like r/funny, r/gaming and r/music are participating in a protest against Reddit's management jacking up the price of API access, making 3rd party tools for moderation economically unfeasible. The site actually crashed due to so many communities going private at once. Reddit's CEO gave an enlightening AMA on the weekend, saying that "unlike some of the (third-party) apps, we're not profitable", the API costs them "tens of millions of dollars" per year and when asked how he feels about Reddit forgetting about the community, "we'll continue to be profit-driven until profits arrive".

Crack down on password sharing has been good for Netflix

Netflix's recent enforcement of its anti-password sharing policy appears to be paying off according to data analytics company Antenna. Their research discovered that Netflix "amassed more new subscriptions in the U.S. between May 25 and 28, shortly after Netflix notified users of the limits, than in any other four-day period since Antenna began compiling such data in 2019". In Canada, "Netflix's paid membership base was larger after its password-sharing limits were rolled out than they were before it, and revenue is growing faster there than in the U.S". Netflix's share price has risen about 16% since the password sharing crackdown started. Netflix is lucky piracy is still too hard for most people.

Debian 12 is live, lots of new Xbox games, Zuck shares thoughts on Apple Vision Pro

• Debian 12, code named "bookworm" is out of beta and available to download now from your favourite mirror server. Linux kernel 6.1 LTS is used now. Like previous releases it has 5 years of support. Unlike previous releases, non-free firmware has its own repo and is built in to the installer, so all those pesky proprietary firmware blobs are automatically installed - thank fuck for that.
• Microsoft held an "Xbox Showcase", dumping trailers of dozens of upcoming games. Kotaku has compiled all the trailers in the one spot. Bethesda showed off 45 min of Starfield gameplay, its first new IP in 25 years. There's also an expansion pack for Cyberpunk 2077, a longer trailer for Cities Skylines 2 and Flight Simulator 2024. You can watch the entire thing on YouTube if you've got 2 hours spare
• Zuck wrote a memo to Meta staff with his thoughts on Apple's Vision Pro. He's pleased there's "no kind of magical solutions that they have to any of the constraints on laws of physics that our teams haven’t already explored and thought of". He reckons there's "a real philosophical difference in terms of how we’re approaching this", with Meta's devices "about being active and doing things" compared to Apple's "person sitting on a couch by themself".

US courts using creepy Covenant Eyes app to put people in jail

Wired has a disturbing story about an American bloke put in jail for breaching bail because an app noticed pornhub.com was loaded by the frequently visited tab in Chrome. He was charged with possession of child sexual abuse material (which he and his family deny) and had a ban on using electronic devices in his bail conditions. This was partly enforced by an app called Covenant Eyes that got installed on the devices of his wife, two kids and his mum. This app monitors network activity and "captures everything visible on a device's screen, taking at least one screenshot per minute" and anything it thinks is "explicit" can be flagged for further review by the court. Covenant Eyes bans the use of its app in a "premeditated legal setting", but at least five US states are using it in this way.