TechCrunch Summary (2023-06-12 08AM)

Source: You can now share music on Instagram Notes, plus view translations

Summary
Instagram Notes will now support music and translations beyond its existing text and emoji functions. Users can add a 30-second clip of a song to express themselves and share a caption. Additionally, Notes Translations allows Instagram users to translate a written note in a different language into their own. The new features are available worldwide, where Instagram has music licensing rights.

Fact

🎶 Users can now add a 30-second clip of a song to their Notes to include as another way to express themselves.

🌐 Notes Translations lets users translate notes in different languages into their own.

💬 Instagram’s text-based update feature Notes now has new features, allowing it to compete with Twitter.

💻 Instagram’s Twitter clone decentralized social app is being previewed by employees.

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Source: VCs remain confident alternative protein has a real future despite public-market woes

Summary
Investors active in various areas of the alternative protein industry remain optimistic about its future growth potential. While significant investment from venture capitalists has helped startups establish manufacturing capabilities, there are concerns over the inflated valuations given to some food tech businesses that could hurt investors. The industry needs better infrastructure to ensure alternative proteins can be produced at levels necessary to make an impact.

Fact

🌎 “Shifting away from animal proteins will be necessary for governments to address climate impacts and to reach their net-zero targets,” says Rosie Wardle from Synthesis Capital.

🍔 Taste and cost will be key factors in getting more consumers on board with eating plant-based alternatives, according to Alice Brooks from Khosla Ventures.

💰 Startups will likely need to largely fund their first plants with venture capital and partnerships, says Alice Brooks from Khosla Ventures.

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Source: Reddit goes down just as a site-wide protest against its unpopular new API policy kicks off

Summary
As thousands of subreddits were protesting Reddit’s new API policy by going dark, Reddit.com went down with unspecified causes. This has sparked various complaints and a debate over the relationship between the outage and the planned protest.

Fact

🔥 Thousands of subreddits, some boasting over 10 million subscribers, went dark in a coordinated protest against Reddit’s unpopular API policy on June 12.

🚫 Reddit.com went down at around 10:25 AM EDT, with the message “Something went wrong. Just don’t panic” displayed on the main feed.

💻 Reddit’s Status page showed “all systems operational,” but the company later confirmed that they are working to resolve the problem of content loading.

👥 The official Reddit mobile client didn’t meet the needs of some accessibility-focused communities, and a handful of apps serving such communities will be exempted from the new API policy starting from July 1, 2023.

🌐 The planned protest against Reddit’s new API policy, which will mostly put third-party apps out of business, includes some of Reddit’s biggest communities like r/aww, r/videos, r/Futurology, r/LifeHacks, r/bestof, r/gaming, r/Music, r/Pics, r/todayilearned, r/art, r/DIY, r/gadgets, r/sports, and r/mildlyinteresting.

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