Activision Blizzard illegally withheld raises from unionizing workers, labor board finds

Gaming giant Activision Blizzard unlawfully retaliated against workers at Raven Software who formed a union, the National Labor Relations Board found. The quality assurance (QA) department at subsidiary Raven Software, who mostly work on “Call of Duty,” announced that they would form a union in January. Activision Blizzard sought to block the union, reasoning that … Read more

Drowning in trash: Google opens applications for circular-economy accelerator

Google is spinning up a new, online-only startup accelerator centered around the elusive circular economy. The effort is Google’s latest to help environmentally focused startups grow, while potentially hooking them on its cloud products in the process. In the broadest of strokes, the circular economy represents a colossal shift in how humanity makes and uses stuff. … Read more

Bessemer backs SaaS platform that automates billing workflows

Zenskar, a startup that is aiming to help SaaS companies automate their billing workflows, has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round. Headquartered in New York and Bengaluru, Zenskar is building a platform for SaaS companies to generate bills for their complex pricing plans — whether they are based on usage-based pricing, subscriptions, nuanced … Read more

UK pauses data reform bill to rethink how to replace GDPR

The UK government has confirmed another pause to draft digital legislation under new prime minister Liz Truss’ reshuffled cabinet — saying the data reform bill it had introduced in recent months is on hold while ministers take another look. The paused bill contained a package of amendments to the UK’s data protection regime, which remains based … Read more

Daily Crunch: Vice Society hackers post 500GB of data stolen from LA school district to dark web

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Oc-flippin-tober? You’ve got to be mock-tobering us. It’s a sobering experience, though, to see the who-ber year fly by like that! Ahem. Forgive the incoherence, we are entering TechCrunch Disrupt silly season … Read more

Max Q: Hubble hubble, toil and trouble

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. I hope all of our Florida readers stayed safe during Hurricane Ian — thinking of you guys. In this issue: How the Space Coast braced for the storm Humans: 1, Asteroids: 0 News from Astra, Firehawk Aerospace and more By the way…We are just a few weeks away … Read more

The Supreme Court takes on Section 230

Section 230 of the Communications Act, which prevents online platforms from being liable for the content posted by their users, will be evaluated by the Supreme Court in the coming season. It’s anyone’s guess how it may be affected, but we can be sure that the regulatory landscape for tech will look rather different this … Read more

Here’s when Overwatch 2 launches in your region

Blizzard As the servers for Overwatch prime sunset sometime around 12PM ET today, heroes old and new are now looking forward to when we can officially welcome Overwatch 2. Image: Blizzard Depending on where you are in the world, your Overwatch 2 launch time may vary from the 12PM PT / 3PM ET start time. … Read more

Twitter expands access to its experimental Status feature…but not to its paid subscribers

Twitter’s throwback feature, Twitter Status, is today expanding its list of potential status updates to choose from, in a continuation of tests that began this July. The feature, which is something of a cross between Myspace moods and a Facebook status, allows users to tag posts with an additional expression beyond the tweet itself — … Read more

Rivian made 7,363 of its EV pickups and SUVs in Q3

Electric vehicle maker Rivian announced its Q3 production and delivery numbers on Monday, revealing it made 7,363 of its R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV during the three-month period that ended on September 30. Rivian also said it delivered 6,584 vehicles during the same span. The automaker is still backing its target of delivering 25,000 … Read more