It’s Tuesday time, party people. Did you know that Rubik’s Cube officially turned 50 years old yesterday? The little but incredibly complex toy, which was created by Hungarian architect and designer Erno Rubik, packs quite the punch, having more than 43 billion permutations. That’s a lot of math.

In other news… social media is protected by the First Amendment, countries want tourists to travel lighter, and Paramount gets yet another interested buyer.

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• YouTube – Bando Stone & The New World

• X (Twitter) – Chappell Roan

• Google – Hellboy: The Crooked Man

• Reddit – Jamie Foxx

• TikTok – “TGIF” - GloRilla

• Spotify – “Flirting Again” - Bloc Party

.TECHNOLOGY.

The Supreme Court gives social platforms First Amendment protections

The Future. The Supreme Court’s reversal of two separate court decisions from Florida and Texas — Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton — gives social media companies extensive leeway to choose what they push on their platforms algorithmically. But by treating social platforms more like “traditional publishers and editors,” Big Tech may find that their liability protections under the Communications Decency Act could now be weakened. Talk about a double-edged sword.

Choose your speech
The Supreme Court has determined that social media companies are protected under the First Amendment.

• Every justice agreed that social media companies have a free speech right to organize, curate, and moderate the content on their platforms as it relates to their unique Standards and Guidelines.

• Compiling and curating users’ speech into “an expressive product of its own” (like Facebook’s or YouTube’s Homepage) is also protected — even if it habitually excludes a specific subset of content.

• Also, the government can’t try to balance the “marketplace of ideas” by going against these free speech rights to show more viewpoints.

However, there are some interesting wrinkles to the decisions. A few justices mentioned that the increasing use of autonomous AI tools in moderation could raise some free speech questions because these systems don’t have the same rights as humans.

Additionally, these rights only apply to American corporations, so they don’t apply to “foreign persons and corporations located abroad.” That line could be a death blow to TikTok’s defense team.

51.6% of you voted for Lyft in yesterday’s poll: Uber or Lyft?

“For the Delta milesss.”

“Lyft Pink, wouldn’t change it. I will occasionally use Uber for function — e.g., more than two stops.”

“I prefer Uber, but I’ll take a Lyft if it’s cheaper. I’ve had better experiences with Uber drivers than Lyft drivers, though many drivers do both. Lyft-only drivers, in my experience, don’t seem to be vetted as well and seem more miserable overall. I’m curious if others agree.”

Media, Music, & Entertainment

• Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment is exploring a potential sale after some unnamed firms have expressed interest. [Read More]

• Inside Out 2 is officially the fastest animated movie to reach $1 billion at the box office, crossing the milestone in just 19 days. [Read More]

• IAC, run by former Paramount CEO Barry Diller, is considering throwing its hat in the ring for a Paramount Global takeover. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• J.Crew is partnering with the team behind The Bear on a capsule collection dubbed “Matter of Fak Supply.” [Read More]

• The FDA is introducing new oversight of the cosmetics industry, which could reshape how beauty companies do business. [Read More]

• Nike and Hyperice made a new sneaker that acts as a post-workout compression boot in the run-up to the Olympics. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• Big Tech firms are looking to buy nuclear power directly from plants to power their energy-sucking AI systems. [Read More]

• Quora’s AI chatbot, Poe, is able to provide users with downloadable HTML files of paywalled articles, which could prompt an uproar from journalists. [Read More]

• Apple is developing AI features for the Vision Pro in hopes of boosting demand for the product. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• The EU has determined that Meta’s paid subscription to block targeted advertising on its platforms is illegal under its Digital Markets Act. [Read More]

• Twitch is debuting trophies to Partner streamers when they hit certain livestreaming viewership thresholds. [Read More]

• The White House is rolling out its first-ever Creator Economy Conference this August so influencers and creators can discuss pressing topics like data privacy, AI, and mental health. [Read More]

.TRAVEL.

Vacations could lose the luggage

The Future. Countries all around the world are instituting new rules and initiatives to curb the amount of luggage travelers carry, especially as tourism hits record highs. The hope is that by reducing luggage, the tourism industry could lower the amount of carbon emissions it emits and make traveling logistics more friendly for residents. If the process is seamless, it may even just increase travel. The easier, the better.

Essentials only
More and more countries are asking travelers to leave their luggage at home.

• Switzerland and Austria offer plenty of clothing and gear rental options for people coming to the Swiss Alps to ski or snowboard, via companies like Verbier and SkiGala.

• Dubrovnik, Croatia, strongly encourages visitors not to use rolling luggage to protect its historic cobblestones.

• Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda — home to popular safaris — asks travelers only to bring light, soft-sided bags with minimal clothes, as lodges provide supplies and toiletries.

Japan takes things the furthest, with Japan Airlines’ “Any Wear, Anywhere” initiative allowing flyers to have suitcases of tailored clothes provided for them when they arrive in Tokyo, Osaka, or Fukuoka. The trial is meant to test the environmental impact of handling less luggage and lowering the weight on planes.

And, who knows, the clothes they provide could feel like a vacation from your own wardrobe.

• Read: Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (the Oceans franchise, Out of Sight) gave a roundtable interview at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival that’s pretty much a state of the union in Hollywood.

• Listen: The Town chats with Semafor co-founder Ben Smith about what the viewership metrics for the first presidential debate mean for the immediate future of the news industry.

• Watch: Vox explores if headphones are making us all go deaf (spoiler alert: we all listen to music too loud).

The best metaphor for startups we’ve ever seen.

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today, on an extra special bonus episode of Future Forecast, our hosts Boye and Chris sit down with Larry Fitzgibbon, the co-founder and CEO of Tastemade. Tastemade is an independent media company that creates award-winning video content and original programming in the food, travel, and home & design space.