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Kicking off the week, we’ve been thoroughly enjoying Runa Sandvik’s story about how U.S. police use digital data to prosecute abortions in our post-Roe-v.-Wade world. The TL;DR is that healthcare in the U.S. is a weird world, and you should use end-to-end encrypted messages if you’re going to DM your friends about things that are potentially illegal. — Christine and Haje
The TechCrunch Top 3
Startups and VC
“I can’t explain it. It’s weird,” Alphonzo “Phonz” Terrell said to Amanda. After losing his job at Twitter when Elon Musk took over, the former global head of Social and Editorial didn’t want to rest — he wanted to build. “Coming straight out of it, I was just like, ‘Oh, it’s time. It’s time to build, whether we get support or not.’” Now he’s raised just short of $3 million to build a competitor to Twitter.
Speaking of alternatives to Twitter, Aisha and Taylor took to the internet to find the best Twitter alternatives worth checking out. Ultimately they conclude that there isn’t, and will probably never be, a one-for-one replacement for Twitter.
Oh, and good news for gaming nerds after a lot of really silly missteps: Amanda writes how the 403-page Dungeons & Dragons game system is now licensed under Creative Commons.
And here’s a handful more, because we love ya:
What do recent changes to state taxes mean for US SaaS startups?
Image Credits: Daniela Simona Temneanu / EyeEm (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
For SaaS startups, tax time can create a conundrum.
Some states regard software-as-a-service products as, um, services, while others classify them as, er, products.
“There’s also the issue of bundling on its own,” according to startup tax accountant Ardy Esmaeili. “SaaS might not be taxed, but it will be when paired with hardware.”
To help founders better understand their liability, Esmaeili shares tips on how to identify a company’s physical nexus and lists multiple SaaS categories that states are likely to tax.
“Engage an expert as early as you can,” he writes. “Don’t think you won’t have to worry about it yet, because waiting can have big consequences down the line.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
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Big Tech Inc.
Manish reports that Manu Jain is the latest Xiaomi executive to leave. This might sting a bit for the company because Jain was the one who set up and scaled the smartphone maker’s presence in India.
All right, now here you are, checking all the security boxes, getting your two-factor authentication set up, and along comes a hacker — albeit paid by Meta — that finds a bug, which allows someone to bypass that two-factor authentication on Facebook and Instagram. I guess it’s good they caught it, but ugh! Lorenzo has more.
And we have five more for you: