Kellen Browning
@Kellen_Browning
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New York Times politics reporter. Tips: [email protected] 📬
Joined July 2015
The Harris-Walz campaign canceled a scheduled rally in Reno today because of the nearby #DavisFire. Walz instead visited a field office that is doubling as a donation site for wildfire supplies, and is now meeting with firefighters and first responders.
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A 26-year-old progressive influencer running against an 80-year-old 14-term Dem incumbent. If Gen Z is as fed up with the status quo as they say, I wonder if we’ll be seeing a lot of these kinds of matchups.
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Breaking: A New York judge has denied Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub's attempt to block an NYC minimum wage bill from going into effect, setting the stage for delivery workers in New York City to start making at least $18 per hour.
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Tim Walz’s first stop after recording the CNN sit-down with Kamala Harris: milkshakes at Cook Out in Raleigh, N.C., with Gov. Roy Cooper.
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New: The Arizona Secretary of State’s office has confirmed that an abortion rights measure has qualified for the November ballot, with more than 577,000 signatures.
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NEWS: @xQc (Félix Lengyel), one of the biggest Twitch streamers, is signing a non-exclusive, two-year $100 million deal with rival platform Kick. It's a massive deal in the entertainment space, and a loss for Twitch, which has been hemorrhaging stars.
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NEW: I spent dozens of hours with drivers in Los Angeles who deliver food from high-end restaurants. Because DoorDash and Uber often pay only a few dollars per trip, these drivers rely on large tips. But often, wealthy customers tip nothing at all.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, the Weekend:
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On Friday, Elicia Stratton searched desperately through the wreckage of her Lahaina home for the Rolex watch her parents gave her when she graduated college. Suddenly, her fiancé pulled it from the ashes. “You found it!” she said, choking up. It was damaged but still legible.
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I went to the same high school as Hasan Minhaj and tried to write a story while I was there about his exaggerations, including about a racist incident at Davis High. He brushed off our attempts to ask him about it. Glad @ClareMalone wrote this.
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The scene here in Glendale, Arizona, as we get ready for the Harris-Walz rally.
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EXCLUSIVE: 300+ workers at ZeniMax Media, a Microsoft-owner parent company of gaming studios like Bethesda, are voting on unionizing w/ @CODE_CWA. Would the biggest U.S. gaming union and a first for MSFT, which says it will stay neutral. W/@noamscheiber
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Exclusive: TSM, the most valuable esports org in the U.S., is signing a $210 million naming rights deal with the Hong Kong crypto exchange FTX. The new team is "TSM FTX.". The agreement rivals the kind of $$ traditional sports teams get in stadium deals:
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The moment Kamala Harris came down the steps of Air Force Two in front of a raucous crowd outside Detroit.
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Famous Twitch stars like @Amouranth, @brookeab and @dizzykitten7 have dream jobs, making money streaming video games. But it comes at a price: endless harassment and obsessed fans who stalk them. “They feel like they know you.”. New story w/@kashhill:
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Some ~personal~ news: I’ll be staying on at The New York Times full-time after the fellowship ends in May! . I’m thrilled to be able to continue covering tech in the Bay Area. and finally, one day, visit our office in-person. 🥳.
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Twitch, the livestreaming platform, confirms that the shooter who killed 10 people at a New York grocery story today streamed the attack live on its site. Says it has taken the channel offline and is monitoring for people rebroadcasting it. More updates:
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I’ve never seen gamers more united on something than their hatred for NFTs. @MikeIsaac and I wrote about the backlash to gaming companies’ blockchain plans.
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New: Mormon voters in Arizona are more divided than ever over Donald Trump, which could create an opening for Kamala Harris. (Nearly 500,000 Mormons live in AZ). "People in my moderate circle of friends are watching and saying, 'I can no longer do this.'".
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I wrote about my favorite topic: the Sacramento Kings. The Kings are finally good again, and the city is euphoric. After each win, a purple victory laser lights up the sky. “It’s like the Bat Signal,” assistant coach Doug Christie said. Light the beam!.
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Excited to have my first front page @nytimes byline today! 🎉 (ICYMI, it’s a look into the online background of the Florida teen accused of hacking into Twitter several weeks ago.)
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SCOOP: Uber put its head of diversity, Bo Young Lee, on leave this week after she hosted an event called "Don't Call Me Karen" where white women shared their POV on race, prompting an employee backlash. She was perceived as brushing off their concerns.
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Chris Christie was seemingly just caught on a hot mic from the livestream before his N.H. town hall. Of Nikki Haley, he said "she's going to get smoked, and you and I both know it. She’s not up to this.". He also said Ron DeSantis "called me, petrified.". Then it cut out.
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NEW: California's fair employment agency is suing game publisher Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination. State says Activision fostered a "frat boy" culture in which men joked about rape and women were paid less for equal work.
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“Roaring Kitty,” or Keith Gill, started talking up $GME back in 2019, but no one took him seriously at the time. In 2020, he started a YouTube channel where he livestreamed about investment. “Maybe there’s going to be no one tuning in, so this is silly,” he said.
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A group of locals in Honokowai were filling up gas cans on their own dime to distribute to towns in need. Power is back in west Maui, some places have Starlink and cell towers are being set up. But still no large-scale govt presence where we were.
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NEW: Kicked off Twitter and YouTube after a clampdown on misinfo and hate speech, far-right influencers & QAnon members have congregated on Twitch, where they are making thousands of $$ broadcasting election and vaccine conspiracy theories. My latest:
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The mob of pro-Trump activists who broke into the Capitol were streaming live on a site called Dlive, which has become a haven to far-right extremists. Some even made $ from fans who tipped them as they broke into lawmakers' offices. W/ @TaylorLorenz:
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Twitch suspended President Trump's channel Monday, in what appeared to be the first deliberate suspension of one of his social media accounts. Updated story:
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All of SF just got woken up to a tornado warning at 6 am, this has been an insane week for natural disaster alerts. Sorry but no one in SF has a basement
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Breaking: Google is mandating vaccines for its employees. It also is pushing its return-to-office date to mid-October.
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Gill turned $53,000 into $48 million, and people wondered if he’d sell as the stock plunged Thursday. Instead, he “held the line” and took $15 million in losses. His online fans were ebullient. “IF HE’S STILL IN, I’M STILL IN,” became a rallying cry.
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The U.S. esports world is struggling. -TSM, a marquee team, said in an interview it's selling its spot in the League Championship Series. -Madison Square Garden bought CLG in 2017 for ~$10 million, sold this year in non-cash deal. More details here:
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Here’s what the virtual Webex hearing set-up looks like. (I spy all four CEOs.) @nytimestech
A big day in the tech world as the C.E.O.s of four major companies — Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon — are set to testify (remotely) on Capitol Hill. Follow our @nytimes live briefing and read about how the virtual process will work here:
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The lawsuit was first reported by Bloomberg Law. A few excerpts:
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Personal news: I’m joining our Politics team for the next two months to help cover the 2024 presidential race. I’m moving to Iowa this week — please send tips and advice for a lifelong Californian to survive winter in the Midwest: kellen.browning@nytimes.com.
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I wrote about the laptop shortage preventing K-12 students around the country from attending remote classes during the pandemic, deepening the digital divide. On today’s front page:
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My friends have finally figured out what my work schedule entails.
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It’s official — I’m thrilled to be joining the @nytimes as a business reporting fellow after graduation, covering technology in San Francisco. Can’t wait to get started! 🗞
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Dlive was founded in 2017 as a video game streaming site by two UC Berkeley students. But they soon found that they got most of their traffic from the mass of fans watching far-right figures who liked the site's loose enforcement of hate speech rules.
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NEW: The inside story of how a wise-cracking, cigar-toting dad from Massachusetts — known online as “Roaring Kitty” or “DFV” — started a GameStop stock frenzy that has roiled the markets and shocked hedge funds. With @nathanielpopper:
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Ja Morant in a win-or-go-home game: 10 pts, 5 rbs, 6 asts, 3 stls, 3/18 fgs (2/7 from 3, 2/4 fts) 2 TOs. De’Aaron Fox in a win-or-go-home game: 26 pts 4 rbs 11 asts, 3 stls, 1 blk, 10/18 fgs (2/5 from 3, 4/4 fts), 5 TOs. 👀.
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New story previewing today’s historic @CODE_CWA union vote at Activision Blizzard, which could be “the spark that ignites the rest of the industry” at a time when game company employees are increasingly forming labor movements. cc @_TechJess @WeAreGWA .
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For a second time, supporters at the Walz rally here in Grand Rapids, Mich., broke into brief chants of “We’re not eating cats,” to the tune of “We’re not going back.”
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It’s created a difficult system. Customers, already paying a markup for delivery, are less inclined to add a tip. The companies themselves are losing money. And the drivers are getting squeezed.
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TSM sold the slot to Shopify for about $10 million, per source.
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But his predictions that the GameStop stock price would rise were correct. $GME steadily rose in the second half of 2020, and the Roaring Kitty streams attracted a crowd of like-minded investors who celebrated the gains and chatted for hours.
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Some personal news: I have a new beat, covering politics out west and reporting on how voters are reacting to Trump’s second term. I’m especially interested in changing attitudes among young people — particularly young men — and their shift to the right. Please send tips!.
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Everyone's talking about TikTok, but WeChat was also banned Friday -- and Americans who use it as a lifeline to family members in China are devastated and scrambling for alternatives. With @daiwaka and @ceciliakang for @nytimes.
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That's all led to incidents like this, where the far-right people who breached the Capitol were live streaming and showing off to fans, who paid them. Some of the people on Dlive can earn up to six figures a year.
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My first story for @nytimestech! . Protesters are increasingly going live on @Twitch, turning the video gaming platform into a hub of social activism.
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The rise of Dlive is another part of the conservative exodus from mainstream social media sites, spurred in large part by the 2020 election, as @MikeIsaac and I wrote in November.
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A prank to reserve tens of thousands of Trump rally tickets, orchestrated by Kpop groups and TikTok teenagers. may have succeeded? An unexpected Saturday night story w/ @TaylorLorenz and @sheeraf for @nytimes.
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Harris supporters here in Grand Rapids, Mich., just broke into chants of “We’re not eating cats,” to the tune of “We’re not going back.”.
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One big problem with the vaccine rollout: Seniors, who need shots the most, are the least likely to be able to navigate the crashing health care websites and text notifications required to book an appointment. My latest:
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Last year, Charles Wayn, the head of Dlive, told staff that they had to "tolerate" the extremists in the name of growth. "If today we ban everyone controversial on DLive, the difficulties we will encounter on the growth will be 10x more than having them," he said.
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Drivers were lauded as heroes during the early stages of the pandemic. Now, they feel like “just the bottom of the barrel.” The rise of “contactless” delivery has dehumanized the experience.
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Phoenix arena had to crank up the music to drown out the “Light the beam” chants from Kings fans #SacramentoProud
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BREAKING: The Pitzer College Council votes to suspend its study abroad program with the University of Haifa in Israel.
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Today's my first official day of reporting for @nytimestech. I'm based in the Bay Area, covering tech news. Please send tips and pitches! kellen.browning@nytimes.com.
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Starting 2021 with an uplifting story amid so much bad news. Teachers are partnering with TV stations to broadcast their lessons, hoping to reach students w/o internet. “We’re letting them know they haven’t been forgotten.”. My latest for @nytimes:
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Some personal news: I have a new beat!. I’m taking over coverage of the gig economy from the very talented @kateconger. Send me your tips about drivers, labor, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, etc: kellen.browning@nytimes.com or DM for Signal. (Don’t worry, I’m still covering gaming too!).
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I’m sorry, is this saying Bobby Kotick thought he could shift the narrative around Activision by…buying Kotaku? .
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Breaking: Activision Blizzard is settling with a federal employment agency (EEOC), which just filed a complaint accusing it of sexual harassment and discrimination. Creating an $18 million fund to "to compensate and make amends." Story coming soon.
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Breaking: A unit of workers at Raven Software, a studio owned by Activision Blizzard, are forming a union called the Game Workers Alliance, and asking for the company to voluntarily recognize it. It’s only the 2nd video game union in North America.
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Oh and my high school newspaper adviser @KellyWilkerson2 just reminded me that Minhaj addressed our reporting in a NYT Q&A back in 2015. He called it a “racist witch hunt.”.
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Warriors fans giving up and leaving with 5:11 to go
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BREAKING: The U.K. is blocking Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a surprising development that puts the massive video game deal in jeopardy and bolsters U.S. efforts to reign in tech giants. w/@dmccabe .
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So this has been quite the morning. many more drafts of this story to come. By far the biggest acquisition in the history of the gaming world.
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Accusations of sexual misconduct and discrimination are all-too-common in gaming. From last summer, as cited in the lawsuit itself, w/@TaylorLorenz:
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Just left downtown Palisades. Very little cell service. It’s decimated - this is Sunset Boulevard a few blocks from Palisades Village. #PalisadeFire
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The problem speaks to the debate around tipping. Should customers be supplementing the wages of low-paid drivers? Should the apps pay more themselves? I spoke with the Morning newsletter about this.
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The crowd at the Bernie rally in Folsom, Calif., as AOC takes the stage. She says over 26,000 here today.
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Here's what our tally looks like -- will be updated throughout the hearing!
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News: The FTC has filed a notice to appeal Judge Corley's ruling denying the agency a preliminary injunction against Microsoft closing its Activision acquisition. This process would have to move quickly as the temporary restraining order against the deal is set to expire Friday.
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The scene at San Jose City Hall, where hundreds have gathered for a vigil to mourn the nine victims killed in yesterday’s shooting.
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Twitch took down a livestream of yesterday's shooting in Buffalo in 2 minutes. It was still shared widely on FB, Twitter and elsewhere. One upload had more than 3 million views. What more can be done? Story w/@RMac18 on the role social platforms play: .
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Talk about a late-night, end-of-year news dump!. Riot Games said tonight it will pay $100 million to current and former female employees to settle a 2018 gender discrimination lawsuit -- 10x the amount it originally agreed to in 2019.
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ICYMI: Our story from last night, summarized here. TikTok teens and K-pop stans believe their efforts to register potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets contributed to the Trump rally’s high expectations and low turnout. W/ @TaylorLorenz @sheeraf
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Last year, an esports star got $6 million to compete for 2 yrs in America, where esports leagues lag far behind those in Asia. I wrote about how it was seen as a potential turning point. Now, @BloopGG reports he's leaving (& losing out on $3 million?!).
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BREAKING: QA workers at Raven Software, a studio at Activision Blizzard, have voted 19-3 to unionize. Their union, the Game Workers Alliance, is the first for a major U.S. gaming company.
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Circle your calendars — on May 23, the NLRB will count ballots to determine whether QA workers at Activision’s Raven studio are officially unionizing. @CODE_CWA @ABetterABK @WeAreGWA
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🚨🧋🚨🧋.Another pandemic shortage: boba!. Shipping delays could impact hundreds (or thousands) of boba stores in the U.S. that need tapioca pearls for their drinks. And "a boba shop without boba is like a car dealership without cars to sell.".
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Big tech companies promised flexible, remote work options for employees. But they have also spent billions of dollars building giant offices during the pandemic. How do those two strategies align? I went to Arizona to find out. My latest:
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On tomorrow’s front page (and my first time above the fold!!): More details about Microsoft’s blockbuster purchase of Activision, including the fact that Bobby Kotick is expected to step down after the deal is complete.
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The pandemic has created a quirk in the workforce: a growing group of people never met their coworkers in-person before leaving their jobs. That has made it easier to quit, showing how emotional attachments to jobs may be fraying. W/ @eringriffith:
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This investigation by @hannahdreier into exploitative migrant child labor practices is horrifying.
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