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A Facebook whistleblower, two former U.S. defense secretaries, several past lawmakers and intelligence chiefs are forming a new group to address the harmful impacts social media can have on kids, communities and national security.

The Council for Responsible Social Media, publicly launched on Wednesday, is a project of the cross-partisan political reform nonprofit Issue One, which focuses on strengthening U.S. democracy and works with many former members of Congress on solutions.

Dick Gephardt, former House majority leader and Democratic representative from Missouri, had been involved with Issue One and helped create the council after trying to understand the roots of the country’s current polarization, he told CNBC in a phone interview Tuesday. Gephardt is one of the co-chairs of the council, along with Republican former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey.

“People used to come to me and say, ‘What’s wrong with Congress? They can’t do anything, all they do is fight,'” Gephardt said. His response, he said, was that the division comes from the people.

“Congress has to be a reflection of the people and if the people are bitterly divided, then Congress will be bitterly divided,” he said.

Gephardt said he first considered whether traditional media may be contributing to the division, but figured there’s always been opinion and politicization on editorial pages. After watching the documentary “The Social Dilemma,” he began to believe that tech platforms could be a significant factor and began to speak with experts and read up on technology’s effect on democracy.

“My experience in Congress leads me always to believe that to solve any problem in a democracy, you’ve got to get diverse people together, to talk to one another, to listen to one another,” Gephardt said.

Some well-known names joining the council include former Secretaries of Defense Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta, former Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen and former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris.

Chris Krebs, Michael Rogers and Porter Goss, who previously led the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, respectively, are also members.

The council said it aims to drive bipartisan conversation around tech in Washington, D.C., and across the country, elevate nonpartisan voices like parents and pediatricians, and advance effective solutions to reform social media. While members have already met virtually to kick off their work, they will have their first in-person meeting Thursday in Washington.

“I think things like this group are very important for providing a unified front, to get common-sense change that can really make a difference,” Haugen, the former Facebook employee who leaked internal documents about the company’s policies and research to lawmakers, journalists and the Securities and Exchange Commission, told CNBC in a phone interview Tuesday.

Haugen said the issues stemming from social media are truly bipartisan in nature, which could be made more clear by avoiding framing them as issues of content moderation. Many conservatives are skeptical of content moderation because they believe platforms can use it to censor certain viewpoints, though mainstream platforms have repeatedly denied they do so.

Haugen said she sees content moderation as largely a “distraction from the real path forward, which is around product design, safety by design, transparency.”

It’s more important than ever to design for safety rather than rely on content moderation alone, Haugen said, as platforms move toward end-to-end encryption that prevents them from being able to monitor the substance of messages between users.

“The way you keep people safe in those environments is through design, and through each other,” Haugen said.

Gephardt said he sees the role of the council as a way to create informed solutions and keep the attention on these issues in Washington. He remembered some advice that a mentor gave him during his first year in Congress.

“You can never pass some meaningful legislation here with just support on the inside of Congress, you have to build support on the outside by the people for anything that you really want to pass,” Gephardt recalled former Rep. Richard Bolling, D-Mo., told him. “So I guess I see this group as being just a part, a little part, of that outside pressure that’s needed to try to drive something across the finish line.”

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EBay stock surges on earnings beat, rosy guidance

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EBay stock surges on earnings beat, rosy guidance

Signage at eBay headquarters in San Jose, California, U.S.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of eBay popped 10% in extended trading on Wednesday after the online marketplace posted stronger-than-expected results for the second quarter, and offered an upbeat forecast for the current period.

Here’s how the company did in the second quarter compared to analyst estimates compiled by LSEG.

  • Earnings per share: $1.37 adjusted vs. $1.30 expected
  • Revenue: $2.73 billion vs. $2.64 billion expected

GMV, or the dollar value of items sold, grew 6% year over year to $19.5 billion. That topped analysts’ projected $18.9 billion, per StreetAccount estimates.

For the third quarter, eBay said revenue will land between $2.69 billion and $2.74 billion, above Wall Street expectations for $2.66 billion. The company also guided for adjusted earnings per share of $1.29 to $1.34. Analysts anticipated $1.31 per share.

EBay said third-quarter GMV would be in the range of $19.2 billion and $19.6 billion, which was higher than consensus estimates of $18.8 billion.

GMV guidance “contemplates potential disruptions from impending tariffs and the potential elimination of remaining de minimis exemptions,” eBay said.

Earlier on Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending the loophole for low-value packages shipped from all countries, effective Aug. 29. The provision enabled shipments valued below $800 to enter the U.S. duty free.

EBay CEO Jamie Iannone said in an interview following the earnings report that the company is “well suited” to navigate any further uncertainty generated by Trump’s tariff policies or changes to de minimis.

“When we look at what happened, for example, when de minimis was eliminated in China, it did have a deceleration in direct shipments, but a lot of the sellers started making their products available to buyers in other countries like the U.K. and Germany,” Iannone said.

He added that the company “forward deployed” about 75% of its inventory from China into the U.S. before the changes to de minimis policies.

“We feel comfortable with the guidance that we put out there,” Iannone said.

EBay faces robust competition from online retail rivals Amazon, Walmart and Etsy, along with upstarts like low-cost e-commerce platforms Temu and Shein. To keep buyers and sellers returning to its site, the company has embraced “enthusiast” shoppers and “focus categories,” such as collectible sneakers and trading cards, used luxury goods and auto parts.

The company in May named Peggy Alford, a former PayPal executive, as its new CFO, succeeding Steve Priest. EBay also announced a broader leadership restructuring that involved bringing its technology teams closer together, Iannone said.

The company has also implemented more artificial intelligence tools to help consumers find products on its site, including a shopping agent, which launched earlier this year.

“We’re already seeing really tangible benefits from generative AI on our P&L, and we think we’re only scratching the surface in terms of how to leverage our data,” Iannone said.

As of Wednesday’s close, eBay shares were up 25% for the year, while the Nasdaq has gained about 9%.

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Figma prices IPO at $33, above expected range

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Figma prices IPO at , above expected range

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, appears at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco on May 9, 2024.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Figma, the developer of design software that was supposed to get acquired by Adobe, priced its IPO on Wednesday at $33 per share, above its expected range.

The company’s stock will debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “FIG” on Thursday. The offering raised $1.2 billion, with most of the proceeds going to existing stockholders.

Figma is aiming to take advantage of a public market that has slowly reopened for tech IPOs. Stablecoin issuer Circle and artificial intelligence infrastructure provider CoreWeave have soared since their debuts earlier this year, while other companies including online banking firm Chime, and health-tech companies Hinge Health and Omada Health have also made it to market.

The offering values Figma at $19.3 billion. The company had agreed to be acquired by Adobe for $20 billion, but that deal fell apart in 2023 following objections from regulators. Adobe paid Figma a $1 billion termination fee.

On Monday, Figma said its expected price range was $30 to $32 per share.

Figma was founded in 2012 by CEO Dylan Field and Evan Wallace. The company is based in San Francisco, with offices in France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the U.K.

Figma said in its updated prospectus that revenue for the quarter ended June rose to between $247 million and $250 million from $177.2 million a year earlier, representing growth of 40% at the middle of the range. As far as profits, the expected range for the quarter goes from an operating loss of up to $500,000 to an operating profit of $2.5 million, Figma said. That compared to a loss of $894.3 million a year earlier, due mostly to costs related to stock-based compensation.

For the March quarter, revenue rose 46% to $228.2 million, and net income tripled to $44.9 million.

Field is the company’s biggest investor, with 56.6 million shares ahead of the offering, along with voting control over another 26.7 million shares. Index Ventures is the leading institutional stakeholder, with 65.9 million shares, or 17 % of shares outstanding before the IPO. Greylock is second at 16%, followed by Kleiner Perkins at 14% and Sequoia Capital at 8.7%.

All of the top investors are selling a portion of their stake in the IPO.

WATCH: Jim Cramer breaks down Figma ahead of its IPO

Jim Cramer breaks down Figma ahead of its IPO

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Microsoft tops $4 trillion in market cap after hours, joining Nvidia in exclusive club

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Microsoft tops  trillion in market cap after hours, joining Nvidia in exclusive club

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella speaks in front of the OpenAI logo at the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle, Washington, on May 19, 2025.

Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images

The $4 trillion club has a second member, at least based on after-hours trading.

Following a better-than-expected earnings report on Wednesday, Microsoft shares jumped 8%, lifting the software giant’s market cap to about $4.1 trillion. Should the rally stick on Thursday, Microsoft would join chipmaker Nvidia, which hit $4 trillion for the first time earlier this month.

Microsoft reported 18% revenue growth, its fastest rate of expansion in over three years, driven by its Azure cloud computing business. Microsoft disclosed Azure revenue in dollars for the first time, and said sales from Azure and other cloud services exceeded $75 billion in fiscal 2025, up 34% from the prior year.

As of the close on Wednesday, Microsoft shares were up 22% for the year, topping the S&P 500’s 8% gain. Microsoft hit a record close of $513.71 on July 25. The stock is above $553 in extended trading.

Nvidia and Microsoft, two of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, have zoomed past Apple on the market cap leaderboard. Apple is third at about $3.2 trillion, with its stock having fallen 17% this year as investors worry that the iPhone maker is getting left behind in AI. Apple reports quarterly results after the bell on Thursday.

Among tech’s megacaps, Nvidia has been the best performer in 2025, up 33%. The chipmaker’s graphics processing units (GPUs) are the backbone of the large language models being developed by Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Meta and others, and they’re filling up data centers being built by those same companies.

Nvidia is scheduled to report results in late August.

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