In a potentially precedent-setting case, subscribers to streaming services like XBox Live and Spotify are suing the city of Chicago over its controversial tax policy on digital entertainment. “The challenge to the tax policy … is important because it could help define the power of cities and states to tax parts of the internet economy,” Fortune reports.

Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer walks Re/code through the tricky business of relying on Facebook for audience traffic. “This year, they made their tweak around video,” says Lerer. “Which is if you create video content -- short-form, good-quality video content on Facebook -- they’re going to promote you.” Separately, Lerer said he has no plans to sell Thrillist at the moment. 

Vanity Fair gives us an intimate look into Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of virtual-reality headset maker Oculus Rift, and then ponders its far-reaching implications for the future of the social giant. Looking ahead, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says: “Eventually, I think we’re going to have technology where we can communicate our full sensory experience and emotions to someone through thought.” 

MuckRock, a news site that covers government transparency issues, is launching a crowdfunding platform that will let readers help finance reporters’ work. “MuckRock has supported crowdfunding for individual FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests since its launch in 2010, but the new system, called Project Crowdfunding, will let reporters solicit contributions for larger projects,” Nieman Lab reports. 

Tumblr just refashioned reblogs, which are posts that are re-shared by other users. “Each time you reblog something, you're able to add your own comment, along with the comments of everyone else who has reblogged the post,” Mashable writes. “Previously, comments accompanying reblogs were nested so that longer threads could quickly turn into a ‘crazy long, indecipherable reblog chain.’” 

Taking a page from Snapchat, Twitter appears to be testing some fun photo- and video-editing features. “It looks like you might soon be able to add stickers, your own doodles, text and more to photos and short video clips,” TechCrunch reports. At the moment, “it isn’t clear if this is a standalone app, or just an extension of the photo/videos features inside Twitter’s mobile apps.”