Big Tech’s Push For Automation Hides The Grim Reality Of ‘Microwork’
By: The Guardian October 27, 2021 When customers in the London borough of Hackney shop in the new Amazon Fresh store, they no longer pay a checkout operator but simply walk out with their goods. Amazon describes “just walk out shopping” as an effortless consumer experience. The rise of automated stores during the pandemic […]
Big-Name Democrats Say ‘No Thanks’ to Facebook’s Top Lobbyist Job
By: The Wall Street Journal October 26, 2021 WASHINGTON— Facebook Inc. spent more on federal lobbying last year than any other company, but its influence operation in Democratic-dominated Washington is conspicuously lacking in one crucial area: Democrats. As President Biden and Congress threaten tougher regulations, prominent Democrats have been rebuffing lucrative jobs at […]
Employees Are Not Showing Up To Work — Employers Are Replacing Them With Robots
By: The Hill October 26, 2021 It’s the “Great Resignation,” and many workers seem to prefer not coming in to work. Employers are increasingly obliging them. How? By eliminating their jobs altogether. A recent survey from Verizon of more than 600 U.S. small businesses found that 30 percent have already adopted digital tools to help […]
Here Are All The Facebook Papers stories
By: Protocol October 25, 2021 Monday morning’s news drop was a doozy. There was story after story about the goings-on inside Facebook, thanks to thousands of leaked documents from Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who wants the information within those files to spread far and wide. Haugen is also set to speak in front of the […]
Facebook’s Internal Chat Boards Show Politics Often at Center of Decision Making
By: The Wall Street Journal October 24, 2021 In June 2020, when America was rocked by protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, a Facebook employee posted a message on the company’s racial-justice chat board: “Get Breitbart out of News Tab.” News Tab is a feature that […]
Google Charges More Than Twice Its Rivals in Ad Deals, Unredacted Suit Says
By: The Wall Street Journal October 22, 2021 Google takes a cut of 22% to 42% of U.S. ad spending that goes through its systems, according to a newly unredacted lawsuit by state attorneys general, shedding new light on how the search giant profits from its commanding position in the internet economy. The share […]
Facebook Increasingly Suppresses Political Movements It Deems Dangerous
By: The Wall Street Journal October 22, 2021 After the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, far-right activists launched an online campaign to form what they called a Patriot Party as an alternative to the Republican Party. Facebook Inc. worked to kill it, citing information it said showed the movement was being pushed by white […]
Facebook Is Rebuked by Oversight Board Over Transparency on Treatment of Prominent Users
By: The Wall Street Journal October 21, 2021 Facebook Inc.’s FB 1.57% oversight board said the company hadn’t been forthcoming about how it exempts high-profile users from its rules and said it is drafting recommendations for how to overhaul the system, following a Wall Street Journal investigation into the practice. In a report released Thursday, the oversight board said […]
How Many Users Does Facebook Have? The Company Struggles to Figure It Out
By: The Wall Street Journal October 21, 2021 Facebook Inc. is struggling to detect and deal with users’ creating multiple accounts on its flagship platform, according to internal documents that raise new questions about how the social-media giant measures its audience. An internal Facebook presentation this spring called the phenomenon of single users with multiple […]