Monthly Archives: May 2021

Protestors gather outside Amazons 2019 shareholder meeting. (GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)

Amazon has been on a wild ride over the last year.

The Seattle retail and tech giants profits and stock price have soared to record highs during the pandemic as the company hired an astounding 500,000 new workers last year, increased its already colossal warehouse capacity by 50% and usurped Boeing as Washington states largest employer.

Yet Amazon has come under fire during that same period over a heap of racial, gender, human rights, labor, environmental and economic issues and the companys shareholders have taken notice.

At Wednesdays shareholder meeting typically hosted in Seattle but held virtually this year Amazons investors will propose more than a dozen initiatives that advocates say are aimed at making the company a more transparent and conscientious corporate citizen.

Amazons board of directors is fighting all of the measures, saying the company is already adequately addressing the issues raised in the proposals.

The shareholder resolutions are non-binding, but theyre a way for investors to build consensus around certain corporate policies and pressure a company to take action.

Similar proposals, also opposed by Amazons board, have been put forward during previous Amazon shareholder meetings. Each of them failed.

Still, Amazon has never faced a year quite like 2020.

During the past 18 months, shareholders note in this years proxy statement (resolutions start on page 23), the company has been besieged with allegations about the wellbeing of its warehouse workers, potential abuse of its facial recognition and surveillance technology, antitrust concerns, its treatment of women and minority employees and more.

In fact, shareholders have put forth a proposal this year that would effectively force Jeff Bezos out of the company he founded after he steps down as CEO in this years third quarter.

Bezos plans to remain chairman of Amazons board after he departs the CEOs office, but the proposal would require that the board be led by an independent director who has not previously served as an executive officer of the company.

Allowing board chairs who have also served as CEO weakens a corporations governance, which can harm shareholder value, shareholders said in the proxy statement.

The shareholders behind the proposal point out that Amazon has been increasingly at odds with its key constituencies, including small businesses, its warehouse workers and communities in which it operates.

Amazon said its spent $11.5 billion on COVID-related measures, including employee safety, even building its own COVID testing labs at a time when government testing efforts were faltering. But lawmakers and worker advocates have been skeptical.

The company, meanwhile, has faced allegations of high injury rates among its blue-collar employees.

Earlier this year, Amazon mounted a vigorous and successful campaign to defeat a union vote at one of its warehouses in Bessemer, Ala. The companys tactics during the unionization vote are now under review by federal officials.

Jennifer Bates, an Amazon warehouse employee in Bessemer, is expected to call on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Wednesday to appoint one of the companys hourly workers on the companys board of directors, according to Oxfam, the social justice and antipoverty organization.

In a statement, Oxfam accused Amazon of continuing dehumanizing working conditions in its logistics facilities, as well as anti-union activities.

Beyond Bessemer, Amazon has been hit with a string of gender and racial discrimination lawsuits filed by its corporate employees, including five suits that were filed last week.

The company has acknowledged that Black and other minorities make up far too little of its leadership and has pledged to diversify its top ranks. Black employees, meanwhile, have accused the company of hiring them into corporate jobs below their skill level and being slow to promote them.

In addition, Amazon Web Services and Amazons consumer products arm are beset with skepticism over how the companys technology is being used.

Amazon has, for now, banned sales of its facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies, yet a coalition of shareholders are calling for audits of how government agencies, both here in the U.S. and abroad, may be abusing the technology to violate civil and human rights.

Shareholders are also calling for greater scrutiny of how law enforcement agencies make use of Amazons camera-equipped Ring doorbell, which connects to a social network where footage and messages can be shared between neighbors and authorities. Among the concerns is whether the product is being used to disproportionately aim suspicion at people of color.

Yet another group of shareholders are asking Amazon to account for plastic packaging that may end up in the worlds oceans.

These controversies and operating challenges may have resulted from Amazons rapid growth, but they threaten to damage our companys corporate reputation and financial performance, shareholders said in the proxy statement.

One group that wont get a hearing at Wednesdays shareholders meeting is Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), which has pressured Amazon in the past to take more aggressive measures to curb climate change.

Jamie Kowalski, a former Amazon software development engineer who is a member of AECJ, said the group proposed a resolution calling on Amazon to account for what Kowalski called the racist impact of its pollution.

Kowalski said Amazons warehouses are disproportionately located in geographic areas where minorities live. Vast fleets of big rigs hauling packages to and from those facilities each day contribute to poor air quality in those neighborhoods, the group says.

Kowalski said Amazon fought the inclusion of the proposed resolution in this years shareholder meeting and the Securities and Exchange Commission ruled it out on a technicality.

Obviously Amazon did not want to see shareholders vote on this proposal so its not going to be on the proxy ballot, he said.

AECJ made national headlines over the past year after Amazon fired two of its leaders, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa. The National Labor Relations Board earlier this year ruled that Amazon illegally retaliated against the pair for their activism.

The Washington Post reported in January that Amazon also threatened to fire Kowalski, who told GeekWire hes since left the company to think about what whats next for his career.

In its proxy statement, Amazon lists a long roster of measures its taking to protect the environment, ensure its technology is used responsibly and equitably by governments and other customers and to ensure worker safety.

Those measures, the company said, include panels of experts closely monitoring how its facial recognition technology and other products are deployed, programs aimed at promoting minority employees and even the use of machine learning to reduce the use of plastic packaging in shipping materials.

Meanwhile, Amazon has throughout the last year announced programs to reduce workplace injuries and invest heavily in renewable energy.

The company has also touted its $15/hour starting wage for logistics workers, which is more than twice the federal minimum wage.

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Amazon shareholders tackle tech giants prickliest problems after a turbulent year amid the pandemic - GeekWire

A woman walks below a Google sign on its campus in Mountain View. (Associated Press)

Russian authorities appear to like the new tool they've developed to pressure foreign tech companies. It made its debut two months ago, when authorities used it to throttle Russian internet users' connections to Twitter after the social media outlet failed to remove content the Kremlin didn't like. Now Russia's internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, is threatening to slow down traffic to Google sites for the same reason.

According to Roskomnadzor, Google wouldn't delete up to 30% of the links to information prohibited by the Russian government that the regulator instructed the company to remove. On Monday Roskomnadzor said that it would give Google 24 hours to comply with Russian laws. The company didn't react, and the next day it was fined $81,600. Two days later, it was fined again, $47,600. These are minuscule fines for Google, which collected more than $44 billion in advertising revenue just in the first three months of the year. And so far, there has been no indication that Google is taking down the links. So the Russian government may be motivated to take more drastic actions against Google.

But why is Google not rushing to remove information the Russian government wants to ban? Roskomnadzor described prohibited content in nefarious terms, such as "sites of terrorist and extremist organizations, sites with pornographic images of minors, and also online stores selling drugs." The implication is that Russian authorities are looking out for their vulnerable constituents and that Google is just an evil, profit-hungry American corporation.

What Roskomnadzor neglected to mention, however, is the government also demanded that Google delete videos on its YouTube subsidiary that called on Russians to participate in peaceful unsanctioned protests in support of the imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Google evidently is not ready to give up easily. In April, the company filed its first-ever lawsuit against Roskomnadzor over the censorship.

Story continues

It's important to understand the context for these fights. The Kremlin started to tighten control over the internet after the anti-government protests of 2011, the biggest ones since the fall of the Soviet Union. Then in 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the "sovereign internet" law, a step toward enabling Russia to disconnect its internet from the rest of the world. The government portrayed the move as a way to protect Russians if the U.S. and other western countries decided to cut the country off from the internet. Technically, however, no country or entity controls access to the sites that make up the internet; that's managed by international organizations and the companies operating domain name servers. And Russian authorities have other reasons for seizing more control over internet use: to increase censorship and silence dissent, the scenario Kremlin critics were afraid of.

The "sovereign internet" law opened the door for Russian authorities to test their new website-throttling technology. Major protests in January and April in support of Navalny might have triggered the government to ramp up pressure on tech companies, including social media networks, the primary place for opposition groups to coordinate rallies.

Roskomnadzor started with Twitter. In March, the internet regulator started to slow the speed for uploading photos and videos to Twitter in response to the company's failure to delete content targeted by the government. At the same time, Russian courts imposed fines on Twitter, including a $117,000 penalty for not deleting posts that contain calls to participate in anti-Kremlin protests. "We are deeply concerned by increased attempts to block and throttle online public conversation," a Twitter spokesperson said to Reuters in March.

Roskomnadzor appears to be winning that battle. After two months of slowing down the platform, the Russian internet regulator declared that Twitter removed 91% of the prohibited information. Roskomnadzor promised to keep slowing down social media until it censors 100% of the material unwanted by the government.

Although these developments are discouraging, Telegram's ability to resist government pressure can serve as an example for other tech companies. Telegram is an anonymous mobile messaging app with plenty of channels used by Russian opposition groups. Roscomnadzor tried in vain to block it for two years before giving up because Telegram kept providing users with tools to circumvent the ban.

Nevertheless, the government's moves against Twitter and Google are a dangerous trend, and they show that the Kremlin is becoming more experienced in eliminating content that doesn't support its goals. It is important for tech giants to stay committed to the open internet and do everything in their power not to allow the manipulation of information.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Opinion: Russia prepares to test its new censorship tool on Google. Tech giants should not give in - Yahoo News

After seeing the unexpected demand and rise in the mind-boggling sales of Tesla cars, other tech giants were quick to announce their plans to roll out their own electric cars to claim a sizeable share of the electric cars market. Elon Musk, known for his outspoken nature and blunt leadership style, couldnt let the opportunity to take a dig go waste.

Early this month, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, known for his notorious memes and social media outreach, took a jab at tech companies trying to get in on the EV space action! Nearly a month after that humiliating tweet from Elon, tech companies havent shown any significant progress to give a befitting reply to Elon.

Musk took to Twitter to troll Sony, Apple, LG, Huawei, and many other tech giants who have shown increased interest in rolling out electric vehicles in the automobile market as of late.

Currently, Apple is focusing on launching its very own Apple Car by the end of 2024, whereas Sony and Huawei have both shown intent to do the same by offering a sneak peek at the Vision S prototype and SERES SF5, respectively.

A netizen tweeted that all these major tech giants are currently busy making a car. And to that, Elon Musk, in a reply, mentioned that prototypes are easy and production is hard.

This is very much true, and who better than Musk to know about it. In the early days, Tesla itself has had its own share of bumpy rides while producing electric-powered cars at scale.

In 2018, despite setting a somewhat ambitious goal of producing 6000 units of Model 3, Musk failed to achieve the target. And that is something that continued till last year for different Tesla models.

Looks like Elon Musk was confident about the mistakes and challenges other companies would be facing in the future, which will eventually delay their rollout plans. Its been nearly a month since Elon took a dig at Xiaomi, Apple, LG, Huawei and we have heard nothing but a huge silence from them. Unlike these tech giants, automobile companies are making noise every other day to let the world know how serious they are about their electric car business. Ford has recently announced that its doubling down the investment in electric car production, while Hyundai has decided to scale down the production of ICE to ramp up the production of electric cars.

However, the tech companies have made negligible progress since they first revealed their intention of jumping into the business of electric cars.

The lesson here is that it is obviously easier said than done. For instance, when news first emerged about Apple trying to find suitable partners for EV Apple Car, one of the major concerns that analysts expressed was the iPhone makers domain experience.

Sure, Apple has deep pockets and, along with that, also has access to all the resources they could ever want. But, building a self-driving car poses several supply chain challenges. It took the 49-year-old CEO of Tesla 10 years before he could make his luxury electric automobile company sustainably profitable.

The tech giants who are currently involved in actively building electric vehicles need to acknowledge that it will definitely not be an easy road. First, they would need to gauge consumer demand for the vehicles post, after which theyd need to figure out which automobile giant to partner with, as producing large volumes of cars right out of the gate is near impossible.

The setback for tech companies has already started appearing. Quite recently, Hyundai called off the deal with Apple, wiping off $8.5 billion in its market value. This passes a stern warning message to other companies wanting to partner with tech companies for electric cars. Apple is back to hunting, and now negotiating with LG for its Apple car project.

Huawei is struggling with its smartphone business and the companys first priority now is to have an impressive alternative of Google Android OS to get its smartphones back to business. Comprising mainly smartphones, the Huawei devices business unit accounts for a lions share of the companys total profit. Its going to be an uphill battle for Huawei to get back to the golden era with Harmony OS, scheduled for launch next week.

The scenario with other tech companies that are willing to challenge Teslas dominance in the electric market is no different either.

But thats not the only challenge these tech companies are bound to face.

Post putting in all of that sweat equity and actual cash, they would still need to fight the existing rivals such as Tesla for market space. Thus the question that arrives here is would it be worth it for Sony, Huawei, Apple, LG, etc., or are they better off sticking to their own lanes and doing what they do best? Or its going to be Elon Musk who would have the last laugh! Only time will tell.

Musks Tesla is currently gearing up to launch in India and take on homegrown Indian players such as Tata Motors. We will keep you updated on future developments. Until then, stay tuned.

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Electric Cars By Tech Giants: Will Elon Have The Last Laugh? - Dazeinfo

Google, Facebook, Telegram, LinkedIn and Tiger Global-backed Indian startups ShareChat and Koo have either fully or partially complied with the South Asian nations new IT rules, according to two people familiar with the matter and a government note obtained by TechCrunch.

Indias new IT rules, unveiled in February this year, require firms to appoint and share contact details of representatives tasked withcompliance, nodal point of reference and grievance redressals to address on-ground concerns.

The aforementioned firms have complied with this requirement, the government note and a person familiar with the matter said. The firms were required to comply with the new IT rules by this week.

Twitter has yet to comply with the rules. Twitter sent a communication late last night, sharing details of a lawyer working in a law firm in India as their Nodal Contact Person and Grievance Officer, a note prepared by New Delhi said, adding that the rules require the aforementioned officials to be direct employees.

Tension has been brewing between Twitter and the government of India of late. This week, police in Delhi visited Twitter offices to serve a notice about an investigation into its intel on classifying Indian politicians tweets as misleading. Twitter called the move a form of intimidation, cited concerns about its employees and requested the government to respect citizens rights to free speech.

WhatsApp has complied with the aforementioned rules, but not with the requirement about traceability, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. WhatsApp sued the Indian government earlier this week over the requirement about bringing a way to trace the originator of messages. WhatsApp said it would have to compromise every users privacy to be able to comply with this rule.

It is unclear at this point whether Apple, which operates iMessage, and Signal have complied with the rules.

Indias Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Wednesday had asked the social media firms for an update on their compliant status, TechCrunch first reported.

India is a key overseas market for several technology giants, including Facebook and Google, both of which identify the nation as its biggest market by users. Neighboring nation Pakistan, which had proposed similar rules as India last year, had to withdraw them after tech giants united and threatened to leave the nation.

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Facebook, WhatsApp, Google and other internet giants comply with Indias IT rules - TechCrunch

Internet Computer (IC) is a cryptocurrency developed by the Dfinity Foundation, a nonprofit based in Zurich, Switzerland. It currently has a market cap of $14 billion, making it the 11th largest cryptocurrency (by market cap) and is a strong competitor to Ethereum and Bitcoin.

IC claims it was launched to become a decentralised version of the internet. It is faster than Ether and can even increase capacity with demand. Amongst the popular cryptocurrencies currently being traded, IC stands apart for many reasons.

What is Internet Computer cryptocurrency?

IC runs on its own proprietary protocol called Internet Computer Protocol. It allows anyone to build software and publish content on the Internet without the help of Google and Facebook for instance. The company claims to provide a hackproof platform at dramatically reduced costs with interoperability.

Also read: Dubai's first cryptocurrency DubaiCoin rises over 1000% since debut: All you need to know

IC backed by venture capital companies Andreesen Horowitz and Polychain Capital also intend to launch apps for decentralised finance. With the DeFi apps, anyone could use cryptocurrency (preferably IC) to substitute the existing and traditional financial processes and switch over to the new age IC.

Dfinity claims it can scale up its capacity as demand increases and it should be seen as a network that uses blockchain technology to power apps rather than as a cryptocurrency.

How different is IC from others

Three features make IC different from others. With IC, anyone can create an app using its blockchain technology. It basically allows the app developer to do an end-run around the big tech companies.

Also read: Billionaire Investor Mark Cuban backs Indian crypto startup Polygon

According to the founder of Dfinity Dominic Williams, its technology does not run on the cloud like others do. It runs on dedicated hardware established by independent parties. IC runs and operates at web speed, unlike the other cryptos that take 30 minutes or more to complete transactions.

How did they achieve overnight success?

Andreesen Horowitz, a powerful and big-ticket venture capital company has come on board with Polychain Capital that specialises in venture capital for cryptos. Other firms backing IC are Amino Capital, Aspect Ventures and Eterna Capital.

The claims made by the founder to displace the traditional cryptocurrency with its speed, scalability and reduced computing costs also were seen as a plus. Of course, decentralising the Internet and challenging the bigwigs was an added advantage.

Also read: Legal access to cryptocurrencies only a matter of time for Indians: HDFC Bank report

Where to buy

Unlike other cryptocurrency coins that are available easily in exchanges to buy or sell, IC is currently available at two of the largest exchanges - Coinbase and Binance as of now. A smaller exchange named Gate.io also offers IC.

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Explained: What is Internet Computer and how it plans to take down tech giants - CNBCTV18

Law360 (May 28, 2021, 5:36 PM EDT) -- Amazon was hit with an antitrust lawsuit from Washington, D.C.'s attorney general this week, accusing the tech giant of crushing competition and driving up prices.

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On this week's episode of Pro Say, the hosts break down the new lawsuit and how it compares to recent similar cases against Google and Facebook.

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Law360's Pro Say: Amazon Joins The Big Tech Antitrust Party - Law360

Ontario is slowly reopening, and by fall, pre-pandemic life is expected to make a full comeback. For Toronto, that could mean returning to a daily commute and office life once again.

When it comes to Torontos burgeoning tech scene, office space and desk jobs are practically a given since many of the major tech giants have announced plans to expand in Toronto with new office spaces or headquarters.

Netflix sign and logo near media company headquarters in Silicon Valley Los Gatos, California, USA June 23, 2019

Netflix announced in late April that Toronto had been chosen over Vancouver for its new Canadian home. The city already hosts one of the streaming platforms two Canadian production hubs, and with the new office space, the company plans on bringing more Canadian stories and narratives to the screen. Exactly when and where the office will open has yet to be released.

JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock

Amazon is expanding in Toronto. In December, the company confirmed its plans to lease three new floors at 18 York Street and two floors at 120 Bremner Boulevard for the start of 2022. The company already has office space in both buildings, as well as a 113,000-square-foot officelocated in Scotia Plaza.

oasisamuel/Shutterstock

In late March, Reddit opened the doors to a new office on University Avenue. The new office site has Canadian-specific management, sales, community, and engineering teams, according to a press release. Canada is Reddits third-largest user base after the US and the UK, so a Toronto office felt like the natural next place for the company to establish a new presence.

Sundry Photography/Shutterstock

DoorDash announced plans for a new engineering site in Toronto and is hiring at least 50 engineers by the end of 2021. In early May, the company said it will be hiring a team for back-end, front-end, and mobile roles.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare announced in April that it had chosen Toronto as the new home for its first Canadian office. Although no timeline or specific location was given for a physical office, the company said it plans to prioritize roles in engineering, research and development, as well as sales and marketing.

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5 tech giants opening offices in Toronto | Venture - Daily Hive

U.S. stocks climbed on Monday, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq jumping more than 1% as a retreat in U.S. Treasury yields helped lift expensive stocks in sectors such as technology as investors attempt to gauge the path of inflation.

Among the 11 major S&P sectors, technology (.SPLRCT) advanced about 2% as the best performing on the session, as yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond hit a two-week low, which also buoyed other richly-valued growth stocks.

Inflation concerns cooled for the time being as investors may be starting to view President's Joe Biden's infrastructure bill as likely to be smaller, or unable to provide as big an economic boost, even after being pared down in size on Friday. read more

Bill Stone, chief investment officer, The Glenview Trust co in Louisville, Kentucky said growth stocks were likely getting a look on Monday due to the decline in yields.

"It seems to be the continued bounce in a rotation back to growth, the top performing sectors today are all growth stocks," "It's the continuing tug of war" he said.

Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 178.6 points, or 0.52%, to 34,386.44, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 40.37 points, or 0.97%, to 4,196.23 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 185.44 points, or 1.38%, to 13,656.44.

Tech giants Apple (AAPL.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O), each up about 2% on the day, were the biggest boosts to the benchmark S&P index. The sector has been among the worst performing for the month and year to date as inflation concerns have grown and bond yields have moved higher.

Equity markets have grown volatile in recent weeks as investors weigh strong economic data and fears that supply bottlenecks could lead to an extended stretch of higher prices, which would in turn force the Federal Reserve to scale back its massive monetary stimulus.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Tuesday he expects the inflation rate to be above 2% both this year and next but several Fed officials, including Bullard continued to support the central bank's policy in separate remarks. read more

After falling as much as 4.3% from its May 7 record intraday high, the S&P 500 is now less than 1% off that level as investors begun to buy technology stocks that have come under pressure in a rising rate environment.

The release of U.S. personal consumption data on Thursday, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, will be a highlight of the economic data published this week.

Risk sentiment also improved as cryptocurrencies recovered some losses after a weekend selloff fueled by further signs of a Chinese crackdown on the emerging sector. read more

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp (COG.N) and Cimarex Energy Co (XEC.N) agreed to merge to form a U.S. oil and gas producer with an enterprise value of about $17 billion, the latest deal in a sector rebounding from one of its worst downturns. read more

Shares of Cabot and Cimarex tumbled while the broader energy index (.SPNY) climbed as oil prices rose 3%. read more

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Wall Street climbs on tech gains as U.S. Treasury yields dip - Reuters