Daily Archives: February 15, 2022

Big Tech Sold Out on Its Promise of an Open Internet – Gizmodo

Posted: February 15, 2022 at 5:21 am

Young Mark Zuckerberg, when he still exalted the virtues of an open internet. Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)

2021 was a bad PR year for Big Tech. Lawmakers, advocates, and scholars filled pages of books and held hours of hearing exalting what they viewed as an industry being strangled by a handful of players using anti-competitive practices to solidify their position as kings. Ironically, those exact same tactics were vehemently opposed by the Big Tech companies themselves less than a decade ago. Like an aging punk throwing out their raggedy jean jacket for a blazer, Big Tech sold out.

Thats according to a new report by the Tech Oversight Project shared exclusively with Gizmodo. The reporttitled Whiplash: Inside Big Techs Open Internet Flip-Floplays out a laundry list of times where Big Tech companies have seemingly expressed support for many of the same policy goals theyre currently fighting to quash. It also comes as Congress muses over several key pieces of antitrust legislation taking aim at Big Techs alleged monopolistic business practices.

The report spotlights Google, Amazon, and Facebooks fierce defense of net neutrality in 2014 where the companies repeatedly cited an open internet as a critical component to innovation and economic growth. Techs biggest players, as a New York Times article from the time states, put their reputations and financial clout behind the challenge.

These high-minded priorities for an open internet were shouted from the rooftops by Big Techs most prominent voices at the time. The internet has created this remarkable set of free markets, open competition, and competitive growth, and we need to keep it free and open, Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a 2007 address to the Progress and Freedom Foundation Aspen Summit. Its actually important! Then, in a 2017 Facebook post thats almost laughably absurd hearing it now, Meta CEO and aspiring Metverse overlord Mark Zuckerberg espoused the urgent need to keep the internet free and open.

Now, both of those companies are among the top opponents of burgeoning antitrust measures.

So what changed? Well, according to the Tech Oversight Projects Executive Director, Sacha Haworth, Big Tech somewhere along the way saw an avenue to entrench their status and in doing so chose money and consolidation over their past principles.

These Big Tech platforms endorsed an open internet when it suited them and now that they are monopolies they want to effectively close the door and lock it behind them to prevent anyone else from becoming as successful as they have been, Haworth said. Haworth went on to draw a through-line between Big Techs skyrocketing market valuations and their pivot toward gatekeeping business practices. At the time of writing, Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet had achieved valuations of $3 trillion, $2.2 trillion, and $1.8 trillion respectively.

The recently launched Tech Oversight Project sees brewing antitrust legislation as a key component to reigning back Big Techs influence. The group, which The Washington Post notes receives funding from eBay founder Pierre Omidyars left of center Omidyar Network, told Gizmodo its focused on a campaign-style approach to holding tech behemoths accountable. That push comes on the heels of increased spending and lobbying efforts from tech giants.

The Tech Oversight Project sees a strong public appetite for antitrust efforts. The organization pointed Gizmodo towards a new Data for Progress poll where 71% of Democrats and 44% of Republican likely voters said they supported the American Innovation and Choice Online (AICO) Act, one of the new antitrust measures. Other polling released this week from Morning Consult found that 38% of adults thought the federal government should regulate tech more, compared to 29% in 2019. And unlike most other issues, antitrust has broad bipartisan support, both among the public and with lawmakers, which has made it all the more appealing for groups looking for ways to direct Big Techs influence.

Companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple prove themselves hypocritical monopolists time and time again, Tech Oversight Project spokesperson Kyle Morse said. We deserve a level playing field and clear rules of the road that encourage competition, spark the next big idea, and provide consumers with a choice in how they use the internet.

Big Techs supposed policy flip-flopping goes beyond milk toast statements or blog posts. Last month, in the days leading up to the Senate Judiciary Committees mark-up of the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, Apple and Google, in particular, spoke out publicly against the bill with Google saying the antitrust efforts would somehow break many of its most used services. The giants were so concerned that CEOs Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook reportedly personally contacted multiple lawmakers urging them to oppose the legislation. Similar frantic calls to lawmakers were dished out last year after a bipartisan group of House members introduced five antitrust bills taking direct aim at the companies.

Those specific cases are part of a much broader lobbying effort involving staggering amounts of cash. Big Tech lobbying shot up last year once antitrust efforts began gaining more steam, particularly among the companies most likely to find themselves on the receiving end of pro-competition policies. Last year, Meta reportedly spent an all-time high record of $20.1 million on lobbyists while Alphabet spent around $9.6 million. Alphabets spending marked a 27.5% increase from the previous year. Meta and Amazon meanwhile both increased their lobbying expenditures by 7% compared to 2020 figures. Apple, for what its worth, spent slightly less in 2021 despite a relatively high level of scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators.

All that money waving has contributed to the fracturing of the tech industry writ large which collectively once shared a broader set of policy interests. That change was made clear late last year following the death of The Internet Association which once stood largely unchallenged as the tech industrys top lobbying arm. Part of IAs downfall came because its biggest previous members, like Meta and Alphabet, were reportedly at odds with smaller, and even not-so-small firms who wanted the lobbying firm to advocate for more open internet policies.

2021 was the year academics and lawmakers proved theres an appetite for antitrust. Now, in 2022, those same forces will have to prove if that appetite is enough to ward off whats shaping to be a year of combative pushback from some of the countrys most powerful companies.

The tectonic plate has shifted away from smaller companies that have fought against some of these anti-competitive practices monopolizers engage in, Haworth said. Theres a reorientation of alliances here with the monopolies fighting to maintain their monopolies, versus pretty much everyone else.

You can read the full report embedded below.

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Meta’s threat to leave Europe hints at waning big tech influence – ZDNet

Posted: at 5:21 am

Image: Getty Images

Meta, formerly Facebook, made headlines last week for "threatening" to pull its services out of Europe. The threat, slotted into the company's annual 10-K filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said it "would likely" pull Facebook and Instagram from the region if a new EU-US transatlantic data transfer framework could not be formed.

The threat was made in response to the US-EU Safe HarbourandPrivacy Shield agreements being struck down by the European Court of Justice in recent years. The court struck down those agreements as it found US laws did not offer enough data protection safeguards to meet European standards, making it illegal for companies to gather data about European citizens and transfer it to US shores for analysis and sale to advertisers.

This isn't the first time Meta has made threats to leave a particular market. Last year, Meta temporarily blocked people and publishers in Australia from sharing news as part of a scare tactic to make the Australian government amend its media bargaining code. Among Meta's fellow big tech brethren, Google similarly threatened to pull Search from Australiaunder similar motives, while Apple said last year it could leave the UK due to patent concerns.

What's different this time, however, has been Meta backpedalling from its comments. In a blog post, Meta said it is "absolutely not threatening to leave Europe".

"Meta is not wanting or 'threatening' to leave Europe and any reporting that implies we do is simply not true. Much like 70 other EU and US companies, we are identifying a business risk resulting from uncertainty around international data transfers," said Markus Reinisch, Meta Europe public policy VP.

See also: Meta receives its first ever criminal charges from Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest

So what's changed? Capital strikes aren't anything new; whether it's oil companies or chemical companiesthreatening to leave a market, big foreign direct investors have long lobbied against tighter regulations that restrict their market power.

But over the last couple of years, many governments, particularly through their competition regulators, are sharing information with each other on how to handle big tech issues. What's ensued has been a stream of regulatory headwinds against Meta, ranging from the aforementioned ban of trans-Atlantic data flows to stronger privacy laws to expanded requirements for monitoring abhorrent material.

It's no longer a race to the bottom among governments, like when a sea of tech giants over a decade ago made Ireland their European headquarters for lower taxes.

Digital platform companies, like Meta, are also unique in that they are heavily dependent on network effects, said Rob Nicholls, University of New South Wales associate professor and competition policy expert.

"Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, they all rely on network effects and taking out parts of the network in order to make a regulatory point is likely to be more harmful than it would be if you were just a manufacturer where you shift manufacturing to a lower cost, lower regulatory burden cost country. It's different," Nicholls explained.

"The actual nature of [Meta's] business means that the threat is a little bit more hollow than it would be for a manufacturing business. And the coordination between governments means making those threats and following through with them are much, much harder."

For example, if Meta's platforms were to be pulled from Europe, people who live in Australia that communicate with family and friends in Europe using Instagram or WhatsApp might move to another platform to keep those communications despite still having access to Instagram or WhatsApp. If Meta were to cut off a substantial portion of its network, the move would not just adversely affect its revenue, but also the stability of its network too.

With governments becoming more confident in not caving to big tech demands, Meta is in a bind, especially with 98% of its revenuesstill coming from digital advertising.

Big drop: Meta lost over a quarter of its value in a single day. That's almost $240 billion

It's a growing concern for Meta, which revealed during its Q4 conference call earlier this month that its number of daily active users fell by 500,000. If the dip is the beginning of a pattern, it's significant.

Facebook seems to be aware of the problem, having rebranded to Meta last year to try and diversify towards web3 technology. But its bid to pivot has been lacklustre thus far. Meta's cryptocurrency play, Diem, was shut down a fortnight ago after it "became clear" regulators would never let the project move ahead.

Meta's also seeing more competition in grabbing people's attention, particularly from TikTok. During the Q4 earnings call, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said people have more choices for how they spend their time online than before.

"Apps like TikTok are growing very quickly," Zuckerberg said.

"The thing that is somewhat unique here is that TikTok is so big as a competitor already and also continues to grow at quite a fast rate off of a very large base."

Historically, Meta's platforms have excelled more than its competitors in placing ads about products or apps that users did not know existed. While TikTok is not a social network, the short-form video platform has done well to compete against Meta's platforms in this area.

"That discovery mechanism, though, doesn't just depend on data; it also depends on attention. This is where the TikTok challenge looms large TikTok and the loss of attention are [an] existential risk," tech analyst Ben Thompson said.

Coming back to Meta's threat to leave Europe last week, if the EU and US are unable to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution for a data transfer framework, Facebook realistically has two options -- both of which are stark.

See also: Meta sued in excess of $150 billion for its role in Rohingya genocide

The first is pulling some of its services from the EU. That's not an attractive option given that the EU has a population comparable to the US, even if it has a lower GDP per capita than the US. In the most recent quarter, almost 25% of the company's advertising revenue came from Europe.

The other alternative would be for Meta to change its business processes to comply with the relevant orders from the European Court and the General Data Protection Regulation of not sharing EU citizen data with a US entity. This option would be costly, however, as it would entail Meta effectively needing to have large and separate data centressomewhere in Europe.

How Meta will move forward is unclear, but what seems clear is regardless of whether Meta's threat holds any water, governments no longer feel the pressure of Meta like they used to.

Last Wednesday, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire reportedly said he would be fine if Meta pulled its platforms out of Europe.

"I can confirm that life is very good without Facebook and that we would live very well without Facebook," he said.

The Monday Morning Opener is our opening salvo for the week in tech. Since we run a global site, this editorial publishes on Monday at 8:00am AEST in Sydney, Australia, which is 6:00pm Eastern Time on Sunday in the US. A member writes it of ZDNet's global editorial board, which is comprised of our lead editors across Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.

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The role of Big Tech in cyber defence – IDG Connect

Posted: at 5:21 am

Cyber warfare has reached new levels - with attacks now disrupting supply chains, infiltrating governments, and affecting national infrastructure. And cyber threats at a national level have significantly bigger consequences than an organisational data breach, ones which impact international relations.

Back in 2021, the US accused China of a global cyberespionage campaign and responded with a broad coalition that included Britain, the EU and even NATO. Beijing rejected the attempted initiative and called it irresponsible. Overall, it was a highly tense situation involving two super nations, and ultimately, a conflict which emphasised a growing problem for government offices. The UKs Gloucester City Council has been hit twice by attackers in the last decade, Belgiums defence ministry and Canadas foreign ministry have been targeted by hackers, and perhaps the most serious of all; Ukraines massive cyber attack that shut down numerous government websites. The fallout of Ukraines cyber attack highlights the catastrophic effects of cyberwarfare at a national level. It should be a wake-up call for countries to strengthen their own cyber security posture.

While most countries like the UK and Belgium are increasing investment in cybersecurity, the US is turning to Big Tech for help with cyber defence. After sending out a letter back in December, the White House met executives from the top tech firms including Google, Apple, IBM and Amazon to discuss how to bolster software security in the wake of the attack on Log4j, the open-source software. A bold move, one that indicates the private sector could be the answer to securing critical infrastructure and systems.

Perhaps a rather obvious and inevitable challenge for governments is that countries will undeniably engage in cyber-espionage. In a data-driven and digital-first world, the easiest form of information gathering is to target systems and data. Some of the targets of the SolarWinds/Nobelium attack of 2020 included the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), and the US Treasury.

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We’re hiring! Apply to be our big tech reporter – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Posted: at 5:21 am

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is looking for a talented journalist to join our team reporting on big tech.

The Bureau has been investigating the effects of big tech for several years, breaking stories on everything from algorithmic decision-making to Facebooks lobbying, from global misinformation, to mobile phone surveillance. We want to tell this story from a truly international perspective, tracking big techs influence across the world.

We want an enthusiastic journalist with at least two years experience to join this small team and help us hold big tech to account.

The Bureau is the UKs largest independent investigative journalism organisation. It exists to inform the public about the realities of power in todays world. Our investigations seek to expose systemic wrongs, challenge misinformation and spark change. With no corporate or political agenda we bring to light serious issues affecting individuals and communities in the UK and around the world.

We work collaboratively to maximise the impact of our fact-based reporting and share our findings openly with local, national and international media outlets to reach as many people as possible.

In the last few years, The Bureau has been at the cutting edge of reporting on the business model underlying the new digital era. Weve uncovered the world of Twitterbots for hire and their role in a political scandal in South Africa and explored how social media promotes quack Covid cures in India.

Weve spot-lit how European agencies tried to exploit new technologies to predict refugee arrivals and exposed behind-the-scenes lobbying for NHS data as well as the struggles behind Britains contact tracing app. Weve revealed how top-tier global commercial surveillance companies have been enabled by a hidden trade in mobile network access points.

Our renewed project aims to take this work up a level. We dont intend to replicate the reporting done by national newspapers and magazines reporting on Big Tech. Were looking instead to meet the urgent need for deeper reporting on the hidden, systemic issues, within the UK and internationally.

It is an exciting time to join our innovative, mission-driven journalism outfit and be part of an ambitious project to produce cross-border investigations on technology and its effects.

The big tech reporter will work as part of our investigative team. The ideal candidate will have some experience in tech reporting or else be able to show a strong interest in the area and will be able to demonstrate some experience of investigative or off-diary journalism.

It is envisaged that this is a full-time role, primarily based in our London office where we use a hybrid working approach but as The Bureau is committed to supporting people who require a more flexible approach to working this is open to discussion.

The Bureau is committed to being an inclusive and diverse employer providing opportunities for all, where people can come to do their best work. We encourage individuals from BAME communities, those with disabilities, or disadvantaged backgrounds as these groups are currently underrepresented in the media industry, which is something we are committed to changing.

Salary: 32-36,000, dependent on experience.Duration: An initial 18 month fixed-term contract.

Send a CV and covering letter to [emailprotected] by 4 March 2022.

Please also fill out our Equality Monitoring Form here, which is anonymous, so we can better track who we are reaching.

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Silicon Valleys Congressman wants to rein in Big Tech in 3 areas – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 5:21 am

Facebook parent Meta (FB) took a huge earnings hit last week in part because of privacy changes Apple (AAPL) made to its iOS platform, but lawmakers may be poised to force Big Tech to take additional steps to protect users' privacy.

In a new interview with Yahoo Finance Live, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif), whose district is in the heart of Silicon Valley, outlined three areas that lawmakers should focus on when it comes to tech regulation: privacy, antitrust regulation, and free speech.

On the regulation front, he points to instances where private companies have done more than the United States Congress. But, he added, "We have to go further."

On the issue of privacy, Khanna says a federal law is needed to enshrine the right of users to only opt in before a company may use and profit from their personal information. Khannas home state of California enacted privacy bills in 2018 and 2020 that advocates hope will set the stage for nationwide legislation in the years ahead.

Apples new privacy policy requiring iPhone owners to opt in before apps can track their activity across the web makes the company a leader when it comes to privacy, acknowledged Khanna, who has a new book out called Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us. But he says he wants to ensure that Congress passes what Apple has started to do.

Second, Khanna wants to make sure tech giants compete fairly with one another and with smaller companies. The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have embarked on a series of efforts to rein in Big Techs overall power with lawsuits that could proceed in the years ahead. And bills on Capitol Hill like the American Innovation and Choice Online Act are moving gradually forward to limit the ability of tech companies to disadvantage their rivals in forums like the App Store.

Some of the efforts are poorly drafted by people who I think dont understand technology, Khanna says. But he says he's working with his colleagues on enforceable antitrust legislation.

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Third, he wants to ensure consumers can speak freely on platforms unless they're posting misinformation or incitement to violence. Tech companies have a moral responsibility to remove certain speech from their sites, Khanna says. Still, he's wary of efforts to fully roll back Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act, which allows platforms to operate without being held liable for content posted on their platform by third parties.

Apples (AAPL) headquarters sit inside of Khannas district as do Intel's (INTC) and Yahoo's. The headquarters for Google (GOOG) and Meta Platforms (FB) are just a few minutes away. It's fitting that Khanna represents this district, as he counted tech companies as clients when he worked as a lawyer.

But he doesn't want Silicon Valley to have a monopoly on tech jobs. In his book, Khanna writes about decentralizing tech geographically to bring more of the high paying jobs in his district to people left out with economic opportunity in the digital economy.

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

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Financial watchdog to step up crackdown on Big Tech – The Korea Herald

Posted: at 5:21 am

South Koreas financial watchdog pledged Monday to announce its own monitoring measures for Big Tech firms financial services.

As part of its annual plan for this year, the Financial Supervisory Service said it would prepare Korean-type Big Tech monitoring measures to stimulate competition and innovation from Big Techs foray into the finance sector and to achieve financial stability and customer protection.

The purpose of the measures is to establish systematic monitoring to enforce adoption of healthy market rules, and actively supporting financial innovation in the era of the big blur -- a locally-used term referring to the blurring of boundaries between industries.

The FSS announcement comes as tech giants Naver and Kakaos fast-growing online and mobile financial services have become serious competitors to traditional banks. It also comes amid concerns that regulations on Big Tech companies customer protection and data use related to their financial platforms remain unclear.

To bolster transparency in online and mobile finance, the FSS seeks to check on the current state of electronic finance transaction fees and build a related data and information disclosure system. The watchdog, concerned with the lack of standards in assessing environmental, social and governance-related financial products, vowed to come up with a solid yardstick for ESG bonds. It said it would review ESG-related disclosure systems and adopt stricter assessment process for ESG-related funds.

The FSS picked customer protection as another key task for this year, saying it plans to implement stricter regulations to prevent financial institutions exaggerated marketing and selling of risky products.

To minimize financial polarization in the country, it plans to roll out plans to help the elderly and consumers suffering from the fast-declining numbers of brick-and-mortar bank branches and automatic teller machines. According to separate data compiled by the FSS, the number of offline branches operated across the country by the four major banks here - KB Kookmin, Hana, Shinhan and Woori - decreased by 203 on-year as of end-September 2021 to 3,203.

Pointing to concerns surrounding the nations household debt, the FSS said it will enforce stricter loan regulations. The watchdog will prepare an integrated screening system for both household loans and special loan programs for the self-employed. This measure is to prevent abuse of the small business loan program, which tends to have less strict requirements.

Data released by the Bank of Korea earlier this year showed that total household loans extended by banks declined 400 billion won ($333 million) on-month as of end-January, while the total extended to the self-employed added 2.1 trillion won in the same period. This has sparked concerns from onlookers that borrowers were abusing the small business loan programs for other personal uses, such as stock and real estate investments, as the government has been tightening its screening and regulations on household loans.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)

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Missouri AG on GoFundMe shutting down donations to Canadian truckers: Big Tech giants are not above the law – Fox Business

Posted: at 5:21 am

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt argues people are 'tired of being pushed around' as Canadian truckers continue to protest vaccine mandates.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt joined "Varney & Co." Friday to discuss his investigation into GoFundMe after the platform restricted the Canadian Freedom Convoy donations, arguing "Big Tech giants are not above the law."

ERIC SCHMITT: This week we issued a civil investigative demand, which is the equivalent of a subpoena to GoFundMe to get to the bottom of this. And I think it's important to put this in a broader context. No. 1, these Big Tech giants are not above the law. Missouri and other states have taken Google and Facebook to court and GoFundMe should be no different. When you hold yourself out there as a company that's going to take donations and give it to a cause people are choosing. You don't get to change the rules in the middle of the game. They certainly didn't do that for the Black Lives Matter protests last summer.

CNN ANALYST BACKTRACKS AFTER CALLING FOR CANADIAN TRUCKERS TO HAVE THEIR TIRES SLASHED

Secondly, working people have had enough of this. They're tired of being told what to do is to speak to sort of the protests here, right? They're tired of being pushed around. They're tired of being told they're not smart enough to make their own decisions. And you see now what's happening in the United States here, we dodged a bullet.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

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Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on opening an investigation into GoFundMe after the crowdfunding site halted donations for the cause, and school mask mandates.

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Is the end of big tech looming? Is regulation on the way? – Blog – Aviation Analysis Wing

Posted: at 5:21 am

In Europe in particular, more and more measures are being taken to enforce significant technology restrictions. The power of big tech companies has seemed limitless in recent years. It now appears that it is only a matter of time before this is over, as big technology is under a magnifying glass and increasingly challenged.

Listen every week by subscription via: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or another service.

Companies like Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, and Meta (Facebook) are getting survey after survey. These companies have a dominant position in certain sectors and make optimal use of this as possible. You cant blame them from a business point of view, but sometimes they push the boundaries of what is acceptable. Also, terms like abuse of power have become almost weekly and agreements and rules are not always observed.

In addition to Europe, you can also see that these companies are viewed more significantly in the United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia. Many countries are already conducting investigations and some authorities have already imposed restrictions. However, it is expected that there will be many more regulations for these types of companies in the coming years.

In these Techzine talks, were looking at what countries can do to take control of big tech and what can change.

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In 2022, you can expect a new podcast from us every week. We continue with Techzine Talks. We hope to get your support as a listener, bring up topics, share episodes you find interesting, and most importantly give comments. We would like to hear that.

Do you think this podcast is worth watching? Share the podcast with friends, family, and colleagues.

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RETIRE ON TRACK: Content is to tech what ‘location, location, location’ is to real estate – Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Posted: at 5:21 am

Evan Guido| Sarasota Herald-Tribune

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Were seeing a decade-long theme play out again. Content is to tech what location, location, location is to real estate. As mega media deals like the Microsoft/Activision and Sony/Bungie combinations continue to pile up, a brief recap of thirty years of content wars might be in order.

In the first tech wave of the 1990s, the focus was on so-called killer apps, software that was so good that it drove people to buy hardware. Word processing programs ended typewriters. VisiCalc, the grandfather of Excel, brought starship level number crunching to the masses. Microsofts Access gave small companies the ability to build huge databases. And lets not forget the most lethal of killer apps, Mosaic and Netscape, the browsers that brought us that new internet thing via bleeps and blat sounds over the phone lines.

Thirty new calendars later, were reminded once again of the importance of content. Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard on Jan. 18for a whopping $69 billion dollar deal to gain control over videogame franchises Call of Duty, Diablo, Candy Crush and World of Warcraft.Less than two weeks later, Sony paid$3.6 billion for Bungie, the studio behind Halo, and would gain control over Destiny, another leading gaming franchise.

Parents despondent over their slacker gaming kids might take comfort from an observation on CNET by Wall Street analyst Michael Pachter, who pointed out that with Bungie having 900 employees, thats $4 million per software developer. Sony also mentioned there are more acquisitions in the works. Play on, kids! Get back on that couch!

Global antitrust regulators are going to scrutinize the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal closely because, hey, its Microsoft doing what it does best: seeking to dominate operating systems, in this case videogame consoles. Its also an easy argument for Microsoft to make that killer apps can pop up anywhere, and what once was killer can easily become prey.

The Aughts brought the collapse of the merger between the legendary juggernaut AOL (Youve Got Mail) and TimeWarner, whose decline hopefully wont be a foreshadowing of the decline of Meta Platforms. On Wednesday, Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced disappointing earnings, sales and holds modest expectations of the future. The companys share price dropped by as much as 20% in overnight trading when it failed to hit quarterly profit and sales expectations.

Metas customers are aging. Aging customers buy less stuff and Apple enabled privacy protection that made it more difficult for Facebook to track your every fleeting thought online. Metas pivot towards the virtual/augmented reality future (which Microsoft, Alphabet and Apple are pursuing as well) seems like the right move at the right time. But, as we see, the success depends on the execution, which will come from you guessed it a killer app.

Evan R. Guido is the founder of Aksala Wealth Advisors LLC, a 2018 Forbes Next-Gen Advisors List Member, and Financial Professional at Avantax Investment ServicesSM. Evan heads a team of retirement transition strategists for clients who consider themselves the Millionaire Next Door. He can be reached at 941-500-5122 or eguido@aksalawealth.com.Read more of his insights atheraldtribune.com/business. Securities offered through Avantax Investment ServicesSM, member FINRA, SIPC.Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory ServicesSM, insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency.8225 Natures Way, Suite 119, Lakewood Ranch, FL34202.

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Sara Gay Forden on managing big tech: ‘We have to be smart, and we have to be informed’ – The National

Posted: at 5:21 am

Big tech companies have integrated themselves into our lives in a way that is seamless, helping them amass influence and power that surpasses even that of governments, journalist Sara Gay Forden said on Friday at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.

We cant even extract ourselves from these companies because we depend on them so much, Forden said, pointing out that though her talk was titled How to Make the Internet Less Evil, technology is not inherently wicked, and has been used for good as well.

Im not here saying technology is evil. It has helped us stay connected, helps us work, play and shop. But just because it has given us so much that doesnt mean we cant admit this is okay and thats not okay.

The House of Gucci author, who spent 15 years reporting on the fashion industry in Milan, has been living in Washington, DC for the last decade, leading a Bloomberg News team that covers the US governments relationship with big tech companies.

Regulations are key, Forden said. Tracing back the beginnings of big techs ascent to power, she pointed out how the Clinton administration, by advocating the internets self-regulations, had essentially given fledgling companies the opportunity to grow unchecked.

Writer Sara Gay Forden leads a Bloomberg News team that covers the US governments relationship with big tech companies. Photo: EPA

In 1997, we see Bill Clinton coming up and saying we have to keep our hands off the internet and let companies figure out how to make money off of it, that the government should not stand in the way, and that this should be a free global trade zone, Forden said.

It was inconceivable at that time that these companies would have a massive power.

Twenty-five years later, the internet has become more or less personified by the big tech companies, including Facebook, Google and Amazon.

These companies are not million-dollar companies or even billion-dollar companies, she said. These are companies with hundreds of billions of dollars and some of them have even pierced the trillion-dollar mark. So they have long since learnt how to make money.

I would argue that they have more power than the government. They have so much data, she said. Forden said that efforts to regulate their growth have been scarcely effective.

A recent example is the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the small political consulting group obtained massive amounts of personal information about Facebook users from Facebook, which was then used by the Trump administration to target potential voters. The Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation and though they fined Facebook a record-breaking $5million, there were no meaningful changes to how Facebook does its business.

This settlement was harshly criticised by privacy advocates, she said. My observation is that they make so much money that fines essentially become the cost of doing business.

Forden said the EU is showing leadership in trying to wrestle with these challenges. They have a very strong data privacy law, she said. However, she added that a more formidable pushback is coming not from governments but from individuals, non-profits and consumer advocates.

They are really spending a lot of time thinking about this issue, she said. People like Facebook whistleblowers and people like Neil Young, who just as a person with a body of work, doesnt want to be associated with these ideas. Its kind of exciting to see how in the absence of government regulation, how people can seize power themselves. It brings these issues to a broader public in an even bigger way than a hearing in Washington.

While regulating big tech companies may seem like an out-of-reach prospect now that the horses are out of the barn, Forden said it could be helpful drawing comparisons with other industries that have been detrimental to peoples health, such as the tobacco industry.

Sometimes, it's almost hard to have your minds around how to fix things because its so nebulous, she said. It took people a long time to realise cigarettes were bad for your health and when they did, there were these steps that were taken.

Forden ended the talk on a cautiously optimistic note, saying now that we have seen what the dangers are, we can be judicious about our information, and we must teach our children.

We have to be smart, and we have to be informed.

Updated: February 13th 2022, 9:30 AM

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Sara Gay Forden on managing big tech: 'We have to be smart, and we have to be informed' - The National

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