Daily Archives: March 4, 2022

In my most recent Defining Ideas article, Let Freedom Rein in Big Tech, I made a case against the kind of regulation of Big Tech that many on the right favor. In that article, I promised to lay out the problems with some of the regulations of Big Tech that many on the left favor. One such set of regulations is in the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICO), sponsored by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota). My further research surprised me. I had thought that this was a bill favored mainly by the left. But it seems to have populist anti-big-business support from both left and right. Five of the bills co-sponsors are Democrats and six are Republicans. That makes analyzing the bill more, not less, important.

The fact that the words innovation and choice are in the bills title might suggest that the bills sponsors think those are good things. But what the bill would actually do, if implemented, is severely restrict innovation and choice when those innovations are undertaken by the Big Tech firms that are targets of the bill. Just as antitrust laws in the past seemed more designed to protect competitors rather than consumers, so with AICO. Moreover, what the proponents seem not to recognize is that innovation often occurs in unpredictable ways and that the firm with market power today is often, ten years later, the firm that has been displaced by innovative competitors.

This is from David R. Henderson, A Populist Attack on Big Tech, Defining Ideas, March 3, 2022.

I hadnt realized until I started to look into AICO how bipartisan it is.

Another excerpt:

AICO defines a covered platform as one that has at least 50,000,000 United Statesbased monthly active users on the online platform or has at least 100,000 United Statesbased monthly active business users on the online platform. It must also have net annual sales or a market capitalization greater than $550 billion. Why $550 billion? The answer is telling.

Originally, the cutoff in the bill was $600 billion. But on February 8, 2022, the market capitalization of Meta, owner of Facebook, fell below $600 billion for the first time since May 2020. CNBC writer Lauren Feiner thought at the time that the lower market value could help Meta avoid being regulated under AICO. But no such luck. Senator Klobuchar quickly revised the bill to make the threshold $550 billion, which was below, and is still below, Metas market cap. If there was ever any doubt as to one of her targets, Klobuchars revision of the bill removed that doubt.

I also dig into the robber baron issue.

Read the whole thing.

Read the rest here:

A Populist Attack on Big Tech - Econlib

If there were a graveyard for failed health IT endeavors, it would be cluttered with the tombstones of Big Tech companies like IBM, Google and Amazon.

Big technology companies have often been hailed as the saviors that could free the nation from the problems of our dysfunctional, inefficient and archaic healthcare system. The reality is that these organizations continue to fail in their initiatives, ultimately stifling true healthcare innovation and reducing the markets confidence in technologies that are successfully addressing real market needs.

After wasting time and money on half-baked solutions, organizations eventually give up and wonder if Big Techs motivations for saving healthcare were based more on greed and hubris than actual innovation. Oracles $28 billion acquisition of Cerner is the latest Big Tech investment to generate headlines, and its a deal thats not likely to end well, either.

A quick review of notable Big Tech healthcare failures

As a refresher, lets look back to a few of the more notable Big Tech healthcare debacles of recent years.

Why does this keep happening? Dirty healthcare data

Its easy to understand the appeal that healthcare holds for Big Tech. Its a $4.1 trillion market that is plagued by disorganization and waste. Despite what we in the industry sometimes like to tell ourselves, the reality is that healthcare in America is horrible. Healthcare is more expensive in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world, yet quality is poorer than most developed nations in terms of life expectancy and outcomes.

Why? The foundation of the U.S. healthcare systems is billing codes i.e., financial rather than clinical information. That leads to a host of problems due to the lack of granularity of claims data, which does not account for many important factors, including patients social determinants of health.

One consistent theme that runs through all of these missteps is that Big Tech constantly underestimates the problem that healthcare has with dirty data. Healthcare is not engineering. In healthcare, data is rarely clean or consistent; its more like the Tower of Babel. Healthcare is full of industry-specific terminologies, such as ICD-10, SNOMED, RxNorm and MedDRA.

Indeed, approximately 30% of the worlds data volume is generated by the healthcare industry, according to RBC Capital Markets. By 2025, the compound annual growth rate of data for healthcare is expected to reach 36%, a faster rate of growth than the manufacturing, financial services, and media and entertainment industries.

Patient data may be included in medical histories, diagnoses, observations, lab reports and imaging reports, to name just a few of the many disparate sources. Further, each patient record is unique, and medical data can be complex and confusing.

In addition to its complexity, clinical data is often perplexingly and frustratingly both redundant and incomplete at the same time. Its stored in separate electronic health records systems across various providers, but full of spelling errors and inconsistencies.

Much of the valuable data that healthcare organizations need to improve decision-making is also unstructured. The information is trapped in the notes sections of EHRs or as PDFs and image files, which are difficult for machine-learning algorithms to decipher. It is estimated that about 80% of healthcare data is unstructured.

Big Techs lack of healthcare domain expertise can create conditions that stifle innovation and reduce market confidence in certain types of technology. When organizations spend time and money to implement Big Tech solutions that ultimately dont fix their pain points, many simply give up on the technology even when other innovative solutions are available in the market.

For healthcare, by those with healthcare expertise

Look, I do Google searches and use Big Techs tools just like everybody else. For the most part, theyre good at what they do when they stick to what they do and thats not healthcare.

As weve seen time and time again, Big Tech just cant get healthcare right because they cant overcome the dirty data problems that are endemic to the industry and they are too proud to integrate the third party solutions that do. Everyone (that is to say: the healthcare industry, Big Tech themselves, and oh yeah, patients) would frankly be better off if they stopped trying.

Instead of relying on Big Tech to solve healthcares big problems, stakeholders would be better served to look at solutions that have been developed for healthcare by experienced experts who know and understand the industry.

Photo: pictafolio, Getty Images

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Big Tech companies are harming not helping healthcare - MedCity News

LinkedIn employees are treated to "surprise and delight" moments through the tech company's LiftUp program.

LinkedIn

Millions of Americans are quitting their jobs and rethinking what they want when it comes to work and work-life balance. Companies are responding, meeting their employees' needs in areas like remote work, flexible hours, four-day workweeks, compensation and more. This story is part of a series looking at the "Great Reshuffle" and the shift in workplace culture taking place right now.

Can something as simple as an extra paid day off or a workday without meetings really help employee well-being?

For tech giant LinkedIn, the answer is a resounding yes.

As the Covid-19 pandemic took its toll on workers around the nation, employers scrambled to respond. LinkedIn decided to tackle the burnout, anxiety and exhaustion many of its employees were facing by instituting a new initiative called LiftUp.

It's a resource hub and a series of fun events, but most notably it also gives the gift of time in the form of global well-being days off and meeting-free days.

More from Invest in You:A four-day workweek doesn't mean less work. Here's how to do itMeet the company that offers its contract workers benefits and job securityThis worker took three months off with pay to hike in Europe

There was also a company-wide shutdown for a week in April 2021 and a year-end "Silver Linings Show" featuring employees' positive moments in 2020, hosted by comedian Trevor Noah. Other events included a music festival and day filled with random acts of kindness.

"The surprises and delights were really meant to simply put the spark back in everyone, lift our heads up higher, and create some fun along the way," Nina McQueen, LinkedIn's vice president of benefits and employee experience at LinkedIn, said in the company's 2022 Global Talent Trends report.

While LiftUp started in response to the crisis, it has now become part of LinkedIn's DNA.

"[Employees] need support, they need to know the organization values them," said Jennifer Shappley, LinkedIn's global head of talent acquisition.

"What people need right now is some help balancing," she explained. "LiftUp is an example of how we are helping people with that."

Two years into the pandemic, workers are still struggling. Fully 54% feel mentally exhausted and drained after every workday and 44% have trouble staying focused at on the job, a survey by HR tech company Workhuman found. The poll, conducted by Workhuman IQ, polled 2,268 full-time workers in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland from Nov. 12 to 14.

Nawal Fakhoury, director of employee experience at LinkedIn, called the LiftUp initiative a gift.

"I was one of those employees who never ever took a break or time off until I was absolutely at the point of needing it," she said. "The surprise days off I didn't realize how much I needed them."

Organizational psychologist Melissa Doman agrees that a company-wide day off is beneficial for workers. They can focus on other things without guilt since no one else is working either, she said.

What people need right now is some help balancing.

Jennifer Shappley

LinkedIn's global head of talent acquisition

"Work is important l love my work, I work a lot but work is not all of life," said Doman, author of "Yes, You Can Talk About Mental Health at WorkHere's Why (And How To Do It Really Well)."

"You have to give people the space of the human experience outside of work," she added. "In the corporate world of work, the world is not going to burn if you shut down for eight hours.

"People need to stop treating it like it will."

To be sure, LinkedIn's effort is one of many approaches to dealing with employee burnout. Others have turned to perks like flexible schedules or a four-day workweek. It's all part of a shift in workplace culture that has employers focused on employee well-being.

"It is so overdue, but I'm so happy that the pandemic has forced people to realize that feeling valued and having your well-being valued doesn't always have to come with a dollar sign," Doman said.

In fact, what job-seekers want most is work-life balance, LinkedIn's report found, with 63% calling it a top priority when picking a new job. In comparison, 60% cited compensation and benefits.

The company believes its culture is resonating with job-seekers and employees alike.

"Over the last three quarters, we have hired more people than we have hired ever in our history," Shappley said.

For Fakhoury, the experience with LiftUp has raised her level of awareness on the well-being of her direct reports. It's also impacted the way she approaches her own work life.

"It was this persistent reminder to be taking care of ourselves," she said. "It rewired me."

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This Big Tech company 'surprises and delights employees to keep them happy - CNBC

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked outcry and sanctions, but the direct power to shape human destiny in the 21st Century doesn't lie with governments alone.

From social media platforms being used for information warfare to software companies defending customers from state-sponsored cyber attacks, the invasion has highlighted how critical technology companies are in times of conflict.

They are also potential levers of influence. Ukraine's digital minister Mykhailo Federov has called on a number of companies, including Netflix, to block their services in Russia.

Read more: Could Russia turn to cryptocurrency and cyber crime to dodge sanctions?

Many argued in response that keeping their services available was the best way to inform Russians about the invasion, but some have been pulled and others are being monitored for manipulation.

In alphabetical order, here's how they are responding:

Airbnb

Airbnb's chief executive Brian Chesky said the company was suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus.

Earlier this week Mr Chesky said the company would work with hosts to help house up to 100,000 Ukrainians forced to flee their homes and would waive all booking fees in the country.

He called for people "in nearby countries, including Poland, Germany, Hungary and Romania" to offer in their homes using the platform.

Apple

In a statement Apple said: "We are deeply concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and stand with all of the people who are suffering as a result of the violence."

The company said it has "paused all product sales" in Russia while "Apple Pay and other services have been limited".

In Ukraine, the company has "disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps... as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens" amid concerns that Russia could attack locations where large groups were gathering.

Outside of Russia the company has removed the apps for RT and Sputnik from the App Store.

Electronic Arts

In its statement Electronic Arts, the gaming company behind the FIFA titles, said: "We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine."

The company said it will stop sales of its games and content in Russia and Belarus while the conflict continues.

"We are also working with our platform partners to remove our titles from their stores and stop the sale of new in-game content in the region," the company said.

Google

In a statement Google said: "The Russian invasion of Ukraine is both a tragedy and a humanitarian disaster in the making."

In Ukraine the company has updated its Search and Maps services to provide alerts to UN resources for people searching for refugee and asylum information.

Similar to Apple, the company has also disabled some live Google Maps features in the country "including the traffic layer and information about how busy places are, to help protect the safety of local communities and their citizens".

Google said it had been taking action against "Russia-backed hacking and influence operations" for years and was continuing to automatically increase Google account security protections.

Read more: Cyber, war and Ukraine - What does recent history teach us to expect?

It said it was also providing protection against DDoS attacks for more than 100 Ukrainian websites, including local news services.

The company has blocked the YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe - including the UK, which is not covered by the European Union restrictions - and has banned RT from monetising its content on any of its advertising platforms.

In Russia, the company said most of its services would remain available, helping people there access global information and perspectives beyond those of state-controlled media.

Meta

Meta said: "In response to Russias invasion of Ukraine, our teams have been on high alert to identify emerging threats and respond as quickly as we can."

It has blocked access to RT and Sputnik across the EU and following a request from Nadine Dorries is also blocking access to them in the UK.

Facebook and Instagram are globally demoting content from the Russian state-controlled media outlets, as well as fact-checking posts about the conflict.

Nick Clegg said Meta was facing restrictions in Russia as a result of refusing the Kremlin's demands to stop fact-checking and labelling posts.

Meta added it has also been uncovering information warfare networks which had been operating fictitious personas and brands across the internet and taking down their accounts.

It added it is seeing "increased targeting of people in Ukraine, including Ukrainian military and public figures" by a hacking group which the security community believes has Belarussian and Russian links, and warned the hackers were sending friend requests using its social platforms.

Additional account privacy and security protections have been rolled out in Ukraine and are being added to Russia as well "in response to public reports of targeting of civil society and protesters", the company added.

Microsoft

In its statement Microsoft said it was "following closely the tragic, unlawful and unjustified invasion of Ukraine" and was working to support humanitarian organisations.

It has stopped all new sales of products and services in Russia as of Friday.

The company said it has been and will continue to detect and advise the Ukrainian government about cyber attacks targeting the country's digital infrastructure.

Read more: Should UK be worried about an escalating cyber conflict?

"We remain especially concerned about recent cyberattacks on Ukrainian civilian digital targets, including the financial sector, agriculture sector, emergency response services, humanitarian aid efforts, and energy sector organisations and enterprises," the company said.

Microsoft added that it was removing the RT news apps from the Windows App Store and de-ranking RT and Sputnik on Bing, as well as banning all of their advertisements from its networks.

Netflix

Netflix hasn't issued a statement regarding the conflict, but is estimated to have approximately a million subscribers in Russia.

A recently passed Russian law which came into effect on 1 March means the American platform is now required to include 20 government-controlled television stations among its streaming services.

However in the context of the invasion of Ukraine this has not yet been implemented.

A spokesperson for Netflix told Sky News: "Given the current situation, we have no plans to add these channels to our service."

Netflix had previously launched original programming in Russia including Anna K, a contemporary retelling of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.

However Sky News understands that Netflix has now halted all Russian productions and acquisitions.

Snap

Snap said: "We stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian team members and the people of Ukraine who are fighting for their lives and for their freedom."

The company's augmented reality features are based on technology from a Ukrainian company called Looksery which it acquired in 2015 and Snap said Ukraine has been the home of more than 300 of its team members.

It said it had stopped all advertising running in Russia, Ukraine and even Belarus as a result of the conflict.

It was also halting advertising sales to all Russian and Belarusian organisations. The company said it does not accept revenue from Russian state-owned entities.

The Snapchat app will continue to be available in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia "as it remains an important communications tool for family and friends" buy the company will continue to monitor for disinformation and other misuse.

"Ukraine is a nation whose incredible potential is helping to shape a more positive future for the world and we will not waver in our solidarity," the company's statement concluded.

Telegram

A spokesperson for Telegram, the social media platform founded in Russia although now legally based in the British Virgin Islands, told Sky News they were complying with the EU's legal request to ban RT and Sputnik.

According to a POLITCO Europe report, RT channels in English, Spanish, German, and French were still active on the platform this morning.

Telegram sent Sky News a list of channels associated with RT which it said have now been blocked in the EU. Sky News was unable to immediately verify the blocks.

But the company confirmed to POLITICO that the blocks only affect those with an EU-based phone number, not for anyone geographically located in the European Union.

European Commissioner for values and transparency Vera Jourova tweeted in response: "The rules are clear. There cannot be any circumvention of the law. Member States should make sure the sanctions are applied."

TikTok

TikTok has not released an official statement regarding the conflict.

The company has banned RT and Sputnik in the EU following the legal instruction by Ursula von der Leyen.

Regarding disinformation and harmful misinformation, a spokesperson told Sky News it was continuing to monitor and dedicate "increased resources to the situation as it evolves".

Twitter

Twitter said it was "actively monitoring for risks associated with the conflict in Ukraine, including identifying and disrupting attempts to amplify false and misleading information".

The company had already banned RT and Sputnik from running advertisements following allegations over Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in the US.

It added that it has temporarily paused all advertisements in Ukraine and Russia.

Similarly to Meta, Twitter labels the posts of media outlets sponsored by the Russian state. The company said it was aware the site was being restricted in Russia as a result.

This included monitoring high-profile accounts, "including journalists, activists, and government officials and agencies to mitigate any attempts at a targeted takeover or manipulation".

It has also withheld content on RT and Sputnik for users within the EU, and says outside of the EU it will "focus on de-amplifying this type of state-affiliated media content".

Continue reading here:

How are the big tech companies responding to the invasion of Ukraine? - Sky News

Philadelphia residents no longer need to wear masks in most indoor settings, starting immediately, the citys health commissioner, Dr. Cheryl Bettigole, announced on Wednesday.

With Philadelphia reporting an average of 295 new coronavirus cases per day, down from almost 4,000 during the Omicron peak, city authorities say it is safe to stop enforcing the mandate.

The change in policy came as other U.S. cities and counties have rapidly relaxed their mask mandates, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles County, New York City and Boston.

Last month, Philadelphia announced a new tiered Covid response system, which ties restrictions to specific benchmarks for new daily cases, hospitalizations, test positivity rates and the rate at which cases are rising. The metrics have improved enough that Philadelphia can move to the all clear level, where vaccines and masks are no longer required in most indoor spaces, the Health Department said.

The mask mandate remains in place in health care settings and on public transit, and businesses and other institutions are allowed to require masks or proof of vaccination if they choose to do so.

Masks will no longer be required in Philadelphia schools starting March 9, if the situation continues to improve.

Philadelphia is unique in that we are the poorest big city in the country, making us more vulnerable to Covid-19 than many other places, Dr. Bettigole said. She added that Philadelphians had shown a commitment to each other during the pandemic, perhaps best demonstrated by our willingness to wear masks for the past six months to help decrease transmission to those that remain at risk.

Almost 70 percent of Philadelphians are fully vaccinated, according to a New York Times database, but the number of people receiving their first doses has stalled, as they have nationally.

Other places in the United States that announced changes to mask policies this week:

Maines state government said on Wednesday that it would lift its statewide mask requirement for schools on March 9, after which school districts will be responsible for setting mask policies.

Education officials in Chicago, one of the largest U.S. public school systems, say they might soon end the citys mandate in schools.

Los Angeles County is poised to lift its indoor mask requirement for unvaccinated residents on March 4.

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Covid News: U.S. to Offer Covid-Fighting Tech to Other Nations - The New York Times

On Friday morning, as Russia continued its unprovoked attacks on Ukraine, its government also launched an assault on Facebook, announcing that it would begin partially restricting access to the social media network in Russia, where there are an estimated 70 million users, because Facebook allegedly restricted pro-Russian news sites. Later that day, Facebook pushed back, writing that Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labeling of content and that the company would continue to support ordinary Russians using our app to express themselves and organize for action. On Saturday morning, Twitter also confirmed that its app is being restricted for some people in Russia.

Now Facebook and Twitter find themselves in a predicament thats become increasingly common for social media networks in certain countries: Theyre facing the demands of an authoritarian government thats pressuring them to censor content it doesnt like, and to allow propaganda to run unchecked. If they dont follow the Kremlins orders, they risk being booted off of the local internet entirely. In some cases, refusing could put some of their local employees at risk in the past, the Russian government has threatened to arrest tech employees based in the country when disputing with their employers. These situations threaten to fracture the way people communicate across the world.

Theres no simple solution to such a standoff. For the people living under these governments, losing access to major social media platforms can cut off a key way they communicate and resist their own government and its propaganda. In Russia, for example, residents who oppose the invasion of Ukraine have been using Facebook, Twitter, and other major social media platforms to distribute news about the attacks and to coordinate anti-war actions and protests.

I think were heading toward an inevitable break in the global internet, said Emerson Brooking, a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank who studies social media.

Social media in the 2000s was developed under a vision of a shared, open, and global internet, which required major tech platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to largely follow the political speech rules of whatever countries they operated in. That meant that tech companies particularly in places outside the US and Europe sometimes took down politically controversial speech at the behest of government orders.

Last September, Apple and Google deleted a voting app created by supporters of Aleksei A. Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, after the Russian government reportedly threatened to arrest the tech giants employees if the companies left the app up in their stores.

In every case, its an implicit negotiation between companies and an authoritarian government, Brooking told Recode.

But sometimes that implicit negotiation can break down, as it did last March when the Kremlin intentionally slowed down Twitter in Russia after warning social media platforms to take down content supporting Navalny after his arrest. Were seeing these breakdowns happen more often.

A truly open, global internet never existed in China, where all US social media companies are officially banned under its Great Firewall that controls what citizens can access online. It no longer fully exists in India, where Twitter and Facebook have taken down content at the demand of Prime Minister Narendra Modis government, which began censoring political dissenters with increasing vigor during the pandemic. And now, it may not exist much longer in Russia, at a critical moment in global history.

What happens next in Russia may continue to splinter the open internet.

Some politicians and online speech experts say its important for mainstream social media platforms to try to continue operating in Russia, while still moderating blatant misinformation and restricting propaganda pushed by Russian state media. Thats because social media platforms are giving Russians who disagree with the Kremlin a way to make their voices heard, and theyre offering Russians a way to get information that Russias state-run media organizations wont share.

Widely circulated tweets showed Russian protesters chanting against the war this week in Moscow. A popular St. Petersburg rapper canceled his concert and posted an anti-war message to his over 2 million Instagram followers on Thursday. And some children of Russian senior state officials and oligarchs have turned to Instagram to voice their opposition to the invasion.

Its always a balance to make sure that Russians who want the real story or at least the story as we see it still have access to social media platforms, European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager told Recode on Friday. But propaganda shouldnt have a place.

In the next few days, its expected that Russias government will continue circulating false and misleading claims to support the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Twitter, Google, and Facebook have all said they are increasing their efforts to remove videos that violate their policies. Twitter has temporarily paused its ads and some recommendations in Russia and Ukraine to prevent misinformation from spreading. Facebook announced on Friday it was prohibiting Russian state media from running ads. And YouTube told Recode that its evaluating whether new economic sanctions on Russia may impact what content is allowed on the platform. The video platform has faced criticism for allowing advertisers to run ads against Russian-backed state media outlet RT as it livestreams bombings in Ukraine.

Its unclear if Russia will escalate its partial restrictions in response to Facebooks continued refusal to stop moderating Russian media, or what exactly it will do to Twitter and YouTube.

Some internet security experts, social media researchers, and activists have advocated for US-based social media companies to cut off Russian state-funded media or state-run accounts, since that could weaken the Russian governments ability to distribute propaganda.

During the Cold War, we would never let Pravda publish in the United States, said Jim Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Why are we letting the Russians do this?

But for all the previously mentioned reasons, if tech companies further limit Russian state media and official government accounts, that could risk further retaliation by the Russian government.

All of this underscores how social media is a key battleground for global powers. It should come as no surprise that the Kremlin which proved itself masterful at interfering with US politics using social media disinformation campaigns during the 2016 elections is once again trying to manipulate the online public conversation in its favor.

Read more:

Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter have a Russia problem - Vox.com