Category Archives: Big Tech

When customers in the London borough of Hackney shop in the new Amazon Fresh store, they no longer pay a checkout operator but simply walk out with their goods. Amazon describes just walk out shopping as an effortless consumer experience. The rise of automated stores during the pandemic is just the tip of the iceberg. Floor-cleaning robots have been introduced in hospitals, supermarkets and schools. Fast-food restaurants are employing burger-grilling robots and chatbots. And delivery bots are being rolled out at an accelerated pace. As Anuja Sonalker, chief executive of Steer Tech, a tech company specialising in self-parking, ominously said last year: Humans are biohazards, machines are not.

With the realisation that machines are immune to viruses and social distancing, we have seen the return of an apocalyptic consensus: according to one recent prediction, as many as half of all work tasks are at risk of automation by 2025. Such gloomy forecasts conjure a world where robots do all the work and humans are consigned to historys dustbin.

Weve been here before. Throughout capitalist history, times of crisis have bred anxieties about robots stealing our jobs. After the 2008 financial crash, a series of studies pointed to an automation tsunami that would swallow as much as half of the worlds work in the coming decades. Although that much-prophesied dystopia has not yet arrived, a scenario less spectacular but equally grim is growing in its shadow: the rise of microwork. In short, microwork refers to the human jobs that involve nudging artificial intelligence in the right direction. Workers, mainly in the global south, sit at computers clicking on images that, for instance, show autonomous vehicles how to navigate city centres, facial recognition cameras how to spot emotions, and marketing software how to spot breeds of horse.

For a penny, you might pay for a person to tell you if there is a human in a photo, Jeff Bezos explained, at the public opening of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), the first and most infamous of such sites. Like other similar platforms, such as Clickworker, which match underemployed and jobless people with online piecework, Mechanical Turk operates on a simple premise. The platform hosts contractors, often large tech companies such as Twitter, who outsource short data tasks such as labelling images lasting a few seconds to a few minutes to workers with few labour rights or secure hours.

Such sites have seen a boom in users during the pandemic. At a time when many have lost their jobs and are stuck inside, work that only requires an internet connection and a laptop can offer a much-needed source of income. The platforms often present the work as the preserve of glamorous young freelancers. But hazy promises of the remote -work dream disguise a brutal reality. Many workers on these sites have few other options, or are otherwise excluded from the formal economy. They may reside in poor rural areas, prisons or refugee camps, and find microwork through non-governmental programmes that aim to Give Work, not Aid. A World Bank researcher in 2012 wrote of a situation where millions of tiny digital tasks generated thousands of jobs. But microwork is often so sporadic and poorly paid it can hardly be called a job. In 2018, formerly middle-class Venezuelans facing an increasingly desperate economic situation sat at laptops and annotated images of urban areas to train autonomous vehicles. Workers were paid by the task and, in some cases, made less than $30 a week.

In many respects, the work differs little from the survivalism of wage hunters and gatherers, who spend their days doing a dizzying range of odd jobs such as shoe-shining, selling tissues and picking litter. With jobs on microwork sites lasting as little as a few seconds, workers must continually hunt for work, and might be contracted by upwards of 50 requesters over the course of a day. Carved into tiny segments, the jobs are opaque, often surreal and sometimes humiliating. One task on Mechanical Turk allegedly asked workers or Turkers to post pictures of their feet for reasons unexplained.

Opacity, however, is no software glitch. By design, the platforms obscure operations and preclude worker organisation, promising contractors a dream scenario: all the work without the troubles associated with an actual workforce. Impenetrable rating systems, which permit contractors to reject bad tasks out of hand, only allow workers to contact and challenge the contractors, who are under no obligation to reply. Wage theft is thus all too common a report by the International Labour Organization found that on one major platform, about 15% of all tasks go unpaid.

In a statement, which has been edited for length, Amazon Web Services said, MTurk is a marketplace where requesters determine how much they are willing to pay a worker to complete a specific task. The amount of compensation workers receive depends on the price requesters set, the number of tasks workers complete, and the quality of their work. Most workers see MTurk as part-time work or a paid hobby, and they enjoy the flexibility to choose the tasks they want to work on and work as much or as little as they like. While the overall rate at which workers tasks are rejected is very low (less than 1%), they also have access to a number of metrics that can help them determine if they want to work on a task, including the requesters historical record of accepting tasks.

The freedoms many of us have enjoyed working from home during the pandemic are the flipside of new kinds of control and surveillance. Meetings on Teams and Zoom send data straight to Microsoft and Amazon. Militant bosses have made employees keep their webcams on to display their faces and keystrokes. Like the workers on microwork sites, our labour is increasingly captured as data to power artificial intelligence. How the data is then used remains a mystery. Maybe to directly show AI how to do our jobs; or perhaps to expose AI to data about the emotions we experience at work. One thing seems clear: increasingly the primary or secondary role of work is no longer just work, but to show robots how to do our jobs, even if this aspiration in many cases remains a far-flung fantasy.

But the picture is not wholly bleak. Just as these sites act as experimental labs for new forms of exploitation and control, they also generate new strategies of resistance. In lieu of union representation, workers resort to letter-writing campaigns to draw attention to their work, forums that challenge the platform, and browser plug-ins to spotlight unscrupulous contractors. Online forums become loose networks of support that offer advice and guidance to platform users. These tactics remain in their infancy. But as all our jobs are increasingly driven by the demands of big data, we will need similar tactics to wrestle back some control of our working lives as well as taking notice of those who make our digital lives so seemingly effortless.

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Big techs push for automation hides the grim reality of microwork - The Guardian

At the close, the Dow fell 267 points to 35,491, while the S&P 500 eased 23 points at 4,552 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was unchanged at 15,236

US stocks finished the day mixed as a few Big Tech financial results boosted the Nasdaq.

At the close, the Dow fell 267 points, or 0.7%, to 35,491, while the S&P 500 eased 23 points at 4,552 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was unchanged at 15,236.

Notable movers included shares of () and (), both of which climbed more than 4% on better-than-expected financial results.

US stocks were mixed midday Wednesday amid strong earnings.

However, strong results have been key to pushing the major averages to new highs. The S&P 500 has rallied more than 6% in October, on track for its best monthly performance since November 2020.

As of noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 103 points, or 0.29%, to 35,653. The S&P 500 was near flat line, up 0.46 points to 4,574.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 86 points, or 0.53%, to stand at 15,321.

Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at online trading group IG, called US stocks an outlier'' on continuing earnings strength.

US tech stocks are the one outlier to an otherwise downbeat day in Europe and the US, with gains across Microsoft, Alphabet, and Tesla helping to keep the Nasdaq in positive territory, he said. This highlights the importance of Q3 earnings season as a driver of market upside thus far, with 83% of those S&P 500 names that have reported seeing better-than-expected earnings. Interestingly, the tech sector has been a significant outperformer, with 93% of the 30 reporting tech stocks beating market estimates.

The biggest gainer on the day so far is (), up 28% to $49.13a share.

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US stocks started mixed on Wednesday with the Nasdaq climbing but the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500 heading lower as earnings season continues.

It comes after the DJIA and S&P closed at record highs on Tuesday.

In early deals in New York Wednesday, the Dow Jones slipped almost 53 points at 35,703.

The broader-based S&P 500 lost around six points at 4,568. The tech-laden Nasdaq added over 28 points at 15,264 amid the slew of more big tech earnings.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones gained around 15 points to end the day at an all-time high - the third straight day of gains, while the S&P gained 0.18% for its ninth positive session in the last ten.

US stocks are expected to open slightly lower after major indices closed at new records on Tuesdaysupported by continuing strong earnings from the likes of () and UPS as the third-quarter reporting season progresses.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined 0.04% in Wednesday pre-market trading, while contracts for the broader S&P 500 index shed 0.09% and those for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 retreated 0.15%.

Nearly 30% of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings and more than 80% of them have beaten Wall Street expectations. And S&P 500 companies are expected to grow profits by more than 35% in the third quarter.

The Dow ended Tuesday trading 16 points higher at 35,757, while the S&P rose 8points to 4,575 points and the Nasdaq added 9 points to close at 15,236.

Ahead of some major post-close earnings reports from the tech sector, the S&P 500 eked out a further 0.2% gain yesterday to close at a new record high, commentedDaiwaCapital Markets analystEmily Nicol.

Post-close earnings reports from tech giants Microsoft, Alphabet and Twitter appear to have broadly accorded with investor expectations and so US equity futures are presently little changed and UST (US Treasury)yields only fractionally higher.However, sentiment has soured somewhat in Asian markets, with most of the key bourses in the red today, she added.

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US stocks end mixed as Big Tech continues to shine - Proactive Investors USA & Canada

It has been troubling times for the country's biggest tech companies. Apple and Microsoft are scaling back production amid the global chip...

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It has been troubling times for the country's biggest tech companies. Apple and Microsoft are scaling back production amid the global chip shortage. The House Judiciary Committee is wondering aloud if Amazon executives lied to Congress while under oath. Dozens of state attorney generals are pursuing Google on antitrust grounds. Facebook faces a brand new existential crisis seemingly every other day.

And now, trust on Wall Street is waning.

The tech giants were riding high during much of the pandemic. On the surface, things appear to be going smoothly: Bloomberg Intelligence projects the cohort of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft collectively known as FAAMG to report combined profits of $67 billion in the third quarter, a 30% year-over-year increase roughly in-line with growth of the S&P 500. But as growth slows, optimism is diminishing.

According to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s prime broker, hedge fund exposure to the big five tech companies is now at a two-year low, andi it isn't hard to see why:

Interest-ing Factor: Interest rates are rising, which means smaller companies will suffer, right? Not so, says a new study being circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Lower interest rates helped the big five grow much faster than smaller firms, while high rates may see a competitive rebalancing, the study shows yet another reason for hedge fund caution.

Oh, Snap!: Snap, the plucky little sibling of FAAMG stocks, reported a revenue miss in its third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, placing the blame on new iOS privacy changes that are disrupting the digital ad agencies. The bad news for Snap was a warning sign for Facebook and Google and sparked a sell-off in both ad-dependent firms.

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Hedge Fund's Confidence In Five Big Tech Companies Sinks To Multi-Year Low - The Motley Fool

Four years ago, in a pioneering diplomatic move, the government of Denmark appointed the worlds-first Tech Ambassador to Silicon Valley in attempt to improve relations with the tech industry and seek to more effectively regulate big tech.

Many commentators have raised the alarm on the power of global big tech corporations such as Amazon,Google,and Facebook.Amazon, for example, has a market cap of $1.7 trillion, which is larger than the GDP of tech savvy South Korea.

Casper Klynge, the first ever Danish Tech Ambassador to Silicon Valley, agrees. Speaking to the Danish diplomatic corps in 2017, he remarkedWhat has the biggest impact on daily society? A country in southern Europe, or in Southeast Asia, or Latin America, or would it be the big technology platforms?

Unsurprisingly,four years on from the Tech Ambassadors appointment,Denmarkhas not been able to regulate big tech in the ways itmighthave liked. But neither has any other country around the world. Denmark has, however, improved the countrys tech capabilities and investments with the help of a promotional campaignthat included the Tech Ambassador. Furthermore, for a country of its size, Denmark has had a positively disproportionate role in regional and global discussions on how to better regulate big tech.

According to official documents, the Tech Ambassadors role focuses ondemocracy, security andresponsibletech development.But has this change made any tangible differences to Denmarks relationshipwith tech?

Although it is difficult to draw a causal link, data fromGlobalDatasDisruptor platform shows that Denmarks deal volume and deal value has increased in the Tech,Media,and Telecoms sector between 2017-2020 coinciding with Denmarks TechAmbassadors first term.

Furthermore, jobs in the Tech industry have increased significantly in the last two years, signalling increased investment in the sector.

Denmark has positioned itself front-and-center in EU leadership when it comes to tech regulation for the benefit of its citizens. The country has partnered with France to promote a Declaration on a European Vision for the Digital Age,a commitment to work together and a set of policy recommendations which would, if adopted, commit the bloc to a democratic and human rights-based approach to technology. Additionally, Denmark has consistently raised concerns regarding the human rights implications of new tech, such as misinformation, to the UN Human Rights Council and, along with Australia, has launched an annual Cyber and Tech Retreat attended by over 20 countries.

Domestically, 30 of Denmarks media companies joined forces in June to negotiate a remuneration for use of their online content by Google and Facebook. These negotiations, however, could take years to finalize, but the shift in power and impetus is notable.

Denmarks Tech Ambassador has also penned a White Papertitled Towards a better social contract with big tech which argues in favor of safeguarding democracy,protecting young people, andtax compliance, to name a few.

However, many of these demands are far from being met. This month, with theCongressional testimony ofFacebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen, we saw that Facebook neglects vulnerable young users and fails to do enough to protect democracy.Furthermore, Facebooks 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal led to 2.7 million EU citizens having their data improperly shared. Simultaneously, Amazon and Google continue to avoid paying their fair share of taxes across the EU.

But mostimportantly, Denmark hasunderstood the pervasive impact of big tech on its citizenry andhas taken a leading role in global tech regulation. Denmark has proven itself to be both creative and committed when it comes to dealing with big tech, ifmore countries followed suit, big tech would certainly become more accountable to those that it serves around the world.Related Report Download the full report from GlobalData's Report StoreGet the Report

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The art of techplomacy: How Denmark deals with Big Tech - Verdict

(The Center Square) Lawmakers need to rethink their strategy to regulate Big Tech as calls for increased oversight grow louder, according to a small business advocacy group.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro recently penned aletterto Congress urging them to establish responsible oversight of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter.

The letter was filed in response to a recent Facebook whistleblower about the companys internal actions. In the letter, the attorneys general argued that the social media platforms have a unique ability to harm both the mental health of youth and the stability of our democratic institutions.

Jake Ward, president of the Connected Commerce Council, a group that says it seeks to promote small businesses access to essential digital technologies and tools,told The Center Square in an interview that the need for more oversight shouldnt outweigh the needs of small businesses who rely on social media platforms for their operations.

For example, Ward pointed to a recently introducedbillin the U.S. House of Representatives that would restrict the use of targeted ads, which Ward said are often cheaper for small businesses to buy than traditional ads.

A lot of small businesses rely on these algorithms to run their daily operations, so changing them could be detrimental especially at a time when many businesses are still trying to recover from the pandemic, Ward said.

Another billintroducedlast week by U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa,seeks to prevent companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google from using their marketplace to stifle competition.

Ward described the bill as a way to punish companies for giving their customers what they want when they want it.

I think its important to remember that no small businesses asked for these increased regulations, Ward said. Its just been big companies like Oracle and other internet service providers who can pay the cost of abiding by the new laws. Its a tilted playing field.

By Robert Davis | The Center Square contributor

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Small business advocacy group asks lawmakers to rethink Big Tech regulation strategy - The Georgia Virtue

Tesla is driving up the S&P 500 indexs exposure to disruptive technology, with Big Tech helping to lift the U.S. stock-market benchmark to new peaks this month.

The S&P 500s technology sector plus Google parent Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon.com and Tesla add up to 40% of the market-capitalization-weighted index, according to a DataTrek Research note Wednesday. No other broad market index around the world has a 24 percent weight to its top 6 names, which also include Apple AAPL, -0.31% and Microsoft MSFT, +4.21%, the note shows.

Weve halfway joked since starting DataTrek that Tech would eventually be 50 percent of the S&P 500 but thought that was maybe a 2030 event, said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek, in the note. The way things are going, it will come long before that.

Teslas market value rose to more than $1 trillion this week as shares of the electric-vehicle company rallied to a record high after Hertz Global Holdings announced plans to order its cars. Tesla, co-founded by its chief executive officer Elon Musk, joined the S&P 500 in December.

The S&P 500 SPX, -0.51% closed at another new peak Tuesday and was trading about 0.1% higher Wednesday afternoon, according to FactSet data. Shares of Tesla TSLA, +1.91% were up almost 2% in afternoon trading, bringing the electric-car companys gains to around 34% in October and about 47% so far this year, the data show, at last check.

Teslas rally is making the S&P 500 even more of a concentrated bet on disruptive technology, Colas wrote, pegging it at 2.1% of the index. Tesla is now solidly in must watch territory along with the rest of U.S. Big Tech for its potential impact on day to day moves in the S&P 500.

See: Microsoft earnings top $20 billion in a quarter for first time, stock heads toward record high

Information technology SP500.45, -0.19%, communication services and consumer discretionary were the only sectors in the S&P 500 trading up Wednesday afternoon, according to FactSet data. Tesla and Amazon are part of the indexs consumer discretionary sector SP500.25, +0.24%, while Google and Facebook FB, -1.14% fall within communication services in the S&P 500, the DataTrek note shows.

The S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector XLY, +0.22% can longer be used as a proxy for U.S. consumer spending, according to DataTrek.

Thats because Amazon AMZN, +0.49% and Tesla are 20 percent and 19 percent of the index each, or 39 percent together, Colas wrote. The names you associate with this group, like Home Depot (9 percent weight) and McDonalds (4 pct), dont have much influence.

While the S&P 500s heavy exposure Big Tech puts it at risk of a sizeable correction, DataTrek said wed far rather own the S&P 500 than Europe or Japan or even China for the long term, simply because you need to own as much disruptive technology as you can bear to earn a decent return on investment capital.

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Tesla drives up S&P 500s disruptive tech exposure as the index rides to record highs in October - MarketWatch

"It just continues to add momentum, that people expect Congress to do something about this, that we can no longer just ignore it," said Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust laws. "Every day, these stories are adding to the urgency of getting this done. And yes, I think it's finally going to happen in this Congress."

Yet it's still unclear whether anger will actually translate into action on Capitol Hill, where reforms have so far remained elusive and partisan divides remain over what Congress' oversight role should look like. Republicans are more concerned over the alleged censorship of conservative voices and privacy issues, whereas Democrats are focused on tackling the spread of disinformation and hate speech online. If the debate is centered on the thorny issue of policing free speech or narrowly focused on January 6, some fear that reform efforts could turn off Republicans and ultimately stall out.

Meanwhile, Facebook -- which is one of the top political spenders in Washington -- is already beginning to mount a vigorous defense as it faces perhaps its biggest crisis in the company's 17-year history. Any effort to target their algorithms would impact a core part of their business model, posing a major potential threat to their bottom line.

"With enormous economic power very often comes enormous political power, and they are spending millions and millions of dollars flooding this town with lobbyists and campaign contributions, doing everything they can to stop these reforms," Cicilline said. "This is the reason that battles against monopolies are hard."

'The time for self-regulation is over'

Still, longtime proponents of curbing the tech industry's power feel optimistic that the tides are finally turning in their favor, and are vowing to push for legislation that would stop online platforms from amplifying content that promotes conspiracy theories, incites extremism or harms young people.

There are several Section 230 bills being kicked around on Capitol Hill, but one measure introduced this month by Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would remove absolute immunity if platforms use personalized algorithms to knowingly or recklessly recommend content and it ends up causing physical or emotional harm.

Instead of focusing on policing user-generated content -- a far more politically fraught debate -- this legislation would target how companies recommend content to its users.

"There is growing consensus that the time for self-regulation is over, and my Justice Against Malicious Algorithms Act answers that call," Pallone, an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement to CNN. "Designing personalized algorithms that promote harmful content is a conscious choice, and platforms should have to answer for it."

The measure, however, currently has no Republican co-sponsors, meaning even if it passes the House, it would face an uphill climb in the 50-50 Senate, where legislation requires 60 votes to break a filibuster.

Members of the GOP have introduced their own proposals taking aim at the legal shield that protects tech titans, but their efforts are more focused on ensuring platforms don't police content based on a user's viewpoints or political affiliations.

A draft discussion bill from Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would require companies to be more transparent about their content moderation decisions.

"The Facebook Papers reports illustrate that Big Tech and Legacy Media companies are not just hysterically anti-conservative -- they are against any idea that doesn't fit their narrative," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said in a statement Monday. "What they are doing is a particularly dangerous practice of misinformation."

There does appear to be more bipartisan support for efforts to protect kids' mental health. The draft legislation from Jordan and McMorris Rodgers would also require Big Tech companies to disclose the mental health impacts of their products on children and require a study on whether warning labels are warranted on social media.

And Sens. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, have previously teamed up on legislation to remove legal protections for online companies that share child pornography.

Blumenthal, chairman of a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation subcommittee, has also hosted a series of hearings designed to shed light on the potential harms of social media companies on children. Another hearing is scheduled for Tuesday featuring Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.

"Facebook is obviously unable to police itself as its powerful algorithms drive deeply harmful content to children and fuel hate," Blumenthal said in a statement. "This resoundingly adds to the drumbeat of calls for reform, rules to protect teens, and real transparency and accountability from Facebook and its Big Tech peers."

Antitrust legislation and beyond

Lawmakers believe another way to attack the problem is to restore competition in the marketplace. The House Judiciary Committee passed a package of antitrust bills this summer with the support of several Republicans, following the panel's 16-month investigation into competition in the digital marketplace. But the measures have yet to receive a floor vote in the House.

Cicilline, however, said he expects the bills to be considered by the full House before the end of this year. He also said the Democratic Caucus was planning to host a dinner meeting Monday evening with Tim Wu, the special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy, to discuss competition policy more broadly.

And Sens. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, and Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, also recently introduced a Senate companion to one of the antitrust measures, in another sign of potential movement.

But some Republicans are skeptical. They think Democrats are just using the new explosive whistleblower allegations about Facebook as an excuse to push their longtime priorities, arguing those bills aren't the best way to tackle the issue.

Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower who testified before Congress this month, has advocated for a government backed regulatory agency to scrutinize business practices and come up with regulations. She also encouraged lawmakers to focus on targeting algorithms, which companies have control over, as opposed to user content.

"Modifying 230 around content is very complicated, because user-generated is something that companies have less control over," she said. "They have 100% control over their algorithms. And Facebook should not get a free pass on choices it makes to prioritize growth and virality and reactiveness over public safety."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off Facebook's quarterly earnings call by addressing the latest wave of coverage on Monday.

"Good-faith criticism helps us get better, but my view is that we are seeing a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company," he said. "The reality is that we have an open culture that encourages discussion and research on our work so we can make progress on many complex issues that are not specific just to us."

The select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection is also looking into Facebook's role and is in talks with the company and other tech platforms "to get certain information."

"At this point, Facebook is working with us to provide the necessary information we requested," Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot, told CBS' "Face the Nation."

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Facebook revelations add new momentum to efforts to rein in Big Tech - Henry Herald

Grand Valley State Universitys Hauenstein Center hosted an event on Thursday night titled Does Big Tech Equal Big Problems? featuring guest speakers Carl Szabo and Josh Hammer. The discussion was attended by around 80 students, faculty, staff, and other members of the Grand Rapids community in person and virtually.

Guest speakers Szabo and Hammer were chosen because they are two of the leading voices on big tech policy in America. Szabo is Vice President and General Counsel for NetChoice, which is a prominent lobbying firm for several big tech companies. Hammer, on the other hand, is Opinion Editor at Newsweek and Counsel and Policy Advisor at the Internet Accountability Project.

Topics discussed at the event include how tech companies dominate the online market, laws associated with big tech policies and how the publics perception of tech companies has changed since misinformation issues plagued the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

Jakob Bigard, Program Manager for the Common Ground Initiative at the Hauenstein Center, said that the discussion topics were chosen because of the many positives and negatives technology has shown over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So many developments in the world of technology have allowed us to stay connected and interact, Zoom being a prime example for personal and professional opportunities to stay connected, Bigard said. Though at the same time, weve seen many of the shortcomings of technology and social media companies through the mis/disinformation of the pandemic and 2020 election, which further polarizes Americans and enhances tribalistic sentiment and echo chambers.

Although Szabo and Hammer are both politically conservative, their views on big tech policy couldnt be more different. Szabo and NetChoice are on the side of tech companies, and Szabo is the lawyer who defends NetChoice member organizations like Facebook, Twitter and Google. Hammer has been very critical of tech companies in his writing, on social media and at speaking events, and has pushed for more government intervention regarding what tech companies are allowed to censor online.

Before the discussion, students and other attendees could participate in a lunch event and a networking reception. These are opportunities for students to make valuable connections and gain valuable insights by talking with speakers and other members of the Hauenstein Center team.

Before this event, I wasnt familiar with the differing perspectives on big tech policy, and with my major being advertising and public relations, I want to be knowledgeable about both sides of the debate going forward, said fourth-year student MacKenzie Payton. I also attended the networking reception and that was a great networking opportunity for everyone involved.

Despite the potentially controversial subject matter, the discussion progressed smoothly throughout its roughly two-hour runtime. Bigard was pleased with how everything played out.

Last night went really well, we had a first-time partnership with the Acton Institute, Bigard said. This provided us the opportunity to tap into a new segment of the population in the Grand Rapids community.

The event was streamed on YouTube and Zoom for online attendees. A recording was posted on the Hauenstein Centers YouTube channel.

Next month, the Hauenstein Center will be celebrating Veterans Day in partnership with the Veterans Resource Center and Office of The President by featuring First Sergeant Matt Eversmann who was immortalized in the film Black Hawk Down. In December, author and historian H.W. Brands will return to GVSU to present his forthcoming book, Our First Civil War.

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Hauenstein Center hosts discussion event on big tech - Grand Valley Lanthorn

U.S. stocks climbed to record levels on Tuesday as major corporations continued to turn in solid quarterly results, but major averages closed off their highs of the day with some major tech names rolling over.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 15.73 points to close at another record high of 35,756.88. At one point, the 30-stock Dow climbed about 150 points to hit an all-time high. The S&P 500 rose nearly 0.2%, hitting a fresh record as well at 4,574.79. The Nasdaq Composite rose less than 0.1% to 15,235.71.

An intraday reversal in shares of Facebook weighed on major averages at midday. After trading flat to higher to start the session, Facebook shares dropped more than 5% at the session low and closed 3.9% lower. The company topped analysts' earnings expectations but missed estimates for revenue and monthly active users.

Tesla erased earlier gains and fell 0.6% Tuesday after the electric vehicle company soared more than 12% in the previous session to reach a $1 trillion market cap for the first time.

United Parcel Service saw its shares jump 6.9% after the shipping firm posted strong beats on profit and revenue across all business segments. Dow component 3M dipped 0.1% despite beating expectations on the top and bottom lines.

General Electric rose 2% after the company issued an upward revision to its full-year earnings forecast while reporting higher than expected third-quarter profit.

Nearly 30% S&P 500 companied have reportedearnings and more than 80% of them beat Wall Street expectations, according to CNBC calculations. S&P 500 companies are expected to grow profit by about 35.6% in the third quarter.

"Risk appetite remains on the table for U.S. equities," said Craig Johnson, Piper Sandler's chief market technician."Corporate earnings have been the key catalyst behind the recent record-high rally as robust demand continues to offset well-known supply constraints and pricing pressures."

Technology darlings Alphabet and Microsoft traded higher heading into their earnings reports after the bell Tuesday. Microsoft bulls are expecting a strong quarter for the tech giant, bolstered by its key Azure business. Analysts are expecting Alphabet earnings to come in 43% higher year over year.

Twitter, Advanced Micro Devices and Robinhood also report quarterly earnings after the bell on Tuesday.

"Earnings season is off to another great start, but now the big test is will the big tech names step up? With stocks at all-time highs, the bar is indeed quite high and tech will need to impress to help justify stocks at current levels," said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist atLPLFinancial.

On the data front, U.S. consumer confidence rose in October, reversing a three-month downward trend, according to the Conference Board. Its consumer confidence index climbed to a reading of 113.8, topping a Dow Jones expectation of 108 and up from 109.8 in September.

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Dow rises for a third straight day to eke out another record on the back of strong earnings - CNBC

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., is urging Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to oppose immigration provisions in the proposed budget reconciliation bill that would make hundreds of thousands more employment-based green cards available - provisions Hagerty calls "the crown jewel of corporate lobbying."

In a letter to the Vermont senator, Hagerty notes that Sanders has spent much of his career as an "outspoken critic of large-scale migration that displaces American workers" and noted comments in 2007 in which Sanders said that the U.S. should not bring "millions of people into this country who are prepared to lower wages for Americans workers."

MENENDEZ OUTLINES PLAN C AMNESTY PUSH FOR MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN DEMOCRAT RECONCILIATION BILL

"For most of your career, you have been an outspoken critic of large-scale migration that displaces American workers - especially corporate-driven immigration policies - citing the substantial harm they inflict upon American job opportunities, wages, and employment conditions."

Hagerty points to provisions in the House version of the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act - which Democrats are seeking to get through the Senate via the budget reconciliation process - including language that would "recapture" employment-based green cards.

"Entirely separate from the controversial provisions in the House bill providing legal status to illegal immigrants, the bill includes several provisions that effectively terminate, for at least 10 years, all numerical limits on the annual allotment of green cards," he writes. "Of particular concern is the elimination of statutory caps on the entry of foreign workers employed by many of Americas largest and most powerful corporations."

The language, would allow "unused visas" - or the difference between the visa cap and the visas actually allotted - to be "recaptured" and re-used. This provision would recapture visas all the back to 1992. This would make hundreds of thousands of green cards - which grant permanent residency - available for use. Proponents argue that it is simply using visas that had been authorized by Congress but never actually assigned.

Hagerty notes that the green cards would greatly benefit those in the tech sector, and that such provisions have been backed by tech giants in Silicon Valley like Facebook and Microsoft, calling them "the crown jewel of corporate lobbying."

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: IT'S TIME TO PROTECT WORKING FAMILIES THROUGH $3.5 TRILLION BUDGET RECONCILIATION BILL

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on how 80,000 green cards were set to expire at the end of Fiscal Year 2021 alone, and reporting how Silicon Valley giants have made changing green card processing a priority -- and are feeling pressure from their employees.

Recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling on the Biden administration to "explore every legal avenue to preserve or recapture visa numbers that expire."

FWD.us, a Silicon Valley-based non-profit founded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has also called for provisions allowing for the recapturing of green cards.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: BIDEN'S $3.5T PLAN TO HELP WORKING FAMILIES DEPENDS ON DEMOCRATIC UNITY

However, immigration hawks have argued that the lobbying for more employment visas more generally is used by corporations to bring in cheap foreign labor and keep wages stagnant.

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"Despite our disagreements on a number of policy issues, I cannot imagine that, based on your careers work, you could countenance the provision contained in the House bill, which amounts to an enormous corporate-special-interest giveaway," Hagerty writes. Sanders' office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News.

The letter from Hagerty to Sanders comes just as Democrats have been outlining their latest effort to include legal status for an estimated 8 million illegal immigrants after prior efforts were shot down by the Senate parliamentarian.

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Hagerty urges Sanders to oppose immigration provisions backed by Big Tech in Dem spending bill - Fox News