2022-02-03
The Facebook transition to the metaverse not going so well: https://www.cnbc.com/...
CNBC
Meta beats with Q4 revenue of $33.67B vs. $33.4B est., up 20% YoY, 2.91B MAUs, up 4% YoY, but misses with EPS of $3.67 vs. $3.84 est.; stock down 20%+
- Facebook earnings came in below expectations for the fourth quarter, and the company said numerous challenges are ahead in the first quarter.
“Facebook showed for the first time on Wednesday how much of a money losing proposition its investment in virtual and augmented reality hardware is — the suite of products the company dubs the metaverse.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Washington Post
Meta reports its first-ever sequential decline in global Facebook daily active users, falling from 1.930B to 1.929B QoQ
Facebook parent Meta's stock nosedives in after-hour trading as the company refocuses on the metaverse. — Facebook parent Meta's quarterly earnings report …
“Facebook showed for the first time on Wednesday how much of a money losing proposition its investment in virtual and augmented reality hardware is — the suite of products the company dubs the metaverse.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
CNBC
Meta beats with Q4 revenue of $33.67B vs. $33.4B est., up 20% YoY, 2.91B MAUs, up 4% YoY, but misses with EPS of $3.67 vs. $3.84 est.; stock down 20%+
- Facebook earnings came in below expectations for the fourth quarter, and the company said numerous challenges are ahead in the first quarter.
2021-11-17
“Ms. Khan, whose early professional career has included stints as a professor and a congressional staffer, is leading an agency of more than 1,100 people...” https://www.wsj.com/...
Wall Street Journal
Sources: Republican FTC commissioners and some career officials feel excluded under the current leadership; Lina Khan rejected the claims in an agency-wide memo
Criticized by Republicans, Khan tells agency staffers she aims to build bridges going forward Tweets: @wsj , @hotlinejosh , @karlbode , @brkend , and @sidhubaba Tweets: @wsj : Lina...
2021-10-12
“Although it is tempting to believe that foreign bogeymen are sowing discord, the reality is far simpler and more tragic: Outrage generates engagement, which algorithmically begets more engagement” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
The Atlantic
How influencer-organized campaigns are succeeding at “ampliganda”, shaping public perception via messaging that is amplified by social networks' algorithms
“Understanding the incentives of influencers, recognizing the very common rhetorical techniques that precipitate outrage, developing an awareness of how online crowds now participate in crystallizing public opinion—that is an education that Americans need” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
The Atlantic
How influencer-organized campaigns are succeeding at “ampliganda”, shaping public perception via messaging that is amplified by social networks' algorithms
“Trust has been reallocated from authority figures and legacy media to charismatic individuals adept at appealing to the aspects of personal or ideological identity that their audiences hold most dear.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
The Atlantic
How influencer-organized campaigns are succeeding at “ampliganda”, shaping public perception via messaging that is amplified by social networks' algorithms
“The public has become an active participant in creating and amplifying narratives that shape realities...the best word for this emergent bottom-up dynamic is one that doesn't exist quite yet: ampliganda, the shaping of perception through amplification.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
The Atlantic
How influencer-organized campaigns are succeeding at “ampliganda”, shaping public perception via messaging that is amplified by social networks' algorithms
2021-10-01
Wake up and smell the coffee. The influence that Communist China is holding over American corporations is only deepening. https://twitter.com/...
Axios
LinkedIn blocks the profiles of several US journalists on its Chinese platform, citing “prohibited content” without specifying what it was
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian / Axios :
2021-08-16
“Agre foresaw the authoritarian misuse of facial recognition technology, predicted our inability to resist well-crafted disinformation and foretold that artificial intelligence would be put to dark uses if not subjected to moral and philosophical inquiry” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Washington Post
Profile of Philip Agre, a computer scientist turned humanities professor, whose work is considered foundational in studying the effects of technology on society
2021-08-15
“Agre foresaw the authoritarian misuse of facial recognition technology, predicted our inability to resist well-crafted disinformation and foretold that artificial intelligence would be put to dark uses if not subjected to moral and philosophical inquiry” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Washington Post
Profile of Philip Agre, a computer scientist turned humanities professor, whose work is considered foundational in studying the effects of technology on society
Philip Agre, a computer scientist turned humanities professor, was prescient about many of the ways technology would impact the world Tweets: @ibishblog , @mireillemoret , @jennabu...
2021-05-28
“The outlets that fared worst were those like the Guardian, Slate, and Vox, which embraced a ‘moral clarity’ ethos of forgoing traditional journalistic norms of restraint and objectivity in favor of calling out lies and bigotry.” https://nymag.com/...
Politico
Facebook says it will no longer take down posts that claim COVID-19 was man-made, following renewed debate about the origins of the virus
Cristiano Lima / Politico :
2021-05-10
“Tech hubs had steeper declines and slower recoveries in job postings on Indeed during the pandemic than other places. But that's not because tech jobs dispersed. Rather, tech hubs lost other jobs because larger shares of their residents worked from home” https://www.hiringlab.org/...
Indeed Hiring Lab
During the pandemic, tech job postings remained concentrated in tech hubs, and those in tech hubs were less likely to mention remote work than elsewhere
Jed Kolko / Indeed Hiring Lab : Tweets: @jedkolko , @jedkolko , @jedkolko , and @hotlinejosh Tweets: Jed Kolko / @jedkolko : Tech hubs lagged other metros in retail, childcare, fo...
2021-04-26
“Facebook's usual critics have been strikingly silent as the company has extended its purview over speech into day-to-day editorial calls.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
New York Times
Facebook says it has a policy letting any person initiate a takedown of a post containing an image of their residence, regardless of the post's newsworthiness
just very bad ones.” Pretty accurate! To be fair, people WANT Facebook to exercise judgment, except when they DON'T want Facebook to exercise judgment. Doing nothing is also judgme...
2020-12-23
“When engagement is the holy metric, trustworthiness doesn't matter. What matters more than anything else is whether or not the user is stirred. The content and behaviors that keep people coming back - the rage-clicks - help sustain giant businesses.” https://blog.substack.com/...
Substack Blog
Explaining its content moderation policy, Substack says it will “resist public pressure to suppress voices that loud objectors deem unacceptable”
Building a system that puts readers and writers in charge — As Substack grows, there is increasing interest in the stance we take on content moderation.
2020-12-07
Paging the Lincoln Project. https://twitter.com/...
New York Times
How Biden's digital campaign, largely focused on positive, authentic messaging and “Facebook moms”, defeated Trump's “Death Star” digital operation
slick-looking 30-second spots—were far less effective than ads that featured regular voters talking directly into their smartphones about why they were voting for Mr. Biden.” https...
2020-11-26
“Facebook created a town hall for fighting. It's almost like if you were building a machine to make a country divisive and extreme — if you were to sit down and plan what that would look like — it would be this.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
New York Times
An inside look at Facebook News Feeds of two baby boomers for three weeks around Election Day showed that comments were a primary source of debunked claims
2020-09-24
This is one of the few Facebook stories I've seen in a while that make Zuckerberg/Sandberg look good. https://www.theverge.com/...
The Verge
Leaked audio recordings and internal posts show Mark Zuckerberg's balancing act, as employees demand a harder line against Trump but users want the opposite
2020-08-19
“The threatened bans on TikTok and WeChat, whatever their motivations, can also be seen as an overdue response, a tit for tat, in a long battle for the soul of the internet.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Wall Street Journal
Trump expresses support for Oracle's TikTok bid, calling Larry Ellison “a tremendous guy” and Oracle “a great company”; Ellison has held a fundraiser for Trump
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is Trump supporter, hosted fundraiser for the president
“The threatened bans on TikTok and WeChat, whatever their motivations, can also be seen as an overdue response, a tit for tat, in a long battle for the soul of the internet.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
New York Times
A ban on TikTok is overdue as the US confronts China's asymmetrical “net nationalism” and fights for the future of the open internet
the open internet — should be extended only to companies from countries that respect that openness themselves.” Best summary yet on TikTok: https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytopinion ...