Jan 19, 2019

Big Tech infighting — again

Illustration: Lazaro Gamio/Axios

As we've chronicled before, Big Tech is at war with itself. Now, Microsoft is pitted against Amazon on their home turf.

Driving the news: Microsoft announced that it would commit $500 million to building affordable housing in Seattle. In doing so, it showed up its neighbor Amazon, which fought publicly and bitterly with the city of Seattle over a per-employee "homelessness tax." Microsoft has grabbed all the kudos in Seattle, even though Amazon is involved in a slew of charities itself.

The infighting is even more pronounced in Silicon Valley, where Salesforce is battling Twitter, while Apple is going after Facebook and Google.

  • During the last election cycle, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey bickered over San Francisco's homelessness problem, with Benioff supporting a "homelessness tax" on tech companies, and Dorsey opposing it.
  • And Apple CEO Tim Cook is charging forward against Facebook and Google — and calling for privacy regulation. Apple won the "2018 award for pouring salt in wounds of competitors," NYU's Scott Galloway says.

Go deeper: How the "big tech" colossus is splitting

Go deeper

Podcast: Trump vs. Twitter ... vs. Trump

Twitter came under fire on Tuesday for allowing President Trump to tweet conspiracy theories about Joe Scarborough and the 2001 death of one of his staffers, despite the objections of the staffer's family. The company came under further fire from Trump himself for fact-checking two of his tweets about mail-in voting.

Dan and the New York Times' Kara Swisher dig into Trump’s use of the platform and Twitter’s steps — and missteps — in handling it.

Go deeper: Trump has turned Big Tech's speech rules into a political football

7 mins ago - Technology

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 11:30 a.m. ET: 5,618,829 — Total deaths: 351,146 — Total recoveries — 2,311,404 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 11:30 a.m. ET: 1,681,793 — Total deaths: 98,933 — Total recoveries: 384,902 — Total tested: 14,907,041 — Map.
  3. Public health: Fauci says data is "really quite evident" against hydroxychloroquine — Nearly half of Americans say someone in their household has delayed medical care.
  4. Tech: Zipline drones deliver masks to hospitals; vaccines could be next
  5. Business: Boeing to lay off 6,770 more U.S. employees.
  6. 🏒Sports: NHL unveils 24-team playoff plan to return from hiatus.
  7. What should I do? When you can be around others after contracting the coronavirus — Traveling, asthma, dishes, disinfectants and being contagious — Masks, lending books and self-isolating — Exercise, laundry, what counts as soap — Pets, moving and personal health — Answers about the virus from Axios experts — What to know about social distancing — How to minimize your risk.
  8. Other resources: CDC on how to avoid the virus, what to do if you get it, the right mask to wear.

Subscribe to Mike Allen's Axios AM to follow our coronavirus coverage each morning from your inbox.

Updated 11 mins ago - Politics & Policy

U.S. coronavirus updates

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Map: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios. This graphic includes "probable deaths" that New York City began reporting on April 14.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Wednesday the city will start to lift coronavirus restrictions on May 29 after seeing a 14-day decline in community spread of the virus. The city’s current stay-at-home and business closure orders were set to run through June 8.

By the numbers: More than 98,900 people have died from the novel coronavirus and over 1.6 million have tested positive in the U.S. Over 384,900 Americans have recovered and more than 14.9 million tests have been conducted.

Go deeper (2 min. read)ArrowUpdated 17 mins ago - Health