Axios

A federal judge has denied Uber's attempt to use a key argument to explain why a former employee downloaded files prior to leaving his job at Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car unit.

What's next: Uber still has to show that it didn't know about Levandowski's alleged downloading of Waymo files (at least until this meeting in March), and that it was not as part of a plan to steal Waymo's technology. The case is set to go to jury trial in October.

"We had hoped that the jury and the public could hear the reasons Levandowski gave for his downloading files, which had nothing to do with Uber," Uber said in a statement. "The fact remains, and will be demonstrated at trial, that none of those files came to Uber."

Google plans to formally launch Android O just after next Monday's solar eclipse. A livestream is scheduled for 2:40 p.m. ET on Aug. 21.

"Android O is touching down to Earth with the total solar eclipse, bringing some super (sweet) new powers," Google said on an eclipse-themed teaser site. The software, which has been in testing for months, aims to improve battery life and add picture-in-picture multitasking on phones.

The creamy middle: Eagle-eyed enthusiasts noted that one of the accompanying files to a Google+ post had Oreo teaser in the file name, so that could well be the dessert-themed name for O.

The bottom line: Of course, what really matters is when the new software starts to show up on phones. Expect existing Google devices like the Pixel to be the first to get the update. As for new devices, the next Pixel will almost certainly be running O. And Samsung is due to debut the next Galaxy Note on Wednesday. It's either going to be one of the last flagship devices running Nougat or one of the first to pack Android O

We reported this morning on the mounting pressure on major web platforms over their role in moderating content. A conservative activist named Phil Kerpen circulated a confidential memo earlier this year on the mechanics and politics of how to regulate the political neutrality of major web companies like Google and Facebook. Find the full text below.

Why it matters: Moves to turn these ideas into concrete policy or regulation haven't happened. But the memo is certainly getting attention, especially as major web platforms try to walk the fraught line of removing extremist content while also maintaining an open platform for free speech in the wake of the Charlottesville attack.

Worth noting: "The unpublished draft memo represents preliminary thoughts on complex issues," Kerpen said when contacted by Axios.

Shares of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce and mobile pay company, are up 85% this year, catapulting it alongside the big U.S.-based tech icons as a global juggernaut.

• Led by its charismatic founder, Jack Ma, Alibaba is now worth $392 billion, moving up on Amazon, whose market value is about $475 billion and share price is up about 27% this year. Alibaba shares rose 2.7% on Thursday alone.
• It's not quite Amazon: Alibaba commands an estimated three-quarters of on-line sales in China, but its $7.4 billion in second-quarter revenue was dwarfed by Amazon, which reported $38 billion, five times as much.
• But why it still matters: Alibaba's quarterly revenue, reported Thursday, was up 56%, and profit increased by 94% — to $2.17 billion — from a year ago. Alibaba has more than 500 million monthly active users for its online shopping apps, per the NYT, 42% more than the entire U.S. population. Similar to Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, Ma is enormously ambitious, pushing into competition, for instance, with Amazon, Microsoft and Google for business in cloud services.

Tech behemoths Google, Facebook and Amazon are feeling the heat from the far-left and the far-right, and even the center is starting to fold.

Why it matters: Criticism over the companies' size, culture and overall influence in society is getting louder as they infiltrate every part of our lives. Though it's mostly rhetoric rather than action at the moment, that could change quickly in the current political environment.