A tweet from one of the Russian accounts in the 2016 election. Photo: Twitter
Twitter said late Friday that it would email 677,775 users who followed one of the Russian troll accounts involved in the 2016 election interference campaign or engaged with their content during the election. The company said it has also identified more than 1,000 new accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency troll farm.
Why it matters: The company — along with Facebook and Google — have been under pressure in Washington to grapple with the role their platforms played in the Russian campaign.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday that the tech giant will begin to prioritize news that is "trustworthy, informative, and local" from "trusted sources" in its News Feed beginning next week. They will do this by using data from user surveys about which news sources they find trustworthy to inform their News Feed algorithm.
Why it matters: It's a major step Facebook is taking to weed out bad content and misinformation on its platform and to develop more meaningful interactions between members of its community.
Apple has hired at least 18 people, including two co-founders, from consulting firm Silicon Valley Data Science, according to TechCrunch.
Why it matters: It's not clear what Apple intends to do with the new hires, but according to the firm's website, SVDS specializes in providing data analytics to help companies address their most pressing business needs. In the case of Apple, which has recently been delving more into the enterprise space, that may include "building iOS productivity apps, business transformation services, legacy IT migrations, IoT-based services and more."
Wang-Li Moser, Facebook's executive tasked with "courting" China, resigned last month, according to the New York Times, underscoring the difficulties of getting the social network into China's market.
Why it matters, per Axios' David McCabe:Facebook has been trying to find a way to get to China — and its more than 1 billion consumers — for years.
SoftBank yesterday announced that its $9.3 billion investment in Uber has closed, except that's not entirely true.
Bottom line: Yes, checks have been sent and corporate governance changes implemented. But multiple sources tell Axios that the deal actually remains subject to a CFIUS review, and that SoftBank will not exercise its board voting rights until that process is closer to completion.
Amazon will announce an increase in the price of monthly Prime memberships from $10.99 to $12.99 on Friday, according to a report from Recode.
Why it matters: Amazon first introduced the monthly payment option two years ago as "a way to attract lower-income customers," but a spokesman said that the growing list of benefits has increased the value of the service.
One might think that rank-and-file Apple employees would be thrilled with a just-announced $2,500 stock grant. And while that is probably true for the company's retail workers, who typically don't get such grants, not everyone in the engineering ranks was so pleased.
The inside scoop: There have been grumblings over both the amount of the bonuses and the appearance of playing into President Trump's hands on both that issue and the separate announcement around U.S. investment.
Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, has laid off roughly two people across eight teams. Less than half of the layoffs occurred in content departments, according to sources familiar with the situation. The story was first reported by Cheddar and confirmed by Axios.
Why it matters: Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said last year that all managers would be assessing their team sizes and locations, which could mean hiring, cuts or no change. So today's staff cuts and placement decisions, should come as no surprise.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is in the process of testing computer tomography (CT) technology, which, if successful, could means airport “passengers at some point won’t have to take out their liquids or laptops” during screening, the TSA Administrator David Pekoske told Axios.
What this means: CT technology can detectmuch lower weights of explosive devices than the current technology can handle now. CT tech can also provide TSA officers a 3-dimensional image of bags’ contents as they move across the X-ray conveyor belt. Part of the impetus for upgrading to CT tech is to scan for a broader range of weights on explosive devices, including homemade explosive devices, Pekoske said.
Baidu announced Thursday it made a trio of hires and is establishing two new AI labs — one focused on business intelligence and the other on robotics and autonomous driving.
Why it matters: These are both hot research areas and represent Baidu's biggest moves in AI since Andrew Ng left last March.
IBM ended a 22-quarter streak of year-on-year revenue declines on Thursday, reporting better-than-expected earnings on Thursday as its cloud computing and data analytics business strategies start to pay off, Reuters reports.
Why it matters: IBM, the fifth-largest private U.S. employer, has seen drastic declines in its legacy hardware and software businesses and has tried to pivot to "strategic" initiatives including cybersecurity, cloud computing, mobile and analytics powered by artificial intelligence technologies. Still, IBM faces increasing competition on those fronts from tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Google, CNBC points out.
Apple CEO Tim Cook told ABC on Wednesday that Apple will now be "paying $38 billion that we would not have paid" under the old tax system, but will be paying less over time, which is "one reason why we can... invest over $350 billion in the United States."
Why it matters: Axios' Ina Fried reported that Apple plans to open its second corporate campus in the U.S. in its plan to add $350 billion to the U.S. economy over the next five years. It also plans to create an additional 20,000 jobs in the United States. Trump reportedly called Cook and thanked him.
President Trump said he called Apple's CEO Tim Cook to thank him after the company's announcement of a broad plan to "directly contribute" $350 billion to the U.S. economy over the next five years. I don’t imagine there’s ever been a bigger investment in our country," Trump said. He made the remarks during a speech at the H&K Equipment Company in Pennsylvania Thursday.
Lawmakers in the Senate voted Thursday to approve a bill that extends a key part of a surveillance law for another six years. The House passed the bill last week.
Why it matters: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is controversial because of concerns the digital surveillance it enables, of foreign nationals located abroad, could pick up communications from Americans without a warrant. The program expires tomorrow if President Trump doesn't sign the bill.
Hackers with links to Lebanon’s main intelligence agency left hundreds of gigabytes of intercepted data on the open internet, per a report from security firm Lookout, Inc. and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Victims of the hack span 21 different countries, including in the U.S. and European countries, per the report, which is calling the hacking campaign “Dark Caracal.”
Why it's unique: The report links state-backed hackers to a specific building. Electronic Frontier Foundation Director of Cybersecurity Eva Galperin told the AP's Rachel Satter she can only recall one other time in history that that precision has been achieved.
Facebook said Thursday it had added departing American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault to its board. "He has unique expertise in areas I believe Facebook needs to learn and improve — customer service, direct commerce, and building a trusted brand," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. Chenault will be the first African-American to serve as a director of the world's largest social network.
The other coast: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told members of the Congressional Black Caucus last year that it would add an African-American director to its board as she responded to their criticisms of the company.
Amazon announced this morning that they have narrowed the list of cities competing to host their second headquarters to 20 cities, which include D.C., L.A. and N.Y.C.
Why it matters: A second Amazon headquarters would bring a huge economic boost to whichever city wins the bid, and 238 communities sent proposals, according to the Amazon press release.
The RNC rolled out Trump's fake news award winners on Wednesday night, labeling 2017 "a year of unrelenting bias, unfair news coverage, and even downright fake news."
The page including the list of "winners" crashed shortly after publication (the RNC blamed unprecedented traffic), but it's now up and running. It underlines a main contention Trump has been making since the primaries — the "dishonest" media is against him.
