A Pennsylvania philanthropist and former hedge fund executive named David Magerman was the initial donor behind a high-profile campaign urging regulators to break up Facebook, he confirmed to Axios for the first time on Thursday.
Why it matters: Magerman has given more than $400,000 to the campaign — "Freedom from Facebook" — because he believes Facebook has too much power over how the world communicates. A Republican-oriented consulting firm hired by Facebook had tried to link the campaign to billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
In today's podcast, Dan examines how the effects of the walkouts at Google on forced arbitration regarding sexual harassment with Axios Chief Technology Correspondent Ina Fried.
The two also address the fallout at Facebook following the New York Time's bombshell report on leadership. Plus, in the "Final Two": Uber's big speed bump on the way to an IPO and President Trump's very challenging electoral map for 2020.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he didn't know about Facebook's relationship with a Washington-based opposition research firm that The New York Times reported Facebook was working with and that those DC-based opposition research tactics are "not the kind of thing we want to be involved with here."
Why it matters: The event was intended to unveil new content policies and procedures, but Zuckerberg spent much of the call addressing questions about the Times story and Facebook's relationship with Definers Public Affairs, the research firm. It's a defensive position that Zuckerberg and his company have been stuck in since last year.
Microsoft reported slight gains in employee diversity on Wednesday, with the representation of women significantly higher than in past reports, thanks to the inclusion of LinkedIn.
By the numbers: With the business network included, Microsoft reported that women made up 28% of staff, up one percentage point.
As the smartphone market matures, people are holding onto their phones longer in developed countries. What's more, even the phones they are done with are increasingly "good enough" for users in emerging markets.
What's new: According to Counterpoint Technology Market Research, the global market for refurbished phones grew 10% in the second quarter of 2018, compared to the market for new smartphones, which dropped 1% from a year ago.
Facebook has ended its contract with Definers Public Affairs, a consulting firm that came under fire on Wednesday after the New York Times published an investigation focused in part on the tactics it had used to take on critics of the social giant.
The big picture: The Times story portrayed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg as disengaged from some of the key debates over speech and misinformation at the company.
A new Department of Homeland Security task force devoted to heading off supply chain cybersecurity threats against communications infrastructure will meet for the first time Thursday.
Why it matters: Supply chain attacks — hackers sabotaging the security of hardware or software to attack the system in which it's installed — have been at the top of mind for many in the government, with recent dust ups involving allegations against ZTE and Huawei as well as a widely disputedBloomberg story.
Responding to a bombshell New York Times piece, the president of George Soros' Open Society Foundations, Patrick Gaspard, said Facebook's "methods threaten the very values underpinning our democracy" in a letter addressed to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
The backdrop: The Times article alleged — among other things — that Facebook utilized a Republican-oriented public relations group to help navigate Washington politics during its user privacy controversies. That group also reportedly singled out Soros, who is often targeted by the right, and Open Society as "the unacknowledged force behind what appeared to be a broad anti-Facebook movement."
Ford is developing a broad transportation service platform to take advantage of what it says is a $332 billion business opportunity for autonomous vehicles.
Why it matters: Amid all the hype about autonomous vehicles, little attention is paid to the business case for driverless cars. Ford’s plan is to keep its AVs running nearly round-the-clock by catering to both ride-hailing consumers and business customers.
As Facebook navigated security, privacy, and hate-speech controversies after the 2016 election, a new investigation from the New York Times found that the company pursued a "delay, deny and deflect" approach while top executives orchestrated a counterpunching campaign against critics, rivals and proponents of regulation.
The big picture: The Times report exposes the company to new criticisms from its employee base, more primed than ever to protest over the company’s political actions. Most striking for outsiders is the story’s depiction of CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg as evasive or sometimes asleep at the switch.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — When Amazon began its nationwide search for a place to house its second headquarters, choosing an up-and-coming city in the Midwest seemed to a lot of people like the perfect option: At a time of much scrutiny of Big Tech, Amazon would earn political points. And amid much worry about economies in the heartland, a city on the rise would get a top-notch anchor employer.
What really happened: HQ2 finalists from the heartland never had a chance.
