New York Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday that she would open an investigation into Facebook’s collection of 1.5 million Facebook users’ email contact databases. The tech giant admitted last Wednesday that it had "unintentionally uploaded" the email contact lists of 1.5 million people without their consent since 2016.
Why it matters: It's the latest privacy gaffe to pull Facebook into investigators' crosshairs. The company has faced several federal and state probes in the past year over the misuse of customer data.
Twitter reportedly doesn't go after white nationalist content as aggressively as it did with ISIS because it would likely mean some Republicans' accounts would be flagged as well, reports Motherboard.
Why it matters: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is walking a fine line between free speech and political peace with the right on the social media platform. Just this week he met with President Trump. Twitter, like other social platforms, has been accused of censoring or down-ranking conservative view points.
The CIA, one of the rare government entities known for its social media savvy, is now on Instagram to give users another look into the secretive agency.
The big picture: The new account is another online vehicle to "spark the curiosity of Instagram users" and find recruits, CIA press secretary Timothy Barrett said. He noted that its first photo — captioned "I spy with my little eye..." — includes the original 1985 badge photo for CIA director Gina Haspel [Updated], as well as an open notebook with Arabic writing that reads, "Share what we can, protect what we must."
When Uber rings in on the New York Stock Exchange next month, expect to see a balcony peppered with longtime executives, drivers and couriers. But not necessarily its three co-founders: former CEO Travis Kalanick, Ryan Graves and Garrett Camp.
The bottom line: Axios has learned from multiple sources that there was a board-level discussion about having the three join, as opposed to just being invited to the exchange floor, but current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was noncommittal.
Snapchat has hired McDonald's VP of Marketing Kenny Mitchell to leads its marketing efforts. Mitchell will report directly to CEO Evan Spiegel beginning in June.
Why it matters: The company is investing more in consumer marketing to promote the rollout of its redesigned Android app.
Synthesia, a London-based developer of video synthesis technology, raised $3.1 million co-led by LDV Capital and Mark Cuban.
Why it matters: This is the company whose tech is behind a viral video in which soccer star David Beckham speaks nine different languages. As you might have guessed, David Beckham doesn't know how to speak nine different languages, and the video is for malaria awareness, not some sort of Rosetta Stone-like product. It's both mesmerizing and terrifying.
Microsoft isn't just winning the techlash, as we reported yesterday. It's also making a ton of money.
What's new: The company reported $30.6 billion in revenue and $8.8 billion in profits yesterday, exceeding expectations amid strength in both its growing cloud efforts as well as its legacy PC business.
Facebook, its investors, and its critics wrestled Wednesday with how to assess the prospect of a $3 billion to $5 billion government fine for the social media giant.
The big picture: On the one hand, that would be a record fine for the FTC, and it's certainly nothing to sneeze at. At the same time, it's likely just a flesh wound to a company that brings in roughly that much revenue every month — and a monetary fine alone provides no guarantee that the company's behavior will change.
