Uber's lawsuit to overturn rules to restrict the number of for-hire delivery and transportation vehicles allowed in the city was dismissed Friday by the New York state Supreme Court, The Verge reports.
Why it matters: This is part of a package of rules lawmakers said was aimed at decreasing traffic caused by ride-hailing cars. Taxi drivers view the ruling — which Uber is likely to appeal — as a victory. Uber argues the ride-hailing cap costs its drivers thousands of dollars per year and the company stopped hiring new drivers in New York City this spring due to the cap.
Google is buying Fitbit for $2.1 billion in a deal expected to close in 2020, the fitness company announced Friday.
Why it matters: It's an attempt by Google to "bolster its lineup of hardware products, which already includes smartphones, tablets, laptops and smart speakers. Fitbit makes a lineup of fitness-tracking devices, but has faced stiff competition from Apple after the introduction of the Apple Watch," The New York Times reports.
Even if it proves to be the right thing to do, implementing a ban on political ads is no easy task, as the major platforms have found out in Washington state. As The Verge reports, Facebook and Google opted to ban ads there rather than comply with the state's strict campaign finance laws, but have found even that to be difficult.
Why it matters: The experiences of Facebook and Google in Washington state could foreshadow the work Twitter will have to implement its promised ban on political advertising, which starts next month.
Google turned to a Texas court for help Thursday, fearing that a multistate antitrust probe could allow its rivals to gain access to sensitive information.
Driving the news: Google sought a protective order to limit the sharing of its confidential information in the states' antitrust investigation.
Facebook's scale and power have often made it seem more a kind of quasi-sovereign nation than a traditional company — and right now it's looking more like a failing state than a thriving one.
The big picture: Digital giants like Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon are making the kinds of decisions about speech, personal safety, political power and financial relationships that have belonged to governments in the past. But at heart they are profit-making corporations with only limited competence in these domains, so their choices frequently go awry.
It's more important than ever for companies to have privacy experts, to help them obey proliferating laws on how consumers' data can be used — but it's hard to find people with the expertise to do it.
Why it matters: Privacy is a once-and-future battleground. Without more qualified professionals, everyone’s sensitive information could fall vulnerable to corporate ignorance, mismanagement and whim.
Aaron Sorkin, who wrote "The Social Network," penned an open letter in the New York Times to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the company's stance on political ads on its platform, saying it is "not defending free speech" but "assaulting truth."
How it works, via Axios' Scott Rosenberg: Facebook's policy lets politicians make just about any claim they want, in ads or posts, including repeating verbatim a false claim that has already been labeled elsewhere as false. That means they can misstate their own record or that of an opponent.
Apple delivered a generally positive earnings report on Wednesday, with CEO Tim Cook telling Reuters that iPhone 11 was off to a "very, very good start," despite sales falling 9.2% in the quarter, continuing a pattern that has been in place for the past year.
Why it matters: The iPhone is the bulk of Apple's business and critical to driving demand for its other products, but a report from Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, said Apple expects iPhone sales to return to growth next year, thanks to the introduction of 5G.
Twitter's move to ban political ads is just the latest of several moves by the platform to position itself as an antidote to what critics see as Facebook's missteps and ethical lapses.
Why it matters: The free speech banner Facebook is wavingused to be shared by most of the big social media companies. A Twitter exec once called the company "the free speech wing of the free speech party."
But amid an extraordinary backlash toward Facebook from critics angered at its role in spreading misinformation, its rivals are distancing themselves — and are using the moment to frame their free speech principles as better suited to the era of social media.
