Uber will halt its operations in Colombia at the end of the month, after a judge found the transportation company violated the country's competition rules, Reuters reports.
Why it matters: Uber is likely to look for ways to get back into Columbia, though this comes as a blow to a business that is trying to show investors it can turn a profit and continue growing, especially in regions like Latin America. Uber called the decision "arbitrary" in a statement, and said it violated its right to due process, per Reuters.
This week, I ticked off a bucket list item while in Las Vegas — riding in the Goodyear blimp.
How it happened: Goodyear, which was touting its predictive fleet management services at CES, invited a handful of auto beat reporters to experience a blimp ride over The Strip.
David Drummond is stepping down as chief legal officer of Google's parent company Alphabet, amid an internal investigation into sexual misconduct that involved Drummond both for how he handled complaints (including one against former Android chief Andy Rubin) and for his own workplace relationships.
Why it matters: Drummond has been with Google for nearly two decades, and in charge of everything from its legal and regulatory strategy to its investment activities.
Why it matters: The mobility mash-up shows how multiple industries are converging around their desire to own the transportation experience for consumers — whether they are riding alone, or with strangers, with a robot behind the wheel or soaring over cities.
Netflix may have gone viral with a humorous tweet about password sharing this week, but Wall Street sees the practice as a drag on the company and its rivals to the tune of billions of dollars in revenue each year.
Why it matters: With competition growing and the cost of content continuing to increase, some streaming companies are likely to consider cracking down on the widespread practice.
Facebook, TikTok and Reddit all updated their policies on misinformation this week, suggesting that tech platforms are feeling increased pressure to stop manipulation attempts ahead of the 2020 elections.
Why it matters: This is the first time that several social media giants are taking a hard line specifically on banning deepfake content — typically video or audio that's manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning to intentionally deceive users.
Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday he's giving up setting annual challenges for himself and trying to take a longer view. But 2020 has already thrown down a challenge for him: threading a needle between business demands and political landmines.
The big picture: Zuckerberg has to grow revenue and users, yet not get blamed for tipping another election — and not buckle on what he views as the core value of free speech. Despite an onslaught of bad press, he seems to be succeeding ... for now.
The so-called techlash isn't hurting Google, at least by one measure. The search giant told Axios that Google received 3.3 million job applications in 2019, up from 2.8 million applications in 2018 — an 18% increase.
Why it matters: The move comes despite a wave of employee activism and outside calls to rein in the power and scope of Big Tech. One of the big question marks is whether those trends will ever begin to hurt recruiting efforts.
House lawmakers are introducing a bipartisan bill Thursday to update a long-standing children's online privacy law so that parents could force companies to delete personal information collected about their kids.
Twitter's plan to allow users to control who can reply to their posts, announced Wednesday, is largely welcome news for those who are routinely harassed on the service — including many people of color, women, LGBTQ+ folks and other groups often targeted by online mobs.
Why it matters: It could create an even riper environment for misinformation — especially when combined with Twitter's policy of allowing elected officials' tweets to stand, even when they violate the rules that apply to other users.
Anyone who was waiting for Facebook to change its controversial political ad policies — particularly the one that allows politicians to lie with impunity — will have to keep waiting, the company made clear Thursday.
Driving the news: Facebook released a raft of small changes to its rules around political ads, including giving consumers the option to block political ads from their feeds.
Facebook said Thursday it will give consumers the option to stop seeing political ads in their feeds moving forward.
Why it matters: Facebook has been heavily criticized for its policies around political ads, especially for its decision not to fact-check political ads.
