Google parent company Alphabet has settled a 2019 shareholder lawsuit over its handling of sexual harassment claims, agreeing to limit mandatory arbitration and non-disclosure agreements in such cases, to prevent executives under investigation from receiving severance or accelerating stock sales, and to commit to investing $310 million over a decade in a diversity council.
Why it matters: Google is among the highest-profile tech companies to face a backlash— including a large employee walkout — for covering up sexual harassment.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday filed legal opposition to TikTok's request to delay a ban on downloading the app, with a federal judge in Washington scheduling a hearing on the request for Sunday morning.
Why it matters: The White House could have simply postponed the ban on its own for another week or two, as it did last Friday. This move suggests it's seeking to use the ban as leverage in ongoing negotiations.
Traditional media models, and even some of the digital ones, are either under pressure or outright broken. Some journalists have responded by going out on their own, leveraging a new group of startups that help them self-publish and monetize their work.
Axios Re:Cap digs in with Chris Best, CEO of Substack, which has more than 250,000 paying subscribers on its writer network.
Google informed its advertisers Friday that it will broadly block election ads after polls close Nov. 3, according to an email obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: Big Tech platforms have been under pressure to address how their ad policies will handle conflicts over the presidential election's outcome.
In a Thursday event unveiling a slew of new home devices ahead of the holidays, Amazon made clearer than ever its determination to flood America with cameras, microphones and the voice of Alexa, its AI assistant.
The big picture: Updating popular products and expanding its range to car alarms and in-home drones, Amazon extended its lead in smart home devices and moved into new areas including cloud gaming and car security. The new offerings will also fuel criticism that the tech giant is helping equip a society built around surveillance.
As it fights for an upcoming ballot measure to exempt it from a California law that could force it to classify drivers as employees, Uber argues that not only are "full-time" drivers a small minority of its total drivers, but also that they are responsible for just a quarter of all trips in the state.
Why it matters: If that ballot measure, known as Proposition 22, fails in November, ride-hailing and delivery companies will be forced to reclassify their drivers as employees.
Epic Games, an American video game and software developer, announced Friday that it is acquiring SuperAwesome, a UK-based platform used to power kid-safe technology.
Why it matters: The deal speaks to the growing importance of children's safety and security on the internet.
A group of high-profile Facebook critics on Friday announced the launch of what they are calling the "Real Facebook Oversight Board," an effort that aims to counter an independent board established by Facebook last year to oversee its decisions on content moderation.
Why it matters: The opposing effort represents how political the fight between Facebook and its critics has become in the lead-up to the presidential election.
Fifty-two percent of voters support shutting down social media platforms altogether for the week of the presidential election, according to a poll from GQR research shared exclusively with Axios.
The big picture: Tech companies have aggressively rolled out new guardrails around misinformation related to the election and taken down numerous foreign-led meddling campaigns this year, but critics continue to fear that social media is a vector for domestic and foreign deceit.
