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From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

Whats Next

Axios What's Next

In what CEO Brian Chesky calls "the biggest change to Airbnb in a decade," the home rental company introduced a sitewide makeover Wednesday that makes it easier to find offbeat and niche properties.

Why it matters: As travel companies gear up for the summer rush — which will be  intensified this year by pent-up post-COVID demand — Airbnb is trying to differentiate itself and give consumers fresh options.

Driving the news: The upgrades Airbnb released Wednesday are designed to get people to expand their travel horizons beyond choosing a destination city and travel dates:

A new set of 56 "categories" of lodging — from castles and tiny homes to domes, treehouses and lakefront properties — allows people to browse and fantasy shop for places they didn't know they could visit.

A new "split stay" feature will suggest you divide your time between two nearby Airbnb properties if you're planning to be away for a week or more.

New "AirCover" protections offer more generous guarantees, safeguarding you if a host cancels, a property isn't as advertised, or you feel unsafe.

Between the lines: Chesky says he wants to prevent "overtourism," or too many people all trying to visit the same places (like Paris, London and Disney World). 

The "categories" approach, which lets people check out properties by activity (golfing, skiing) or type of location (beachfront, vineyard, the Arctic) or physical features (A-frames, chef's kitchens, treehouses), is meant to guide people off the beaten path.

"We want to redistribute travel," Chesky said at a news conference Tuesday describing the changes.

Details: Each "category" tells you approximately how many properties are listed in it, no matter where they are geographically or when they're available.

The "amazing pools" category has more than a million listings, for instance, while "caves" has 600, "mansions" has 1,000 and "national parks" has 600,000.

"We don't just have castles — we have a lot of them," said Chesky, noting that the 3,000 properties in the "castles" category are available at all different price points.

His favorite categories are "design," which has 20,000 properties that have been deemed architecturally interesting, and "OMG!" which has 500 weird and eclectic dwellings.

What's next: "We're going to keep adding a lot of categories," Chesky said. "This is just the beginning."

Editor's note: This story was originally published on May 11.

Want to rent a castle? Airbnb has an upgrade for that

New "categories" let you find an offbeat property

Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, at a press conference.

Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, at a press conference announcing the company's latest site changes. His dog, Sophie, was on hand to mingle with reporters. Photo: Jennifer A. Kingson 

Airbnb

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

A new report on the future of travel envisions that biometrics could eliminate airport security hassles, making the days of removing your shoes and belt before you board obsolete.

Why it matters: Flying was a far more pleasant experience before today's onerous passenger screenings became necessary. If facial recognition and other technology can handle security checks invisibly, airports can one day become enjoyable social and retail hubs.

Driving the news: The airport of 2038 will be a "place of encounter," where passengers arrive "ready to fly," thanks to ubiquitous scanners and cameras that evaluate security threats "multiple times a minute, all as you go about your day," according to a report on the future by Delaware North.

There won't be a need to differentiate "sterile" and "non-sterile" areas of the airport — everyone will be free to go straight to their flight.

"We’ll even be allowed to walk loved ones to their gates again," according to the vision laid out by Delaware North, which operates retail stores and restaurants in airports.

"We’ll be able to order food from our favorite eatery to be delivered gateside rather than relying on sterileside airport concessionaires, since every person in the terminal will be checked by cameras and sensors at all times and processed remotely, regardless of whether they have a plane ticket," the report said.

Reality check: Privacy concerns are likely to accompany the continued rollout of biometric monitoring, but, let's face it — the horse is already out of the barn. 

Systems like CLEAR and TSA pre-check already pre-screen passengers to some extent — and Delta debuted its first "biometric terminal" at Atlanta-Hartsfield in 2018. 

"Sixty-four percent of airports globally plan to roll out self-boarding gates using biometrics and ID documentation by 2023, three times as many as in 2020," per the Delaware North report.

"In five years, ubiquitous tech and security protocols will blend biometrics with wearable technology such as watches, rings and other jewelry to expedite access even more."

What they're saying: Under the scenario outlined in the report, "people would go to the airport and have a meal," Todd Merry, the chief marketing officer of Delaware North, tells Axios. "It becomes much more of a destination than just a transit point for people getting on a flight."

Merry acknowledged that the projection was a rosy one that would benefit his company. But he noted that everyone would gain if "we could transform travel from a necessary chore to something that people again look forward to."

Editor's note: This story was originally published on May 10. 

All airport security hassles could eventually become obsolete

Biometrics could eliminate airport security hassles

Illustration of an airport check-in sign with a happy face

Airports

Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

Percentage change in price of DWAC,<br> Twitter and Tesla

Data: Yahoo Finance; Chart: Axios Visuals

There’s no better proof of Twitter’s impact on public conversation and markets than one tweet moving billions of dollars in market cap across three different companies in a matter of minutes. 

Driving the news: Elon Musk’s tweet that his pending Twitter takeover deal was “temporarily on hold” sent Wall Street on a wild ride Friday. Investors were already beginning to grow skeptical of Musk’s bid, but the possibility that he could walk sent Twitter’s shares tumbling more than 20% before the market opened.

Musk's tweeted clarification two hours later that he was still “committed” to the acquisition gave the stock a pop, but shares still closed down nearly 10% at market close.

Be smart: Musk’s tweet set off a ripple effect across a slew of companies, including Tesla, which saw shares jump nearly 6% on the possibility that Musk wouldn’t become a part-time CEO.

Shares in DWAC, the blank check company that plans to take former President Trump’s social media company Truth Social, also gained on the possibility that Elon might bail on the deal.

How one Elon Musk tweet showed Twitter's impact on the stock market

Musk’s tweet set off a ripple effect across a slew of companies.

Elon Musk

Media

Big Tech

Social Media

Two tech industry groups filed an emergency application Friday night asking the Supreme Court to block a lower court ruling that allowed Texas' controversial social media law to take effect.

Why it matters: The law allows users to sue a social media company if they are blocked from posting or have their posts removed. Civil liberties experts and tech advocates have said it would force companies to let problematic speech such as hate and misinformation stay up on their platforms.

Republicans, including proponent Gov. Greg Abbott, say the law lets users retain freedom of speech amid social media companies' campaign to silence conservative ideas and beliefs.

What they're saying: The Texas law "is a content-, viewpoint-, and speaker-based law that would eviscerate editorial discretion and impermissibly compel and chill speech by targeted, disfavored 'social media platforms,'" NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) say in the filing.

"[T]he entire impetus for HB20 was that Texas did not like how platforms were exercising such editorial discretion to remove or refrain from disseminating certain speech," they write.

"For all platforms, the expressive act of policy enforcement is critical to the distinctive experiences that platforms provide their users — and to ensuring that the services remain hospitable and useful services."

"Without these policies, platforms would offer fundamentally worse (and perhaps even useless) experiences to their users, potentially overrun with spam, vitriol, and graphic content," the filing states, citing slurs, pornography and material harmful to children such as content urging eating disorders.

Our thought bubble, via Axios' Ashley Gold: The groups fighting the 5th Circuit ruling wouldn't have sent it to the Supreme Court if they weren’t confident the justices would vote in their favor. 

What will be most important to watch is what unfolds in the upcoming Texas court case over the merits of the law.

Tech groups ask Supreme Court to block Texas' controversial social media law

The law allows users to sue a social media company if they are blocked from posting or have their posts removed.

Photo of the Supreme Court building from the side 

The U.S. Supreme Court building on May 11. Photo: Drew Angerer via Getty Images

Supreme Court

Emerging Tech

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

Politics & Policy

Gaming

Axios Gaming

Tech giant Unity may be a gaming company by heritage, but its overall goal these days is to popularize 3D graphics in every walk of life, Marc Whitten, one of the company’s senior vice presidents, tells Axios.

Why it matters: Unity is already one of the leading creators of tools for making games, and is positioned, through key acquisitions, to make its tech more relevant to the rest of the world.

What they’re saying: “We think real-time 3D is going to reinvent pretty much every industry,” Whitten says.

To be clear, he didn’t mean to use the popular buzz term “metaverse” and its notion of virtual meetup spaces. We checked. “I think ‘metaverse’ is important,” Whitten said, “but I personally think real-time 3D is probably a broader definition.”

“There’s lots of things that are really just about people trying to get their job done — whatever that particular job is — where 3D itself and in particular interactive physics-aware simulation-aware 3D makes that job better.”

An example: Proximie, a company that lets a doctor remotely and virtually interact with a live surgical procedure, showing where to make an incision. Think of the construction and logistics industries too.

Buying spree: Unity has been hoovering up tech and tools companies in the past year, including streaming service Parsec, Hollywood special effects house Weta Digital and machine-learning character creation outfit Ziva Dynamics. 

The common denominator, Whitten says, is enabling more people to more easily create more 3D art.

As more fields embrace real-time 3D, they’ll need to make a lot more art, Whitten says, noting that game companies already have swelling art teams to keep up rendering their virtual worlds.

Between the lines: Unity is already so widely used in gaming and beyond, that the company’s able to turn out eye-popping numbers. 

It boasts that its Operate division, which supports games once they launch with ad and monetization tech, among other services, supported 200,000 launches last year.

Whitten says 15,000 projects are started in Unity each day. 

When game engine company Epic is brought up, Whitten says they’re not viewed as a competitor, since Epic-backed games still use Unity services. He is also ready to share that 70% of mobile games are made on Unity, and 50%+ of PC games are made on Unity.

One bad number for Unity: Its stock dropped 37% this week after reporting increased revenue but a net loss and acknowledging problems with its ad-targeting tech. 

Yes, but: Unity’s ubiquity has raised some concern internally in terms of who the company partners with. A Vice report in August detailed worker concerns about partnerships with the Defense Department.

Unity says it won’t support projects that cause harm to humans or the climate or deprive people of their rights, but critics aren't sure all projects truly adhere.

Whitten says there is “still work to continue to drive around those missions,” and said that in some cases the company needed to be more transparent.

What’s next: Look for many more games and projects made on Unity — plus an adaptation of the tools from Weta and others into products more potential Unity customers can use. 

Sign up for the new Axios Gaming newsletter here.

Unity has goals far beyond gaming

"We think real-time 3D is going to reinvent pretty much every industry."

Photo illustration of Marc Whitten and a pattern of Unity logos. 

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Unity 

Video games

Pro Rata

Axios Pro Rata

Before dawn on Friday the 13th, Elon Musk may have murdered his Twitter takeover.

Driving the news: The mercurial Musk at 5:44am ET tweeted: "Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users."

He also linked to a Reuters story about that spam estimate, which was from nearly two weeks ago.

At 7:50am, Musk added: "Still committed to acquisition."

If Musk really needs details supporting that calculation, then why not privately ask the management team with which he's barely had any contact? Or the board? And then, if the numbers don't check out, walk away. Maybe he'd even have been able to get out of his $1 billion breakup fee, arguing that Twitter misrepresented user metrics.

He also could have conducted due diligence before agreeing to buy the company, which sources say is something acquirers sometimes do.

Instead, this only intensifies speculation that Musk has buyer's remorse. Not only because he arguably overpaid, but also because of the amount of paper value he's lost on Tesla stock (and possibly crypto holdings) since the Twitter deal was first announced.

There's a reason Twitter was trading around $10 per share lower than Musk's purchase price, which is way wider than typical merger arbitrage. (FYI: Musk isn't limited under a standstill agreement, so theoretically could buy discounted Twitter shares on the open market, but the poison pill remains in effect).

What to know: Axios' Felix Salmon called this situation a "clown car" during a phone conversation yesterday, harkening back to an old Mark Zuckerberg comment, after Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal canned two senior product executives and announced a hiring freeze. Again, that was yesterday.

At the time, it felt like Agarwal was auditioning for Musk. Still does, but now he has much more credibility for the "I have a business to run and revenue targets to hit" line.

The bottom line: It's possible, perhaps even likely, that this is Musk's way of trying to renegotiate. But if so, it's creating a ton of short-term collateral damage. 

Not only to Twitter and Musk's reputations, but also to the psyches of thousands of employees whose financial futures are being put in unnecessary flux. Remember, lots of these people have options that accelerate if the deal closes. And others could be needing to find new jobs, right as the tech industry appears to be contracting.

Elon Musk's Twitter clown car

An illustration of Twitter's logo as a puzzle with a piece missing.

YouTube creators who have switched to producing content about the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have found a massive audience, accruing millions of views on their videos, according to NBC News.

The big picture: The trial between the two stars in Fairfax, Va. has attracted immense attention on social media, where many have sided with Depp.

Depp is suing Heard for defamation over an op-ed she wrote in the Washington Post in 2018, claiming she is a victim of domestic violence. Heard is countersuing Depp for defamation over his allegations that her claims are false.

Social media has been particularly supportive of Depp, with the hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp reaching 10.8 billion views on TikTok.

Driving the news: YouTube creators from every background are jumping on the trend, including gamers, K-pop fans and musicians, NBC News reported.

One creator, who normally produced content about video games to limited views, received over 10 million views within a week after making compilation videos about the trial, according to the NBC News.

Most of the creators made content in support of Depp, leaning into the pro-Depp environment on social media, NBC reported.

YouTube creators are feasting on the Depp v. Heard trial

The trial between the two movie stars has attracted immense attention on social media.

US actress Amber Heard testifies as US actor Johnny Depp looks on during a defamation trial at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 5, 2022. Photo: JIM LO SCALZO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

YouTube

Crypto

Axios Crypto

For cryptocurrency, 2021 was a very exciting year. For Coinbase, the best known cryptocurrency company that's publicly traded, it was so-so. Strangely, Coinbase seemed unable to capitalize on frothiness in the very financial market it was built to serve.

Why it matters: There's an old investor adage: in a gold rush, the guy selling shovels gets rich even if there's no gold. Coinbase should be a shovel company, but somehow it hasn't been.

Driving the news: On Thursday afternoon, Coinbase (COIN) was trading at $58.50, that's down 83% from its first day of trading in April 2021.

Of note: COIN price did rally with the rest of the crypto market as Bitcoin hit its most recent all time high. COIN hit $343 on Nov. 7, just ahead of Bitcoin hitting $69,044.77 on Nov. 10.

What they're saying: "It has underperformed relative to cryptocurrency markets," Michael Miller, a Coinbase analyst with Morningstar told Axios. "I think a lot of it comes down to expenses." 

The company has increased expenses dramatically to scale, Miller argued. "They are up about 70% over the last 6 months."

Coinbase has faced a lot of scaling issues. Longtime crypto denizens know it has a bad reputation for customer service, though it is trying to catch up, and Miller said that's what some of the current spending is going toward. 

Yes, but: Coinbase would argue that this spending has been an intentional choice. In an investor call following the earnings release, Alesia Haas, the CFO, said: "We're choosing to make 2022 an investment year. And that's because we believe that investing now is key to our future of becoming a multi-product platform serving a diverse customer base."

By the numbers: Despite his critiques, Miller puts the fair value of Coinbase stock at $131 right now, well above the market's price.

Coinbase reported revenue of $1.17 billion and a net loss of $430 million, for the first quarter of 2022.

"You've seen the market really shift away from being willing to give low profit or high multiple companies the benefit of the doubt," Miller said.

Coinbase is also expensive to use. Miller said the cost to transact on Coinbase averages about 1.3% of trade value, Miller estimated. For comparison, FTX charges 0.10% between the two parties in any given trade. 

"The overarching long term risk to Coinbase is fee compression," Miller said, but he also says that's not the problem now. Users are coming to Coinbase, perhaps due to name recognition. It's just spending a lot of money. 

Bottomline: The crypto market is looking bad right now, and that's going to dampen trading. Miller said, "They've positioned themselves for good times, but it seems right now that we're going into bad times."

Coinbase never capitalized on the good times in crypto

In a gold rush, the guy selling shovels gets rich even if there's no gold.

Illustration of a sphere with the Coinbase logo rolling down a downward pointing trend line

Cryptocurrencies

The police in San Francisco see camera-laden autonomous vehicles as potential witnesses in their criminal investigations, setting off alarm bells for privacy advocates, VICE reports. 

Why it matters: As Axios has reported, self-driving cars capture and store huge databases of images so that they can train their algorithms and become better drivers. What that means is that bystanders are often captured in the footage, raising privacy concerns.

Driving the news: The police use of AV footage as evidence came to light because of a public records request from VICE's technology website, Motherboard.

A three-page San Francisco Police Department training guide provided to the website explained how officers should interact with AVs that don't have a human driver, mentioning Waymo and Cruise, two of the industry leaders.

Some of the guidelines include: "Do not open the vehicle for non-emergency issues" and "Do not pull vehicles over unless a legitimate law enforcement action exists."

A section titled "Investigations" advised officers of the AVs' usefulness in collecting footage, saying that this "potential evidence" had been accessed several times already. 

"Autonomous vehicles are recording their surroundings continuously and have the potential to help with investigative leads."

Privacy advocates warn that law enforcement agencies are extending their "web of surveillance" using information like Ring doorbell footage, automated license plate readers and location data they purchase from private companies. 

"​​As companies continue to make public roadways their testing grounds for these vehicles, everyone should understand them for what they are — rolling surveillance devices that expand existing widespread spying technologies," Chris Gilliard, visiting research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center, told VICE. 

The other side: "The SFPD can unequivocally state that we do not use autonomous vehicles to surreptitiously surveil people in the City of San Francisco," an agency spokesman told Axios by email.

He would not say how many times the department had requested or accessed AV video for investigations. 

What they're saying: "Waymo captures data that's relevant for training our tech, not to identify individuals," a Waymo spokesman said.

"Our policy is to challenge, limit or reject requests that do not have a valid legal basis or that are overly broad."

A Cruise spokesman said: "We work closely with law enforcement on our common goal of making our roads safer. We share footage and other information when we are served with a valid warrant or subpoena, and we may voluntarily share information if public safety is at risk."

Self-driving cars could be potential crime witnesses

Cameras that gather video footage to train algorithms might also capture crimes as they occur

Illustration of a car as seen through a series of TV screens

Autonomous vehicles

Artificial Intelligence

Axios AI+

The likely demise of Roe v. Wade is putting a new spotlight on privacy rights and personal data. But even as some big tech companies are beginning to try to limit how much data their existing products collect, the industry keeps rolling out new waves of devices and services that scoop up even more personal info.

Why it matters: Any trove of data will sooner or later end up at the other end of a request, or order, to be shared with law enforcement. The newest generation of gear, including autonomous vehicles and always-on cameras, could provide the state with a persistent and omnipresent method of surveillance.

The big picture: "Data minimization" is an ethical guideline, encoded in the EU's GDPR privacy framework and other regulations, urging organizations to collect only the data they actually need and to keep it only as long as they need it.

Google has taken a number of steps in this direction, including processing more data on devices rather than in the cloud and allowing users to set information to be deleted automatically.

Apple has made data privacy a core principle, encrypting messaging data and limiting access to some other types of data so that only the user with the device can access it.

Be smart: Broader shifts in computing threaten to overshadow those efforts with new classes of products that depend on massive collection of data. 

One big trend is building devices around sensors and cameras that are always recording, such as doorbell cameras and autonomous vehicles.

The machine learning algorithms that underlie everything from search engines to speech recognition only work when trained on mountains of data, creating another incentive for companies to build info stockpiles.

"Not only will more data be collected but exponentially more," says Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future. "It's inevitable that mountain of additional data being collected will be abused."

Driving the news: This week, Vice reported details of the San Francisco Police Department seeking footage from GM-owned Cruise, one of several autonomous car companies whose vehicles are constantly riding around the streets of the city. 

The SFPD acknowledged to Axios that it makes requests for footage to investigate specific crimes, but denied it wants to use them for ongoing surveillance.

Civil rights groups say the stakes of collecting such data have also increased, especially in the U.S. 

"Those data sources have long been vulnerable to government demands," says Matt Cagle, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, However, the rise of AI is "pouring fuel" on the fire, Cagle said, "particularly in this moment when states are criminalizing abortion and gender affirming care."

"In a world where the Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade, that dystopian hypothetical is no longer hypothetical," Cagle told Axios.

Of note: Vast amounts of data are also available for purchase online, allowing law enforcement agencies to acquire information they may not be able to get through a court order.

Between the lines: While customers have some say over how their own data is stored on their devices, in many cases these newer technologies are sweeping up tons of data about bystanders and third parties.

With a doorbell camera, it's the home owner or renter who buys the device, but the video can capture everyone who passes by. 

Autonomous vehicles owned by large tech companies like Cruise and Waymo are capturing footage of anyone in their path.

Yes, but: Data stockpiles sometimes serve a public good, especially in documenting human rights abuses. 

One example: four Congressional Democrats Thursday called on Facebook and TikTok to preserve evidence of potential war crimes in Ukraine.

Flashback: Makers of the Flip camera, a portable video device that was popular before smartphones could capture large amounts of video, promoted the idea that more people recording more of their lives would make the world safer. This 2009 video explains it pretty well.

"Less is more" comes to big data

Big Tech is starting to limit the volume of data it grabs — but the industry keeps shipping new products that gobble up more info.

Data

Column / Signal Boost

Elon Musk tweeted Friday morning that his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter is "temporarily on hold" as he seeks more details on the platform's new estimate that spam and fake accounts make up less than 5% of users.

Why it matters: Musk provided few details, but the tweet from his official account will ignite havoc in the tech and financial worlds. Twitter shares extended their fall in pre-market trading.

"Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users," he said.

Musk later added in a separate tweet that he is "still committed to acquisition."

Elon Musk says Twitter deal "temporarily on hold"

Musk provided few details, but the tweet from his official account will ignite havoc in the tech and financial worlds.

Saturday's technology stories