As more companies jump on the boycott bandwagon, organizers are taking their campaign to the world stage.
Jun 29, 2020The industry also must grapple with the effects, good and bad, on inequality.
Jun 12, 2020Tech firms' battles this year will touch every part of our lives.
Jan 6, 2020The new CEO of Google's parent company inherited a long list of issues in need of tackling.
Dec 17, 2019It's making the kinds of world-shaping decisions that used to be in the hands of governments.
Nov 1, 2019The giants must navigate treacherous political, social, and ethical rapids at every turn.
Oct 9, 2019Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Facebook is starting to merge the messaging infrastructure of its apps WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram, the Verge reports.
Why it matters: This is the latest move in Facebook's broader initiative to fuse individual apps and products, paving the way for users to be able to communicate cross-platform.
Illustration: Lazaro Gamio/Axios
Facebook is seeking to force a face-off with Apple over its 30% in-app purchase commission fee, which Facebook suggests hurts small businesses struggling to get by during the pandemic.
The big picture: Facebook has never publicly gone after Apple, a key strategic partner, this aggressively. Both companies face antitrust scrutiny, which in Apple's case has centered on the very fee structure Facebook is now attacking.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Millions of angry gamers may soon join the chorus of voices calling for an antitrust crackdown on Apple, as the iPhone giant faces a new lawsuit and PR blitz from Epic Games, maker of mega-hit Fortnite.
Why it matters: Apple is one of several Big Tech firms accused of violating the spirit, if not the letter, of antitrust law. A high-profile lawsuit could become a roadmap for either building a case against tech titans under existing antitrust laws or writing new ones better suited to the digital economy.
Vice Presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Sen. Kamala Harris, tapped Tuesday as Joe Biden's running mate, is not a "break up Big Tech" crusader. But should Democrats win in November and seek to go after Silicon Valley, she could bring prosecutorial rigor to the case.
Why it matters: The vice president doesn't normally run a president's tech agenda, but can still help set the tone on a wide range of issues for a presidential campaign and administration. Harris' familiarity with the firms in her backyard may give her an outsize role on tech policy.
Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: Tobias Hase/picture alliance via Getty Images
Facebook took down 22.5 million posts for hate speech during the second quarter of this year, more than ten times the number it removed in the same quarter last year and more than twice the number removed in the first quarter of 2020.
Why it matters: The company is facing enormous pressure from the advertising and civil rights communities to address hate speech on its platforms. Last month, civil rights groups initiated a Facebook ad boycott that was joined by over 1,000 advertisers.
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Facebook is rolling out a new policy that will prevent U.S. news publishers with "direct, meaningful ties" to political groups from claiming the news exemption within its political ads authorization process, executives tell Axios.
Why it matters: Since the 2016 election, reporters and researchers have uncovered over 1,200 instances in which political groups use websites disguised as local news outlets to push their point of view to Americans.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Twitter is the latest to join the cast of the ongoing spectacle that is TikTok’s battle to stay open for business in the U.S., per a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
Why it matters: The saga to keep TikTok available to U.S. users is getting more complicated, with the company already in a President Trump-imposed time crunch and juggling a number of options.
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
The coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests and a looming election have brought long-simmering conflicts between tech platforms and President Trump to a boil, as Facebook, Twitter and other services are starting to take presidential misinformation seriously.
What's happening: Wary of becoming arbiters of political speech, tech's platforms have carved out a range of exceptions and immunities for Trump and other political leaders — but that accommodation is coming undone.
Photo: Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Facebook will allow its employees to work from home through at least July 2021, a spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Thursday.
The big picture: It joins fellow Big Tech giant Google with the extended move toward remote work amid the coronavirus pandemic. Other tech companies with significant confirmed remote work extensions include Amazon and Snapchat, which are allowing their workers to stay at home through at least the end of the year.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
TikTok has become a Rorschach test for how U.S. politicians view China, with little consensus on the specifics of its threat to homeland security.
The big picture: Much of what D.C. fears about TikTok is fear itself, and that's reflected in President Trump's executive order to ban the app by Sept. 20 if it's not sold by parent company ByteDance — alongside another focused on Chinese messaging app WeChat and its parent company Tencent.