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National

Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

More than 1,000 accounts across several different social media platforms with suspicious, bot-like characteristics helped push quote tweets, a tweet that is retweeted but additional text is added, from Donald Trump campaign accounts during the third primary debate, according to an analysis provided to Axios by social media intelligence company Storyful. Those tweets accounted for the top 3 most-shared links across several social media platforms, including Facebook, Reddit, etc., during the debate.

Why it matters: Despite attempts by social media companies to weed out malicious behavior online, automated accounts are still driving a large part of the social conversation around political events.

Details: Storyful analyzed a total of 1.4 million posts made to public mainstream social platforms over 7 hours before, during and after the debate. The top 3 tweets, which came from legitimate accounts, together received over 15,500 retweets, thanks in large part to activity from accounts that demonstrated bot-like or automated behaviors.

The most-shared tweet came from @TeamTrump, the official Twitter account for the Trump Campaign, and contained a video of a pro-Trump banner flown over the debate location. The third-most shared tweet, which came from @TrumpWarRoom, also contained the same video.

The second most-shared tweet, also from @TrumpWarRoom, used a video to push back Sen. Cory Booker’s claim during the debate that Trump had not condemned white supremacists. 

AOC ad sparks anger: Storyful also found that there was a lot of social media criticism from people complaining about an ad that ran during the debate attacking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. While the ad ran on Sinclair Broadcast Group affiliate stations, Storyful found that a lot of the angst was geared toward ABC and Disney. 

Yang soars on social: Andrew Yang generated tons of online buzz coming in second behind Joe Biden in terms of overall candidate mentions on social media. Hashtags such as #yanggang, #isupportyang, #letyangspeak and #yang2020 received over 35,000 mentions during the debate. The report notes that The "YangGang" Discord channel and the "r/YangForPresident," Reddit group, pushed hashtags in support of Yang, bolstering his mentions online. Yang's campaign encouraged the use of those hashtags during the debate via Twitter. 

Candidates, ranked: In terms of candidates mentioned online during the debate: 

Conversation spikes: Conversation online spiked most during Yang’s opening statement when he promised to give $10,000 to 10 families, followed by Julián Castro's comments toward Joe Biden about forgetting his comments from 2 minutes prior.

Methodology: Storyful’s analysis uses a proprietary methodology that assigns weightings to 9 distinct criteria commonly associated with dubious or bot-like activity.

Most-shared links during debate were pro-Trump tweets pushed by bots

Automated accounts drive a large part of the social conversation around political events.

Democratic candidates on the debate stage. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Business

Twitter

Technology

Big Tech

Social Media

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.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sentenced actress Felicity Huffman on Friday to 14 days in prison, a $30,000 fine, a year of supervised probation and 250 hours of community service in part of what authorities have called the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Justice Department, per the AP.

Why it matters: Huffman is now the first parent to be sentenced of 34 charged in the admissions scandal led by consultant William Singer. The federal investigation, dubbed "Operation Varsity Blues," characterized the scheme as involving corrected admissions test scores, falsified student achievements and disabilities and bribed college coaches and administrators at prominent universities.

Context: Huffman was charged for paying $15,000 in 2017 to have her daughter's SAT score secretly corrected. In May, Huffman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. Earlier this month, she wrote in a letter to the federal judge presiding over her case that she consulted Singer for a year but did not know the scheme existed.

The amount Huffman paid is relatively low compared to other bribes alleged in the scheme.

The college admissions scandal involved at least $25 million, 750 families and went on from 2011 to early 2019.

Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, recently pleaded not guilty to their roles in the scheme.

How it worked: Singer managed and profited from the scheme through his nonprofit called The Key Worldwide Foundation. 

Singer pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud U.S. and obstruction of justice in March.

Federal prosecutors charged more than 50 people in their probe.

The schools involved included Yale University, Wake Forest University, the University of San Diego, Stanford University, Georgetown University, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.

What's next: "The case is seen as an indicator of what’s to come for others charged in the case. Over the next two months, nearly a dozen other parents are scheduled to be sentenced after pleading guilty. A total of 15 parents have pleaded guilty, while 19 are fighting the charges," per the AP.

Go deeper: Timeline: The major developments in the college admissions scandal

Felicity Huffman sentenced to 14 days in prison in college admissions scandal

Huffman is now the first parent sentenced in the scandal.

Actress Felicity Huffman is escorted by Police into court on May 13, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Actress Felicity Huffman escorted by police into court on May 13 in Boston, Massachusetts. Photo: Getty Images/ Joseph Prezioso / AFP

Politics

College Bribery Scandal

Three years after his career-defining, and ending, defeat in the 2016 referendum on the U.K.'s membership in European Union, Cameron sat down with Andrew Billen of the Times of London ahead of the release of his memoir next week.

Why it matters: Cameron's successor, Theresa May, was swallowed up by Brexit chaos and replaced last month by Boris Johnson — Cameron's rival in the referendum campaign. In the interview, Cameron claims Johnson supported the "Leave" side out of personal ambition, left "the truth at home" during the campaign and never expected to win. He also says a second referendum may be needed to resolve the Brexit question.

The backstory: With British politics now defined almost entirely by Brexit, Cameron has little natural support.

"Remainers" loath him for calling the referendum, while "Leavers" distrust him for leading the opposing campaign. 

Anger has also bubbled up over the idea that Cameron fled the scene after Brexit and left the rest of the country to deal with the consequences.

Cameron tells Billen he understands that anger, but insists a referendum was "inevitable" after repeated promises.

Cameron says the result, and his resignation, left him "hugely depressed."

"Every single day I think about it, the referendum and the fact that we lost and the consequences and the things that could have been done differently, and I worry desperately about what is going to happen next."

Cameron accuses fellow Conservatives of crossing a red line in their attacks on him during the campaign. He writes in the book that Johnson and Michael Gove, his former cabinet minister and personal friend, behaved "appallingly."

Cameron says he's exchanged a few texts with Johnson. He also notes that Johnson sent him a text the day he resigned — an apology for not having been "in touch."

He says he texted "frequently" with May, commiserating about the "maddening" steps hardliners like Johnson had taken to derail her Brexit plan (which he says he would have voted for).

What to watch: Cameron says he doesn't support the tactics Johnson has used — suspending Parliament and expelling members who voted against him. He opposes a "no-deal" Brexit and says a second referendum might be needed, "because we're stuck."

Flashback: Cameron, who served from 2010-2016, allows himself a bit of speculation about what might have been.

He defends his "economic rescue job" after the 2008 recession and his steps on the environment. 

He argues that if he'd only been able to reform and then reaffirm the U.K.'s membership in the EU through a referendum victory, it would have been "a boon for Britain."

If that had happened, he might still be in office. And his legacy might not start and end with the worst defeat of his career.

David Cameron breaks his post-resignation silence

Boris Johnson might not enjoy his forthcoming memoir.

Cameron (L) with Boris Johnson in 2015. Photo: Jack Taylor/AFP/Getty Images

World

United Kingdom

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

Whats Next

Axios What's Next

Software designers can work almost anywhere, but writing code for a self-driving car tends to be a hands-on exercise — engineers need to directly experience how a vehicle performs and hone software as needed.

The big picture: Companies that design autonomous vehicles are maturing and beginning to rethink that convention. There's a war for talent across all tech industries, requiring AV companies to get creative to attract the top experts.

What's happening: In Silicon Valley, which is the heart of the self-driving industry, AV startups are competing with gold-plated compensation packages from deep-pocketed tech giants like Facebook, Apple and Google.

Plus, many people can't afford to live in Silicon Valley or won't move there.

One example is at Cruise, GM's San Francisco-based self-driving subsidiary, where 10 of the 42 senior engineers working for VP Tim Piastrelli's security team are working remotely from places like Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.

Voyage was an early pioneer in hiring remote engineers to work on self-driving technology. The Palo Alto-based startup, which raised $31 million this week, is piloting automated ride-hailing shuttles in a Florida retirement community and began experimenting with the arrangement about a year ago.

Early on, engineers really did have to be physically close to the car in Palo Alto, Voyage CEO Oliver Cameron tells Axios.

As the company matured and expanded testing, hands-on engineering instead became a "pain point," he says, so the company built tools that would let engineers work from anywhere.

Voyage now has veterans from Apple, SpaceX and Twitter working on critical AV projects in places like Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Boise.

How it works: Reliable simulation, along with powerful cloud computing and other tools to manage the massive amounts of raw data collected daily from self-driving test vehicles, make it possible, Cameron explains in a blog post.

Vehicle data can be quickly downloaded by an engineer who can iterate rapidly and test those changes in simulated environments.

When something can't be validated virtually, it can still be tested by human operators in the vehicle.

Yes, but: Hands-on vehicle experience remains critical to most hiring managers at AV companies, says Jessica Robinson, executive director of the nonprofit Michigan Mobility Institute.

What's next: There's "a very obvious ceiling" to remote hiring in the AV industry as self-driving cars move out of the design phase and begin to proliferate on roadways, Brookings Institution fellow Adie Tomer tells Axios.

At that point, the workforce will shift to managing AV fleets, a decidedly hands-on occupation where it will be critical for redundant teams to work side-by-side.

Go deeper: Imported self-driving shuttles have an edge over their U.S. rivals

Tech's talent war forces self-driving car companies to get creative

There's a war for talent across all tech industries, requiring creative thinking.

Transportation

Self-driving cars

Pro Rata

Axios Pro Rata

WeWork tried breathing new life into its IPO this morning with a new filing disclosing significant changes to voting structure, lockups, profit-sharing, and succession-planning.

Why it matters: Almost all of this is about reducing the power of co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann, who remains more controversial among many investors than WeWork's business model. 

Cut the power of Neumann's super-voting stock from 20 votes per share to 10 votes per share, and convert it to one vote per share if Neumann were to die or become incapacitated.

Give WeWork's board the ability to remove Neumann as CEO and choose a successor. It also plans to name an independent director by year-end.

Neumann already pledged not to sell any stock in the first year post-IPO, and now will limit any sales in years two and three to no more than 10% of his holdings.

Neumann also "will give to the company any profits he receives from the real estate transactions he has entered into with the company." Unclear if this also includes past profits.

All of this follows Neumann's recent return to the company of a $5.9 million stock payment for the "We" family of trademarks.

The bottom line: Last month we wrote that WeWork had put its IPO at risk via a series of unforced errors, many of which could be corrected in amended filings. The company has now done just that. What we still don't know is if fund managers will be willing to forgive and invest, or if they just can't shake their first impression.

Go deeper: WeWork CEO returns $5.9 million "trademark payment" to the company

WeWork reins in CEO to save IPO

Adam Neumann is more controversial among many investors than WeWork's business model.

WeWork

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

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

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Friday a lawsuit that accused President Trump of violating the Constitution's emoluments clause, per Bloomberg.

Why it matters: The decision dredges up one of the president's most persistent ongoing legal threats. It's a high-level ruling for such a case and could force the president to defend himself in court because only an expanded version of the Second Circuit or the Supreme Court could overturn the decision.

The case was originally brought by Trump's business rivals in New York, but was dismissed by a lower-level federal judge in December 2017.

The big picture: This isn't the only emoluments-linked case that the president has faced.

The Fourth Circuit dismissed a suit brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia in July.

A separate lawsuit from congressional Democrats is also working its way through the courts.

Go deeper: Trump made at least $434 million from his business in 2018

Federal appeals court reinstates Trump emoluments case

The decision dredges up one of the president's most persistent legal threats.

Axios

Friday's top stories

Most-shared links during debate were pro-Trump tweets pushed by bots

Felicity Huffman sentenced to 14 days in prison in college admissions scandal

David Cameron breaks his post-resignation silence

Tech's talent war forces self-driving car companies to get creative

WeWork reins in CEO to save IPO

Federal appeals court reinstates Trump emoluments case

WATCH: The viral moments from last night's debate

Justice Department presses Google rivals for info as part of antitrust inquiry

ECB head Mario Draghi's time is running out

5 takeaways from the third Democratic debate

The streaming battlefield is getting crowded

Debate night: Biden, Warren, Sanders and the fight for frontrunner

O'Rourke: "Hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15"

Biden gets pressed on Obama era record deportations