*By Michael Teich*
Democrats led by Senator Mark Warner are stepping up the charge against big tech, but they may not accomplish anything unless the party makes major gains in the midterm elections, according to Axios reporter David McCabe.
Disinformation and privacy concerns on social media platforms have become a major concern of many lawmakers after Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election was uncovered.
"It's not hugely surprising to see Democrats engaging on the disinformation piece because of the concerns about 2016," McCabe said Tuesday in an interview with Cheddar.
Facebook has spent nearly two years working to counter political misinformation campaigns on its platform. The company announced Tuesday it found and removed 32 pages and accounts linked to an influence campaign on Facebook and Instagram. Warner said in a statement Tuesday that "the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to sow division and spread disinformation."
Before Facebook's announcement, McCabe had obtained Warner's policy papers, which propose 20 ways to address disinformation online, protect user privacy, and encourage greater competition.
McCabe said he's skeptical that Warner's proposals can be enacted in the near-term. Despite a growing tech-lash and heightened concerns over data privacy that resulted from Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, the issues are not priorities for Democrats or Republicans.
"Going into midterms, this hasn’t proven to be a big election issue," McCabe said before Facebook's latest revelation.
If Democrats can shift party control of Congress in November, they may be able to get enough momentum behind Warner's ideas, said McCabe. But even if they do well in midterms, the Democrats will have to go up against big tech's robust lobbying efforts. McCabe said the Democrats' intentions, as outlined by Warner, may prompt tech companies to spend even more on lobbying lawmakers in Washington.
In September, legislators will question social media executives including Twitter's Jack Dorsey in order to evaluate how government regulations might prevent the spread of misinformation and propaganda on social platforms.
For more on this, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/mark-warners-uphill-battle-against-big-tech).
Snap has hired a new chief business officer and chief strategy officer. The news comes a day before the company's earnings release and as Cheddar's Alex Heath reports an internal survey suggests 40 percent of Snap employees don't plan to stay around very long.
After Trivago's latest earnings report on Wednesday, it can once again claim profitability, a milestone the CEO hopes will restore faith in the travel-booking platform.
"I think for us it was super important to get back to profitability, to really show what this company can achieve and to gain confidence and to show the markets, 'Hey, Trivago can be a profitable company,'" Rolf Schroemgens told Cheddar Wednesday.
Tesla shares are surging as investors prepare for the company to release quarterly earnings Wednesday after the markets close. President Trump criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (again) in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. And Kerry Bishé and Corey Stoll join Cheddar to talk about their roles on Amazon's new series 'The Romanoffs.'
Stocks declined sharply Wednesday afternoon, with the Nasdaq recording its biggest monthly drop in almost a decade, as bad housing news and global trade concerns added to another tumultuous day on Wall Street.
Apple CEO Tim Cook made his most forceful comments yet on the privacy concerns plaguing the tech industry, telling a conference in Brussels, Belgium that a "data-industrial complex" has led to eroding privacy rights around the world. Cook then called on the U.S. to adopt a landmark federal privacy law like the GDPR that went into effect earlier this year in the EU.
Snapchat employees are looking to jump ship in growing numbers after a botched app redesign and drop in stock price soured many on the company’s future, according to an internal, anonymous survey.
Markets may have closed off their lows of the day, but Jack Kramer, co-founder and co-CEO of MarketSnacks, said there's still plenty that could weigh on investors over the next year.
Teens are abandoning Snapchat and turning to Instagram and Brian Deagon, senior reporter for Investor's Business Daily, said that Snapchat could likely not recover from its recent blunders.
Notable short-seller Andrew Left of Citron Research has turned positive on the electric-car manufacturer. But Daniel Sparks, contributing senior tech analyst at Motley Fool, said the call may be more of a short-term bet.
Facebook is unveiling a redesigned, simplified version of its Messenger app that recalls the basic chat service the social media giant released as standalone app in 2014. Stan Chudnovsky, Facebook's head and VP of Messenger, told Cheddar's Hope King that the purpose of the overhaul was to "go back to the roots" with a simple, easy-to-use interface that prioritizes chats between friends.
