The indictment of 13 Russians for interfering with the Presidential election has intensified the pressure put on Facebook, which uncovered about three-thousand Russian-linked ads on its platforms before and after November 2016. Cheddar Senior Reporter, Alex Heath, breaks down the the latest developments.
Facebook's Vice President for ads, Rob Goldman, tweeted about Russia's disinformation effort. President Trump then cited him. Facebook did not intend for Goldman’s tweets to be quoted by Trump. They thought the tweets would only be seen by a contextually-aware audience of techies and media types who follow Goldman.
Heath believes that the tweeting from Goldman and other execs is part of a carefully orchestrated PR campaign by Facebook to make itself appear more transparent and relate-able through engaged spokespeople on Twitter.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle united with labor leaders on Monday to slam GM's announcement that it would cut more than 14,000 jobs ー a combination of factory and office roles ー and put five plants on the chopping block.
Ohio officials will allow businesses to pay taxes in Bitcoin as of this week. While limited in scope, the move represents an important tacit admission by a government body that Bitcoin is an acceptable currency, according to Jimmy Song, a Bitcoin developer.
Scott Cutler, SVP of Americas at eBay, told Cheddar that the trends that are changing the retail landscape became clearer this year, with mobile purchases on the day before Thanksgiving now making for the unofficial kick-off to the season. EBay expects to gross more in online transactions than Walmart, Macy's and BestBuy combined.
E-commerce and mobile was the breakout star this Thanksgiving weekend with more customers picking the couch over the queue, shopping earlier ー and increasingly on their phones. "It's not just about Black Friday anymore ー there's the day before Thanksgiving, there's Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday. Small Business Saturday was pretty big too ... It's basically a whole week at this point," Rob Marvin, associate features editor at PCMag told Cheddar on Monday.
Elon Musk says there's a 70 percent chance he'll go to Mars ー even though there's also a good chance he won't come back. Musk spoke on his plans to personally take the SpaceX Starship (formerly known as the BFR) to Mars in an interview with Axios broadcast Sunday on HBO, during which he also said that Tesla was "single-digit weeks" from dying this spring and summer.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
MLG co-founder Mike Sepso takes a seat at the podcast table for a discussion on the lazy summer that inspired MLG.
On today's show: the collapse of the H1Z1 Pro League, the announcement of the "League of Legends" European Championship, and "Fortnite"'s first open cash-prize tournament in the Winter Royale ー plus, PlayVS announces $30 million in funding. Featuring CEO of PlayVS Delane Parnell and DreamHack Global FGC Director Alex Jebailey.
Discussion of Smash Summit 7, Dreamhack Atlanta 2018, Red Bull Conquest, and Chris Pratt's Fortnite ads in Korea.
Featuring former NFL running back Ahman Green, Kelsey Moser, Amanda Stevens, and NYXL Product Dev Manager Samira Behrouzan
PUBG announces their global league for 2019, Red Dead Redemption 2 releases, and Riot faces down a lawsuit for workplace discrimination. Featuring Guy Blaze, ESL brand partnerships SVP Paul Brewer, and CEO of Electronic Gaming Federation Tyler Schrodt.
