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.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will face the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday on Capitol Hill to discuss a variety of topics like hate speech and election interference. Tony Romm, Technology Reporter for the Washington Post, says Google's refusal to send a high-level exec could result in "huge PR hits" for the company.
To finish out August, Elon Musk changed his mind about taking his company private, sending shares down 6.5 percent this week. Reports also emerged that investor BlackRock voted to remove Musk as chairman.
Yext allows companies to control the information being sent to systems such as Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa, and manage that content just as they would their own websites, said CEO Howard Lerman. Yext shares rose Friday after it posted a smaller loss than expected for the latest quarter. The stock has about doubled since the company went public in April 2017.
Skip was one of two scooter companies chosen for San Francisco's pilot program for dockless rentals. While larger competitor Lime, whose application was rejected, criticized the decision, Skip CEO Sanjay Dastoor said his company actually has more experience than Lime and alluded to the slew of complaints levied against his rival.
Maryann Turcke, the COO of the NFL, is the highest ranking woman in professional sports leadership. She talks to Cheddar about gender inequality in the industry and what she's doing to reach a younger audience that's cutting the cord.
Amazon put out a statement refuting Bernie Sander's position that its workers were underpaid and overworked. Brian Heater, a hardware editor at TechCrunch, thinks the nearly $1 trillion company can withstand it.
In its pick of two small start-ups over Bird, Lime, Uber, and Lyft, San Francisco sent a signal that the most valuable mobility companies' "launch first, ask questions later" approach is catching up to them. Scoot Global and Skip were chosen because they said they would keep riders off the sidewalks and would provide services to low-income residents. Meanwhile, Santa Monica announced that it would open its shared mobility pilot program to e-scooters from Uber, Lyft, Bird, and Lime.
Paul Johnson, partner at Harbor Peak, said regulators are nervous about being interpreted as backing crypto investing. But Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to benefit from widespread user adoption, while other platforms will likely fade away.
Amazon's free video service for Fire TV owners, reportedly in the works, is a dual play, said Michael Simon of PCWorld: sell Fire TVs and keep Prime customers signed up for life.
Tesla's chief people officer is on an unexplained, extended leave of absence, just when the company needs to project an image of stability, says Brian Deagon of Investor's Business Daily. What the electric car maker really needs, Deagon says, is for CEO Elon Musk to get some rest.
