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.
Dan Neil, Automotive Critic at the Wall Street Journal, got the first test drive of the high-performance version of Tesla's Model 3. He says the company has at least a five-year head start on competitors in metrics like software, batteries, and packaging.
The gaming industry is known to be skewed towards boys and men. Laila Shabir, CEO and founder of Girls Make Games, is trying to change that through three-week summer camps for young girls. "Being represented in a medium like games...is extremely important," says Shabir.
The actor, comedian, and activist created an augmented reality app called "House of Cats," which features an animated, satirical version of the president called "Trump-y Cat." A portion of the proceeds will go to support refugees. "We are going to counter his hostility with support," Takei tells Cheddar.
The San Francisco-based company, which uses artificial intelligence to generate training materials for large companies, just received an investment from JPMorgan Chase. "When you go to work, that's where A.I.'s going to have the greatest impact. It's less artificial intelligence and more augmented intelligence," says Carson Kahn, Volley's CTO.
Sonny Singh, Bitpay’s chief commercial officer, believes digital currencies will have real transactional value by next year. “Last year was a little bit about hype,” he tells Cheddar. “I think next year is going to be the year of mass adoption.”
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Comcast announced Thursday it will focus on snapping up British broadcaster Sky, clearing the way for Disney to acquire Fox's film and TV studios, the networks FX and NatGeo, and its stake in Hulu. The deal, however, would make the streaming landscape "more fragmented," says Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey.
Amazon Prime Day notched a record when members purchased more than 100 million products on the company-made shopping holiday. By and large, bigger retailers triumphed over smaller companies. The challenge for Amazon, though, according to Sucharita Kodali, retail analyst at Forrester, is how to offer more niche brands enough value that they don't opt instead to go direct-to-consumer.
Cigna CEO David Cordani is co-author of "The Courage To Go Forward," a new book that explores the unique impact of micro communities. Cordani hopes Cigna's recent acquisition of Express Scripts will localize healthcare networks and expand his consumer base.
The EU is hitting Google with a $5 billion fine over antitrust violations. The European Commission claims Google's Android operating system unfairly stifled competition.
Walmart is reportedly thinking of launching a streaming service. According to The Information, the retail giant is eyeing a cheaper alternative to Amazon and Netflix, which would cost just $8.
And we talk to Galia Benartzi, co-founder and head of business development at Bancor, which is the world's largest decentralized crypto exchange. Benartzi tells Cheddar how Bancor is hoping to eradicate poverty in parts of Kenya through a new token.
