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.
The retail giant's fourth annual Prime Day begins July 16 and will last 36 hours, making it the longest one to date. But the company may have an ulterior motive for the low prices, says Matt Swider, senior mobile and buying guides editor at Tech Radar. "They're trying to install their products...into your home so they have you for life. It's a really ingenious, supervillian-type idea by Jeff Bezos," he tells Cheddar.
With Instagram offering more ways to shop, experts are comparing the experience to a mall. "You're browsing when you're on Instagram," says Richard Greenfield, media & tech analyst at BTIG. "It's a very different mode than the mode you're in when you're on Amazon."
The cryptocurrency was on the rise Thursday, but experts are skeptical about how long it will last. "We're not going to blast past 10k," said Jonny Dubowsky, cyberneticist and chief technical officer at My Personal Therapeutics.
The company behind XRP, the third highest cryptocurrency by market cap, wants the digital asset to become more than just an investment for consumers and that's been difficult partly because of the confusion around the technology. But Ripple's Chief Market Strategist Cory Johnson says consumers don't need to understand the technology to use it. "Do you actually know what happens when you send a text message and throw some emojis onto it?"
Singapore's competition watchdog is proposing fines on Uber and Grab, saying the recent merger between the two companies stifles competition. The Competition and Consumer Commission, or CCCS, even suggested unwinding the deal between Uber and Grab. Last March, Uber sold its Southeast Asia business to ride-hailing rival, Grab.
Amazon is reportedly planning to roll out a holiday catalog later this year. The catalog would be mailed out to millions of U.S. households and would also be available to customers at Whole Foods locations across the country. The e-commerce giant is looking to attract holiday shoppers from Toys R Us after the toy chain shuttered all U.S. stores.
Business Insider reported that Tesla's CEO Elon Musk asked engineers to halt putting Model 3 vehicles through a standard brake and roll alignment test before leaving the factory floor.
The federal investigation into Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal is expanding. AT&T raising prices on DirecTV Now by $5 a month. Trump’s shortlist for replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat on the Supreme Court.
The e-cigarette company announced last week it was raising $1.2 billion, which would value it at $15 billion. Dan Primack, business editor at Axios, tells Cheddar that the "valuation is justified on the math," but questions the company's ethics. “Does it want to stop kids from getting these?”
The ride-sharing company is following rival Uber into the bike-sharing business, buying Motivate, the company that owns Citi Bike. The deal is estimated to be worth about $250 million and would give Lyft “exclusive rights” to contracts already existing in some cities, says Patrick Sisson, senior reporter at Curbed. Uber acquired electric bike company Jump Bikes earlier this year.
The SEC, FBI, and FTC are reportedly joining the Justice Department in investigating whether the social network withheld information about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Shares of Facebook were down in early trade on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Elon Musk said the electric automaker produced 5,000 of the mass-market vehicles in the last week of June, finally hitting the target originally set for the third quarter of last year. A day later, the company announced its senior vice president of engineering Doug Field, who'd been on a leave of absence since May, had stepped down from his position.
