2k20, what's the worst enormous tech company?

softbank really are gonna singlehandedly destroy the world economy huh

fun read

STOP THE ZUCKIES

https://gothamist.com/news/facebook-will-lease-730000-square-feet-farley-post-office-building

bring your flamethrowers, NYC

this is "fun": https://simpletexting.com/tech-ceo-salary/

BREAKING: Facebook refused to apply hate-speech rules to BJP officials, despite evidence of their violent and Islamophobic rhetoric on the platform. A smoking gun from @WSJ:

Read now: https://t.co/jU7nxV2QR2

— Equality Labs (@EqualityLabs) August 14, 2020

Paywalled article but highlights that Facebook has been permitting hate speech from right-wing Indian politicians, having hired a BJP supporter to oversee public policy.

Not completely dissimilar to a case in Ukraine where an investigative news outlet had their page deleted after writing an article exposing far-right activists linked to the organisation that does Facebook’s local fact-checking.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/world/europe/ukraine-facebook-fake-news.html

The local head of public policy is another controversial nationalist.

it's a garbage company and people who use its platform are morons

It took Apple 42 years to reach $1 trillion in value. It took it just two more years to get to $2 trillion.

Even more stunning: All of Apple’s second $1 trillion came in the past 21 weeks, while the global economy shrank faster than ever before in the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday Apple became the first U.S. company to hit a $2 trillion valuation when its shares climbed 1.2 percent to $467.78 in morning trading. It was another milestone for the maker of iPhones, Mac computers and Apple Watches, cementing its title as the world’s most valuable public company and punctuating how the pandemic has been a bonanza for the tech giants.

Apple is not a noble company by any stretch of the imagination but they shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as FB, Google/Alphabet, Amazon, Uber imo

this is about right

Always find @ReadMargins fascinating https://t.co/tV5smIomXQ pic.twitter.com/QQcFtP7kfU

— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) August 31, 2020

Facebook to ban political advertising

the week before the election

After reaping all those sweet political dollars, like sucking a marrow bone.

why do people still use it

They haven't banned political advertising in the week before the election they've banned new political adverts in the week before the election. Existing adverts can be retargeted, have their speed adjusted. Your bullshit will be slightly stale but it will still be served up by the shovel load.

Basically they have done the minimum amount possible without actually doing anything, so they can announce they are doing something.

Also, they "banned" political advertising in Washington State 21 months ago, after being repeatedly sued by the Attorney General for violating electoral law regarding disclosure.

They then continued to sell political adverts, but had lawyers argue that they did not have to follow the law and make disclosures about them, because they had a policy banning them, therefore they did not keep any information about their sale.

and people still use it

This is a disturbing development.

Last Friday, Facebook sent a cease-and-desist letter to two NYU researchers (@LauraEdelson2 and Damon McCoy), demanding that they shut down their research into political ads and disinformation on FB’s platform.https://t.co/ksBVmqV27K

— Alex Abdo (@AlexanderAbdo) October 23, 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/oct/23/facebook-moderators-forced-to-work-in-dublin-office-despite-high-tier-lockdown

It's always simultaneously sad and hilarious when the tech bros testify on capital hill. You get, like, Jack Dorsey, with his wizard beard and nose ring and obvious tech knowhow, and then on the other side these 75-year old white guys who can barely check their AOL.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?476686-1/facebook-google-twitter-execs-testify-social-media-regulations&live

One of several fantastic answers from various Amazon help desk workers in this thread. (At some point they stop signing their initials to 'em.)

Thank you for that information. We apologize but upon reviewing your location you're in Northern Ireland. Rugby Autumn Nations Cup coverage is exclusively available to Prime members based in the UK. We don't have the rights to other territories. ^RS

— Amazon Help (@AmazonHelp) November 14, 2020

You apologise for the TROUBLES??? https://t.co/LPwwSjA9Ci

— jericho cane stan account (@brynteresting) November 14, 2020

1. A small business began selling camera tripods on Amazon
2. It reached $3.5 million in sales, 0.001% of Amazon's revenue
3. Amazon copied the tripods exactly and sold them as AmazonBasics tripods
4. Amazon banned the tripod company from Amazonhttps://t.co/f930Dvjpdp

— Dan Price (@DanPriceSeattle) December 22, 2020

Time for a new thread?

“RAGA received significant funding from numerous corporations in 2020," including Koch Industries ($375k), Amazon ($100k), Chevron ($50k), the NRA ($50k), Monsanto ($50k), Facebook ($50k), Uber ($50k), Coca Cola ($50k), Exxon ($50k), and Google ($25k) https://t.co/v6EwRXXn2C

— Kate Aronoff (@KateAronoff) January 9, 2021

(RAGA was the group that funded the 1/6 insurrection of the Capitol)

Google threaten to cut off search if the Australian government stop Facebook from bootlegging newspapers

Good, Google search is absolute dogballs. Let another competitor enjoy the traffic.

If only DDG converted easily to a verb.

The experience of searching on Google and shopping on Amazon both absolutely suck now so that should be all the evidence anyone needs to prosecute them for antitrust violations

If they weren’t monopolists nobody would use them anymore

A crazy detail in this @GrimKim story: Amazon got city employees to *change the stoplight* at the facility workers are trying to unionize. Organizers had been stopping cars at the light w/ info on the union.

This is how hard it is to organize when Amazon has govt in its pocket. https://t.co/CJ6kcy54uk

— Asya Pikovsky (@AsyaPikovsky) February 5, 2021

Google threaten to cut off search if the Australian government stop Facebook from bootlegging newspapers

― shivers me timber (sic), Friday, January 22, 2021 11:35 AM (three weeks ago)

Facebook have started classifying and restricting "news" pages in Australia in anticipation of this legislation. It's going well.

Facebook has banned Facebook's own Facebook page pic.twitter.com/bvZGRaO77H

— Andrew Brown (@AndrewBrownAU) February 17, 2021

They also blocked various governmental departments, whole state governments, and the Bureau of Meteorology, before, sadly, reclassifying them.

I'm not sure in this one wether to hate Zuck or Murdoch. Both have mefarious aims here tbh.

Nefarious rather. Stupidfingers.

I hear some dinosaurs had a tiny brain in each one of their fingers and yet they were dumb as a bag of hammers anyway.

there's literally no reason to stop hating either

100% endorse Facebook requiring users to access international news on a platform not riddled with Nazis and publishing conspiracy theories next to the news stories.

Not only has Facebook banned Australian news orgs, it’s Australian users can’t view the pages of international news orgs either. @BBCNews, @CNN and @nytimes are all gone. pic.twitter.com/6x4mvPs798

— Peter Law (@PeterJohnLaw) February 17, 2021

Frankly I never went to FB for any of my news to start with and its weirding me out how many ppl I know apparently do.

I don't understand Facebook full stop but surely if you want the ABC news you go to the ABC website. Would be great if we could get them to fuck off out of australia completely.

This feels like a genuinely interesting development? Like o dunno but I feel this could really fuck up Facebook and drive audiences back toward traditional news sources. Why did I hear the phrase “narrator voice” as soon as I typed that sentence.

Hard to imagine anything at all being of less concern than this

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher says he has spoken to the administrator of North Shore Mums, whose Facebook page has also been blocked, "and that is of significant concern"

— Michael Koziol (@michaelkoziol) February 18, 2021

the Federal Minister for Communications has probably already refunded the ABC's shortwave disaster/emergency regional broadcasting today and is just working right down the bottom of the list though

Arent NSM one of those antivax nobs?

My friend's online vintage store is blocked by this too for some reason. She's not bitching about it to a senator though.

So: Facebook's nuclear-option has really badly distracted from something really serious and significant. Google has entered into an agreement to *pay cash* to spread Infowars-grade misinformation about climate and energy.

My post -> https://t.co/TbmxciyBN4

And a quick 🧵...

— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) February 19, 2021

A rideshare driver terminated an active ride because one of his passengers refused to wear a mask. The passenger ended up punching the driver, grabbing his phone and trying to steal it, and then upon exiting peppersprayed the driver from outside the car.

Here's how Uber responded:

The fundraiser was organized by Cyan Banister, an early investor in Uber who was appalled by the amount of money Uber gave to the driver after the incident.

"Uber then failed to step up to take care of this Uber driver to help him with lost wages and cleaning from having pepper spray chemicals sprayed into the fabric of his car," a statement read on the fundraising page. "They instead began with only offering $20 in compensation for having pepper spray covering his interior fabric. They then upped it to $120 in compensation but this does not come close to the expenses needed to have a professional car detailing to try and remove the strong chemicals of pepper spray and also the lost wages from not being able to work."

Jeff Bezos will soon be the owner of a $500 million superyacht he purchased two years ago, and whose construction is nearing completion, according to Bloomberg. The yacht will be 417 feet long, include several decks, and will also come with its own “support” yacht, complete with helipad.

In other words, this yacht—among the largest ever built in the Netherlands—comes with its own yacht.

Bezos is just one billionaire among many to recently “splurge” on a superyacht. Steven Spielberg is reportedly trading in his modest $158 million yacht for one from the same company currently manufacturing Bezos’s. And overall the “market’s been roaring,” a superyacht appraisal expert told Bloomberg, even (and especially) during the pandemic. Bloomberg explains:

Covid wasn’t a factor when Bezos put in his order a couple years ago, but it has contributed to the industry’s boom. With galas canceled and land borders closed, yachting suddenly seemed the best option for private, socially distanced leisure and a good way to escape from the prying eyes of the public that might look askance at wealthy overindulgence during difficult times.

I suspect part of the mental justification of owning a super yacht is as an insurance policy against the breakdown of social order.

i'm reading https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52019031-notes-from-an-apocalypse right now and there's a good chapter on that

for half a billion dollars you shouldn't have to take a zodiac to the support yacht whenever you want to fly out

Mr Choppy

I for one don't want to pay for anything, or see any ads

Haven't used an oil lamp in years.

definitely eager to hear what Japan's scientific whaling uncovers about these fierce leviathans of the deep

i'd prefer not to

Smart Move, Google

For as long as I can remember, maps.google.com was the defacto domain for Google Maps. Also for as long as I can remember, I allowed this domain to use the location services of my browser.

Yesterday I was asked to allow the usage of location services for Google Maps seemingly out of nowhere. Of course I accepted. After all, I just wanted to check a route to a local business and I was in a hurry. Back home I opened Google Maps again, and noticed that maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps. This implies that the permissions I give to Google Maps now apply to all of Googles services hosted under this domain. So far I only identified Google Flights to have made the same switch (google.com/flights), though I'm sure they're just beginning to transfer their services to the main google.com domain.

Congratulations, you now have permission to geo-track me across all of your services.

Smart move, Google.

congratulations to the tories!

As a parent, and based on recent experience, fucking Roblox

my nephew is absolutely addicted. so i've seen him play it a million times, and also read the stuff about manipulating kids into becoming employees. is there anything new to be horrified at with roblox or is it mainly that? the internet, arguably, is bad

The boy's basically learned how to code through Roblox.

I'm not saying that's a great thing, but it's better than what I got from Sega Genesis.

I don't know how common a problem it is or if they've made improvements with this, but I've definitely heard of predators on roblox

YouTube Will Stop Removing Videos Pushing Lies About the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election https://t.co/AUcJ5lfGvN

— Variety (@Variety) June 2, 2023

It's cool to see the entire world slowly shifting towards 'but what if we just stopped giving a fuck about anything?' as an overarching ethos. The structure of society will regulate itself independent of the behavior of its constituents, nbd.

I just wanna see Deep Purple videos from 1971, not this garbage

Google’s return-to-office crackdown reportedly includes a $99 hotel for workers

The tech giant is offering a $99-a-night “Summer Special” deal for an on-campus hotel to “make it easier for Googlers to transition to the hybrid workplace,” according to CNBC, which viewed promotional materials and internal forums. Employees must pay out of their own pockets for the special, which is open until Sept. 30, the outlet found.

The offer comes as the YouTube and Android owner cracks down on remote work by more strictly enforcing its three-day-a-week policy. The Wall Street Journal reported in June that Google told employees office attendance records would start to figure into performance reviews.

I'd figure the answer is ALL OF THEM at this point.

Good, I want people to stop moving here while still making their coastal salaries.

Well this pretty fucted. Humans suck.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/02/ai-chatbot-training-human-toll-content-moderator-meta-openai

https://erinkissane.com/meta-in-myanmar-part-i-the-setup

ignoring repeated credible warnings that your product is enabling genocide - pretty bad i would say.

they pay very well though.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/11/business/ebay-cyberstalking-settlement/index.html

Seems like a slap on the wrist, though the lawsuit from the targeted couple is still pending.

Should have been more, but:

the $3 million settlement, announced Thursday, is the statutory maximum fine for eBay’s charges

zuckerberg:

I think there’s been this trend over time where the feeds started off as primarily and exclusively content for people you followed, your friends. I guess it was friends early on, then it kind of broadened out to, “Okay, you followed a set of friends and creators.” And then it got to a point where the algorithm was good enough where we’re actually showing you a lot of stuff that you’re not following directly because, in some ways,
that’s a better way to show you more interesting stuff than only constraining it to things that you’ve chosen to follow.

they absolutely believe their own bullshit - that it's good for people, not that it absolutely sucks for people but generates wealth for them.

I think the next logical jump on that is like, “Okay, we’re showing you content from your friends and creators that you’re following and creators that you’re not following that are generating interesting things. And you just add on to that, a layer of, “Okay, and we’re also going to show you content that’s generated by an AI system that might be something that you’re interested in.”

aaargh

https://www.theverge.com/24253481/meta-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-ar-glasses-orion-ray-bans-ai-decoder-interview

“and from there, it’s a logical leap to start showing you turds left behind by the types of animals that people who fit your profile have shown an interest in”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/us/politics/trump-tech-inauguration-parties.html

Facebook, Spotify, X, etc etc

https://i.postimg.cc/KYBr6msQ/Gqjkzcx-Xc-AAR7p-X.jpg

That is some actually successful underpants gnoming! Make the product worse so we can sell more of it.

Same Cart, Different Price: Instacart’s Price Experiments Cost Families at Checkout
https://groundworkcollaborative.org/work/instacart/

Two shoppers walk into the exact same grocery store, at the exact same time, and pick up the exact same box of Cheerios. Then, they head to the cash register to check out. This sounds like the opening to one of those “three guys walk into a bar” jokes — but there is nothing funny about this punchline.

The first shopper is charged $4.99. She pays and leaves the store with her box of cereal. The second customer steps up to the register and is charged $6.12. He’s ticked and tells the cashier that he, too, should pay $4.99, just like the woman in front of him. His response is understandable. Customers expect to pay the exact same price, for the exact same item, and his experience violates our shared understanding of how pricing for essential products like groceries is supposed to work.

But increasingly, this scenario is no longer hypothetical, it’s real. In fact, the proliferation of new pricing practices and technologies has upended pricing transparency. Fair pricing is no longer a guarantee in the cereal aisle or anywhere else. Our research suggests that companies like Instacart — the focus of this study — are developing, acquiring, and perfecting technology to experiment with pricing, at scale.

These new strategies are pervasive in the growing online grocery sector, with $10 billion in sales in a single month in 2025 and more than 60% of U.S. households reporting they have purchased groceries online.1 At a time when food price inflation outpaces overall inflation, and Americans report that the price of groceries is their number one cost concern, pricing experiments used by companies like Instacart are making the situation worse.

One has to wonder across all businesses how many of these schema are running that are small enough to not really be noticed but the results in money made are impressive in the aggregate. Like the plot of 'Office Space' turned the other way. I would think the current climate, it probably could easily and widely go unnoticed except on the company bottom line. People have complained for years or decades about all the weird ass charges that end up on phone bills or cable bills, got to think that is probably all over the place.

Credit card companies/banks have had the sweetest deal of all (outside maybe like a Megachurch) where they get a sliver cut on every sale being made with the plastic, both taking a cut from the seller and buyer. What a racket. I always pay my local people at the garage or that say do some work on my house in cash if I can.

Compounding interest of bullshit world.