WEBVTT - Tech News: Riots and Coups and Facebook, Oh My! 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:14.920 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.040 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.560 and I love all things tech. And this is the 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:29.280 news for Tuesday, February ninth one. On Monday, Facebook announced 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.320 that the company would take a stronger stance against posts 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:38.880 containing misinformation regarding vaccines. This is an escalation of earlier 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.839 Facebook policies. In October twenty, Facebook said it would no 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.680 longer sell ad space to parties that promoted misleading information 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:52.720 about vaccines. Then in December, Facebook upped the anti by 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.040 saying it would remove posts the elevated claims that had 0:00:56.080 --> 0:01:00.920 been debunked by the World Health Organization or w HO. 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.800 But Monday's announcement broadens this approach behind vaccines for COVID 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:10.360 nineteen and encompasses all vaccines period. While Facebook used to 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.520 flag misleading posts and then just down rank them, you know, 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:19.240 not remove them, but reduce their rank, that would just 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.200 mean that they were less likely to show up in 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:26.000 users feeds. Now the company will actually remove posts promoting 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:30.400 false claims about vaccinations. Facebook worked with the World Health 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:35.039 Organization and other governmental agencies to create something like a 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:39.880 database of false or misleading claims. According to a Facebook 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:43.240 post on the matter, the company's stance on vaccines falls 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:48.520 under multiple user policies. For example, content that would promote 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:54.040 events intended to spread COVID nineteen on purpose, presumably in 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.080 the belief that catching it is better than being vaccinated 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:01.760 against it, would fall under the coordinating Harm policy. Because 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:06.560 it turns out Facebook is against coordinating harm, which frankly 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.480 is news to me. So I suppose other things that 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.560 would fall into this category would include, uh, Facebook pages 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.960 dedicated for big public events in places that have a 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:23.800 quarantine or lockdown in place, you know, That would presumably 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:29.359 fall under the coordinating harm policy. Meanwhile, under the Regulated 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:33.000 Goods policy, Facebook says it will prohibit posts that are 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:37.600 attempting to sell quote medical and respiratory face masks and 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:42.400 COVID nineteen test kits end quote. Apparently there are a 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.480 lot of parties out there selling stuff that's like a 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:51.640 counterfeit type of of medical mask or tests that haven't 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.519 actually been cleared by any regulatory agency, that kind of thing, 0:02:56.200 --> 0:03:00.480 And it's a real bear to wade through. The legit 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.960 versus the illegitimate one, so Facebook saying, all right, we're 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.680 just not going to run those ads. Under the hate 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.799 speech policy, Facebook will remove content that suggests people who 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:15.440 share a protected characteristic are in some way, you know, 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.880 responsible for the virus, or they are spreading the virus 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:25.040 and so on. But this doesn't include national origin as 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:27.800 an outright band because Facebook states that it wants to 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:32.640 allow for posts about health statistics that are not hate speech. 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:37.680 Rather they are giving important information such as x percent 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:42.720 of Americans have caught COVID nineteen since the beginning of 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:46.160 the pandemic, something like that, And you wouldn't want to 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.240 put a full ban on uh nation of origin because 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.520 the information could be really useful. And there's a whole 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:58.560 list of prohibited content that falls under Facebook's Community Standards barrier, 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:03.440 and that includes a ton of stuff, including more broadly 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:07.240 debunked claims about vaccines in general, such as the claim 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.040 that they cause autism, despite the fact that you know 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:14.440 that claim has been thoroughly rejected and the researchers who 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:19.120 first proposed the link between vaccines and autism we're later 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:23.520 found to have essentially fabricated the whole thing, but the 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.400 idea has still stuck around and a lot of people 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.479 latch onto it. Facebook will now remove those posts when 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.480 they catch them, though I should add the language indicates 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.880 that this general policy really is only in effect for 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:41.400 as long as there is a COVID nineteen public health emergency, 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.000 so there's no telling if the company is going to 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:47.320 ease off on these restrictions later on down the road. 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.120 According to Facebook, the reason behind these changes comes from 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.560 the Facebook Oversight Board, which is the independent group that 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:59.240 would recently formed to review Facebook's content moderation policies. And 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:03.000 while we're talking about Facebook, Forbes published an article that 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.680 put claims made by the company's chief operating officer under 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:11.960 the microscope. The CEO of Facebook is Cheryl Sandberg, and 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.880 the specific claims were regarding the siege on the US capital. 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:21.440 On January six, Sandberg had said quote, I think these 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:25.200 events were largely organized on platforms that don't have our 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:29.120 abilities to stop hate, and don't have our standards and 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:35.120 don't have our transparency end quote. Which yikes. Okay, as 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:39.120 you guys probably have gathered, because I am not subtle 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.400 about it, I'm pretty critical of Facebook and how it 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:46.080 enforces or until recently, I guess it would be better 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:50.960 to say, failed to enforce its policies. Forbes looked over 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.240 documents from the U s Department of Justice regarding the 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.919 charges against two hundred twenty three people connected to the 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.520 riots now part of the nation that they looked at. 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.480 Part of the information in those documents includes cases in 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:10.880 which they identified posts on social media that account for 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.400 some of the evidence against the respective individuals with regard 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:18.159 to planning and you know, the various threats that were made. 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:23.600 Seventy three of those documents name Facebook as one of 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:28.080 the social platforms upon which an associated suspect posted material 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.480 relating to the assembly in d C and the riot 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.120 at the Capitol, which puts Facebook in the lead for 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.800 platforms that were cited by the d o J as 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.440 having hosted material related to the riots. In a distant 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:48.279 second place is YouTube, which had twenty four appearances in 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.800 these documents, and Instagram takes up spot number three, with 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.799 twenty of the documents citing Instagram posts, and since Facebook 0:06:55.800 --> 0:07:00.360 owns Instagram, you could arguably add those twenty two Facebook's account, 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:05.159 although to be fair, some of these documents probably referenced 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:10.000 more than one social network, So while Facebook appeared seventy 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.800 three times, and Instagram appeared twenty times. Some of those 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:16.240 may have been in the same documents, there might be 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:20.520 some overlap. There's what I'm saying as for Parlor or Parley, 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.440 you know, the free speech social network that largely catered 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.800 to extremists and the far right, that one the d 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:31.360 o J only cited in eight documents. Now, that does 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.400 not necessarily mean that everyone involved in the riots used 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:40.200 Facebook primarily, and hardly anyone used Parlor, But it also 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:44.840 seems to undercut Cheryl Sandberg's claims that Facebook was somehow 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.200 in a better position compared to these other platforms. It's 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.520 true that Facebook had been working to remove groups, you know, 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.080 hate groups and and posts that violated its policies against 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:59.360 militarized social movements. But it's also true that the platform 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:03.360 was still hosting a lot of communication and organization related 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:08.240 to the riots on January six. So I'm not saying 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:12.680 that Facebook is more responsible than these other platforms, or 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.720 that the vast majority of planning happened on Facebook. Rather, 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.800 I'm saying that Sandberg's claims that somehow Facebook is elevated 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.560 above these other platforms just doesn't hold water when we're 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:26.600 looking at the evidence that the d o J has 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:31.240 been bringing together. In other news, zd net reports that 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.360 Microsoft is going to add a new type of threat 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.840 alert for its Defender product for Office three sixty five, 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:42.960 and the alert is for nation state cyber attacks. So 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:47.120 if Microsoft detects that a nation state backed hacking group 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:51.559 is targeting a particular companies, employees, or its systems, it 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.720 can send up the alert through Defender for Office three 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.400 sixty Microsoft has already been kind of doing this on 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:03.680 a more granular approach, since if the company detected that 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:08.400 a nation state backed attack was targeting one of Microsoft's customers, 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.360 then Microsoft would send an email to that specific person, 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:16.200 alerting them of the attack and providing advice on how 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.960 they should secure their account. Now, according to Microsoft, it 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:24.120 was sending out around ten thousand alerts per year since. 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.640 But there is a problem with this approach, and that's 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.040 the fact that not everyone stays up to date on 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:36.120 their emails. You know, I'm kind of guilty of that. 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.120 I get a lot of emails every single day, and 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:44.200 I'm frequently busy researching or recording, so I'll miss a 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:47.400 lot of messages or you know, read them in batches 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:49.600 at the end of the day, and considering that a 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.360 nation state backed hacking attack is what I would call 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:57.760 a super high priority and urgent matter, people like me 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.280 can be a real problem. And so this new feature 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.080 will allow Microsoft to send out an alert through the 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.680 Office three sixty five dashboard, which should pop up on 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.400 the screens of various system administrators and I T personnel, 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:15.520 who can then take steps to address problems, including proactively 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:19.640 changing the settings on affected accounts and then contacting the 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:23.440 affected employees. So then no time is wasted in responding 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:25.640 to the threat. It would be better for an employee 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.040 to get locked out of their account by their system 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:32.600 administrator than to have it, you know, compromised by a 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.360 nation state backed hacker. And I really wanted to include 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.439 this news item today, not because I want to advertise 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.440 for Microsoft, but rather point out how the rise of 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.880 nation based hacker groups has really become a serious and 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.839 persistent threat around the world. And just to be clear, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.439 tons of countries do these kind of cyber attacks. Here 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.480 in the United States, we typically hear about groups that 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:01.600 are backed by China and Russia in North Korea, but 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.800 keep in mind that the United States has engaged in 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.600 this kind of cyber warfare too. Cyber warfare is real, 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:11.960 and it is quietly raging online all the time, and 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.600 we typically only become aware of it when someone discovers, 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.400 you know, a big flaw in security, such as the 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.640 solar Winds hack. So it's a pretty scary world out 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.360 there and wild to think that there needs to be 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:30.280 an official alert built into an Office three product to 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.440 let you know about a nation state based hacking attack 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.160 on your company. That's I mean, it's this is like 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:42.040 like spy movie type stuff. Bloomberg reported that Twitter is 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.960 looking at some potential ways to generate revenue for the 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:49.160 company in addition to its normal route. Right now, Twitter's 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:53.720 main source of revenue is through advertisements, such as promoted posts. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.480 So if you've ever been on Twitter and you thought, huh, 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:01.600 I don't remember following Taco Bell. Did I follow Taco Bell? 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.880 Did I get loopy last night and follow Taco Bell, 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.040 Well there's a chance you never followed Taco Bell, but 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.480 rather Taco Bell had paid for a promoted post and 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.840 Twitter then posted that to your feed. And while Twitter 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:20.080 had a rocky road early in the pandemic, as companies 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.080 began to kind of cut back on their advertising, budgets. 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.920 It did bounce back. Recently, Twitter announced that second one 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.640 billion dollar quarter. That's one billion dollars in revenue, I 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:35.320 should add, not profit. And there are questions about whether 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:39.320 that trend will continue, you know, because after all, most 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:43.600 recently Twitter purged tons of accounts from its platform due 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.160 to the aforementioned riots at the US Capital, among other things. 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.240 So that means it's a good idea to diversify. If 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:55.440 your growth isn't going on the up and up, like 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.480 if you're not expanding the number of users to your service, 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.400 then you have to figure out how you're going to 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:06.000 generate revenue beyond just advertising, because advertisers are more interested 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.640 in seeing those numbers go up. So in this case, 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.320 Twitter is reportedly considering introducing some features that users can 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:16.199 access if they cough up the dough. One possible change 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.200 is that Twitter will start charging for tweet Deck, which 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.439 is an alternative way to view tweets. Uh. It's it's 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.800 its own little kind of dashboard. For one thing, you 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:31.080 get all the tweets in reverse chronological order, so there's 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:35.719 no confusing little segments of stuff like labeled. You might 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:38.040 have missed this. That's nestled in the middle of more 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:41.319 recent tweets. I know that whenever I use Twitter directly, 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:44.960 I will run into tweets that were posted, like, you know, 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.280 eighteen hours ago, and I'll think, wow, that's a big gap. 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.480 That's because Twitter has kind of aggregated those, thinking, hey, 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.640 maybe you want to see these. I prefer it in 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.360 reverse chronological order. Tweet deck does that. If you manage 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.400 multiple Twitter accounts, you can set up tweet deck to 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:05.920 actually show all those various feeds side by side, including 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.360 things like replies and direct messages. So I use tweet 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.080 deck to manage Twitter accounts for myself, for tech stuff 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.640 and for large nerdron collider. So one option Twitter is 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:22.080 reportedly considering is making the service a subscription based service. 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.320 Another feature that could be a paid option is an 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:30.080 undo send button. I'm not sure how it's different from 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:34.040 a delete tweet option unless it actively removes the tweet 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:38.280 from displaying in various feeds in real time. Because sometimes 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:40.280 if you send out a tweet and you delete it 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:44.880 and somebody else has an older, unrefreshed Twitter feed up, 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.720 they can see that undeleted tweet. Maybe this deals with that. 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:52.920 I don't know, and another pitch would allow accounts to 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.400 offer up exclusive content to people who tip the accounts, 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:58.560 sort of like a tiered subscription that you would find 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:02.280 on platforms like YouTube. Twitter responded to a request from 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.720 Bloomberg to clarify the strategies, and the company essentially said 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.320 that any plans right now are in the very early 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.760 stages of discussion. Nothing is said in stone, and you 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:16.160 shouldn't really expect to see anything implemented this year. Now. 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.200 I say all that knowing that Twitter is going to 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:22.000 hold its quarterly earnings called later the day. This goes 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:25.560 out on Tuesday, the ninth of February, so it's possible 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.080 that I'll have some updates for Thursday's episode. We'll see. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:31.800 And one big story that I've yet to touch on 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:36.840 tech stuff is uh the ongoing political upheaval in Myanmar. Now, 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:40.600 this country in Southeast Asia was formerly a British colony. 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.960 For several decades, it existed under military rule. It transitioned 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.240 to a civilian based government, used to be known as 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.480 Burma in the United States. It frequently is referred to 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:56.840 still as Burma, and until very recently, the leader of 0:15:56.880 --> 0:16:00.480 the country was on San su Ki, who won a 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.000 re election campaign in a landslide. She she was originally 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:09.760 elected in one reelection this past year, and the military's 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:14.080 justification for taking over the government hinged on charges of 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:18.000 nationwide voter fraud, and those are charges that have no 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:22.800 evidence behind them, which sounds a bit familiar and indicative 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.720 of a general trend in world politics that we've seen 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.360 in many places not too long ago. And this isn't 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.160 the first time that sue Ki has seen this kind 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.840 of resistance. She had served around fifteen years in detention 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.640 as punishment for efforts to organize a democratic government in 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.200 the country. She also received the Nobel Peace Prize for 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:46.520 her efforts in nineteen one. Now, the reason I bring 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:49.000 up the story here is that the military has been 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:53.440 steadily cracking down on Internet platforms within the country. One 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.800 of the big changes between the last era of military 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:01.240 regimes and this current one is the proliferation of the 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:06.040 Internet and affordable technology that citizens can use to access 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.919 the Internet. This ends up giving people a lot of 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:12.240 options when it comes to doing stuff like organizing protests 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:17.560 and sharing information, something the military has been keen to squash. 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.639 As such, the military has moved to cut off citizens 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:24.200 access to the Internet. The BBC reported over the weekend 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:28.119 that nationwide connectivity fell to sixteen percent of what it 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.440 normally would be. The military also moved to block citizen 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:36.240 access to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Some citizens 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.679 switched to using virtual private networks or VPNs in order 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:43.119 to get around those blocks, and that prompted the military 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.840 to go for the more brute force approach of essentially 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:51.320 shutting down internet service entirely within the country. Essentially, the 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.359 military are taking the philosophy of the founders of the 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.720 Internet and trying to do the opposite in order to 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:01.439 restrict speech and organization. Citizen in the country continue to 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:05.080 speak out against the coup, organizing in the streets. Apparently, 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:08.080 the three finger salute from Hunger Games has become a 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:12.480 widely adopted symbol representing a rejection of authoritarianism. There's a 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:16.399 growing international pressure against the military to reverse course and 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:20.240 acknowledge the democratically elected leaders. And this story is ongoing, 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.480 so I'm sure we'll have more updates in future episodes. Okay, 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.040 we've got a lot more news to cover, but before 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:37.399 we get to that, let's take a quick break. We're back. 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:41.000 The New York Times published a piece about the gig 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:45.200 economy in general, and Uber, Lift and Airbnb in particular. 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.440 Over the course of twenty twenty. Clearly, the pandemic has 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:53.320 had a major effect on these companies and their employees 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:58.000 or contract workers as the case may be, and their customers. 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.960 Uber and Lift have never had a profitable year, though 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.200 the typical response to that criticism has been that they're 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:09.800 you know, both companies have invested more in growth year 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:15.080 over year, which made costs outpaced revenue, but both have 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:18.119 had I p o s or you know, initial public offerings. 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:22.359 They're both publicly traded companies, which typically brings along with 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:26.160 it a certain general expectation that the companies will become 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.879 profitable and represent a return on investment for shareholders. And 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.199 of course was a much different year than any of 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.879 us had planned thanks to the pandemic. Usage of ride 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:43.240 hailing services and Airbnb dropped significantly in the spring. It 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.320 recovered a bit and then had a second dip in 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:48.800 the fall, though not as drastic as it could have been, 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.600 and the gig workers have had a lot of concerns 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.560 during that whole time. There's a higher risk for them 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:56.960 to get sick as they can encounter a lot of 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.320 people on a single shift. And what's more so, gig 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:05.480 workers intentionally sought out gigs around larger public events, you know, 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:10.440 potential super spreader events. Because people needed transportation, a lot 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.320 of gig workers stopped working those types of jobs completely. 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.240 Others would swap over to stuff like driving deliveries rather 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.800 than passengers, and you know, Uber really did a major 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:28.000 shift towards delivery. In with that change came lower paychecks 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.040 and lower risk of getting sick. According to Lift and 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.600 its ten largest markets, the drivers who you know kept 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.960 picking up passengers were working at a fairly steady pace 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:42.280 through most of the year because there were a reduced 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:44.960 number of drivers out there, which meant there was a 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:48.600 smaller supply, so a smaller demand was okay, But in 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.360 other places, drivers spent a lot of time just waiting 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:56.440 idly in their cars for potential fares. And apparently tipping 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:59.960 was down in as well. Oh and drivers often had 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.959 to supplement masks and cleaning products that were supplied by 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.240 their companies, and they had to add in stuff that 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:09.760 they bought with their own money because it wasn't enough 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:13.840 to cover their their work, which represented another cost for 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.040 the driver. Both Uber and Left will be announcing their 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.320 financial results for twenty twenty later this week, and we'll 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.360 learn more about how these companies have been doing. Currently. 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:25.879 Both Uber and Left have stocks priced in the fifty 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.160 to sixty dollar range, which is a pretty drastic increase 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:33.280 from the lows that their stocks hit in. And now 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.000 for a couple of Tesla stories. First up as a 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.240 story in the Wall Street Journal. Their reports. China has 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:43.119 criticized Tesla for the build quality of the US built 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.200 vehicles the Tesla has been trying to sell in China. 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:51.280 China's State Administration for Market Regulation has rebuked Tesla for 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:55.600 inconsistent build quality, which is something that the company has 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:58.320 faced over here in the United States on occasion. Is 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:03.120 inconsistent build quality. The company has issued a few recalls 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:06.000 on US built models, like the Model S and the 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:09.720 Model X. One of those recalls was about the touch 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:13.160 screen that was incorporated into the dashboard of these vehicles, 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:16.440 and another recall was for an issue with the suspension 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:20.800 systems of the vehicles. Interestingly, the Tesla vehicles that are 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:25.200 actually built in the company's Giga factory in Shanghai are 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:28.400 clear of these problems or appear to be so. This 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.240 seems to be an issue specifically with the American made 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.520 Tesla vehicles. Tesla apparently greased a lot of wheels to 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:40.520 open up operations in China. It received funding from Chinese banks, 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:44.280 which are stayed owned and operated, and it also sidesteps 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:47.080 some regulations that normally it would have to go through 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:50.680 in order to get you know, approval in China, and 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:52.440 it was all in an effort to get the production 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:56.200 even faster. So it's kind of rough to get all 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.560 these sorts of favors from a foreign country and then 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.240 turn round and kind of mess up. It's too early 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.680 to say if there will be further consequences, but they 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:10.280 could escalate up to and including an import ban on 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:14.879 US built Tesla vehicles. So it's not, as the kids say, 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:19.480 a good look. And our second Tesla story is that 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:25.000 the company is really into bitcoin, like really into it, 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:28.040 as in making a one and a half billion dollar 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:33.040 investment into the cryptocurrency kind of into it. And in 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:36.440 its tin K report to the SEC, we learned that 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:40.520 the company apparently plans to accept bitcoin as a form 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:44.280 of payment in the future to some degree. Now, personally 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:47.879 I find this whole thing ridiculous, but I find almost 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:51.639 everything about bitcoin to be ridiculous. As I have pointed 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:55.760 out on numerous occasions in my old grouchy Man voice, 0:23:56.359 --> 0:24:01.040 bitcoin's value fluctuates so much that it's hard for me 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:04.480 to see it as a valid currency. I mean, yes, 0:24:04.880 --> 0:24:09.679 people have used bitcoin to make transactions, particularly for stuff 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:12.680 that they would rather not have on the books anywhere else. 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:17.560 But on January twenty one, the value of a single 0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:21.880 bitcoin was thirty thousand, four hundred seventeen u s. Dollars. 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:24.919 That's a lot, right, Well, this morning it was just 0:24:25.000 --> 0:24:28.320 above forty three thousand dollars, and as a record this 0:24:28.400 --> 0:24:31.280 episode in the night of February eight, the current value 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:35.399 for a bitcoin is forty six thousand, four hundred twenty 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:39.840 seven dollars and fifty cents. So in two weeks, the 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:43.880 value of a single bitcoin increased by more than sixteen 0:24:43.920 --> 0:24:48.000 thousand dollars, and it increased by nearly three thousand dollars 0:24:48.040 --> 0:24:52.520 just over a few hours for one bitcoin. So let's 0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:56.239 say that you've got some bitcoins, maybe you invested in 0:24:56.280 --> 0:24:59.439 them and purchased them, maybe you mind them. It doesn't 0:24:59.480 --> 0:25:02.840 really matter or how likely are you to spend a 0:25:02.840 --> 0:25:06.800 bitcoin if you know that in two weeks, the bitcoin 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:09.720 you spend might have increased in value by more than 0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:13.359 fifteen thousand dollars. I mean, you would have already spent 0:25:13.680 --> 0:25:16.280 the bitcoin, so none of that value would come back 0:25:16.320 --> 0:25:19.000 to you. You would have spent that money already. It 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:21.920 would be out of your wallet and in someone else's 0:25:21.960 --> 0:25:24.840 and that person would see the money they received from 0:25:24.920 --> 0:25:29.560 you increase in value dramatically. Now that doesn't seem like 0:25:29.600 --> 0:25:32.040 it's a very viable currency to me. I would be 0:25:32.200 --> 0:25:36.000 terrified to spend money, thinking what if I held onto 0:25:36.000 --> 0:25:39.280 this for two weeks and it increased in value, you know, 0:25:39.520 --> 0:25:43.280 by sixteen thousand dollars, I would never spend it. So 0:25:43.800 --> 0:25:46.000 maybe you could think of it more as an investment, 0:25:46.800 --> 0:25:52.400 but you know, not really currency anyway. Tesla essentially acknowledged 0:25:52.400 --> 0:25:55.760 that the company is diversifying its investments with money that 0:25:56.040 --> 0:25:58.760 you know, they don't need for their regular operating expenses, 0:25:59.240 --> 0:26:03.640