WEBVTT - Tech News: The Supreme Court Nopes Out on Judging Section 230 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:12.280 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.920 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland, Diamond, 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.560 executive producer for iHeartRadio, and how the tech are here. 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.200 It's time for the Tech News for Thursday, February twenty third, 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.680 twenty twenty three, and we're going to start off by 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.000 talking about the United States Supreme Court, which has been 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:36.360 hearing a couple of legal cases that involve Section two thirty. Now, 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.000 in case you're not familiar with that, Section two thirty 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.480 is part of Title forty seven of the United States Code. 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:46.160 It's part of the Communications Decency Act of nineteen ninety six. 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.080 But we're not going to jump all the way into 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.080 all that because it really gets in the weeds. What 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:56.240 Section two thirty is about is accountability, specifically when it 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:01.080 comes to stuff that's been posted online, namely that a 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:07.120 platform isn't responsible for the material posted to that platform. 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.760 Just as he wouldn't blame a street corner if someone 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.560 standing on the street corner were to incite a riot, 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.960 It's not the street corner's fault. It's the person who 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:22.320 did the inciting. So two thirty extends a similar protection 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:26.240 to online platforms, and it allows users to post content, 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.240 whether it's text or audio or video or whatever. And 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:34.600 it also gives the platforms the authority to moderate content 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.480 as they see fit. This is what lets platforms create 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:43.319 content moderation policies and then enforce those and it protects 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:49.720 such platforms from legal attacks for enforcing their policies. There's 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.920 also some stuff there about making a reasonable attempt to 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:56.360 remove illegal content, like if a platform fails to do that, 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.520 then it doesn't receive full protection because it is seen 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.320 as sort of a facilitator. But as long as a 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.360 platform demonstrates that it does make a reasonable attempt to 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.960 remove such content, it receives this protection. Now, this seemingly 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:16.320 simple idea has been in the background of some extremely 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:21.760 complicated and emotionally charged issues. It has prompted both the 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:25.000 left and the right political forces in the United States 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.400 to criticize and question the policy. Now, sometimes it's because 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:33.640 a platform fails to remove content that appears to lead 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:38.760 to harm against people. Sometimes it's that there's this perception 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:44.720 that platforms are purposefully censoring a specific population, namely conservative voices. 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:48.000 That's one of the frequent narratives we hear in this space. 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:52.239 One of the two cases before the Supreme Court deals 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:56.560 with a really terrible situation, one in which a woman 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:01.240 died during an ISIS attack, and are Ely says that 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:06.640 attack happened partly because YouTube allowed videos that incited violence 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.560 to stay on its platform. Moreover, that the YouTube algorithm 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:17.519 was serving up these videos, which was then essentially inciting violence. 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.400 So that's sort of the approach this is taking as 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.800 trying not to say that YouTube is responsible for the content, 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:29.520 but that YouTube is responsible for promoting the content through 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:34.079 this algorithm, and that therefore the platform should be held 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:38.920 responsible when violence actually happened in the real world. Now, 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:43.320 clearly this is an emotionally charged case, but as the 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:46.280 arguments preceded, the justices on the Supreme Court seemed to 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.560 come to the conclusion that they just don't know enough 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.800 about the Internet to really come to a decision on this, 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.640 Like they don't have a full understanding of what the 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:00.600 consequences could be for deciding upon this case, or even 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:02.720 if this is a matter that should be decided by 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:05.280 the judicial arm of the US government at all. This 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:10.600 could perhaps be something that Congress, the legislative branch of 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:14.760 the US government, should tackle instead. Now I have to 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.760 applaud the justices who seem to realize that any dismantling 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:22.039 of Section two thirty would fundamentally change how the Internet 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:27.280 works and really cause catastrophic damage, or at least consequences 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:33.240 that they could not anticipate. I imagine most platforms would 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.400 be forced to essentially shut down rather than take on 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:42.040 the huge burden of either being strict gatekeepers of content, 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.400 meaning they would not allow anything to publish on their 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:50.240 platform until it had been thoroughly reviewed and sanitized and 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:55.440 made sure that it doesn't fall into any categories that 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:59.200 would cause problems, which is not realistic, especially when you're 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.600 looking at big platforms like YouTube gets like five hundred 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.719 hours worth of content uploaded to it every single minute. 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.120 It is impossible for humans to review that much content 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:15.080 and be certain that every single second of every video 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:21.279 that is passed does not cause any issues. Alternatively, the 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.760 other approach that the other side has said, not really 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.880 in as many words, but effectively is to allow a 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:32.400 fire hose of everything to publish on these platforms, regardless 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.440 of whether or not the content was harmful, because that's 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.720 the only way you can get around any kind of 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:43.560 accusation of censorship, right, the only way to prove you 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:47.920 are not censoring content is to allow all content on 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.520 the platform, and clearly that is not a good approach either. 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.080 It's a no win situation because while you do have 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:59.680 general agreement that Section two thirty creates problems, there's a 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.120 fun to mental disagreement on why people think it causes problems. 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.239 They think it causes two very different problems. Therefore, either 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.880 solution would be the opposite of what the other side 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.680 wants and it would be a disaster. Also, a lot 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.000 of the justices were said to be bored and didn't 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.000 really engage with the case, which probably is because they're 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:23.400 not exactly the online generation. Thank goodness, they serve for 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:28.080 their lifetime. Anyway, Section two thirty seems safe for the moment, 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.680 at least from the Supreme Court. To quote the band 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:37.440 of troubadours called Stained. It's been a while since we've 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:41.760 talked about Elon Musk and his exploits, but we've got 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.400 a few short stories that relate to him today. One 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.719 is that Musk continues to fire people over at Twitter, 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:50.960 after having already laid off around two thirds of the 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.600 total workforce since he took control of the company. Most recently, 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:58.640 people in engineering and sales departments found themselves let go, 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.479 while Musk continues to demand for some massive changes to 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.520 Twitter systems. Most recently, he set a very aggressive goal 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:11.320 to overhaul how Twitter serves ads to users. Currently, Twitter 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:15.080 relies on profile data and user behaviors to determine which 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:19.280 ads to serve to specific people. Must wants to change 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.440 that to be more like how search engines serve up ads, 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:26.560 and make it more keyword based rather than behavior based. 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.960 This has been met with some resistance and criticism, though 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.640 mainly from former Twitter employees, because I imagine if you 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.880 are a current Twitter employee, you're doing your best to 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.000 keep your head down so that you don't become another 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:43.119 layoff statistic once Must goes on another round of firing people. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.160 Whether Twitter can make a keyword based system work better 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.360 for ad relevance remains to be seen, but there's no 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.560 denying that the company has been in really rough shape 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.400 from an ad standpoint, because a lot of the big 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.240 advertisers that used to spend a lot of money on 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.320 Twitter have kind of bailed on the platform since Musk 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.680 took over two days ago. Musk tweeted out that the 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:11.240 Twitter algorithm will be made open source next week end. Quote. 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.040 Musk has said repeatedly in the past that he felt 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.880 the Twitter recommendation algorithm could be improved drastically if it 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.160 were made open source, and that would mean that developers 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.080 all around the world would be able to contribute edits 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.280 and changes and improvements and detect weaknesses and vulnerabilities as 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:33.760 a community instead of keeping everything behind Twitter's closed doors. Moreover, 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.640 adopting an open source approach could take some serious heat 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.360 off Twitter, because, like I mentioned earlier, there's this general 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:44.920 perception among the politically conservative here in the United States 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:49.960 that online platforms have an inherent bias against conservative messages 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:54.120 and points of view. That platforms like Twitter penalize such 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.960 messages by restricting their promotion so that fewer people will 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.600 see those tweets, or in some cases, they could potentially 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.160 be prevented from being seen at all. The conservatives, are 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.240 you saying they're the target of shadow banning? That's a 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:12.319 policy where a platform allows the user to post as 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.120 much as they want, like the user is not told 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.920 that they're being prevented from saying anything, but the platform 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.600 suppresses the spread of those messages so that fewer people 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.319 can see and therefore engage with the material. Going open 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.920 source would mean that anyone could look at the recommendation 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.480 algorithm and determine what, if any bias is built into it. 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:36.559 So there are a few reasons why Twitter would want 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.880 to go this route. One last Musk story. He also 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.120 announced this week that Tesla, another one of his companies, 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:47.559 will be opening and Engineering HQ in Palo Alto, California. 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.800 The office space will occupy a building that was formerly 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.920 used by Hewitt Packard and Elon. Musk has a rather 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:59.439 contentious relationship with the state of California. In twenty it 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:02.040 seems like he was actually going to make Texas the 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:07.560 center of Musk World, because SpaceX is centered out of there. 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.240 The giga factory he was building was in Texas. He 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:15.480 moved to Texas, and part of the reason for this 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.640 might have been the fact that Musk was really upset 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.840 with California's shelter in place mandate during the height of 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:24.480 the COVID nineteen pandemic. He did not appreciate the fact 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:26.840 that he was being told he couldn't force his employees 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:31.000 to go into work. But when Musk did relocate to Texas. 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:36.880 Tesla kept its corporate HQ in California, and now there 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:41.480 will be an engineering HQ there as well. All right, 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:43.520 we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:55.280 we've got some more news stories to cover. The Seattle 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:59.319 Times reports that Mark Zuckerberg, after indicating that Meta was 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.880 not likely to hold off additional layoffs, is now looking 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:07.920 at holding additional layoffs. The news outlet says that HR 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.679 and legal teams are drawing up plans for a reorg 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.840 that will likely include significant downsizing. I'm sure Meta will 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.920 position this as becoming more efficient. That's been the message 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.520 for twenty twenty three. This is the year of efficiency, 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.439 and thus this is going to be about reducing redundancy 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.960 and further cutting back after Zuckerberg himself indicated that the 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:30.400 company employed too many people for the amount of work 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.559 that was needed to be done. The Seattle Times also 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:38.000 reported that unnamed sources within Meta believe that some employees 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:42.480 are likely going to quit after having their jobs dramatically change. 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.280 And I infer that to mean that Meta purposefully is 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.440 making at least some employees unhappy so that they choose 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.079 to leave on their own terms. Because if someone quits 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:57.520 on you, you don't necessarily owe them a severance package. 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:00.920 So if you make the environment pleasant enough and you 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.080 convince them to leave on their own, you don't have 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:05.920 to lay them off. Now, maybe I'm being too cynical, 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:10.320 but according to the rumors, part of the big change 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.400 that's coming up is that some leaders within Meta are 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.000 going to find themselves in redefined jobs where they won't 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.280 have any direct reports, which means they will no longer 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.199 be leaders because there won't be anyone for them to lead. 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.520 So maybe this is the group of people that insiders 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.200 think are going to be encouraged to quit the company. 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.719 And meanwhile, this is going to change the hierarchy where 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:37.920 Zuckerberg will presumably have more direct oversight over company operations. 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.120 So we'll see. On the legal front, Meta had a 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.559 setback this week when a judge refused to throw out 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.319 a jury's decision to hit Meta with one hundred and 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:51.200 seventy five million dollars and damages for patent infringement. This 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:55.480 case was brought by an app developer called Voxer Incorporated, 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:59.079 and it concerns a technology that's used in live streaming services. 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.480 The jury previously found that Meta had committed patent infringement 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:06.679 and found in favor of Foxer. Netta then asked the 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.760 judge to throw out the verdict, saying the jury was misled, 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:13.480 the evidence was not sufficient to draw that conclusion, and besides, 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.800 Voxer was mean to them on the playground. All right, 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.400 That last point was a bit of embellishment from yours truly, 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.720 But Meta reps did say that Voxer's lawyer made quote 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:28.199 unquote inappropriate comments about the company. I don't know how inappropriate. 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.760 The comments were. A lot of people say some really 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.440 bad stuff about Meta, and I think a lot of 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.720 it is entirely appropriate, but maybe from a legal perspective 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.840 it's a very different story. Meta still has the option 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.480 to appeal this decision to a higher court, so we'll 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.240 see if the company decides to do that or if 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:47.720 it will cough up the money and just pay the damages. 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.920 Don't know yet now Quasi related to Meta, The founders 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:56.520 of Instagram, who left Meta years ago, have released their 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:00.480 aipowered news gathering app Artifact to the general public. It 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.400 was previously in a beta rollout, and basically this is 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:08.800 an app that gathers news headlines that the app thinks 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:11.320 you would be interested in reading, and the way it 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.520 works is you download the app they have it for 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.720 iOS and Android, and you start off by selecting a 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.480 few topic categories that you personally find interesting. This is 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:25.360 not a comprehensive list. Also, the taxonomy of the categories 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:27.680 is a little bit strange, Like when I signed up, 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:31.080 I saw a climate change which was listed under technology, 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.160 but there was another area where it was like global 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.960 or international news. I thought it was weird that climate 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.240 change was not under there. But the ideas that you 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.480 tell the app what subjects you're interested in, and the 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:48.080 app will curate articles across various publications. This, by the way, 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.920 also includes any publications you subscribe to. Part of the 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:56.120 process is you indicate which news outlets you might have 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.920 a subscription to, like if it's New York Times or something, 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.280 and you can then have your log in so that 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:06.400 you're able to read those materials as well. Then, as 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.040 you use the app and you read articles that the 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.720 app has gathered for you, it gathers more information about 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:17.000 what you gravitate toward and what you are really interested 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.680 in based upon what you're actually reading. So theoretically, the 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.120 more you use the app, the better the app gets 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.360 it figuring out what you are really interested in, so 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.360 over time you get a personally curated news feed. I 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.200 only just downloaded it, and I haven't really played with 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:36.640 it very much, so I do not know how effective 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:38.560 it is yet, and I've seen some reviews that have 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.760 criticized the user interface, but personally I think it's fine. 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.600 It's not great, but it's fine. It does seem like 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.080 a decent use of AI, though hopefully it will not 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:51.760 be a use that over time filters out all news 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:55.320 that would challenge a person's views, because that would just 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.880 create an aipowered echo chamber effect, and we've got enough 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.800 of those already. Activision Blizzard, the game company that is 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:06.120 kind of in a limbo space regarding Microsoft's attempts to 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.960 acquire it, announced that late last year a hacker got 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:15.720 access to Activisions systems through the old standby tricking an 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:19.720 Activision employee with a classic phishing attack. Now, I've said 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.320 over and over people traditionally are the weakest link in 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.840 network security. There's not any need for a hacker to 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:30.320 sit down in the dark at a computer terminal, their 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.960 face highlighted by the glow of the display and then 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.440 try typing in three different password guesses before getting entry 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.440 into their targeted system. Instead, you just hit some employees 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.320 with phishing schemes, and chances are you're going to get 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.160 a bite somewhere that will give you a foot in 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:49.320 the door. Anyway. The surprising thing here is that apparently 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.840 Activision's employees were not made aware of the attack before 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.960 the announcement to the general public, which is a heck 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:00.680 of a way to find out that someone got unauthorized 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.399 access to your company systems, and it also doesn't speak 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:09.080 very well of Activision's process to try and avoid future attacks. Typically, 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.080 in the wake of something like this, a company will 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:16.200 put employees on high alert, and often they'll even make 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:20.400 employees take a security course to better familiarize themselves with 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:24.320 phishing attacks and the appropriate response to them. I can 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:26.880 say that here at iHeart, we have a security team 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.040 that even puts us to the test occasionally, because they'll 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:34.639 craft a bogus email from a bogus address and then 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.200 they'll look to see who, if anyone bites. So it's 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:42.560 all meant to increase awareness and to improve security. So 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.560 it's odd that Activision has allegedly taken a more passive 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.399 approach and didn't even alert employees to the attack in 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:53.560 the first place until it became public info. The company 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:56.600 has said no sensitive data was accessed or stolen during 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.440 this breach, but according to Gizmoto, there's a secure group 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.439 called vx Underground that claims the hacker made off with 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:09.080 some internal Activision documents that included sensitive employee data, including 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.600 personal information as well as like salary info and stuff. 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.040 This is really damaging to Activision as well. It's not 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.440 the sort of thing the company wants to see, especially 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.520 when you also take into account all the attempts at 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:26.640 Activision for employees to unionize, because one of the big 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:31.320 big things in union organization is often discussions about how 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:36.119 companies try to make it against corporate policy to do 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:39.119 things like talk about compensation, because if you start talking 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.600 about compensation within a company, people will know how they 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:46.680 stack up to others, and they can see where disparities are, 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:51.680 and that's something that unions aim to eliminate to level 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:56.320 out that and remove disparity. So yeah, not the sort 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.560 of thing that Activision Blizzard wants to see happen ever, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:04.400 but particularly salary information while they're also trying to dissuade 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:10.760 organization efforts, the EU continues to force Apple's hand, at 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.760 least that's what it seems like. Previously, the EU ruled 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.600 that all smartphones and similar gadgets must have a USBC 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:23.239 charging port, effectively making USBC the universal charging standard in 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.960 the EU, and that's probably going to force these companies 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.159 to do the same globally, because otherwise you have to 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:34.520 have two different production chains for products meant for the 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:38.440 EU versus anywhere else. Companies like Apple have long relied 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:43.080 on proprietary hardware for charging, which helps Apple control that supply, 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:47.040 so Apple can either sell its own version directly to 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:49.960 consumers and make a lot of profit that way, or 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:54.200 Apple can require third parties to pay hefty licensing fees 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.240 to Apple before they can sell their own version of 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:00.600 the technology. But because of the EU law, future Apple 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.960 smartphones will need to have USBC port at least in Europe. 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.879 But now the rumor is that iOS seventeen, which is 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:13.280 due to launch next year, will allow something that Apple 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:19.320 has long resisted on iOS devices, which is sideloading. Sideloading 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.120 is when a user can choose to download apps from 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:27.440 places other than the official platform app store, Ever since 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.080 Apple first launched the iOS app Store, which was, you know, 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:33.760 like almost a year after the iPhone came out, it 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:37.920 has restricted Apple users from downloading apps from anywhere else. 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:42.160 Unless you were to do some alterations to your iPhone, 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:46.879 you could not load apps anywhere except from the iOS 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:51.119 app Store. This is also part of what gives Apple 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.200 the power to take a healthy cut out of in 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.720 app transactions. This is one of the reasons why the 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:02.600 EU has pressured Apple to allow alternative because if Apple 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.280 controls the policy for apps that are found in the 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:09.199 iOS store, and Apple prevents anyone from going outside the 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:12.200 store to get an app, it forces developers to play 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.520 by Apple's rules they don't have any alternatives. Apple has 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:20.320 long maintained that restricting apps to the official store means 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.200 that each app that goes into the store has actually 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.719 gone through a review process, and that this helps Apple 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.480 make sure that the app is safe for users, and 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:33.040 that without this step, users will run the risk of 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:36.359 downloading malicious apps. So they have long maintained that the 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:39.600 whole reason this policy is in place is to protect 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:44.880 people from malicious applications, and there's no doubt that there 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:49.560 will be an increased risk for malicious apps with sideloading. However, 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:52.399 I think it's more than fair to say that Apple 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:56.680 is far more concerned that alternatives to the App Store 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:02.119 will reduce Apple's power over developers, and it will reduce 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:05.639 the power over the apps that can appear on iOS devices, 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:09.080 and that there's a chance that revenues could take a 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.520 really serious hit, or at least not increase at the 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.239 same rate that they had before. And as we all know, 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:18.080 it's not enough to make a lot of money. You 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:20.760 got to make more money than you did last quarter. 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:25.560 That's really the secret sauce. Okay, I've got a couple 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.240 more stories to finish up with, but before we get 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:40.600 to that, let's take another quick break. Okay, when we 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:43.200 left off, we talked about the EU and Apple. Well, 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:45.800 the EU is also following the lead of several US 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:50.520 government agencies and that it has asked all staff of 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:55.159 the EU governing body, so government EU staff to uninstalled 0:22:55.240 --> 0:23:01.080 TikTok from the corporate owned devices. So anything that's owned 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:05.760 by the EU Executive branch should not have TikTok installed 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:07.919 on it. If you work for the EU and you 0:23:08.040 --> 0:23:11.520 have a device that was issued to you by your employer, 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:14.240 you cannot have TikTok on it. If you do, you 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.679 should remove it now. Again, just like in the United States, 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:21.720 I think this is a totally reasonable request. If it 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:27.320 is a corporate owned device, you shouldn't be putting TikTok 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:31.080 on it. Unless for some reason, your job in this 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:35.080 corporation relates directly to TikTok, then it makes sense. But 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:38.240 I mean, if it's for personal use, do not allow 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:41.880 that on those official devices. This move, by the way, 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.680 does not prevent those employees from having TikTok on their 0:23:45.760 --> 0:23:48.520 personal devices. They can still have them on their own 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:53.000 personal phones, just not their work phones. And why Well, 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:56.639 there's this concern that TikTok could be gathering data about 0:23:56.800 --> 0:24:01.680 users and their employers and other sensitive information. And since 0:24:01.720 --> 0:24:05.080 TikTok is the subsidiary of a Chinese company, there are 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:09.320 national security concerns. But even if we ignore the Chinese part. 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:12.000 You know, TikTok has repeatedly said that that is not 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:15.439 a real concern, that China does not have access to 0:24:15.480 --> 0:24:18.840 all this data, that it is a US centric company. 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:21.760 Those are the arguments TikTok has made in the US. Well, 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:24.280 this is the EU, so you're still talking about a 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:28.320 company that's based outside of the EU. And while the 0:24:28.400 --> 0:24:32.320 United States isn't antagonistic to the EU, the fact is 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:36.919 the EU has long pushed to protect its citizens data 0:24:37.000 --> 0:24:40.639 from being harvested and exploited outside of the European Union, 0:24:40.960 --> 0:24:43.560 so it stands the reason it would move to protect 0:24:43.560 --> 0:24:46.280 the government data as well. Again, I don't think this 0:24:46.320 --> 0:24:50.600 is unreasonable. I don't know how I feel about a 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:54.280 wider ban on TikTok in general, but I certainly think 0:24:54.320 --> 0:24:59.720 it's a reasonable expectation for corporate or government owned devices 0:25:00.560 --> 0:25:03.280 in the world of crypto. The Securities and Exchange Commission 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:06.439 in the United States has moved to block binance dot 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:11.119 us from acquiring Voyager. That's a crypto lender that filed 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:15.520 for bankruptcy last July. It was one of several high 0:25:15.560 --> 0:25:21.760 profile cryptocurrency businesses that failed last year. It happened before 0:25:21.840 --> 0:25:28.080 the huge FTX breakdown. So why is the SEC concerned 0:25:28.080 --> 0:25:31.399 about binance dot us buying out the assets of a 0:25:31.440 --> 0:25:36.080 crypto lender Voyager. Well, one is that the SEC worries 0:25:36.119 --> 0:25:40.399 that the acquisition would quote violate laws on the unregistered 0:25:40.480 --> 0:25:43.880