WEBVTT - Tech News: Musk vs Zuckerberg in a Cage Match???

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,

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<v Speaker 1>and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech

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<v Speaker 1>are you. It's time for the tech news for Thursday,

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<v Speaker 1>June twenty second, twenty twenty three. And let's start off

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<v Speaker 1>with a dumb, juvenile story involving billionaires fronting on each

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<v Speaker 1>other in an effort to determine which one is the alpha.

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<v Speaker 1>By the way, just saying that made me feel gross.

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<v Speaker 1>But let's get to the story. Elon Musk, always the

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<v Speaker 1>picture of rationality immaturity, tweeted out that he'd be up

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<v Speaker 1>for a cage fight with Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg,

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<v Speaker 1>and then Zuckerberg replied on Instagram because of course these

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<v Speaker 1>billionaires are going to to their own platforms send me location,

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<v Speaker 1>indicating that he too was interested in fisticuffs. Musk then

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<v Speaker 1>posted again on Twitter Vegas Octagon. So why is their beef? Well,

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<v Speaker 1>it's probably because Meta is in the process of launching

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<v Speaker 1>a Twitter alternative, currently rumored to be called Threads. The

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<v Speaker 1>Verge quoted Meta's chief product officer Chris Cox as saying,

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<v Speaker 1>quote We've been hearing from creators and public figures who

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<v Speaker 1>are interested in having a platform that is sanely run

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<v Speaker 1>that they believe that they can trust and rely upon

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<v Speaker 1>for distribution end quote. And in a podcast with Lex Friedman,

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<v Speaker 1>Zuckerberg threw some more shade in Elon's direction, saying, quote,

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<v Speaker 1>I've always thought that Twitter should have a billion people

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<v Speaker 1>using it end quote, and seeing the popularity of Meta's

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<v Speaker 1>Facebook platform there, I imagine whether this will actually escalate

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<v Speaker 1>into some real fight remains to be seen, though. I

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<v Speaker 1>think we're not likely to get that. I think it's

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<v Speaker 1>just going to be posturing. But if we do get

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<v Speaker 1>that fight, well, Zuckerberg has actually been training in martial

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<v Speaker 1>arts for a while and participating in tournaments and even

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<v Speaker 1>winning a few, and Elon is Elon. I'm not saying

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<v Speaker 1>it would be a good fight, but I'd be dishonest

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<v Speaker 1>if I said I found the concept of billionaires pitted

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<v Speaker 1>against each other for our entertainment to be you know, bad.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm all for it beat the rich, as it were.

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<v Speaker 1>I've got more to say about both Twitter and Meta today,

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<v Speaker 1>so let's stick with Twitter first. Australia's Online Safety Commissioner

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<v Speaker 1>Julie Inman Grant says that one third of all complaints

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<v Speaker 1>about online hate that her office receives relate to Twitter. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>keep in mind, Twitter is not as big a platform

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<v Speaker 1>as some others out there, like Facebook and TikTok. It's smaller,

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<v Speaker 1>so to be the source of one third of all

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<v Speaker 1>complaints of online harassment that is significant. And then Grant

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<v Speaker 1>goes on to say that not only is Twitter failing

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<v Speaker 1>to rein in hate speech and abuse, but the service's

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<v Speaker 1>decision to reverse several account bans means that there's now

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<v Speaker 1>a rise of hate groups returning to Twitter, and that

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<v Speaker 1>gives those groups more momentum, which is not great for society.

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<v Speaker 1>Twitter has had a hard time holding on to trust

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<v Speaker 1>and safety leadership. Two trust and safety leaders have left

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<v Speaker 1>the company in the last year, and at least from

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<v Speaker 1>an outsider's perspective, the company doesn't seem terribly concerned about

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<v Speaker 1>trust and safety. They pretty much wiped out those offices,

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<v Speaker 1>leaving leaders with like no one to lead. The company

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<v Speaker 1>has twenty eight days to respond to Inman Grant's request

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<v Speaker 1>here to answer for this problem of online harm on

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<v Speaker 1>their platform, or else they could face a fine of

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<v Speaker 1>up to seven hundred thousand dollars Australian. Now that's about

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<v Speaker 1>four hundred and seventy five thousand, three hundred bucks American.

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<v Speaker 1>And y'all, let's be serious. In the corporate world, that's

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<v Speaker 1>not much. I mean, that's a huge amount of money

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<v Speaker 1>to someone like you or me, probably definitely me, I'm

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<v Speaker 1>assuming you maybe not, in which case, hey, good job.

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<v Speaker 1>But it's not a whole lot for big companies like Twitter.

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<v Speaker 1>And moreover, as we're going to learn in just a moment,

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<v Speaker 1>Twitter hasn't exactly been current on its bills in general,

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<v Speaker 1>so the odds of collecting that money aren't certain even

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<v Speaker 1>if the regulators do decide to find Twitter. This is

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<v Speaker 1>part of the big problem with regulatory agencies around the

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<v Speaker 1>world is that they have a limit to their authority.

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<v Speaker 1>Which makes sense. You don't want them to have limitless authority.

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<v Speaker 1>That would be chaos. But the problem is that the

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<v Speaker 1>amount they are able to find companies or to hold

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<v Speaker 1>them accountable is tiny in comparison with those companies' capacity

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<v Speaker 1>to just pay it, to go away, or to ignore it.

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<v Speaker 1>But now let's talk about those unpaid bills. Mark Schrobinger,

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<v Speaker 1>who formerly was Twitter's senior director of compensation has filed

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<v Speaker 1>a class action lawsuit accusing the company of withholding payments

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<v Speaker 1>due to current and former employees. My guess is, when

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<v Speaker 1>the former director of compensation is saying something's wrong about

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<v Speaker 1>the company's compensation, we should probably listen. Anyway. According to

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<v Speaker 1>the lawsuit, Twitter had promised employees that for twenty twenty

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<v Speaker 1>two they would receive half of their target bonuses, which

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<v Speaker 1>is better than nothing. Except employees got nothing. They never

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<v Speaker 1>got the payout that they had been promised. So the

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<v Speaker 1>lawsuit argues that this constitutes a breach of contract and

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<v Speaker 1>Twitter should be held accountable to pay the promised amount,

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<v Speaker 1>plus probably damages on top of that. If I were

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<v Speaker 1>to guess, this is just the latest in an avalanche

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<v Speaker 1>of lawsuits leveled against the company. Literally hundreds of lawsuits

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<v Speaker 1>are forming against Twitter, and that includes lawsuits from the

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<v Speaker 1>former bosses of Twitter, the people who ran Twitter before

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<v Speaker 1>Elon Musk took over. They say the company owes more

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<v Speaker 1>than a million dollars in legal fees to them. Plus

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<v Speaker 1>there are various vendors and landlords who have accused Twitter

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<v Speaker 1>of not paying bills. You know, they recently got an

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<v Speaker 1>eviction notice out of Colorado due to not paying the

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<v Speaker 1>bill for the office space there. So I'm very curious

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<v Speaker 1>what Twitter's new CEO is going to do about all this,

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<v Speaker 1>if she does anything about it at all. Switching over

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<v Speaker 1>to Meta, the company's independent oversight board as a request,

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<v Speaker 1>the board wants Meta to evaluate how it approaches prevention

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<v Speaker 1>with regards to posts that call for political violence. This

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<v Speaker 1>is in the wake of an incident from last year.

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<v Speaker 1>There was a video showing a Brazilian military leader telling

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<v Speaker 1>people they should quote unquote hit the street in an

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<v Speaker 1>attempt to incite violence during the twenty twenty two Brazilian election.

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<v Speaker 1>Meda kept the post up, but then the board selected

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<v Speaker 1>that case as one for it to examine, and then

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<v Speaker 1>Meta took the post down. So now the board is

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<v Speaker 1>telling Meta that the company needs to reassure the public

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<v Speaker 1>that it has the proper policies and processes in place

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<v Speaker 1>to prevent that kind of stuff in the future, and

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<v Speaker 1>to actually follow through on those policies, particularly as we

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<v Speaker 1>head toward another election year here in the United States. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>I should also add that the oversight board, which can

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<v Speaker 1>review Meta's choices to remove or to allow posts, doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>actually have the authority to force change. Can only make

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<v Speaker 1>recommendations to Meta on courses of action, but the company

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<v Speaker 1>cannot choose to either heed those recommendations or to ignore

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<v Speaker 1>them because the board's suggestions are non binding. And you

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<v Speaker 1>might say, why even have an oversight board if it

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't have the authority to enforce change, And really the

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<v Speaker 1>answer is because it's a form of self regulation that

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<v Speaker 1>if Meta shows that it can self regulate, then that

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<v Speaker 1>could potentially prevent government regulators from waiting into the whole matter.

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<v Speaker 1>So you could view the oversight board as Meta's attempt

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<v Speaker 1>to fix problems before government agencies start getting into things

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<v Speaker 1>as well. Let's move on to Amazon. So the US

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<v Speaker 1>Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, has filed a lawsuit against Amazon,

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<v Speaker 1>alleging that the company uses various tactics to lure or

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<v Speaker 1>trick people into signing up for Amazon Prime, and then

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<v Speaker 1>the company does its darndest to prevent people from canceling

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<v Speaker 1>their service. The FTC says that Amazon used insidious means

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<v Speaker 1>to get folks to unknowingly sign up for Prime membership

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<v Speaker 1>without their consent. That's pretty darn underhanded. If true, this

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<v Speaker 1>would violate the restore Online Shopper's Confidence Act, which yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I mean if a company is tricking people into paying

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<v Speaker 1>one hundred and thirty nine bucks a year and then

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<v Speaker 1>doing its best to prevent people from backing out of that,

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<v Speaker 1>then yes, consumers are going to lose confidence in online

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<v Speaker 1>shopping with that company. Amazon representative Heather Layman denied the

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<v Speaker 1>allegations and said the FTC is just playing wrong about

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<v Speaker 1>both the facts and the law. The FTC countered that

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon purposefully made choices to grab more subscribers and then

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<v Speaker 1>hold them prisoner because it would impact the company's bottom

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<v Speaker 1>line to allow them to back out easily. Also, Insider

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<v Speaker 1>reports that an internal document from Amazon referenced the cancelation

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<v Speaker 1>process as iliad. That's a reference to the epic poem

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<v Speaker 1>by Homer about a span of time that happens during

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<v Speaker 1>the Trojan War, and that doesn't exactly evoke images of

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<v Speaker 1>a smooth and painless process. Also, why the heck would

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<v Speaker 1>anyone use a name like that to describe a cancellation process,

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<v Speaker 1>even internally, it just sounds like it's asking for trouble.

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<v Speaker 1>You should name it something like beach day or coffee break, y'all.

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<v Speaker 1>This is kind of like the folks at FTX allegedly

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<v Speaker 1>naming an internal group chat wire fraud. It's funny until

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<v Speaker 1>the Feds come a knock in. Anyway, the FTC is

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<v Speaker 1>seeking civil penalties against Amazon, as well as a permanent

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<v Speaker 1>injunction that would forbid the company to use those kinds

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<v Speaker 1>of tactics in the future. And as I mentioned earlier,

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon denies the charges entirely, so we will see where

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<v Speaker 1>this goes. Meanwhile, the US Congress is also interested in

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<v Speaker 1>holding Amazon accountable, this time for conditions at Amazon's distribution centers.

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<v Speaker 1>The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions said

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<v Speaker 1>that Amazon warehouse workers filed more serious injury claims than

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<v Speaker 1>all other US warehouse workers combined. Yikes, that does sound

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<v Speaker 1>like there's a serious systemic problem that is contributing to

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<v Speaker 1>injuries and a negative impact on quality of life for

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon warehouse employees. Senator Bernie Sanders says the problem is

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<v Speaker 1>worse than it sounds. That Amazon funnels injured employees through

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<v Speaker 1>an on site medical clinic at warehouses, and the clinical

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<v Speaker 1>staff are encouraged to get workers back to work as

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<v Speaker 1>quickly as possible while under reporting serious injuries. If true,

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<v Speaker 1>this is approaching some of the truly awful work conditions

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<v Speaker 1>you might hear about in something like a Charles Dickens novel.

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<v Speaker 1>It explains why we've seen a couple of cases where

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<v Speaker 1>distribution center employees have voted to unionize. It also helps

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<v Speaker 1>explain Amazon's incredible turnover rate at these places. Sanders has

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<v Speaker 1>called on Amazon CEO Andy Jasse to appear and address

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<v Speaker 1>these allegations, and gave him a deadline of July fifth

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<v Speaker 1>to do it. He also indicated it was possible that

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<v Speaker 1>Congress would call upon Jassey or even Amazon's founder Jeff

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<v Speaker 1>Bezos to testify about warehouse safety and worker injuries in

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<v Speaker 1>front of all of Congress. So we'll have to see

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<v Speaker 1>if that happens. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break

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<v Speaker 1>to thank our sponsors, but we'll be back with more

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<v Speaker 1>news in just a moment. We're back, and we've got

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<v Speaker 1>just a couple more stories to cover. The protests over

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<v Speaker 1>on Reddit continue, though they've taken some odd turns. For

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<v Speaker 1>those just joining this story, Reddit made a change to

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<v Speaker 1>its API, its Application program interface, which is how third

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<v Speaker 1>party developers can create tools that then access Reddit. The

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<v Speaker 1>change is meant that developers will have to pay a

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<v Speaker 1>fee as their tools reference Reddit, and the more popular

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<v Speaker 1>and active apps could rack up considerable fees, perhaps in

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<v Speaker 1>the millions of dollars per year, and that in turn

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<v Speaker 1>has prompted several popular apps to close up shop and

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<v Speaker 1>go dark. More than eight thousand subredits on the site

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<v Speaker 1>protested reddits policy changes, as well as how Reddit CEO

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<v Speaker 1>Steve Huffman has handled the situation, primarily by dismissing it

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<v Speaker 1>and threatening moderators who have participated in the protest with

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<v Speaker 1>a ban. Reddit generates revenue through advertising, so the protesters

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<v Speaker 1>have tried to hit Reddit where it hurts the wallet.

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<v Speaker 1>Some subreddits switched to private mode and essentially eliminated all

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<v Speaker 1>traffic to the subreddit, which obviously cuts off ad dollars

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<v Speaker 1>that way, but others went a different route. They went

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<v Speaker 1>dark for a couple of days, but when they came back,

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<v Speaker 1>they switched a tag on the subreddit community to turn

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<v Speaker 1>it into an NSFW or not Safe for work subreddit,

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<v Speaker 1>and Reddit does allowed those kinds of communities on its platform. However,

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<v Speaker 1>it does not pair in SFW communities with advertising, and

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<v Speaker 1>that makes sense because your typical company is probably not

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<v Speaker 1>eager to have their products associated with pornography or OTHERFW material,

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<v Speaker 1>and redditors have been flooding these communities with you know

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<v Speaker 1>in SFW content which assures that no advertising is going

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<v Speaker 1>to happen in those communities while this is going on.

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<v Speaker 1>And again, this is a direct strike against Reddit's revenue source,

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<v Speaker 1>and as such, the platform has removed several moderators, although

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<v Speaker 1>it did later reinstall some of those in an effort

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<v Speaker 1>to fight back against this protest, and it's worked for

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<v Speaker 1>some subredits which have dropped the NSFW tag. There have

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<v Speaker 1>been cases where some of the subreddit moderators have said

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<v Speaker 1>they acted without the actual support of the community, and

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<v Speaker 1>I can understand a moderator changing it back then, because

0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:45.240
<v Speaker 1>really you need to get the buy in of the

0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.560
<v Speaker 1>community before you make a move like that. But other

0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.320
<v Speaker 1>communities are still going on strong with this protest, and

0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.320
<v Speaker 1>it's not like Reddit has an endless supply of replacement

0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:58.000
<v Speaker 1>mods to put in the spot where they have banned

0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.160
<v Speaker 1>other moderators. I'm not sure if Reddit is ultimately going

0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.760
<v Speaker 1>to win or lose this battle. I just know the

0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:09.360
<v Speaker 1>fight isn't over yet. Ford's CEO Jim Farley threw some

0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:13.200
<v Speaker 1>more shade toward Elon Musk, who must be feeling pretty

0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.680
<v Speaker 1>much in the dark by now. Anyway, this doesn't have

0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.160
<v Speaker 1>anything to do with Twitter. Instead, it focuses on one

0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:22.640
<v Speaker 1>of Musk's other companies, namely Tesla, and it's long delayed

0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:26.520
<v Speaker 1>cyber truck. Ford is preparing to launch its own, also

0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:31.160
<v Speaker 1>delayed electric truck, the F one P fifty Lightning, and

0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.240
<v Speaker 1>when he was asked if he felt that the cyber

0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:37.800
<v Speaker 1>truck is a significant competitive threat to the Lightning, Farley

0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.200
<v Speaker 1>was quick to dismiss such notions. He said, and I quote,

0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.240
<v Speaker 1>I make trucks for real people who do real work,

0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.800
<v Speaker 1>and that's a different kind of truck. Now I get

0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:53.120
<v Speaker 1>what he's saying, but it does strike me as wrong

0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.160
<v Speaker 1>to say that folks in Silicon Valley aren't real people.

0:15:57.520 --> 0:15:59.880
<v Speaker 1>I mean they are, I think. I mean, some of

0:15:59.880 --> 0:16:02.280
<v Speaker 1>the might be robots, and there's probably one or two

0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:04.720
<v Speaker 1>who are holograms, but I bet most of them are

0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.160
<v Speaker 1>real people. Anyway. Farley's point is that he feels the

0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:11.280
<v Speaker 1>cyber truck fails to meet the needs that most truck

0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.840
<v Speaker 1>owners have, like people who actually make practical use of

0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.560
<v Speaker 1>their trucks, and it's not like just a status symbol

0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:19.640
<v Speaker 1>or something. I think that's what he was getting at,

0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:25.680
<v Speaker 1>and that conversely, Ford's upcoming truck meets all the needs

0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:32.040
<v Speaker 1>of your typical truck driving you know, real person. However,

0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:34.800
<v Speaker 1>all that being said, the Lightning will use testless specs

0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:38.720
<v Speaker 1>for charging ports, and that could actually become the EV

0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.680
<v Speaker 1>charging standard, at least here in the United States, or

0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:45.480
<v Speaker 1>at least one of very few standards. Farley said that

0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.280
<v Speaker 1>this was just a decision that was good because it's

0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:51.560
<v Speaker 1>good for customers. And I agree. No one wants competing

0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.560
<v Speaker 1>charging standards because just imagine you're driving your electric vehicle

0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.560
<v Speaker 1>and you come up to a charging station because your

0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:01.760
<v Speaker 1>car's juice is getting a little low, and then you

0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:06.040
<v Speaker 1>see that the charging station isn't compatible with your electric vehicle.

0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.480
<v Speaker 1>That would be a nightmare, right. It's not like when

0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:10.679
<v Speaker 1>you drive up to a gas station and you're like, oh,

0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:15.360
<v Speaker 1>these pumps don't work with this car. You want something

0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:17.960
<v Speaker 1>that is as much of a universal standard as it

0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.960
<v Speaker 1>can be. So I think that it's a wise move.

0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:23.879
<v Speaker 1>As for the ultimate fate of the cyber truck, I

0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.200
<v Speaker 1>just don't know. I mean, it's been widely reported that

0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.520
<v Speaker 1>the delays have more to do with design issues that

0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.800
<v Speaker 1>have cropped up during development more than anything else, So

0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:35.840
<v Speaker 1>my advice would be hold off on buying the first

0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:37.960
<v Speaker 1>ones off the lot and see how things shake out

0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.840
<v Speaker 1>over time. Okay, that's it for the news this week.

0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:45.399
<v Speaker 1>I'm off next week on vacation, but I managed to

0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:49.959
<v Speaker 1>record three new episodes in advance, so Monday through Wednesday

0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.600
<v Speaker 1>or new episodes, you'll only be getting a rerun on Thursday,

0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.160
<v Speaker 1>plus the classic episode on Friday. But that's a weekly thing.

0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:01.000
<v Speaker 1>Fair warning. However, I wrote and recorded next week's episodes

0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:03.320
<v Speaker 1>while I was under the influence of an over the

0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:06.439
<v Speaker 1>counter headache medication, which normally wouldn't be an issue except

0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:10.159
<v Speaker 1>I accidentally took the PM version of that medication, so

0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.800
<v Speaker 1>I got real loopy. I'm gonna publish those episodes anyway,

0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:16.560
<v Speaker 1>because you only live once, by Golly, so be prepared

0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.560
<v Speaker 1>to learn about symbolic logic and the mighty boosh. I

0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.119
<v Speaker 1>hope you're all well, and I'll talk to you again

0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:31.720
<v Speaker 1>really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more

0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:36.480
<v Speaker 1>podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:42.000
<v Speaker 1>wherever you listen to your favorite shows.