WEBVTT - Tech News: GameStop Stocks and Much Ado About Nothing 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.960 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.480 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.840 and I love all things tech. And this is the 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:28.840 tech news episode for Thursday, January twenty twenty one. And 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.160 you know, guys, I often start the news episodes with 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:38.199 some heavy stuff, and today is no exception, except that 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.800 this is more of a good news heavy story than 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.320 a bad news one. So that's a nice change. Reuters 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:50.559 reported on Wednesday, January, so yesterday, if you're listening to 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.520 this episode, the day it comes out that police agencies 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:59.400 in the United States, Canada, and six European countries completed 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:03.480 an inter national operation to bring down a malware bought 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:09.280 net network called Emo TET. Germany's federal police agency had 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.840 named Emo TET as quote the most dangerous malware globally 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.240 end quote, which is saying something considering some of the 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.440 contenders that are out there. Emma TET is a type 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:24.240 of malware called a trojan, which, like the trojan horse 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:28.880 of legend, serves as a delivery mechanism for some other 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:33.679 type of code, typically malicious code. So Emo TET is 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.080 the nasty piece of software that creates the opportunity for 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:42.720 other potentially nastier pieces of software to infiltrate a system. 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.080 So it could help deliver code that encrypts everything on 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:50.000 a computer, which would lead you towards ransomware. Or it 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.560 could be used to allow hackers to install monitoring software 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:56.000 to keep an eye on everything going on in a system, 0:01:56.200 --> 0:02:01.240 or even giving administrative level access to various computers and 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:05.120 so on. The main way this malware spread was through 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.960 email attachments, so it used the old, tried and true 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.639 fishing technique, which is still around for a reason people 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:16.840 still fall for it. It first appeared back in and 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:21.040 it has gone through various cycles of activity and inactivity 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.760 in the Emo tet activity on the Internet dropped in February, 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.480 but it surged again in July. Now, according to authorities 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:33.240 in the Ukraine, imotet was responsible for about two point 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:38.720 five billion dollars in damages globally. The police takedown included 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.280 a raid on a physical location within the Ukraine in 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.639 which hackers had servers that were doing a lot of 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.560 the heavy lifting for you know, maintaining and administering the 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:53.120 botan net. The police released photos of bank cards and cash, 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.720 which I find particularly wild, as I usually imagine most 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.880 of the crime involving digital transfers of funds rather than 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:03.600 you know, the physical manifestation of money. But I guess 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.720 my imagination is far too limited. At the time I'm 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:11.200 recording this, there were no reports about any arrests. That 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:15.359 doesn't mean that arrests didn't happen. I just didn't have 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.640 any news about them as I was recording this. Now, 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.480 the takedown is certainly a disruption for this particular type 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:25.400 of malware botan net operation, but we should keep in 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.320 mind there are lots of other ones out there. There 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.200 are hacker groups that are independent, and then there are 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.560 some that are state sponsored. But this is definitely good 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.800 news that one of the more dangerous networks appears to 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.360 be offline. Now. Next, I wanted to follow up on 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.520 a story I talked about briefly involving game Stop and 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.160 their stocks. Now, if you listen to recent news episodes, 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.720 you heard me talk about game Stop and use that 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:56.240 as a way to explain the process of short selling. 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.360 That's where an investor borrows stock that doesn't along to 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:04.000 that investor and then sells that stock for market price 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.800 and then hope that the price of the stock falls 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.680 so that the investor can then buy back those borrowed 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.720 shares and pocket the difference because the investor is obligated 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.039 to return the borrowed shares. The goal is for you 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:21.960 to buy back those borrowed shares when they're cheaper, and 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.159 then you know, you get to keep whatever the difference 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.919 was between the cell price and the buy price. Well, 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.400 we knew that a subreddit called Wall Street Bets was 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.000 driving the price of game Stop stock up after a 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.719 company called Citron and another one called Melvin Capital had 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.800 recommended that the stock be used as a short sell. 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.239 In fact, those companies were short selling game Stop stock 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.039 and they were anticipating that there was going to be 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.960 a drop in stock price. Now, in my last piece 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.120 on this, the price of game Stop stock is so 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.159 hard to say that. By the way, anyway, that stock 0:04:56.240 --> 0:05:01.760 had climbed seventy in a day, it climbed another after that. 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.520 In fact, over the course of two weeks, the stock 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.560 price has increased dramatically, and that definitely puts the squeeze 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:12.120 on anyone who's trying to short sell the stock, because 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:16.040 now buying back those borrowed shares will cost more money 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.039 than the investor would get from selling them at the 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.080 earlier market price. It means that when that price goes up, 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.320 you lose money. If you were quote unquote selling stock 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.159 at ten dollars and then the stock goes to twenty 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:31.360 and you have to buy back that stock, well now 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.320 you're paying twice as much, right, So when stock prices 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:39.840 go up, short selling becomes a loss for the investor. 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.479 Now some investors will double down. They will start short 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:48.720 selling even harder. They will start selling more stock that 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.239 they don't own, with the hope that the new higher 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.200 price of stock is going to take a turn and 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.359 start dropping again, and thus they'll be able to cover 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.120 their original short sell and perhaps make money in the 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:07.239 long term by jumping on it again. But this activity 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.719 of of buying and selling it ends up pushing the 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.000 stock price even further hop so it becomes a vicious 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.800 cycle that becomes known as a stock squeeze or a 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:23.760 short squeeze. Really well, back in January twelve, game stop 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:28.480 stocks we're selling at nineteen dollars and cents per share, 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.640 and I mentioned that they've increased dramatically, So what does 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:36.400 that actually mean well, by January the stock price was 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:41.200 at three hundred fifty dollars per share. So now let's 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:45.560 talk about market capitalization. Now, essentially, we take the number 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.560 of shares that the company issues out and we multiply 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.640 that number of shares by the share price to figure 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.359 out what the market cap is. So for game Stop, 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.840 as of the time I'm recording this, that market cap 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:03.480 is at around twenty six bill in dollars. That is bonkers. 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.600 And you might ask what has game Stop done to 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:11.200 merit this jump and value, and the answer is nothing. Really, 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.720 this price inflation is due to a lot of perception 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:20.360 and market activity among stockholders and was exacerbated when the 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.440 short sellers were trying to buy up more stock or 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.400 sell more stock, short sell more stock in an effort 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.080 to make up for the losses they were already experiencing, 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.000 and the cycle was getting worse and worse. The stock 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:37.320 market has actually halted trading on game Stop shares numerous 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.720 times over the last week due to that high volatility 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:44.880 in trading. That's a protective measure that's necessary because sometimes 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.120 a really volatile stock can set off a kind of 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.440 chain reaction in the market, and then you've got real 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.239 chaos on your hands, and it's hard to see how 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.600 this will all end well in the long run. It 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:01.000 seems that eventually the market value for game Stop will 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.680 have to readjust to better reflect the actual value of 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.800 the company, and you would expect to see that the 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.840 market share price fall as a result of that. And 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.120 for those of you who don't know what game Stop 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.200 is in the first place, it's a video game retail 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.120 company as and this is a company best known for 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.680 having brick and mortar stores in the real world where 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.600 you can go and buy video games and video game systems, 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.680 or even sell back your old copies of games to 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.640 the game Stop. You would think that would the double 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.040 wamy of the pandemic keeping most people at home and 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.280 away from stores, and the general rise of digital downloads 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:44.800 as opposed to buying physical copies, It would mean that 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:47.719 a company like game Stop wouldn't be seeing such a 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.040 huge surge and stock market price, which is why I 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:53.760 get the feeling that eventually this will all have to 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:58.400 settle down. At least I hope it settles rather than crashes. Now. 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:02.800 I should also stress I am no market expert. Maybe 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.920 this higher stock price will stick around and become stable. 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:11.320 I doubt it, but I fully admit this is not 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.559 my area of expertise by a long shot, or else 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.880 I would probably be a millionaire by now. Now. One 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.120 of the big stories in the second half of twenty 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.319 was all about how former President Trump was pressuring Chinese 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:29.360 company byte Dance to sell off its video streaming platform 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:34.360 TikTok to an American company or companies or else face 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.240 the apparently unenforceable threat that the service would be taken 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.040 down in the United States. In fact, the reason that 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.320 that sale has yet to take place is because the 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:49.400 government really didn't follow through on the threats that was making. 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.200 And I think I think a lot of people over 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:56.400 at byte Dance slash TikTok are just saying, well, until 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:58.960 they actually show us they really mean business, I guess 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.440 we just keep doing what we're doing. Now. It remains 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.440 to be seen what the Biden administration is going to 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.760 do with regard to TikTok. It's possible they don't do 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.480 anything at all. But meanwhile, over in India, things are 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:16.520 definitely changing. The Indian government banned TikTok along with fifty 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.440 eight other apps that are linked to China. Now that 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.080 followed a military confrontation between India and China in the 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.440 Galawan Valley back in the summer of twenty twenty, and 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.200 this week by Dance announced it was shutting down nearly 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.520 all of its operations in India and laying off almost 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.559 every employee there as well. One unnamed source told the 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.400 website in Tracker that as many as eighteen hundred people 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.880 would lose their jobs and the company would retain around 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.320 maybe two fifty employees in India. Some of the other 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.360 apps affected by this band include the mobile version of 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:55.920 Player Unknowns Battlegrounds and the messaging service we Chat. In 0:10:56.280 --> 0:11:01.119 terrifying news, The Guardian reports that a US government appointed 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:05.360 panel that included tech executives have made the recommendation that 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:09.800 the United States pursue the development of military AI applications, 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:15.680 including weapons powered by artificial intelligence. Leading that panel was 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:21.640 Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google. I guess it kind 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.240 of is fitting to say that before he was CEO 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:26.760 of Google, the company had kind of an unofficial motto 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.600 of don't be evil, and that's not the motto anymore. 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.040 I'm not saying the two are connected, but I'm not 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:37.840 not saying the two are connected anyway. The logic of this, 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.560 if you can call it, that, is that the AI would, 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:46.160 if designed properly, make fewer mistakes than people. And you 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:51.280 know that if designed properly, is an enormous qualification there. 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.000 I mean, if we have seen stories about how image 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:59.000 recognition software can sometimes get things really wrong at times 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:03.440 that can go from embarrassing to outright offensive, you know 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.400 that kind of opens up your eyes When that happens. 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.800 You might be dealing with some harsh criticism, and maybe 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.440 it might lead to a deeper discussion about topics like 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:16.720 bias and transparency and artificial intelligence. But when we're talking 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:21.360 military applications, it's obviously a more immediate issue of life 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:25.440 or death type of scenarios. A former Deputy Secretary of 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.959 Defense named Robert Work said that quote, it is a 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:33.040 moral imperative to at least pursue this hypothesis end quote, 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.400 which might come as news to the hundreds of computer 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:40.760 scientists who have previously spoken out about this very concept. 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.320 In fact, there is a coalition of organizations that have 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.840 signed documents calling for a ban on any uses of 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:52.199 artificial intelligence with regard to warfare. UH it often gets 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:56.360 reduced to no killer robots, that kind of thing. The 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.360 general concern is that applying AI to war will set 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.200 off a type of arms race, and that further, any 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.960 poorly made AI would be inherently dangerous. I mean, for 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.480 that matter, a well designed AI would be dangerous, because 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.160 I mean, that's its job. But it doesn't take much 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:17.480 imagination to conjure up scenarios in which an AI system 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:21.160 could make a call that a human being would never do, 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:25.600 potentially setting off a catastrophic series of events. For example, 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.560 just as a hypothesis, if an AI decided that losing 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:33.920 an entire city was an acceptable loss, it might move 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.120 forward with that decision that could lead to the deaths 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.600 of millions of people. Now that's definitely on the bad 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.000 end of the spectrum of possibilities. You could also argue 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:47.280 it's possible that AI systems could prevail in situations where 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.160 humans would fail, that an AI would act faster and 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.400 with a better result than humans would, and that lives 0:13:55.440 --> 0:14:00.120 would be saved in that example. But it is a 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.880 sobering thought, and in the end, the panel's recommendations, which 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:08.000 will be finalized the spring, are not binding. It's not 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:12.760 like whatever the panel finds the government will immediately implement, 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:14.760 and I expect we're going to see a lot more 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:19.480 people speaking out against the idea. And we've chatted a 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:23.000 bit about the trend of employees at tech companies forming 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:27.240 unions to help create more leverage when negotiating with executive leadership. 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.800 A lot of the news episodes have talked about Google's 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.800 ongoing battle with the Alphabet Workers Union or a w 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.800 you another thing that's very hard to say. But meanwhile, 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.800 over at Amazon, we're seeing something play out that seems 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:47.560 pretty familiar to anyone who was following the stories around 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:52.360 the United States elections last year. Amazon workers planning to 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:56.560 unionize a warehouse in Alabama have to vote on whether 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:00.760 or not that happens. It's a union election, and essentially 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:03.720 now the people trying to form the union want to 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.360 hold this vote through mail in ballots. I mean, we're 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.520 in the middle of a pandemic, so going to a 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.880 physical location in order to cast your vote is frowned upon, 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.040 generally speaking. But Amazon is pushing back on this. They're 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.200 attempting to force the workers to participate in an in 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:24.600 person vote instead, perhaps due to the fact that it 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.280 might be a way to discourage people from voting. I mean, 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:32.400 that's that's my just hypothesizing. I don't have anything to 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:36.000 back that up. It could be other reasons. Amazon says 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:40.920 that the reason is because, at least according to company representatives, 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.240 that the mail in process would take too long and 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:47.200 that would require too many resources. Uh. The National Labor 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:51.960 Relations Board had previously said that employees should be allowed 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:55.640 to vote by mail in ballot. Amazon is appealing that decision. 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.600 But assuming that the n l RB does not roll 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:02.840 back that decision, and there should be a union election 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:06.360 on February eight for that warehouse, and if the workers 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.960 do vote to unionize, it would mark the first Amazon 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.760 warehouse in the United States to do that. I'm sure 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.440 much of the tech sector has its eyes on Alabama, 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:20.280 as between Amazon and Google, we could end up seeing 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:24.880 a general move toward unionization in the tech space. I've 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.320 got a lot more to cover in today's episode, but 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:38.320 first let's take a quick break. The Iranian government has 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:43.120 issued a new social networking ban, this one targeting Signal, 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.400 the messaging app. Now you might remember from recent episodes 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.520 that Signal was having a bit of a growth spurt 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.240 because people who had been using WhatsApp, which is owned 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:56.280 by Facebook had started to abandon WhatsApp and they were 0:16:56.280 --> 0:17:00.440 turning to companies like Signal and Telegram instead. Well, Iran 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:05.160 has already banned Telegram, and now Signal has followed suit. 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.040 At the heart of the issue of people leaving WhatsApp 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.120 is a recent announcement that Facebook would be gathering some 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:16.280 meta data around how users were interacting with WhatsApp and 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.360 then putting that metadata to use over on Facebook proper, 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:23.560 and that raised a lot of privacy concerns that led 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.680 to people kind of abandoning ship. Well, the Iranian government 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.280 does doesn't seem too thrilled with Signals product, which includes 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:36.520 encrypted communication services. As such, the government dropped all Signal 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:41.800 traffic on the country's internal networks, and the government has 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:46.800 also ordered Iranian app stores to drop Signal from their 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.600 virtual shelves. As I said, Telegram had already been banned 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.320 in Iran. It's still in use in Iran. You just 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.320 can't download it legally there, but there are people who 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.879 are still using it in order to communicate. And in fact, 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:02.600 when it comes to social apps that allow for messaging, 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.200 the only two big ones that have not yet been 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:09.120 banned by Iran our WhatsApp, and Instagram, both of which 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:13.679 are owned by Facebook. Maza A Lamardani, a researcher with 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.480 article nineteen, speculates that this is probably because the Iranian 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.919 government wants to put bands in place on social services 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:24.720 before those services grow large enough for it to cause 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:29.639 a noticeable uproar within the country. Generally speaking, the Iranian 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.159 government tends to not like it if people can talk 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:35.800 without them being able to see what they're talking about, 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.879 as the Iranian government can fall a little bit on 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:44.119 the paranoid side of the scale. NBC reports that a 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:48.720 survey conducted by the National Association for Business Economics found 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:52.800 that around eleven percent of respondents, which were mainly you know, 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:56.280 business leaders, expected to see a future in which all 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.440 employees would return to offices. So, in other words, eleven 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.240 of those surveys said, yeah, I think we're going to 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:04.320 get to a point where everyone will be back in 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.439 the office, which means everybody else was saying, I'm not 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:09.760 so sure about that. In fact, more than half of 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.919 them said that they had already allowed for most or 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.560 all staff to work remotely during the pandemic, and the 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:20.400 general consensus is that at least for the short term, 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.840 most companies are seeing a future in which a significant 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.480 percentage of the workforce will continue to work from home 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.359 rather than commute to an office, or they might move 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.240 to a model and which people do come in for 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:35.920 some days during the week and they work from home 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.320 on other days, which is what I was doing before 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.720 the pandemic switched me over to working from home almost 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:46.840 entirely exclusively. I am not surprised by the results of 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.199 this survey. I am curious how it will affect office 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:54.080 spaces moving forward. Uh. For some companies, the office is 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.240 a bit of prestige, right. It's something that can be 0:19:56.320 --> 0:20:00.720 used to impress partners and clients or potential higher ers. 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:04.320 But an empty office doesn't give off quite the same vibe, 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:09.000 and office space can be really expensive to maintain, particularly 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:13.359 in fashionable parts of town. So I imagine some businesses 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:18.359 will examine various scenarios, including some that see them downsizing 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.480 the actual office space used in an effort to cut 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:25.200 costs and conserve resources. You know, if they say, well, 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.119 we've got a hundred people who work out of this office, 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.680 but only twenty of them come in, there's no reason 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:32.720 why we need to support a space that can hold 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:36.320 a hundred people. Let's scale back now. Perhaps when enough 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:39.240 people have been vaccinated, we'll start to see a change. 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:40.919 So it may be that a lot of companies just 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:46.320 say let's just tread water until the vaccinations roll out. However, 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.159 we need to remember that COVID is not going away 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.720 even after vaccinations, and that we're likely looking at a 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.880 reality in which we will need to get vaccinated against 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.800 COVID on a regular basis as the virus evolves. So, 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.880 in other words, there's no real resetting back to the 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.880 normal that existed pre COVID. Now. I don't know how 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:09.760 this is all going to turn out, and I'm sure 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:12.359 there will be a lot of negative consequences no matter 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.440 how it unfolds. I also know that working from home 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:19.040 isn't easy for everyone. In fact, on a personal note, 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:21.320 it's changed me quite a bit. I used to be 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:26.080 extremely extroverted, but now I actually get antsy if I 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:28.719 happen to see a group of people, and even if 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:30.800 I play a video game with a crowd and it 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:35.440 it makes me feel anxious. But that's enough about me. However, 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:38.639 related to that story is what's going on over in 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:42.240 the San Francisco Bay Area. In California. Now that has 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.359 long been the epicenter of the tech world, or at 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:48.439 least the tech world in the United States, so you know, 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:51.760 the US slice of the tech world. Anyway, there are 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:54.880 a few things to know about San Francisco in general. One, 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:59.440 the real estate market there is truly outrageous, like Jim 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.040 and the Halla Graham's truly truly truly outrageous. For example, 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:08.080 according to Town and Country, an empty lot measuring less 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:12.040 than half an acre in size, meaning there's no house there, 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.120 there's nothing there but an empty lot, that would set 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:20.600 you back five point four million dollars in Palo Alto, California. Now, 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:23.600 Palo Alto is closer to San Jose than it is 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:27.119 to San Francisco, but it is in the general Bay area. 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.840 The average rent in San Francisco for a one bedroom 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:36.000 apartment in the city itself is about thirty dollars per month. Now, 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.520 it's not the most expensive place in the world, but 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:43.000 it is. You know, it's expensive to live there. And 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:45.400 in a world where you can do your work from 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:48.879 home and not commute to an office, it opens up 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:52.480 the possibilities to you know, live somewhere else, somewhere that 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:57.320 isn't nearly as expensive. Axios published an article citing that 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:03.760 nearly nine thousand households have left the San Francisco area recently. Now, 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:06.240 some of that might be due to COVID directly, but 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:08.119 a lot of it seems to be more about the 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:12.920 cost of living versus the actual living conditions of the area. 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:15.439 The tech sector attracts a lot of talent to it, 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:19.240 and in general, the tech sector pays talent pretty well, 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:21.840 and that drove up the real estate prices in the 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:26.000 Bay Area over a couple of decades. And that also 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:28.880 pushed people who were not fortunate to have a high 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:32.240 paying tech gig further out of the city. They had 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.520 to commute much further to their jobs. So people working 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:38.920 in industries that, you know, it wasn't like a high 0:23:38.920 --> 0:23:43.000 paying developer job or something, might have to commute more 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:46.280 than an hour each way because they couldn't afford to 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:50.240 live in the same region where they worked. Now we're 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:53.120 starting to see some of the tech companies themselves consider 0:23:53.240 --> 0:23:56.040 a move away from the Bay Area, and some of 0:23:56.080 --> 0:23:59.800 the places that companies are looking at include Miami, Florida, 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:03.520 in Austin, Texas. And it's really too early to see 0:24:03.560 --> 0:24:05.280 what the effect of all this is going to be. 0:24:05.600 --> 0:24:09.160 But it's certain that the disruptive sector known as tech 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:13.400 is going to disrupt the Bay Area even more. Sticking 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:16.880 with that Bay Area tech sector, let's talk a bit 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:20.280 about Facebook, the media platform that is frequently part of 0:24:20.320 --> 0:24:24.119 the headlines. MSN reported on the amount of money that 0:24:24.240 --> 0:24:27.960 tech lobbyists spent in twenty twenty in the United States 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:32.199 in an effort to influence politics. Here, Facebook, to no 0:24:32.359 --> 0:24:35.399 huge surprise, was the top spender in a lot of 0:24:35.400 --> 0:24:39.400 them now. According to the report, Facebook spent nearly twenty 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:43.919 million dollars on lobbying, which represented an increase of nearly 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:48.639 eighteen percent over how much it's spent in twenty nineteen. Google, 0:24:48.760 --> 0:24:53.600 by contrast, actually cut spending by thirty six percent in twenty, 0:24:54.080 --> 0:24:58.360 down to a measly seven and a half million dollars. Overall, 0:24:58.400 --> 0:25:02.200