WEBVTT - Tech News: Apple Begrudgingly Adopts USB-C for iPhones 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.480 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.799 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio. And 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.560 how the tech are you. It's time for the tech 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.840 news for Thursday, October twenty, twenty twenty two, and we've 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:28.320 got a ton to get through, So let's start off 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.480 with some Apple news. Last week, I talked about how 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:35.839 lawmakers in the EU had approved legislation that will require 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:41.279 all smartphone manufacturers that use a physical charger to adopt 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:46.120 the USBC standard for sales in the European Union, and 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.800 that this news particularly affects Apple, as the company has 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:54.480 relied upon its own proprietary technology called Lightning up until now. 0:00:55.080 --> 0:01:00.120 Apple's Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing, Greg Joswiak, has is 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.559 confirmed that Apple will comply with the new laws, though 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.320 he did not comment on whether or not Apple will 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:12.080 make a global switch to the USBC standard. So it 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.520 is possible that the European market will get a us 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:21.800 b C version of the iPhone starting in late and 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.080 that the rest of the world we'll stick with iPhones 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:28.280 that have a lightning part. We don't know yet, Josiak 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.280 also argued that the lightning technology actually cuts down on 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.360 E waste, which is a claim I find dubious at best. 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.560 So the claim says that charging bricks, you know, the 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.240 actual things that you plug into a wall outlet, they 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.760 frequently have ports for both USB and lightning cables, and 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.680 so by switching to USBC, folks will have no choice 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:54.400 but to toss all their old lightning cables because those 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.560 won't go to anything anymore, which you know, sure, but 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.160 I don't know about you. I know that I have 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:05.600 to replace my cables fairly regularly either they get wear 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.640 and tear on them. I'm particularly bad about rolling my 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.600 office chair over cables that honestly are just too long. 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:15.160 I need to get shorter cables, or more likely I 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:20.080 misplaced them during travel. And then I find that I 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.480 need a cable to connect my thing to my other thing, 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:28.240 like my phone to a charging brick or whatever. By 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.200 consolidating all that into a single standard, a standard that 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.679 works pretty darn well for that matter, then I'm more 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:36.800 likely to have a backup cable than if I need 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.919 to keep separate types for all my devices. Yes, there 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.920 are different levels of USBC. There are like three amp 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.600 and five amp versions, So there are differences, but for 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.320 the most part, like you can just swap cables out, 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.639 unless you're doing something like trying to power a computer 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:55.760 or a display or something, in which case you need 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.840 to make sure you have the five amp version. But otherwise, like, 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.960 it's really makes it simple to to swap in and 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:05.919 out of your cables, and I'm all for that kind 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.799 of consolidation anyway, Jaws re act, you know, Apple's rep 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.240 kind of made it clear that Apple is complying, but 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:15.960 is tots not happy about doing it. At least it's 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.120 going to comply in Europe. Here in the United States, 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.359 there are a few lawmakers who are considering similar legislation 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.200 that would standardize stuff like charging cables. But I am 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:29.440 not particularly optimistic that such legislation will ultimately become law here. 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:33.080 I don't I don't know. I just don't think it's likely. 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.200 Maybe we'll see swapping over to Alphabet, which of course 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.880 is the company that's the parent company of the stuff 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:44.280 like Google, YouTube, etcetera. It's starting to really tighten its 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.880 belt across all of its subsidiaries. Over the course of 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.720 the last year, Alphabet had added more than thirty six 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:53.160 thousand new employees to the company, which is a big 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:56.720 old yaalza. That's a lot of hires. But those days 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.640 of heavy hiring appeared to be at an end, or 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.720 at least to be put on pause. In an investor 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:07.840 called this Week, Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai assured investors that 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.120 the company is taking a much more critical look at 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.760 projects to determine which ones are really important and to 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.279 direct resources to those as well as to make quote 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.040 unquote course corrections. And I think this is important for Google. 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:27.599 The company has frequently launched projects that saw like a 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.960 lackluster response sometimes because you know, a lot of people 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.279 feel like it's a boy who Cried wolf situation that 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:40.960 Google has so frequently pulled the plug on products that 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:44.280 there's a reluctance to get invested in a new one 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:46.920 because you're worried that the company will stop supporting it 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.040 within a year or two. That's kind of earned that reputation. 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.880 So there really is a need to focus on specific 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:59.279 projects to make sure that those are adding value to 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.400 the company. I get that, But the company has also 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:04.960 had to cut way back on a lot of employee 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:09.320 travel and related expenses. At the same time, the advertising 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.760 business is taking a pretty big hit that is not 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:18.520 unusual in times of economic crisis or economic distress or recession, 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:22.160 whatever you want to call it. I'll spare you an 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.560 actual rant, but just in your head. Insert at this 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:29.520 point in the episode, a rant where I yell about 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:34.520 the fact that avoiding naming something like the reluctance to 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.640 name whatever economic situation we're in, does not at all 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:43.120 change the nature of that situation. It's still bad even 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.760 if we refuse to name it something specific. Anyway. All 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:51.760 this means that Alphabet's chief source of revenue the advertising business. 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.000 That's where I remind you Google is not really a 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:58.200 search company. It's an advertising company anyway, that's taken a 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.560 big hit. It also means that other entities that depend 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.159 upon ad revenue are hurting, So that would include folks 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.200 like YouTube creators, for example. So this is a pretty 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.359 big ripple effect. The Chi's call with investors does not 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:15.279 signal like a massive catastrophe or anything like that, but 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.159 you could say that this is another kind of red 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.120 flag that we're in a period where tech companies in particular, 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.120 and the people looking for work within the tech industry 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:29.840 are encountering some pretty tough challenges. Okay, let's switch over 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:35.440 to our favorite punching bag that is Meta Yesterday. Yesterday 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:40.000 being Wednesday, October twenty two for any of y'all from 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.360 the future who are listening back on old tech news 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.080 episodes for some reason. Anyway, yesterday Mark Zuckerberg and his 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:49.599 team held an earnings call that delivered some bad news 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:52.920 to investors, who have more than responded in kind, as 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.960 we will soon learn. So in that call, we learned 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.520 that Meta's revenue dropped four percent compared to this time 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:03.120 last year, that net income was down a whopping fifty 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:07.440 two from this time last year, and that spending is 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:13.440 up by nine So Meta is bringing in less money overall. 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.520 That would be the revenue bit. It's bringing in way 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.320 less of what we will generously refer to as profit. 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:22.480 That would be the income bit. That's the drop off 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.160 from a year ago. And this is all following on 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.480 the heels of other bad news like the fact that 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:34.200 EU regulators have forced Meta to divest itself of Giffee, 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:38.320 the animated gift platform it had purchased in twenty So 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.080 that's something that the company is going to have to 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.400 do in the near future, and considering that there's also 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:47.680 this growing skepticism around the concept of the metaverse, and 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.600 that Mark Zuckerberg appears fully dedicated to pursuing his version, 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.720 version his vision, I guess I could say of the metaverse, 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.400 it has some folks, like some investors, extremely displeased with 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:05.000 the company direction. This lack of confidence in in Meta 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.680 and Meta strategy is reflected in the company's stock price, 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.920 which dropped nearly twenty percent and after hours trading following 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:16.360 this earnings call. That drop in stock price meant that 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.000 Meta saw a rapid loss of around sixty five billion 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.840 dollars in its market capitalization. Market Cap is essentially the 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.480 what you get when you take the value of a 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.880 share of stock in a company multiplied by the numbers 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:34.480 of shares of that stock, and then it gives a 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.240 kind of general indication of the company's value. Right you 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.800 take like, if if you've got ten dollar stock and 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.520 there are ten shares out there, you multiplied ten by ten, 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.480 you get a hundred. That's how much market cap your 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:51.000 little your little approach has. So Meta saw a drop 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.920 of sixty billion dollars in its market cap because of 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.719 that stock price drop. By the way, that doesn't have 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.360 any real direct impact on how much cash the company 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.480 may or may not have on hand at that moment. 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.320 They can have an impact on a company if it 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.559 wants to, you know, borrow money or whatever for an acquisition, 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.679 then the market cap change can make a big difference. 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.600 But it's really just to show that there's this drop 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:20.520 in confidence in Meta in general. Zuckerberg said on the 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.600 call that if Meta wasn't pursuing the development of a metaverse, 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.600 it might be the case that no one else would 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:29.960 have stepped up and no work would be done on it. 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:35.240 And to that, I say, okay, so what. But you know, 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:39.560 that's because I remain really skeptical that a metaverse approach 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:45.600 is really the future of connectivity, commerce, entertainment, etcetera. I mean, 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:48.959 maybe it is. Maybe that is the future, and and 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:53.480 I'm just incapable of seeing it. Maybe I am being 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:58.240 obstinate in my reluctance to buy into the metaverse vision, 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:03.000 but it just it just seems unrealistic to me because 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.640 of a lot of different factors. And I think a 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:10.720 lot of investors feel in a similar way. Right They 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.440 also feel feel uncertain. They certainly see how the metaverse 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:21.080 project is requiring enormous UH costs in Meta, and that 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:26.240 this is in fact impacting the company's performance. Maybe we're 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.199 all wrong. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg is right on the money. 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.960 That is possible. But whether we're right, or Zuckerberg's right, 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:38.240 or there's no one who's right, Zuckerberg has indicated that 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:42.200 we're likely to see future quarters with similar tough results 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:47.120 moving forward, that Meta remains committed to this metaverse pursuit 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:52.040 and will continue to spend money and perhaps in increasing quantities, 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.520 in an effort to see it to fruition. Meanwhile, companies 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.160 like TikTok continue to attract the younger users that Meta 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.640 desperately wants to hook into its own ecosystem. So it 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.520 may be that Meta's future is really just meant for 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:08.840 a group of folks who are steadily aging out of 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:13.040 the platform with no replenishment in sight. Okay, we've got 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.200 a lot more tech news to go through, including some 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.080 more from Meta, but first let's take this quick break. 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.840 We're back. The Association for Computer Machineries Journal published a 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.640 study that has some disturbing findings, namely that Facebook ads 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.719 appear to target people not just on their interests, and 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:42.560 their likes and their dislikes, and their browsing activity, and 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.200 sometimes their app activity, unless it's an Apple iPhone, in 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.200 which case I got kind of eliminated once Apple gave 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:53.040 users the option to opt out of that, but also 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.040 on things like their race, their gender, and their age, 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.599 even if the user isn't sharing that info with the 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.000 platform itself. The study says that Facebook is using image 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.960 recognition software to draw conclusions about users and then serve 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:09.640 up ads based on those conclusions. For example, the study 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.920 found that white users were far less likely to encounter 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.360 ads that feature black people in them. The researchers actually 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:21.160 created ads for job listings to post on Facebook, and 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:25.160 these job listings featured AI generated images of people. Some 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:27.559 of the ads had white people in them, some had 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.080 black people in them, and by tracking the ads, the 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:33.880 research group saw that black users made up of the 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.960 audience that saw ads that had black people in them. 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.040 With ads that had white people in them, black users 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:44.320 made up fifty of that audience. Ads with teenage girls 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:46.840 featured in them went on to an audience that was 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.800 fifty seven percent mail, and many of them over the 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.600 age of fifty five, which creepy I mean, that's not 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.319 a good look for a platform that's often associated with 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.880 an aging user base. If it was an AD that 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:04.240 featured an older woman inside the image, well, the audience 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:08.559 for those ads ended up being women. So the researchers 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.600 indicate that for some uses, this kind of targeting might 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:15.200 feel like like it's a little suss, but it's not 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.400 necessarily a bad thing. I mean, let's face it, you 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.400 are more likely to respond to an AD if the 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:25.040 person or person's appearing in the ad kind of look 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.640 like you do right, like you. There's just this this tendency. 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.800 You know, we want to see ourselves reflected in the 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.840 things that we see. But when it comes to stuff 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:39.920 like job listings and housing and education, the targeting can 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.920 reinforce social problems. In fact, Facebook has been in trouble 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:46.320 for that in the past. Back in there was a 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:51.840 massive lawsuit that focused on this. Also, you know, we're 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.800 looking at a system that's using machine learning and AI 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.680 and machine learning by relying upon strategies that worked in 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:03.120 the past, could end up perpetuating discriminatory practices that disproportionately 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:07.200 hurt certain populations, namely people of color. The study also 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.959 indicates that Facebook's approach could be antithetical to the desires 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:14.960 of their clients, like the companies that are actually paying 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.679 for the ads, because a lot of these companies want 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:21.360 to project an image that values diversity. But if the 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:24.520 diversity reflected in the ads means that those ads aren't 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.720 being shown to all populations, that might mean that the 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.400 ad isn't getting the effect that the base company wanted 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:35.680 in the first place. Now, Meta reps say that Meta 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.480 is dedicated to preventing discrimination on its platforms and that 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.560 the company continues to develop its technologies with that goal 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.760 in mind. Further, we should be hearing more about Meta's 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.960 pushes to to fix these kinds of problems in the 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.320 months ahead. But this is a good example of how 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:56.400 machine learning and how AI can have a bias built 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.920 into it, and how that bias can have a negative impact. 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.480 Now that's not to say that all biases necessarily bad 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.960 or that all bias has to be avoided, but there 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.720 are definite areas where you could say, yeah, this is 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:13.600 a problem, and this kind of constitutes that and some 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.600 more Meta bad news. In Washington State here in the 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:19.920 United States, a judge has issued a twenty four point 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.880 seven million dollar fine for failing to comply with a 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:28.200 state campaign finance disclosure law. So the court found Facebook 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:32.560 guilty of violating the state's Fair Campaign Practices Act more 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:37.240 than eight hundred times eight hundred twenty two times in fact, 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.800 and this is not the first time this has happened. 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:42.840 The company came up for the same sort of problem 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:47.400 back in two thousand eighteen. So that law says that 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:53.200 any platform that airs or displays political advertising has to 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:58.360 maintain a publicly accessible database of who purchased the ads, 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.520 including their names and addresses. Plus the information has to 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.960 include whom the ads were targeting, how many views the 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:09.960 ads received, how the ads were paid for, and that 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.720 kind of stuff. So anyone who asks for this information 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:18.120 has the right to it, and the platforms are compelled 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:22.440 by law to comply and hand over that precious information. 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:27.280 But Facebook has declined to acquiesce to that request for 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:30.960 quite some time, has not followed the rules according to 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.800 the the case, and it has argued that the law 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.840 quote burdens political speech end quote. Though that's kind of 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.080 a tough thing to argue considering that, you know, platforms 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:44.240 like television, radio, and newspapers have all been complying with 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.680 this law since it was passed in nine two. So 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.920 I'm not sure that that's a really valid argument. Uh, 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.680 there's no doubt that Facebook has access to the information 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.200 that's required. The company has just repeatedly failed to hand 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.840 that information over. The law allow the judge to find 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.239 an entity up to ten thousand dollars per violation. And 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:06.560 as I said, there were eight hundred twenty two violations, 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:10.720 And you might say, huh, e d two times ten 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:14.120 thousand does not equal twenty four point seven million dollars. 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.520 That's that's way more than what you should expect. Well, 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:20.840 that same law also allows a judge to triple the 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:25.760 penalty per violation if the judge determines that the violations 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:29.000 were intentional in nature. And since Facebook went through this 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.199 same process back in two thousand eighteen, it's kind of 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:36.000 hard to argue that the company wasn't intentionally violating that law. 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.159 Thus we get the twenty four point seven million dollar 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:43.840 fine that might be the largest campaign finance penalty ever 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:47.480 issued here in the United States. Of course, compared to 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:51.560 Facebook's revenues, which even in the downturn it's experiencing right now, 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.200 or you know, measured in the billions of dollars. This 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.080 is small change, but then no company really wants to 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:01.119 just hand over twenty five million bucks, so it's not 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.119 exactly a slap on the wrist either. It's you know, 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.280 literally the largest penalty that the judge was allowed to 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.280 pass by law. Now let's hop on over to Twitter 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.159 to find out what's going on with Elon Musk's on again, 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:19.120 off again, on again again acquisition deal. So as it stands, 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:24.440 Musk has until the close of business tomorrow, Friday, October 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.800 to finalize his acquisition of Twitter. If you recall, Musk 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.000 initially agreed to buy Twitter at fifty four dollars twenty 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.680 cents per share back in the spring of this year. 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.840 Right now, that's actually just a hair over what Twitter 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.280 is currently trading at. Like when I went to record, 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.520 Twitter is trading at just under fifty four dollars per share, 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.800 so it's really close to what that deal was proposed at. 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:54.160 I suspect that the current share price reflects people anticipating 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:56.560 that this deal is going to go through by the 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.920 end of tomorrow, So even a small gain is a game. 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:04.200 So I think that has driven up interest in the stock, 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:06.640 and thus we see it really close to what Musk 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:11.080 was um agreeing to buy it for. Of course, Musk 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.640 famously attempted to back out of the deal, which then 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.800 prompted a court case to force Musk to go through 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.800 with the deal. Twitter brought that against Musk. Uh That 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.320 court case is currently on hold unless the deal does 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:27.640 not complete by the end of day tomorrow, in which 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.600 case the case is back on. So Musk himself arrived 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.640 at Twitter HQ yesterday. On Wednesday, he carried a bathroom 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:39.919 sink as a kind of publicity stunt. Uh. I'm not 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:42.120 sure what the message was, because typically we talked about 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:46.679 kitchen sink deals, not bathroom sinc ones. According to Gizmoto, 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.840 Musk said it was a visual pun on let that 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.840 sink in. But you know, I don't know. Maybe he's 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:57.320 just very particular about where he washes his hands. I 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.960 don't know. Anyway. Musk also published an open letter to 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:04.760 Twitter employees to address some fears and concerns people have 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.960 had about this acquisition. For example, he denied that he 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:12.400 plans to eliminate up to the workforce at the company. 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:14.560 That was something that had been reported in the past 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.399 by The Washington Post. Uh, there is an indication that 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:22.160 he expects there to be some downsizing, and in fact 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:28.720 had received previous advice from Jason callicannacas out of old 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.320 people to require people to come into the office, because 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:34.399 that's going to weed people out, like people will self 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.840 select for leaving the company. But then that tends to 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:42.840 be like your best people too, So that's not the 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.200 best advice I've ever heard, But you know, it's it's 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.240 very possible that Busk will attempt to downsize Twitter simply 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:54.680 by being unpleasant, something that I am told he has 0:20:54.720 --> 0:21:00.240 a modicum of experience at doing. Anyway, Moscostle said has 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.119 no intention to allow Twitter to become a quote free 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.800 for all hell scape where anything can be said with 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:10.160 no consequences end quote. That also conflicts a little bit 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:13.360 earlier with reports that must believe Twitter should be kind 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.600 of an unfettered platform for free speech. But to be fair, 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:20.159 Musk has pretty much always maintained that this should actually 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:23.400 fall within the legal parameters of the various countries within 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.720 which Twitter operates. So, in other words, you can't say 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:31.480 absolutely anything if the country where you are operating has 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:34.879 limits on free speech, like you have to you have 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:38.320 to operate within the boundaries of the law. Uh, he 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.639 has at least made that concession. He has also indicated 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:45.000 that he intends for Twitter to ease off on content moderation, 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.159 which could allow for even more misinformation to proliferate across 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:51.760 the platform, and that he would reverse the permanent bands 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:55.679 of several prominent accounts, most notably that of Donald Trump, 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:58.840 who has seen his own truth social platform struggle to 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:03.240 find significant traction. Anyway, we'll have to wait until tomorrow 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:05.840 to see if the deal actually does go through for real, 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:10.080 which I mean, I'm there's like a seventy chance in 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:13.280 my mind that's going to happen, or if Musk will 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:15.840 pull some other maneuver in an attempt to get out 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:18.200 of the deal. I'm not sure that there is an 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.160 exit strategy that wouldn't also put the court case back 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:25.280 on track to continue. So I think there's a more 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:27.919 than decent chance that by the end of tomorrow, Twitter 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:31.359 will be a privately held company owned by Elon Musk. 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:37.320 CNBC another outlets report that Tesla, another Elon Musk company, 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:40.920 is currently under investigation by the U. S Department of Justice. 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:44.679 This is with regards to Tesla's driver assist systems, and 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:48.880 whether or not the company misled consumers with exaggerated claims 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:54.360 about those systems and their capabilities, namely that they essentially 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:59.360 constituted self driving. Now, at the very least, there appears 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:03.400 to be two distinct storylines coming out of Tesla. So 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:07.760 on the marketing side, the company seems to indicate that 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:11.080 Tesla vehicles, when they're in full self driving mode, are 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:16.639 you know, to any practical consideration, an autonomous vehicle. They 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:19.720 don't go quite that far to say it, but one 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:24.000 video on Tesla's site that shows a man inside a 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:27.800 Tesla vehicle goes on to say, quote, the person in 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.760 the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons. He 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:35.159 is not doing anything. The car is driving itself end quote. 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:37.360 That is not the same thing as saying this car 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:41.080 is autonomous, but it does seem to imply, Hey, the 0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:44.280 system can take full control of your vehicle safely and 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:49.000 you can just sit back and relax. However, during actual operation, 0:23:49.440 --> 0:23:52.399 Tesla has messages that tell drivers they are required to 0:23:52.480 --> 0:23:55.240 keep their hands on the wheel even when using the 0:23:55.320 --> 0:24:00.639 driver assist features, and further the website. On Tesla's page, 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:04.280 it actually says the systems quote do not make the 0:24:04.400 --> 0:24:08.280 vehicle autonomous end quote. So it does say on the 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:11.720 web page, this doesn't make this an autonomous vehicle, even 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:14.600 while they also show videos where they say the only 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:17.879 reason we have a driver in the the driver's seat 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:20.680 is for legal reasons. So it does sound a lot 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:24.320 like double speak, right, like the cars aren't autonomous, but 0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:27.800 you know they can drive themselves anyway. Tesla's have been 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:32.040 involved in numerous high profile accidents, some of them involving fatalities, 0:24:32.600 --> 0:24:36.320 So the d o J is investigating the company, presumably 0:24:36.359 --> 0:24:39.640 to see if there are any criminal implications here. It's 0:24:39.680 --> 0:24:44.840 possible that Tesla's seemingly contradictory messages may keep the company 0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:48.680 legally safe in that Tesla's lawyers can truthfully point out 0:24:48.720 --> 0:24:52.400 that Tesla has denied that its vehicles are autonomous. This 0:24:52.480 --> 0:24:57.040 is not the only legal investigation into Tesla by any means, 0:24:57.119 --> 0:25:00.480