After leaked internal documents in The Wall Street Journal, whistle-blower testimony on Capitol Hill, a global server outage and drops in share price, Facebook has recently taken (another) spectacular beating. But veteran tech journalist Walt Mossberg says none of it has been a surprise. In the latest episode of Sway, Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg talk about “the sins of Facebook,” whether this new scandal really is the company’s Big Tobacco moment and why Sheryl Sandberg is still sitting at Mark Zuckerberg’s side. They also swap stories of tech executives — from making Mark Zuckerberg sweat (literally) and getting the cold shoulder from Elon Musk to Walt Mossberg’s Taco Bell invitation from Bill Gates and “arm-waving arguments” with Steve Jobs.
The upcoming (eventually) release of 14.5, and in particular the introduction of Ad Tracking Technology, has prompted an almighty fight between Apple and Facebook. In a new video, the Wall Street Journal‘s Joanna Stern explains what’s really going… with the help of some seriously ripped action figures.
We’ve reported a lot on The Mac Observer about the growing tensions between Apple and Facebook. Bloomberg News has a good writeup of how things turned sour between the two tech giants, and why this may be just the beginning.
In March 2018, Facebook Inc. was in the midst of a scandal involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica and was facing serious questions about its stewardship of its users’ personal data. A commentator on MSNBC asked Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook what he would do if he were in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s shoes. “I wouldn’t be in this situation,” Cook said…. The feud has escalated rapidly over Apple’s forthcoming update to the software that powers its iPhones, which includes a requirement that developers get explicit permission to collect certain data and track users’ activity across apps and websites. Such a move could undermine the efficacy of Facebook’s targeted advertisements. In December, Facebook took out full-page ads in a trio of U.S. newspapers saying it was “standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere” by opposing the changes, which it describes as an abuse of market power.
James Titcomb has a op-ed in The Sydney Morning Herald where he pieces together the Apple-Facebook feud.
Over the past six months Facebook has become Apple’s chief antagonist, airing its gripes with investors, the media, its own employees and even the regulators writing the rules that will govern digital services for the next decade.
That is despite the companies not being traditional rivals: Apple sells hardware and runs subscription services; Facebook gets 98 per cent of its income through advertising.
I think the fundamental difference is that Facebook is doing everything in its power to become a mediator for reality. But so far it’s a mediator on platforms that it can’t control, and Apple is chipping away at some of the tools Facebook relies on, like targeted advertising.
In a court filing in Dublin, Ireland, Facebook says if a decision by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is upheld, the company would have no choice but to abandon Europe because of its bad business practices.
If the decision is upheld, “it is not clear to [Facebook] how, in those circumstances, it could continue to provide the Facebook and Instagram services in the EU,” Yvonne Cunnane, who is Facebook Ireland’s head of data protection and associate general counsel, wrote in a sworn affidavit.
The decision Facebook’s referring to is a preliminary order handed down last month to stop the transfer of data about European customers to servers in the U. S., over concerns about U. S. government surveillance of the data.
Mark Zuckerberg is scared of Elizabeth Warren over her plan to break up Big Tech monopolies, and a leaked audio recording reveals a rant in which he pledges to sue the government if she wins. You know, just your typical Tuesday stuff.
You have someone like Elizabeth Warren who thinks that the right answer is to break up the companies … if she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge. And does that still suck for us? Yeah. I mean, I don’t want to have a major lawsuit against our own government. … But look, at the end of the day, if someone’s going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight.
Yesterday, two activist groups launched a campaign to remove Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook’s board of directors.
Digital civil rights group Color of Change and Majority Action, a corporate accountability organization, told the Securities and Exchange Commission that they will be urging Facebook shareholders to withhold their support for nominating Zuckerberg to the board.
The two groups argue that Facebook’s corporate structure gives Zuckerberg “control without adequate checks,” pointing out that he is CEO and holds 57.7 percent of voting rights in the company.
