Meanwhile, the great internet crackdown begins
India banned 59 China-based apps - now it's deciding whether to kick out Huawei
Anti-China sentiment has been on the rise in India this month following border clashes. Now, India has brought tech to the battleground by banning 59 Chinese apps, claiming that they threaten the "sovereignty and integrity of India". Now, the country is discussing whether Huawei should be allowed to participate in the country's 5G rollout plans.
Reddit, YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook ramp up moderation efforts
Reddit has banned 2,000 subreddits, including r/The_Donald, a once-notorious pro-Trump forum, following rule changes designed to make the platform less accommodating to hateful and abusive communities. Twitch has temporarily banned President Trump's account for "hateful content". YouTube has banned a number of popular white-supremacist accounts, including David Duke and Richard Spencer. Most recently, Facebook has removed 220 accounts related to the far-right Boogaloo movement.
Pando's biggest story this week...
Twitter censored DDoSecrets and made BlueLeaks an even bigger deal
This week, Twitter censored WikiLeaks-style website for exposing 24 years' worth of sensitive police files. Twitter then censored Pando for...writing an article about Twitter's censorship. This was by far our most shared article of this week, but Twitter's censorship of our link meant it didn't reach as many people as it should have.
The beginning of the end for Big Tech news aggregation
Facebook changes its algorithm to boost original reporting
On Tuesday this week, Facebook updated its algorithm to prioritise more thoughtful, original reporting. The platform will "use artificial intelligence to analyze groups of articles on a particular story topic and identify the ones most often cited as the original source".
The New York Times pulls out of Apple News
The New York Times is one of the first organizations to pull out of Apple News. It stated that the aggregator "did not align with its strategy of building direct relationships with paying readers". This could be the start of a new trend of content platforms cutting out unnecessary middlemen.
The Facebook advertising boycott rages on
Boycotting Facebook could actually be giving brands a free boost
Given that many companies have slashed their advertising budgets in the wake of COVID-19, the Facebook ad boycott couldn't have come at a better time. “By pulling ads, they save money and make a low-risk statement that results in positive publicity and marketing for their brands among constituents,” said Gerard Francis Corbett, a communications strategy consultant based in Silicon Valley. “The Facebook boycott is a lower-risk way for CEOs to make a [political] statement.”
It might be time to start referring to 'tech companies' as 'ad companies'
We've come to know Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple as 'tech companies'. Their revenue tells a totally different story. Platforms command outsized influence over the rest of digital media. Without them, there is barely any advertising industry.
This week's most interesting trends
The return of the 90s web
There's more content on the web than we could ever hope to consume. As a result, we're craving a more controlled reading experience. As our desire for our own space on the web grows, we're ditching big websites in favor of smaller communities, personalised RSS feeds, and self-made websites - just like we had back in the 90s.
Co-working is dead. Who cares.
As the pandemic makes us question how we ever managed the 30 minute commute into the office every day, Joan Westenberg asks: if you’re an early stage startup considering a co-working space, ask yourself: What’s the ROI of paying $500+ pm for a desk and a vague promise of “community” to make your staff commute to a fixed location – vs letting them work at home and pumping that $500 each into marketing? What is the purpose of that expense? Is it time to leave co-working in the past?