Last Week in Digital Media (10/14 - 10/18)
Zuckerberg and Free Speech, Kik is back!, Libra Charter Signed, Apple TV on Roku, TikTok content moderation
Hello
Here’s your unexpected Last Week in Digital Media this week as I managed to make the best of a not-so-reliable WiFi connection as there was too much happening not to share an update.
FACEBOOK / MARK ZUCKERBERG / FREE SPEECH
Something that will be dissected for months to come, Mark Zuckerberg gave a speech at Georgetown University on the subject of free speech. The full transcript of the Zuckerberg’s speech can be found here. Zuckerberg positions Facebook as the “5th Estate” and in the speech is consistently pro-freedom of expression on Facebook.
Zuckerberg notes that Facebook comes from a Western tradition, where freedom of expression is valued and compares it to the rise of China-based tech companies which come from a different world view. In a point that is between fair and also passing the buck, Zuckerberg states “I don’t think most people want to live in a world where you can only post things that tech companies judge to be 100% true.”
Later Zuckerberg slightly contradicts the need for someone else i.e. regulators making decisions by naming “legal” as the #1 threat to the future of the internet. An interestingly timed comment when Congress was debating Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act during the week which affords a lot of protection to Facebook (and others) and how they approach the management of online content. You can learn more about S230 here.
Considering the regulatory point further in the context of Zuckerberg’s follow-up interview on Fox News and his ongoing feud with Elizabeth Warren - it does feel like Zuckerberg is trying not to disenfranchise users and politicians on either side of the US political aisle. This is because for the left he talked up the civil rights power of free speech and for the right, he continued to protect their voices on the platform.
Broadly speaking, Zuckerberg’s view has not been welcomed by people with perspectives from other parts of the world (and even from some in the US). Especially when Facebook’s platform and apps have been blamed for a rise in sectarian violence (including by the United Nations). It’s reasonable to expect Facebook will have to take responsibility at some point as we’re never likely to have globally consistent social media content moderation laws.
Zuckerberg failed to address how Facebook’s algorithms promote and downrank content. So despite Zuckerberg’s claims of being hands-off, Facebook is making some sort of decision. There is an argument to be had that freedom of speech doesn’t have to equal freedom of reach and the black-box algorithmic amplification power of social media needs some considered thought and debate.
I could write a lot more about all of this and my perspective, but for a different take, I recommend you read Shoshana Zuboff’s book Surveillance Capitalism. One thing that stands out in her work is a suggestion that Facebook doesn’t want to restrict content because it needs all data points about a user and how people connect and interact with all forms of content to better profile people and monetize that knowledge. I don’t know if Facebook is as overt in the thinking as Zuboff suggests, but it is food for thought.
I think about a lot about the challenges that Facebook and big tech. present to the world. I recently weighed in on the topic of live streaming, something I have had an opportunity to speak to Zuckerberg about directly. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on Zuckerberg’s recent speech and interviews, so do drop me a line.
And now onto some of the other news you may have missed:
GENERAL
Kik is coming back! Kik has been acquired by MediaLab (not affiliated with IPG). If you recall, last month Kik announced it was shutting down to focus on cryptocurrency.
Reddit now has tighter integration with Snapchat with reddit users able to share content directly on Snapchat (and anyone can view it). The integration is iOS only for now and direct integration is only on what reddit classifies as “safe for work” content. Reddit leveraged the Snapchat developer offering Snapkit to enable the functionality.
Verizon has struck a deal with Apple News and Stocks to sell premium native programmatic advertising across the services in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. NBC also extended its deal to sell ads in Apple News.
Google held a hardware event, announcing new phones, assistants, and earbuds. The big takeaways, earbuds are now better defined as “hearables” as smarts start getting built it and Google killed off the Daydream VR accessory. The best overview of the Google hardware event comes from the IPG Media Lab.
Despite the loss of several Libra members last week, Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency Libra Association had 21 members formally sign the Libra Association Charter (PDF link). The first step towards Libra moving beyond the conceptual phase.
Pinterest is giving users the ability to better customize their home feed experience, with Pinterest Feed Tuner. The feed tuner also comes with another feature that provides more transparency and control on suggested Pins, with Pinterest adding the ability to see why a Pin was recommended and to give feedback on the suggestion.
VIDEO, OTT, and STREAMING
as the streaming wars continue to heat up, it’s not enough to just be on your own hardware player, as such Roku announced Apple TV is now available on the Roku platform.
in other Roku-related news, Netflix announced that come Dec 1 it will be ending support for Netflix on some older Roku devices (mostly devices pre-dating 2011). Reading between the lines, this may be a signal of some other UI or similar change coming to Netflix that requires more hardware power.
AMC Theaters are launching their own iTunes-esque service “AMC Theaters on Demand” where you can rent or buy movies. The service will have about 2,000 titles at launch.
the user of computer-vision to insert products and ads into pre-recorded content has been an offering for a while, but the industry got a kickstart this week when Tencent shared plans to start testing the computer vision ad technology (using Mirriad tech)
Netflix reported Q3 earnings with mixed results (US Domestic Growth was below forecasts, International was above). In the letter to shareholders (PDF link), which is worth a read, Netflix acknowledged elevated churn because of increases in price and competition. Netflix downplays the streaming wars in their letter but realistically the “war” really starts in Q4. Netflix does paint a picture that the real potential loser of streaming wars will be broadcast TV.
REGULATORY
as previewed in the Zuckerberg write-up, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce debated Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act during the week. The replay of the live stream is available here. S230 broadly gives platforms safe harbor from prosecution for content on their platform. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has a comprehensive write up on why platforms and others advocate for S230 to remain as-is.
as the debate about freedom of speech online hit fever pitch in the US, it’s worth looking elsewhere, specifically the EU. Back in July, it was reported that the EU is drawing up regulations that would force platforms to remove content. The proposed “Digital Services Act” is still in the early stages, but something to keep in the back of your mind as regulators and platforms argue about what is the solution to online safety, freedom of expression, and consumer protection (and perhaps EU regulations will influence the US, the same way GDPR has).
Senator Ron Wyden has introduced a privacy bill called “Mind Your Own Business Act”. The proposal includes establishing minimum security standards, a national Do Not Track system for data, increased staffing for regulation, calls for algorithmic fairness, and a fine of up to 4% of annual revenue for breaches. The full text of the Mind Your Own Business Act is here, or you can also view a summary (both are PDF links).
next week on October 24th, the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will be holding an open hearing “Data Ownership: Exploring Implications for Data Privacy Rights and Data Valuation”. The hearing will be webcast live.
New Zealand is continuing to take a leadership position around government oversight of online safety, with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern committing US$10.73 as part of an effort to find, stop and remove terrorist and violent extremist content online.
PRIVACY, TRUST, and SAFETY
TikTok is effectively developing their version of a content oversight board, appointing an external law firm (K&L Gates) to oversee TikTok content moderation policies with promises to also build out a leadership team responsible for user protection.
as the debate about what-can-be-said-in-election advertising rages on, a Buzzfeed investigation found that Facebook does remove political advertising if it violates Facebook standards around profanity and fake buttons. Putting Facebook in the contradictory position of saying it won’t take a position on political ads and then taking a position on political ads. For what it’s worth, the policy has been applied to ads across the US political spectrum.
in an attempt to provide some clarity, twitter shared their policy approach to political tweets. In a broad sense politician tweets are governed by twitter rules (which could result in deletion) but there are exceptions in what twitter defines as the “public interest”.
in a New York Times op-ed Foursquare CEO, Jeff Glueck, has called for formal regulatory oversight of the mobile location industry (paywall). Glueck cites multiple instances of where location data collection either lacks transparency, reason, or the data collected is open to abuse.
Finally, thank you to those who email me saying that they would miss the newsletter. You motivated me to find a way to get an issue out this week.
Have a great week.
Joshua