News:
Facebook & Twitter controversy after news censorship disagreement: As CEO Jack Dorsey this week took full responsibility for Twitter’s censorship of a Donald Trump tweet suggesting protestors would be fired upon for looting, Facebook refused to follow suit. The tweet supposedly violated Twitter’s rules regarding the glorification of violence, but I think that it sets a dangerous precedent for the social media platform: any tweets left uncensored will appear to have been given their seal of approval. In typical petulant fashion, the President immediately signed an executive order aimed at removing some of the protections given to social media platforms.
Meanwhile, Facebook faced condemnation from civil rights groups and employee walkouts following Mark Zuckerberg’s staunch refusal to take action over the tweet. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
You can read their open letter to the CEO here. In an amusing twist, one employee compared working at Facebook to the popular Mitchell & Webb sketch “Are we the baddies,” which, in the name of transparency, you can find here.
Historic Space-X launch: As all the constituent parts of their test flight landed safely following a rendez-vous at the ISS, this week Space-X became the first non-governmental organisation to put humans into space. No doubt one of the most spectacular achievements by a private company in human history, the flight featured the company’s trademark shuttle body landing onto a moving barge, which you can see here. Finally, some progress from the 70s - and space shuttle interiors that look like we’ve always wanted them to: replete with glass touch screens and monochrome colour palettes.
Zooooooom: Generally, companies that become verbs tend to do pretty well. As with Zoom, which this week announced Q1 revenue of $328.2m, up 169% YoY - one of the best quarters in software history. Combined with projections of $495m for Q2, it is making a formidable assault on the US stock market. Despite this, the stock price barely moved at all. This suggests we’ve seen the upper limit of the remarkable rally in Work from Home stocks. Link
Short Listen:
Why is Blockchain important? In less than 2 and a half minutes. Link
Longer Read:
Citibank CEO predicts resurgence of offices: Paco Ybarra makes an obvious but overlooked point. Working from home has been fine so far, because we’ve built up “social capital.” We know our colleagues. That diminishes over time. Link
Interesting Things:
Monkeys escape with Covid-19 samples after attacking lab: After attacking a lab assistant in Delhi, India, they made a getaway with a collection of blood samples. Link
Protesters Criticised for Looting Businesses Without Forming Private Equity Firm First: In troubled times, The Onion never fails to disappoint. Link
Forbes hit out at Kylie Jenner: After dedicating a full front page to the social media starlet and her rise to “self-made” billionaire status last year, Forbes have this week released findings claiming that all that glitters is not, in fact, gold. Fabricated financial documents, ambiguous interview quotes and a brazen “fake it till you make it” attitude got her the original title, but it seems she has a little way to go before joining the 3-comma club. I did wonder why a billionaire would be flogging weight loss products on Instagram. Link
Trump Twitter Experiment: This man started an account where he tweeted, verbatim, exactly what President Trump did. It took him less than a week to get his account banned.