Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 04/03 – Schrödinger’s Blue Check

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

The blue checks went away on Twitter over the weekend. Or did they? More interesting details on those Pinduoduo app allegations. In a headline from 2019, Paris says no to e-scooters. And what does the recent move by GM say about the relationship between the car companies and the tech platforms? Sponsors: Ramp.com/techmeme This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/techmeme and get on your way to being your best self.” Links: Twitter had a very messy weekend (The Verge) Twitter’s blue check mark was loved and loathed. Now it’s pay for play. (Washington Post) ‘I’ve never seen anything like this:’ One of China’s most popular apps has the ability to spy on its users, say experts (CNN Business) Paris votes overwhelmingly to ban shared e-scooters (TechCrunch) GM is cutting off access to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for its future EVs (The Verge) The rest of the auto industry still loves CarPlay and Android Auto (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMeme right home for Monday, April 3rd, 2023. I'm Brian McCullough today. The Blue Checks went away on Twitter over the weekend or did they? More interesting details on those PIN Duo Duo app allegations. In a headline from 2019, Paris says no to e-scooters. And what does the recent move by

GM say about the relationship between the car companies and tech platforms? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. So the changeover in blue check regimes, came to Twitter over the weekend, except maybe it didn't. Maybe it did for some, but not for others, and then kind of, it definitely did, and then didn't for everyone. What? I'll let John Prosser explain from the Verge, quote, for starters, with the exception of one major corporate account, legacy verified chat marks don't appear to have actually started disappearing for any of the accounts we viewed. What has changed is that Twitter has stopped officially distinguishing them between legacy verified users and accounts that pay for Twitter Blue. Click on the verified blue badge

for Verge Editor-in-Chief Nilai Patel, for example, and you'll see a message that reads, quote, this account is verified because it's subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account, end quote. In a since-deleted tweet captured by Matt Binder, Elon Musk said that legacy verified accounts would be given, quote, a few weeks grace before seeing their checkmarks removed, But a report from the Washington Post suggests there may be technical challenges to removing so-called blue ticks quickly at scale. Removal of verification badges is a largely manual process powered by a system prone to breaking, which draws on a large internal database similar to an Excel spreadsheet in which

verification data is stored according to the former employees. Sometimes an employee would try to remove a badge, but the change wouldn't take, one of the former employees said, prompting workers to explore workarounds. In the past, there was no way to reliably remove badges at a bulk scale, prompting workers tackling spam, for example, to have to remove checkmarks one by one. It was all held together with duct tape, the former employee added, end quote. There has been at least one high-profile example of a previously verified account losing its legacy verified badge, however, and that's the New York Times. The organization has said it doesn't plan to pay Twitter the reported $1,000 a month to be officially verified on the platform. Upon being told this by a Twitter user, Musk said, quote, we'll take it off then, and its checkmark

disappeared. But other New York Times accounts, including books and opinions, still display their legacy checkmarks, as do other publications like the LA Times and Washington Post, despite also saying they don't plan to pay Twitter's new verification fees. In a follow-up tweet, Musk called the New York Times stance hypocritical because it charges users a subscription to read much of its content. Twitter isn't removing checkmarks from every account that said it won't subscribe to Twitter Blue either. LeBron James, for example, still has his legacy blue verified badge despite the basketball player publicly saying he won't pay for it. Although Elon Musk has characterized the changes to Twitter's verification system as an attempt to treat users equally,

last week a report claim that the company plans to grant free checkmarks to certain companies. These will reportedly include the top 500 advertisers on the platform and the 10,000 organizations with the most followers. While Twitter attempts to remove the distinction between legacy verified users and Twitter blue subscribers, the difference still appears to be visible in the site's code. Twitter user Isabel the JPEG has uploaded a script to GitHub that attempts to expose the difference on the site itself, end quote. So to sum up as best I can, blue check verifications used to mean something that you had been

verified. Then Elon wanted to change it to be like, whatever, anyone who wants to pay. for a blue checkmark and have one, and then some people thought this would destroy the value of the blue check. There were some folks who were willing to pay anyway, because why not? Except now, as of this moment, most of the old blue check marks exist, meaning that if you pay for a checkmark at this moment, you have no additional value above the old system, unless you personally piss Elon off, in which case you lose everything. A source is telling CNN that soon after Pin Duo Duo's app updated to remove the backdoor exploits we told you about last week. Most of the team working on that

was moved to work on Temu, that shopping app that is a top app in the U.S., which sounds bad and maybe bad, but there are also suggestions that maybe this was just a good old-fashioned industrial espionage, not state espionage. Quote, multiple experts identified the presence of malware on the PinduO Duo Duo app that exploited vulnerabilities in Android operating systems. Company Insiders said the exploits were utilized to spy on users and competitors, allegedly to boost sales. We haven't seen a mainstream app like this trying to escalate their privileges to gain access to things that they're not supposed to gain access to, said Miko Hipponan, chief research officer at With Secure, a Finnish cybersecurity firm. This is highly unusual, and it is pretty damning for Pinduo Duo, he said. It was in 2020, according to a current Pinduo Duo employee, that the company set up a team of about 100 engineers,

and product managers to dig for vulnerabilities in Android phones, develop ways to exploit them, and turn that into profit. According to the source, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, the company only targeted users in rural areas and smaller towns initially while avoiding users in megacities such as Beijing and Shanghai. The goal was to reduce the risk of being exposed, they said. By collecting expansive data on user activities, the company was able to create a comprehensive portrait of users' habits, interests, and preferences according to the source. This allowed it to improve its machine learning model to offer more personalized push notifications and ads, attracting users to open the app and place orders, they said.

The team was disbanded in early March, the source added, after questions about their activities came to light. In China, about three quarters of smartphone users are on the Android system. Apple's iPhone has a 25% market share, according to Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities. Sergei Toshin, the founder of Oversecured, said Pin Duo Duo's malware specifically targeted different Android-based operating systems, including those used by Samsung, Huawei, Jaume, and Appo. Toshan described PinduO Duo as, quote, the most dangerous malware ever found among mainstream apps.

I've never seen anything like this before. It's like super expansive, he said. Suspitions about malware and PinduO Duo Duo's app were first raised in late February in a report by a Chinese cybersecurity firm called Dark Navy. Soon after, on March 5th, PinduO duo issued a new update of its app, version 6.50.0, which removed the exploits according to two experts who CNN spoke to. Two days after the update, PinduO Duo Duo Disbanded the team of engineers and product managers who had developed the exploits according to the Pinduoduo source.

Most of the team were transferred to work at Temu. They were assigned to different departments at the subsidiary, with some working on marketing or developing push notifications according to the source, end quote. Remember e-scooters? They're still around. don't look at the stock prices of these companies to reliably tell you that, because e-scooters have had a rough time. The unit economics have never really worked out for anyone. Steady, repeat customers have been difficult to attract, and then there's the old fights with

cities. So, not good for the e-scooter industry that, in a referendum, 89% of Parisians voted against keeping shared e-scooters in the city. Lyme, Dot, and Tier will have to pull their fleets out of Paris by September 1st, quoting TechCrunch. Paris has been one of the most heavily regulated e-scooter markets, something companies have pointed to as an example of how they play nice with cities. Yet despite limiting scooter top speeds to as low as 10 kilometers per hour or 6 miles per hour, and requiring riders to use dedicated parking areas or pay fines, Paris has become the first city to completely reverse its policy on offering contracts

to shared micromobility companies. In a referendum Sunday organized by Paris Mayor Ann Hildago, Paris residents voted 89% against keeping shared e-scooters in the city. The three companies that pay for contracts to operate in the city of light will have to pull their fleets, a total of 15,000 e-s scooters out of the city by September 1st. Hidalgo, who originally welcomed shared e-scooters to Paris, has pushed for Paris to become a more livable 15-minute city and has spearheaded policies that reclaim parking spots from cars to create new bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly areas. However, shared scooters have gotten a lot of pushback from many city residents who often complain about reckless driving and clutter on sidewalks. Dot, Lyme, and Tears said in a joint statement that the low voter turnout affected the results of the referendum.

Only 103,084 people turned out to vote, which is about 7.5% of registered Paris voters. They blamed restrictive rules, a limited number of polling stations, and thus long lines that dissuade young voters, and no electronic voting, saying the combination, quote, heavily skewed toward older age groups, which has widen the gap between pros and cons, end quote. Additionally, the company said the referendum was held the same day of the Paris Marathon, and that only Paris residents were allowed to vote, leaving out those who live just outside the city, but commute in. The referendum isn't binding, so Hidalgo can still make the unlikely decision to keep scooters in the city based on the the low voter turnout. The numbers clearly show that scooters are popular. Lime has previously told

TechCrunch that 90% of its fleet in Paris is used every day. In 2021, over 1.2 million scooter riders, or 85% of whom were Parisian residents, took a total of 10 million rides across Lime. Dot and Tier. That's around 27,000 rides per day. The band will not have an effect on the e-bikes offered by shared micromobility companies, which will remain in the city. Similarly, privately owned scooters are not affected by the ban, of which 700,000 were sold in France last year, according to Transport Ministry figures, end quote. Finally, today, we might have mentioned this briefly last week, or if I didn't, I definitely saw it come across my transom. I think it's worth noting, though, that General Motors dropped a bit of a bomb on the auto industry by announcing it would

restrict access to Apple's carplay and Android Auto for its future vehicles, especially electric ones, quote. GM emphasized that the decision was primarily motivated by improving the navigation and charging experience for future EV owners. For example, when an EV owner routes to a charging station, the vehicle's native software can begin warming up the battery so that it's primed for a faster charge. This would maximize range and minimize the time a customer is at a charging station, Kelly Cusitano, who leads communications for GM's digital business said in an email, the vehicle can know more than the phone does, end quote. The decision to restrict Apple Cardplay and Android Auto is a reversal from GM's position several years ago when the automaker first announced its deal with Google to integrate the tech

company's apps into its fleet. When that news broke, we asked whether customers could still expect to mirror their smartphone on their vehicles display if they wanted to, and GM said they would. But Cousetado cautioned that current GM vehicles with Google built in, including the GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyric, and a host of gas-powered vehicles won't be losing access to CarPlay and Android Auto. This is all about creating a better, more integrated experience for future EV customers that will give them all they need and more over time, she said. GM, which owns brands such as Cadillac, Chevy, GMC, and Buick isn't completely cutting off access to carplay and Android Auto. Car owners will still be able to connect their phones to their

vehicles via Bluetooth for hands-free calls, voice texting, and streaming music. And GM's gas-powered vehicles will continue to allow CarPlay and Android Auto use. But GM's move to restrict access to carplay and Android Auto, which is expected to begin with the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV, will help the automaker capture more data on its customers driving, listening, and charging habits. It could also help inform future subscription products as automakers across the board are seeking to generate more revenue beyond just selling cars, end quote. Now, I'm mentioning this for that very reason. We've spoken for years that there is a definite tension inherent between automakers and smartphone makers, if Apple say is actually the primary U.S. and U.I that drivers experience, did you really buy a GM car or a GM car

powered by Apple? Could you move to a Ford and essentially have the same experience? Conversely, would you rule out buying a certain brand of car if they didn't play ball with your smartphone OS of choice? This, would it be disintermediation or intermediation? This tension is all about user experience, right? And who owns it? But that last bit is interesting, too. The revenue streams of the future for automakers might seem more like the revenue streams of social media networks than an automaker from the 20th century. Autos are a low margin business, of course, and so automakers are salivating over new revenue streams, but to get those, again, they would need to have greater ownership of the experience. But there's one more wrinkle. Maybe the horse is already out of the barn. Our consumers already

locked in. Note that the rest of the industry doesn't seem to want to follow suit. Quoting the Verge again, CarPlay and Android Auto are wildly popular. Apple says nearly 80% of new car buyers insist on the feature before making a purchase, while independent surveys suggest slightly lower, but still robust levels of demand. The rest of the auto industry gets it. The Verge reached out to all the major automakers to see if any were planning on following GM in ditching CarPlay and Android Auto, and unsurprisingly, none have responded in the affirmative. We can continue to offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because customers love the capability that enables easy access and control of their smartphone apps, especially our EV customers because

some EVs currently do not offer the features, said Alan Hall, a spokesperson for Ford. Honda, which is also adopting Google's built-in software integration for the next Accord, said it has no plans to do so at the expense of CarPlay and Android Auto. Our customers find value in our support of CarPlay, Android Auto, and Google Built-in, and we now offer these connected solutions across our lineup. Honda spokesperson Jessica Finney said, we will continue to offer a range of high-quality interactive solutions to provide value to our customers that match their own technology choices, end quote. But GM isn't completely alone in rejecting phone projection for its future EV lineup. Two pure EV automakers,

Rivian and Tesla, don't offer access to CarPlay and Android Auto, despite loud protests from customers. Both still managed to sell cars, in Tesla's case, a lot of cars. So it's safe to say that it isn't exactly a deal-breaker? Lucid, for example, thought it could get away with a similar tactic, but the company recently backtracked and added CarPlay accessibility in its latest software update. But Tesla and Rivian have never offered phone projection. GM will be actively taking away something its customers have enjoyed for years. In fact, GM's current lineup of EVs, including the Cadillac lyric, which comes with native Google apps like Maps and Assistant, still allows CarPlay and Android Auto. The 2024 lyric will still have it,

as will the 2024 model year Chevy Civil Auto, GMC Hummer EV truck and SUV, and Chevy Bolt and Bolt EUV. GM's carplay and Android Auto lists future begins with the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV. While GM will continue offering Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and its gas-powered vehicles, the automaker has pledged to stop selling combustion vehicles entirely by 2025. After that, it's uncharted waters for North America's biggest automaker, end quote. In honor of his death this weekend, the lyrics today are from Bell and Sebastian about someone specific. Seymour Stein, sorry I missed you. Have a nice flight home.

It's a good day for flying. Talk to you tomorrow.