Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 07/01 – Instagram Is “No Longer A Photo-Sharing App”

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 Tech meme right home for Thursday, July 1st, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Instagram and TikTok are on a collision course. Instagram wants to be more like TikTok while TikTok hopes to move the goalposts first.

Starting point is 00:00:46 Amazon wants Lena Khan to recuse herself. Big Tech is not only taking over advertising, it's consolidating it, and anyone can get their hands on Starlink starting next month, but not everyone might want to. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Facebook's head of Instagram says users will soon start seeing full-screen videos in their feeds recommended by algorithms. Adam Mastari said Instagram plans to test video more broadly, calling out TikTok and YouTube specifically as competitors and said Instagram is, quote, no longer a photo sharing app, end quote.

Starting point is 00:01:25 Quoting CNBC. We're also going to be experimenting with how do we embrace video more broadly, full-screen, immersive, entertaining, mobile-first video, Maseri said in a video posted on Wednesday. You'll see us do a number of things or experiment with a number of things in this space over the coming months, end quote. Specifically, Maseri said Instagram has plans to show users full-screen videos in their feeds. This includes videos it recommends to users, including those from accounts they do not already follow. Users will start to see Instagram's experiments with these changes over the coming months, he said. We're no longer a photo sharing app

Starting point is 00:02:00 or a square photo-sharing app, Mosseri said. Let's be honest. There's some really serious competition right now. TikTok is huge. YouTube is even bigger, and there's lots of other upstarts as well. People are looking to Instagram to be entertained. There's stiff competition and there's more to do, Mosseri said. We have to embrace that, and that means change, end quote. So, gauntlet thrown down. Instagram is going to start becoming a whole lot more like TikTok. Not sure how hardcore or Insta users will feel about that. But then again, maybe Instagram has no choice. As Ryan Broderick tweeted, quote, from the looks of it, Instagram in America at least is three things right now. Number one, Facebook for millennial parents. Number two, a propaganda app for the wealthy.

Starting point is 00:02:45 Number three, a repository for content that was viral weeks ago. And none of those things seem ideal, end quote. Yeah, not growth areas with younger users. I bet the biggest thing that is sticking in Zuck and Company's craw, though, is basically all viral content these days is born on TikTok right now, which, you know, doesn't mean TikTok has to stand still and just let Instagram catch up to them. TikTok announced this morning that it is rolling out longer videos of up to three minutes up from the current one-minute limit to all users over the coming weeks after testing this new video length since December, quoting the verge. TikTok didn't say, how longer clips might affect its much-loved recommendation algorithm, but it's worth considering

Starting point is 00:03:38 the possible parallels to YouTube. As that platform grew, YouTube based its algorithm toward viewer retention, which meant longer and longer videos. It's why just about everything on YouTube is over 10 minutes long now. TikTok may not take the same approach, but if it turns out that longer videos equal longer TikTok usage, we might see less of the app's short, snappy, and strange viral clips, end quote. Everyone said this was going to happen, and it has happened. A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking Florida's Stop Social Media Censorship Act from going into effect that Florida law that seemingly wouldn't survive first contact with the First Amendment, according to most lawyers, quoting NBC News. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary

Starting point is 00:04:30 injunction blocking enforcement of the law, which was scheduled to go into effect today. Hinkle said the law's ban on deplatforming likely violated the free speech rights of the tech companies, which under the First Amendment are generally free to decide what to publish without government interference. Quote, the legislation compels providers to host speech that violates their standards, speech they otherwise would not host, and forbids providers from speaking as they otherwise would, he wrote. Referring to the sweeping scope of the law, he added, quote, like prior First Amendment restrictions, this is an instance of burning the House, to roast a pig, end quote. The law says that a platform may not permanently delete or ban a candidate

Starting point is 00:05:11 for office. Suspensions of up to 14 days are allowed under the law and a service could still remove individual posts that violate its terms of service. The state's elections commission could find a social media company $250,000 a day for statewide candidates and $25,000 a day for other candidates if a company were found to have violated the law. Individuals could also sue, end quote. Another legal gambit that I'm dubious will have much success, Amazon says that it is seeking the recusal of FTC chair Lena Kahn from matters related to Amazon, citing her history of criticism and antitrust arguments, quoting Bloomberg. Khan, quote, has on numerous occasions argued that Amazon is guilty of antitrust violations and

Starting point is 00:06:03 should be broken up, Amazon said in its petition. These statements convey to any reasonable observer the clear impression that she has already made up her mind about many material facts relevant to Amazon's antitrust culpability, as well as about the ultimate issue of culpability itself, end quote. The move comes as the FTC is reviewing Amazon's proposed $8.45 billion acquisition of movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM. The deal has been criticized by those worried about the growth of tech companies, but antitrust experts have said it will be difficult for regulators to stop. The agency didn't explain the process for how Amazon's petition would be decided, but pointed to a rule that says it's first up to the commissioner to recuse himself or herself. If he or she declines to do so, the full commission votes on the matter without the participation of the commissioner who is subject to the recusal request. Amazon filed the petition to preserve its legal right to raise the issue in any future matters before the FTC, according to a person familiar with the matter. Khan leads a three-vote Democratic majority on the five-member commission.

Starting point is 00:07:07 If she decides not to recuse herself and the matter goes to a vote, it would fall to the two Republicans and two Democrats. One of the Democrats, Rohit Chopra, was nominated by President Joe Biden to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but he hasn't been confirmed by the Senate, end quote. And more legal slash legislative stuff. The state of Maine has enacted the strongest statewide facial recognition. law in the U.S., prohibiting the use of facial recognition tech in public schools and most police work, quoting input magazine, the rules prohibit law enforcement from using the technology unless they have probable cause that an unidentified person in a photograph committed a serious crime. And even then, they'll have to go through the FBI to run a facial recognition search.

Starting point is 00:07:57 Any facial recognition request must be maintained in the public record as well. Quote, Maine is at the forefront of a national movement to preserve civil rights and liberties in the digital age, said the ACLU in a press statement, quote, democracy is stronger and communities are safer when we have clear rules and accountability for how governments use new and emerging technologies, end quote. The EU is rolling out a digital vaccine passport across its 27 member nations. The passport has a QR code and a signature key that links to an individual's vaccine info while also keeping medical information private, quoting BBC News. The digital passport, is free, and all EU citizens, as well as non-EU nationals, legally staying or living in the member

Starting point is 00:08:49 states with the right to travel to other member states can now download or obtain a paper copy of their passport. Some countries have already been using the certificate on a voluntary basis, but it's being officially introduced from today with a six-week phasing period. It's hoped that the certificate will make it easier for people to travel around the EU. It is not a travel document. they will still need to carry a passport or another form of identification, but anyone holding a certificate should, in principle, be exempted from testing or quarantine when crossing an international border, end quote. Interesting data dump for you. According to Group M, Google, Facebook, Alibaba, Bightdance, and Amazon claimed 46% of all global advertising revenues in the year 2020.

Starting point is 00:09:41 In comparison, 10 years ago, in 2010, the then-todontas, top five folks such as, you know, News Corp, Disney, and other traditional media companies only claimed 17% of the global advertising market. I find this interesting because it's not just that advertising is moving to digital in a replacement scenario, it's that, well, that's happening, of course, and consolidation is happening at the exact same time, quoting the Press Gazette. Google and Facebook, known as the duopoly in media and advertising circles, a combined ad revenue of $219 billion in 2020, claiming 34% of the total market. Five years before, in 2016, they sold only $101 billion worth of ads or 19% of the global total.

Starting point is 00:10:33 One of the other major trends charted by Group M is the rise of Chinese tech company ad revenues. Already well established back in 2016, Alibaba has tripled its ad turnover in the past five years. TikTok owner BiteDance, meanwhile, has grown from less than $1 billion in 2016 to $28 billion last year. Others like Pinduoduo and Kaju have risen from virtually nothing in 2016 into the top 25 ranking. Commenting on the market change between 2010 and 2020, the report said, quote, among the key differences to point out when comparing these periods, we note that in 2010, Google was the only seller among the largest media owners with sizable operations in most major global markets. The others on that list were massive and only a handful of markets primarily in the United States.

Starting point is 00:11:20 For all their influence globally at the time, most of the industry's largest companies only had a minimal global presence in terms of their ad sales operations. By contrast, today, the largest sellers of advertising are either focused primarily on China or have a significant presence in most countries on the planet. Both Google and Facebook are the largest and second largest in almost every individual market outside of China, while Amazon is a solid number three in many places, end quote. Tim Berners-Lee has done it. He's sold his NFT, which represents time-stamped files of the source code for the World Wide Web and other items via a Sotheby's auction. The price ended up being a cool $5.4 million, quoting BBC News.

Starting point is 00:12:10 The highest bid stood at $3.5 million for most of the last day of the auction, but there was a flurry of bids in the closing 15 minutes. The profits will go towards causes chosen by Sir Tim and his wife, Sotheby said. Four different items were sold as part of a single NFT, time-stamped files of the source code, an animated video of the code being written, a letter from Sir Tim, and a digital poster of the code created by Sir Tim. The sale surpassed the $2.9 million spent on Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's first tweet, but fell short of the record amount and NFT has been sold for $69 million for digital artwork by Beeple. Finally today, I've got a product availability note for you. SpaceX's satellite internet service Starlink will open up to virtually anyone, anywhere in

Starting point is 00:13:09 the globe, accepting the North and South Pole in August. next month. The trick is, you probably don't want to sign up for it, and that's kind of the point. Quoting input mag. Musk spoke at length about Starlink's latest plans at Mobile World Congress 2021 on Tuesday. He says Starlink has already attracted more than 69,000 customers since it first launched in beta mode in October. If anything, though, Musk's virtual Mobile World Congress interview reinforced the fact that Starlink, at least at this early phase, will absolutely not be the be-all-end all solution to broadband access that Musk and his army have purported. New customers must pay a $499 fee for the initial Starlink home hardware, and then $99 per month for the service itself.

Starting point is 00:13:55 That's entirely unaffordable for many of those who could use the service most. Musk has also warned that, though Starlink will be open to anyone, it's really only built to work in, quote, sparsely populated regions, end quote. Those in more densely populated areas will end up with inconsistent connections despite Starlink's promise of download speeds up to 150 mbPS. Starlink has some major issues to work through before it can actually be a viable business. It's hemorrhaging money right now, for one thing. SpaceX loses about $800 for every home internet setup itself, and launching the Starlink satellites could cost as much as $30 billion over the next decade.

Starting point is 00:14:33 The service would need literally tens of millions of subscribers to make that work. Every other low-orbit constellation ever done has gone bankrupt, Musk said in the interview. Step number one for Starlink is don't go bankrupt, end quote. And then there's the problem of how many people can actually use the satellite fleet in its current state. Current estimates range from a capacity of 400,000 users to 800,000 users, a very small piece of the 42 million or so people in the United States without access to broadband internet, end quote.

Starting point is 00:15:04 So bottom line, unless you're out in the boonies, you probably can do better with the wired options already available to you in terms of speed and reliability. But today I learned there might be a more immediate way Starlink could be impactful by making Wi-Fi on airplanes suck less, quoting input mag again. We're in talks with several of the airlines, Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX's VP of Starlink and commercial sales said at the Connected Aviation Intelligence Summit. We have our own aviation product in development. We've already done some demonstrations to date and looking to get that product finalized to be put on aircraft in the very near future, end quote. We already knew that SpaceX envisioned Starlink being used in moving vehicles. In March, it requested FCC approval to beam

Starting point is 00:15:50 internet to vehicles like cars and boats, though not consumer cars because the satellite dishes are too large. This service would be offered for commercial applications like cruise ships or freight trucks. CEO Elon Musk has said it could be available by the end of 2020. end quote. Taking my first post-pandemic flight this weekend. If someone can deliver something more reliable soon, more reliable than Go-Go, believe me, I'm here for it. Nothing for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 07/01 – Instagram Is “No Longer A Photo-Sharing App”

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