Hillicon Valley — Musk goes to warfare with Apple

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Twitter CEO Elon Musk has a brand new goal: Apple. In a string of tweets, the billionaire attacked the tech large for pulling adverts from Twitter, accumulating charges from in-app purchases and allegedly threatening to drag Twitter from the App Retailer.  

In the meantime, layoffs at main tech firms might put strain on some housing markets.  

That is Hillicon Valley, we’re Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare. Let’s leap in.

Musk’s newest goal 

Twitter CEO Elon Musk publicly went after Apple on Monday for suspending a few of its promoting on the social media platform, seemingly making an attempt to take Twitter’s points over a mass exodus of advertisers and switch it right into a battle over “free speech.”  

“Apple has principally stopped promoting on Twitter,” Musk introduced. “Do they hate free speech in America?” 

Musk known as out Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner in a second tweet, writing: “What’s occurring right here @tim_cook?” 

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal closed final month, has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and promised to advocate for it utilizing his possession of the platform.

• Since Musk’s takeover, nevertheless, activists have warned that cuts to employees and selections to reinstate previously banned customers elevate questions of safety and are resulting in extra hate speech and disinformation.  
• Musk additionally claimed that Apple “threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Retailer, however gained’t inform us why.” 
• The Hill has reached out to Apple for touch upon allegations.

Apple wouldn’t be alone in abandoning Twitter for promoting since Musk took over.

Left-leaning watchdog Media Issues for America discovered that fifty of Twitter’s main 100 advertisers seem to have halted their work with the positioning. 

Antitrust allegations: As a part of Musk’s string of tweets in opposition to Apple, he additionally attacked Apple over the as much as 30 % fee charges it good points from in app purchases, calling it a “secret 30% tax.”  

App retailer charges are a key concern amongst app firms pushing for Congress to go the Open App Markets Act, a proposal that might add further laws to how dominant app shops, like Apple, function.  

Learn extra about Musk’s assaults in opposition to Apple right here.

Tech layoffs might put strain on housing markets 

A collection of layoffs at America’s main expertise firms might put strain on native housing markets amid a broader nationwide cooling.  

These layoffs, introduced on partly by a collection of rate of interest hikes from the Federal Reserve and a decline in revenues, might trigger pressured gross sales, injury purchaser confidence and result in smaller down funds — even from consumers who stay employed.  

• “The housing market is fueled by confidence, affordability, and most significantly, jobs. Housing demand in tech-heavy metros is anticipated to be decrease within the near-term,” Ali Wolf, chief economist at Zonda, informed to The Hill.  
• “In some circumstances, potential homebuyers will lack each the monetary potential to buy a house and the buyer confidence wanted to undergo with the acquisition,” she mentioned in an e mail to The Hill.   

However a few of the most fast detrimental housing outcomes might come from injury to the neighborhood’s collective psyche as residents see friends lose their jobs. 

During the last month, a bunch of Large Tech firms have collectively laid off 1000’s of staff after a interval of explosive progress in the course of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Learn extra right here. 

GROUPS WARN AGAINT KIDS’ SAFETY PROPOSAL

A coalition of civil society teams despatched a letter to Senate leaders Monday arguing a invoice geared toward bettering youngsters’s on-line security would have unintended penalties that might threaten privateness and security for minors reasonably than enhance it.  

The letter, signed by Struggle for the Future, the Middle for Democracy and Expertise, and dozens of different teams, is in opposition to the bipartisan Youngsters On-line Security Act (KOSA).

The invoice would add laws relating to how firms function on-line for minors in a approach that supporters say would assist maintain on-line firms accountable, particularly with regard to how they serve susceptible teen customers.  

• The letters’ signatories, nevertheless, argue the invoice might undermine teen’s protections on-line. One concern the letter highlights is over a requirement to have on-line providers stop a set of harms to minors. The teams argue the prevention would “successfully”’ function an “instruction to make use of broad content material filtering” and that firms would face strain to “over-moderate” and restrict minor’s entry to info together with academic sources for LGBTQ+ youth.  
• In addition they mentioned the invoice’s requirement to allow parental supervision of minors’ use of their providers would undermine older minors’ impartial rights to privateness. For instance, they mentioned the invoice might topic teenagers who’re experiencing home violence and parental abuse to further types of digital surveillance and management in a approach that forestalls them from reaching out for assist or assist.  

The letter was despatched to Senate Majority Chief Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Commerce Committee Rating Member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).  

KOSA superior out of the Commerce Committee with bipartisan assist. It’s led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).  

In an announcement in response to the letter, Blumenthal mentioned he’s “all the time prepared to work with stakeholders” however remained steadfast in his dedication to push the invoice ahead this yr.  

“Inaction solely advantages Large Tech. Youngsters and households can’t wait any longer and I’ll push for KOSA by the tip of this yr,” Blumenthal mentioned.  
 

The senators are pushing for the invoice to have a vote in the course of the lame duck session. They just lately hosted a briefing with a bunch of moms whose youngsters’s deaths had been tied to social media. The dad or mum advocates met with key lawmakers to induce a flooring vote on the proposal this yr. 

Specialists reward officers for securing midterms

Regardless of the myriad of threats that confronted the nation in the course of the 2022 midterms, specialists say safety for the election proved profitable total. They warned, nevertheless, that some enhancements are nonetheless wanted in sure areas. 

Specialists praised election officers for being properly ready and environment friendly at managing ongoing threats whereas speaking with voters on the right way to spot disinformation. 

“This was a remarkably clean election given all the pieces that we had been dealing with as a rustic,” mentioned Lawrence Norden, senior director of the Brennan Middle’s elections and authorities program. 

Within the months and weeks main as much as the election, authorities officers despatched out common alerts warning the general public of threats that would influence the midterms, together with cyberattacks, international interference, disinformation, insider threats and threats to election employees. 

Regardless of the success of the election safety, specialists mentioned there’s nonetheless room for enchancment, together with via allocating extra funding and sources to election officers as they fight bodily threats to employees, cyber threats, disinformation and insider threats. 

Learn extra right here. 

FCC BANS CHINESE TECH IMPORT, SALE 

The Federal Communications Fee (FCC) has banned the import and sale of sure Chinese language expertise tools that it decided poses “an unacceptable threat to nationwide safety.”  

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr mentioned in an announcement on Twitter that the fee’s unanimous determination is the primary time in U.S. historical past that it has voted to ban the authorization of apparatus primarily based on nationwide safety issues. 

He mentioned the order bars tools from the Chinese language firms Huawei and ZTE from approval, and tools from Dahua, Hikvision and Hytera may be authorized for import and sale provided that they guarantee the FCC that their tools gained’t be used for public security, safety of presidency amenities or different nationwide safety functions.  

Carr mentioned the FCC’s determination additionally provides the fee the facility to revoke current authorizations for different tools. 

Learn extra right here. 

‘BE BETTER,’ CNN TELLS MUSK OVER FAKE HEADLINE

CNN on Monday chided billionaire tech mogul and Twitter proprietor Elon Musk for tweet that contained a months-old picture of a fabricated headline on the community.

“This headline by no means appeared on CNN,” CNN’s PR division wrote to Musk. “Be higher.”

Musk’s tweet contained a screenshot of a picture that falsely confirmed that CNN had run a chyron on the air saying that “Elon Musk might threaten free speech on Twitter by actually permitting individuals to talk freely.”

Readers on-line shortly identified that the picture, first created in April, was faux and that no such headline had run on the community, and a hyperlink to an AP Truth Test was hooked up to the billionaire’s tweet.

Learn extra right here.

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: No ‘bright-line rule’ shines on focusing on industrial satellites 

Notable hyperlinks from across the net: 

Twitter’s CEO is now Twitter’s foremost character (Vox / Whizy Kim) 

Pegasus adware inquiry focused by disinformation marketing campaign, say specialists (The Guardian / Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Sam Jones) 

How a Cyberattack Plunged a Lengthy Island County Into the Nineteen Nineties (The New York Instances / Sarah Maslin Nir) 

🎧 Lighter click on: Paging Tim

Yet one more factor: Twitter’s advert exodus

Half of Twitter’s high advertisers seem to have halted their exercise on the social media platform, amid billionaire Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover of the corporate. 

Fifty of Twitter’s main 100 advertisers have stopped promoting on the positioning as of Nov. 21, based on a current report from the left-leaning media watchdog Media Issues for America.  

A number of of the businesses formally introduced their determination to not promote on Twitter, together with Chevrolet, Chipotle, Ford, Jeep, Kyndryl, Merck and Novartis. The remaining firms had been recognized by Media Issues’s evaluation as “quiet quitters,” those who beforehand marketed on the social media web site however have stopped for a big interval. 

One other seven firms seem like slowing down their promoting to nearly nothing, based on the Media Issues report. 

Learn extra right here.  

That’s it for right now, thanks for studying. Take a look at The Hill’s Expertise and Cybersecurity pages for the most recent information and protection. We’ll see you tomorrow.