surprise. bipartisan state attorneys general (17 in total) filed their third amended complaint against Google late Friday night. This is the lawsuit where my initial reaction in December was, "Google is screwed." It's only gotten worse as evidence has been unsealed. /1
We've done a full comparison between 2nd and 3rd complaints. A ton of clarity added for charges which are both deeply technical but deeply concerning. I don't see how Department of Justice delays filing their own lawsuit. And the Facebook collusion charges should be criminal. /2
The lawsuit even more clearly lays out the conduct and harms which impact advertisers, publishers, and consumers. If you want to understand how a company generates approaching $1 billion of advertising revenue per day by extracting welfare from everyone else - here you go. /3
Despite there being probably a dozen pieces of jaw-dropping evidence in the lawsuit, the deal with Facebook to allegedly rig the market and "kill" a competitive threat to Google are still towards the top. (note: the red for example is new copy from the amended suit). /4
The Google and Facebook deal is also known as "Count IV - Unlawful Agreement in Violation of Section I of the Sherman Act" which should be criminal if the allegations hold up. Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and Google's Philipp Schindler executed the deal. /5
Much of the new material seems focused in the areas around how auctions work, how Google's dominance on all sides of the market plus access to the data, has been used to enrich Google and kill off competition. Some new evidence here now sealed - we look forward to reading. /6
Here is a link to my master thread on the case from December 2020. /7
And don't miss the thread regarding the recently unsealed version of the complain which allowed us to see some of the direct evidence involving some of the most senior executives. /8
WTF. I deleted my Facebook account on Oct 3rd, 2021 after watching Facebook whistleblower on 60 Minutes. ***But Facebook just deceptively brought it back from the dead.***
Dear Facebook, I look forward to you trying to explain this one (cc @nickclegg). Evidence thread. 1/6
Yes, I noted 30 day period in which Facebook hinted my account would return if I logged in (accident or intentional). So I was super careful to not log in.
Today at 1:53pm, I received this email from Facebook claiming to notice I was "having trouble logging into my account." 2/6
This was disturbing. Since my account was clearly communicated to be deleted and Facebook assured me that it was (as long as I didn't log in for 30 days), Facebook shouldn't even have my email in order to notify me if someone tries to log into my Facebook account. We're over. 3/6
Facebook news - amended complaint filed to what I previously called "Mother of all lawsuits" - insider trading allegations tied to FB knowingly leaking data for $, paying $5B to cover it up, governance failure, etc. I'll add more context in 15 tweets and link to prior thread. /1
It includes maybe ten new paragraphs - many in insider trading and governance failure sections. Includes new heavily redacted details regarding Facebook's "board" setting up an alleged scapegoat "Special Committee" just in time to settle for $5 billion and protect Zuckerberg. /2
Reminder, the allegation is this was done to avoid Zuckerberg being deposed or having his communications subject to discovery. To end the SEC and FTC lawsuits. There is also new info on the settlement and how many orders of magnitude larger it was than prior settlements. /3
smart executive leadership post here. What I like *A LOT* is focus on partnership and trust. high-quality content companies are exceeding consumer expectations -and- where audiences prefer to consume it. #OurPartnershipCommitment 1/4 together.nbcuni.com/insights/blogs…
A healthy partnership builds trust and the trust of the brands involved including the discovery, sharing, content creators and advertising partners lift all the boats - much needed right now and not zero sum game. 2/4 #OurPartnershipCommitment
Working together to bring leading news and entertainment is critically important to meeting consumer expectations, our just-released @DCNorg Gen Z research showed TikTok, YouTube leading platforms - so I find it smart they’re on this list. Twitter innovating just this week. 3/4
This is a must-read report from Vice. The last Twitter Space I hosted a woman from Ethiopia asked to speak and provided witness to the atrocities being made much worse by Facebook. We’ve seen it previously and it resulted in a genocide report from the United Nations. /1
Even if it was simply a content moderation problem (results from America show that it’s clearly not) then Facebook spending moderation resources ratably would mean spending about $400 million in Ethiopia. I would be surprise if they’re spending 1% of that. /2
This is before even recognizing that the risk is heightened rather than lessened in a nation in turmoil, there are many languages and many, many people are dying. If 3-5% of hate speech gets removed globally, imagine the percentage in Ethiopia - probably less than 1%. /3
Threading EU Parliament hearing with Facebook whistleblower (while also multitasking). Interesting to hear her very clearly delineate “personal social media” vs “broadcast social media” in describing Facebook market power. This aligns with FTC lawsuit to break up the company. /1
I don’t believe I’ve heard the term “viral variant factories” but it’s catchy. Important to recognize the systems not only pick winners and losers but also accelerates spread by microtargeting to individuals while suppressing counterspeech which historically provided friction. /2
A lot of discussion about the dangers of AI. I would lob in the question whether in this moment it’s the AI that’s the danger as much as the exaggeration of its capabilities in light of an absence of transparency and external scrutiny and research. /3
ok, Facebook whistleblower testifying again today @ 12:45pm ET. This time to EU Parliament. I expect her super important evidence will be what we've already heard in Senate Commerce, UK Parliament testimony plus strong press reporting led by Wall Street Journal. However ... /1
It will be provided in context of a package of two, fast-moving and critically important draft regulations (DSA/DMA). So here is my key point: her evidence should only heighten attention to market power and already underway antitrust investigation by European Commission. /2
Facebook and friends have managed to reframe DSA to be a ban on "targeted ads" when the core issue at hand for users and failing market incentives is Facebook's surveillance, in collecting and using our data, when users aren't even choosing to interact with the company. /3