ok, I'll add some thoughts here for this Mosseri hearing...time to go deeper. Mosseri just used future Ernst & Young audits to Senator Lee as a defense. It's worth noting Instagram is nowhere on being audited for brand safety by the industry. See the red box. /1
Sen Sullivan has locked in on problem here. US Surgeon General report recommending limits on social media usage by teens is directly at odds with Instagram's core biz model. Mosseri deflecting. As Sen Klobuchar pointed out earlier, if Instagram had competition it would matter. /2
Senator Cruz once again doing an outstanding job digging into Mosseri and research. Rightly tries to pin down Mosseri on:
- raw data from Instagram research
- powerpoint presentations memorializing the data
Mosseri claims data is gone. Facebook, Inc. is an unethical cesspool.
/3
Senator Blackburn closes strongly. Empathy has historically appeared to be a PR tactic for the top leadership of Facebook. When we've seen it, we've later learned it was a cover-up. /4
Sen Blumenthal closing with his AG experience then shifting to why we need competition - he's absolutely right. As many have heard me say, there is no defensible case Instagram and Facebook's blue apps wouldn't be better for the public if they had to compete with each other. /5
Now a few clips. This was a powerful close by @MarshaBlackburn but the company’s actions are limited to the bare necessity due to public and government relations in the absence of competition. If Insta had to compete with blue or couldn’t share data, things would be different. /6
It’s worth noting @MarshaBlackburn also brought receipts. It’s pretty absurd the default would be wrong for such a large cohort even if it’s a minority of users. Sounds like another Alex Schultz growth hack to me. There are dozens at play always. Video game for them. /7
“I want to make sure I understand the commitment you’ve made to this committee.”… here is @SenTedCruz with precision. Remember Facebook never actually released to the public a majority of the decks as promised. Instead they annotated much of one and gaslit everyone over it. /8
One last clip for now. @SenMikeLee rightly asks a question about algorithmic amplification and recommendations. Mosseri answers with intentions and a metric on prevalence (5 of 10,000). /9
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Justice takes time. What he knew when. AOC will remember this, “Their lawsuit says Zuckerberg—facing the risk of personal liability over the data privacy scandal—got himself out of trouble by agreeing to pay a larger-than-necessary $5 billion fine with shareholder money.” 1/3
Here is the full report from Bloomberg on Zuckerberg’s deposition which apparently was cut short and late on docs on Dec 3rd. Board members Thiel, Andreessen, others all being deposed these weeks. Press allowed Facebook to rewrite history on this. 2/3 news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-p…
Here is a good thread that will get you into the details. Sheryl Sandberg also deposed although her assumed prior SEC deposition was sealed. We did finally get Zuckerberg’s which showed his nerves and that the scandal was on his mind much earlier. Thanks to @zamaan_qureshi 3/3
Overnight: FTC plans to call CEO Zuckerberg and (former) CTO Schroepfer in first 2 wks of trial (late April) in DC seeking to break up the company for abuse of monopoly laws. Also on their short list are some very big roles and names. Very likely driving behaviors at the top. /1
As I know their roles...
Chris Cox - chief product officer who took a break when scandals accelerated, and avoided testimony in UK.
Javier Olivan - now COO, key lieutenant
Sheryl Sandberg - former COO, on everything
Alex Schultz - key growth hacker, now CMO /2
Adam Mosseri - key lieutenant, now runs Insta
Dave Wehner - former CFO, deal approval including $19B with no real revenue WhatsApp
Fidji Simo - (former) always in mix, product leadership
Guy Rosen - Onavo alleged packet sniffing of WhatsApp, Snap /3
Woah. Google filed redacted versions of its Summary Judgment exhibits in Texas adtech antitrust case ahead of the March 31 trial. Although this case mirrors DOJ's case awaiting decision, it has even more eye-popping evidence. And an expert suggesting $29B in penalties. /1
"Project Bernanke" is an oldie but goodie that gets a lot of discussion. ICYMI, Google would allegedly increase the first highest and the second highest bid in its 2nd-price auctions then reinvest the "saved" funds back into other bids to Google wins more auctions. /2
The problem is while it may have ended up providing more revenue to the publisher (from/through Google) and no doubt to Google, Inc, it allegedly ignored the revenue which could have come through another channel if Google didn't manipulate the rev share as it ran the auctions. /3
US v Google II Closing arguments today.
70min for DOJ-> 95min for Google-> 20min for DOJ. Having predicted this case as better odds than search case (Google already lost in August), nothing changed my mind today. I wrote down: influence/$, complexity, deception, and arrogance. /1
I'm staying high level on perception first as findings of fact already covered much. On influence/$, DOJ pointed out early on and then again in rebuttal that every single witness presented by Google (except one) was paid or had grants from Google. /2
On complexity, Google again executed on its spaghetti defense with lead counsel, Karen Dunn, bookending trial by running over as she did in her opening. She appeared to skip dozens of slides, many minutes of close. And she loaded her slides while talking twice as fast as DOJ! /3
Bam. There is it. US Department of Justice has filed - requesting divestiture of Chrome as a remedy for court's finding against Google. Android at risk, too. /1
As it relates to Android, here is how DOJ puts it. Forced divestiture is option that "swiftly, efficiently, and decisively strikes at the locus of some anticompetitive conduct at issue here" but we're ok with tight behavioral remedies with option to divest if they don't work. /2
Revenue sharing for search default and/or preferential treatment - dead. Google's tens of billions to Apple - dead (last I saw it's about 15% of Apple's profits). Reminder, this all needs to be argued and approved by Court and then will get appealed. Still far off. /3
KA-BOOM. So when Google and its proxies (see so-called Chamber of Progress), friendly academics and analysts continue to suggest Chrome has nothing to do with the case, please ask them how many days they were at the trial. 1/3
This is super important. It’s an area @DCNorg (premium publishers) are intensely interested and concerned they get right around ability to restrict. The Court and trial made it clear they understood its importance during trial. We’ll be reading closely on Wednesday. 2/3
Here is the full report from Bloomberg who consistent with the entire trial showed up every day, did the hard work, and now got the massive scoop ahead of Wed filing. 3/3 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…