Saturday’s “No Kings” protests have filled front pages across America with impactful visuals and headlines of peaceful protests. Many included the eye popping NYC Times Square shot. Here in the Dothan Eagle (Alabama). But everyone turned out. See Montana in its Missoulian. /1
Plenty of big city energy from St. Louis, Missouri to Chicago, Illinois. /2

US v Google remedies: Nothing groundbreaking from return of DOJ’s star economist this morning. Court tested if his concerns over solely behavioral remedies assume distrust in Google (won’t follow court orders). I don’t think it mattered relative to where we were last night... /1 Yes, some will read as leaning against structural-remedy interest. I took it simply her clarifying she doesn’t need to lean on distrust if structural is shown tech feasible. Although witness pointed out distrust harms competition investment levels. /2

ok, this is HUGE. Late Friday, Penske (PMC) filed a wicked-smart, landmark antitrust lawsuit against Google. I've now read it in full and I'm very impressed. Importantly, it's the first antitrust suit for Google tying its AI-driven products to its adjudicated search monopoly. /1 The core claim: Google is abusing its search monopoly to force pubs to hand over content - not just for traditional search indexing but to feed its AI. Google then repurposes it to substitute them with its own services breaking the fundamental bargain of the open web. /2

OK all ye people depressed Judge Mehta didn't order Google broken into bits this week. I'm here to cheer you up. DOJ has its other remedies trial in 16 days and just posted its PFJ (Proposed Final Remedies) now 60+ pages of brilliant detail. Let me walk you through key terms. /1 This is the 2023 US v Google adtech win - the one DCN and its premium publishers have long been much more deep and focused on. Here’s what it means for publishers of all types - and why it will be a massive win for the open web if Judge Brinkema signs on (I believe she will). /2

All eyes at Google on streaming NFL game tonight but Google Inc and its many monopolies have had quite the week. I’ve been absorbing on this end, some quick Friday thoughts on things missed. Bad news certainly for the public, and also DCN members, in US v Google Search case. /1 Judge Mehta said "no thanks" to helping publishers - because he said no pubs testified. Maybe that’s what retaliation fear looks like??? He also noted the unlawful conduct was about distribution deals, not deals with publishers. More on that in a minute. /2

Woah. Facebook just settled immediately before board members Andreessen, Thiel, Zuckerberg, Desmond-Hellman, and Sheryl Sandberg were set to testify as to who knew what and when…depriving public of any accountability and facts in courtroom from board and officer comms. 1/3 Counter to Facebook lawyers framing yesterday, the DC AG suit isn’t dead (awaiting DC Circuit from 1/30 hearing), and NdCal shareholder suit also still alive. This is the closest to
Courtroom testimony after about $8B+ in settlements. 2/3

News cycles. News cycles. What I called the "mother of all lawsuits" for Facebook in 2021 goes to trial TOMORROW. Zuckerberg, Marc Andreessen, Sheryl Sandberg, Peter Thiel, other board members expected to testify live as to who knew what and when in its largest scandal ever. /1 Meanwhile, Zuckerberg and Facebook comms have successfully flooded the zone with AI-hype and exclusive CEO interviews mostly distracting the press away from a trial on how they leveraged, and allegedly abused, personal data to drive a decade of massive growth in mobile share. /2

Woah. Exhibit list just posted for Facebook trial in DE starting in a few weeks. We finally have confirmation Sheryl Sandberg was deposed by the SEC - one week prior to Zuckerberg which also kept secret until a lawsuit unsealed it. Sandberg was also sanctioned in this case. /1 This matters as it gets at Who Knew What When at FB ahead of the world finding out its platform was leaking personal data for years. Zuckerberg was dodgy at best under oath to Congress, FB responses to Parliaments focused on 2018 news. But exhibits include Jan 2017 MZ emails. /2

Scanning front pages across America this morning. Still today, the local A1 best captures the biggest story of the day. The majors from NY to LA to Detroit to even Arkansas. /1


From Washington DC all of the way up to the major newspapers in Alaska… the No Kings protest images are everywhere capturing the moment. /2

Incredible work being done by the press to keep facts building on facts. Grateful. This entire WSJ report overnight starting with this lede on how White House orders sparked LA crackdown is both chilling and informative. /1 This statement. “We came to the United States for protection of what we encountered in Russia. It seems that we are encountering here what we fled.” /2

Confession. Having watched Scott Pelley's outstanding work over nearly three decades, I almost didn't take the time to watch his W.F. commencement speech thinking the news reports told me enough of the facts. Frankly, that would have been a huge mistake on my part. Huge. 1/5 Disclosure: I'm a 60 Minutes fan. In fact, I read Don Hewitt's "Tell Me a Story" after nearly a decade in sports media and it likely tipped the scale in 2007 when I decided to jump to work at CBS. I find Pelley and team brilliant in telling stories in barely 15 min segments. 2/5

wow, another order for Mark Zuckerberg to sit for another court deposition. This time in a case involving privacy violations with ingesting web-wide health data. Remember they paid billions in cases to try to avoid this. Data and privacy issues are especially sensitive. /1 Zuckerberg depositions are interesting as they often go on for hours with highly informed attorneys driving for answers. And those answers may be put up against the often questioned veracity of his answers to Congress. Yes, as a CEO, he has testified to Congress A LOT. /2

The Verge comes in with a massive scoop on the backstory reporting it was Musk - and Sacks - behind the scenes trying to blow up IP to train AI on behalf of his allies. This wouldn't be a surprise to anyone. /1 they have reports and details on the carnage and firing of the leadership and on the possible incorrect assumption that the new people in charge were running their playbook. /2

omg. I can't believe what I am seeing in the FTC v Meta exhibits that just posted. This is the start of a long Oct 2018 thread where redacted executive tells another c-level executive, Adam Mosseri, "some estimates fake engagement [on Instagram] could be in range of 40%." /1 and Mosseri does nothing to dispute the data point either. he actually agrees they are a threat saying, "they present a bigger thread [sic] to the business than to the user experience." The timing of this remarkable if you know the context of what was going on there. /2

woah, I've now read Google and DOJ's proposed remedies for Google's 3rd antitrust defeat (adtech). I threaded Friday's hearing but this full doc is nothing short of beautiful. Best stuff may be missed so hear me out. This is a huge deal - 10yrs, "lifeblood of the Internet." /1 A reminder on the four objectives of antitrust remedies. In court on Friday and in Google's proposal, Google just seems to ignore the third and fourth as if they don't matter. That's a major problem for them. Judge Brinkema will be all over it. She gets this case wonderfully. /2

A few more nuggets of delight for you. First, Tim Apple has had his halo bent. He's arguably had the best reputation of the big tech CEOs until today. He ordered the code red. /1 Alex Roman had a super bad day. If anyone directed him on this testimony cited by the Court, heads will roll. either way, Apple Inc also has big problems. /2

Day 2. A few comments after 2nd day of testimony from Mark Zuckerberg. FTC began with impeachment as Zuckerberg had said yesterday friends & family were only about 25% of Stories shared when instead it appears more in 63-73% range. I would hammer him on these, it's a pattern. /1 Remember, we've learned from MZ's deposition to SEC and many trips to Congress, he may say too much and seems to talk his way through problems. Speaking of... USvGoogle on the weight of contemporaneous statements is already a massive shadow over MZ. /2

with FTC's opening statement slides (109 of them over 86 minutes IYKYK)) now posting, I want to flag just a few of them worth amplifying. /1 These two statements from Judge Boasberg his denial of Meta's motion to dismiss last November will weigh heavily on Facebook imho. The evidence from both the Instagram deal and WhatsApp deal are damning considering just these two bullets. /2

FTC v Meta Day 1. Opening arguments for FTC laid out its case. As predicted, Meta tried to blow hole into market definition. This actually comes later in trial so not dwelling but will add some context at end. But first witness 1 was CEO Zuckerberg. Dead to rights on conduct. /1 Internal Facebook employee messages (some we've previously seen plus plenty more) make the Instagram deal clearly anticompetitive conduct imho. Exhibits may not post until Wed so my quotes are my best snapshots from messages in exhibits on screens. Relay with care. I tried. /2

As Meta’s Andy Stone works overnight criticizing whistleblower testimony today on their role in China, let’s not forget Meta worked furiously thru billions in settlements to keep sealed it provided data access to 86,961 developers in China unsealed after court sanctions in 2023. That slide is from their own internal audit. The one they promised the public and Congress in testimony then buried it including fighting to keep the forensic clean up artists aka auditors under seal, too, until an attorney said it in open courtroom. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

Pretrial orders starting to give taste as to why WSJ reports Mark Zuckerberg is meeting Pres. Trump desperately trying to settle its FTC lawsuit 11 days from trial. Court just ordered Meta to release all internal discussions of "integrity" issues up until 2020. That's toxic. /1 Also included is evidence as to what appears to be Apple warning Facebook/Meta to address CSAM on WhatsApp chat groups. Remember, advertisers built this company investing hundreds of billions of dollars to support it. /2