Regulation Episodes
Legal and regulatory news and rumors for tech companies.
March 5, 2021
Fri. 03/05 – Eyes Emoji On Tim Wu Joining The Biden Administration
Tim Wu joined the Biden administration and that sound you hear is a big collective gulp from Silicon Valley. A tweet undo button has been unearthed. Turntable.fm has resurfaced. New data suggests the death of silicon valley has been exaggerated. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.
Sp…
Feb. 25, 2021
Thu. 02/25 – The Biden Administration Addressed The Chip Shortage
The Biden administration signs an executive order addressing the chip shortage. I’ll tell you why this is evolving into a big deal. Coinbase files its S-1 so we get to look under the hood of their business for the first time. Paramount+ reveals pricing and content details for the first time. And ti…
Feb. 19, 2021
Fri. 02/19 – UK Supreme Court Officially Smacks Down Uber
Uber has lost one of its most significant independent contractor battles, in this case, in the UK. The Android 12 Developer Preview is here. Office 2021 is coming. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.
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Links:Uber los…
Feb. 10, 2021
Wed. 02/10 – TikTok Pardoned By Biden?
Maybe… the whole TikTok kabuki theater is at its endpoint. Salesforce thinks the whole concept of the “9-to-5 workday” is at its endpoint. More smoke around the Apple Goggles fire. Why you need to get hip to the concept of non-fungible tokens. And why cops have gotten hip to playing Sublime songs t…
Dec. 28, 2020
Mon. 12/28 – After Jack Ma, Is China Freezing Its Entire Tech Sector?
The Chinese Communist Party is throwing serious cold water on its entire tech sector by continuing to target Jack Ma. Did Elon Musk once try to sell Tesla to Apple? Drones are getting digital license plates, of a sort. And a look at the generation of search engine startups hoping to, you know, mayb…
Dec. 18, 2020
Fri. 12/18 – Chinese Drone Maker DJI Blacklisted By The US
Drone maker DJI is blacklisted by the commerce department. Group video comes to Echo devices. Twitter launches Spaces. Sony offers refunds for Cyberpunk 2077. Coinbase files to go public. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.
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Dec. 15, 2020
Tue. 12/15 – Europe’s Big New Rules for Big Tech
Europe’s big new regulatory regime for big tech. More fallout from what looks like the biggest hack our government has ever seen. The FTC asks basically everyone in tech how they get their data. A ‘faraday fabric’ that can se...
Dec. 10, 2020
Thu. 12/10 – The Big Facebook Antitrust Cases, Explained
I try to give you the outlines of the Facebook antitrust thing, and what it might mean for tech. Airbnb makes its market debut. Crunchyroll finds a safe home away from AT&T. I bet folks at HBO are jealous. Boston Dynamics fin...
Nov. 4, 2020
Wed. 11/04 – Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, et al Win In California
Californians pass Proposition 22, and voters in Massachusetts strike a blow for the right to repair. You no longer need a phone to listen to Spotify on your watch. And why Walmart might partner with Comcast to make TVs, count...
Oct. 7, 2020
Wed 10/07 – The House Antitrust Report
The House has released its big antitrust report on big tech. Facebook has banned Qanon everywhere it can. DDR5 chips are finally here. Shogun is an interesting raise. And could a VR infinity treadmill be the next home workout...
Sept. 21, 2020
Mon. 09/21 – ByteDance Says It Won. Trump Says Not So Fast. TikTok Continues… For Now.
It looked like we had a TikTok deal the president liked. Then ByteDance went and pointed out they still had control. Now, I dunno where we’re at. Microsoft buys Bethesda. The founder of Nikola steps down in murky circumstance...
Sept. 18, 2020
Fri. 09/18 – WeChat Officially Banned On Sunday. TikTok Only Kinda Banned.
The Commerce Department officially has brought the hammer down. WeChat is banned on Sunday. TikTok banned on Sunday too, but it’s complicated. PayTM is banned from the Google Play Store in India. Facebook decides that Faceboo...
Sept. 4, 2020
Fri. 09/04 – Ad-Pocalypse (Not) Now
The Attorney General seems to want an antitrust case against Google within weeks. Apple has delayed the Ad-pocalypse. Why the games industry is where Epic has all the leverage against Apple. Will a new display tech bridge the...
Aug. 21, 2020
Fri. 08/21 - Uber’s Former CSO Charged With Obstruction of Justice
Uber’s former CSO charged with obstruction of justice, becoming the first tech executive ever charged for a security incident. A legend of the Amazon C suite is leaving next year. Epic Games continues to gleefully poke Apple ...
Aug. 20, 2020
Thu. 08/20 – Lyft Ends Service In California At Midnight
Facebook has removed tons of stuff from what it calls US-based militia organizations. Airbnb has filed for its IPO. Cobalt is an interesting raise. But also, some new tech might remove cobalt for better batteries. DoorDash la...
Aug. 17, 2020
Mon. 08/17 – Why Regulatory Change For Big Tech Is Maybe Inevitable
Why I think regulatory impact for Big Tech is maybe inevitable. Amazon seems to be sniffing around Rackspace. The first “mass produced” smartphone with a camera underneath the display? An ex-Googler says Google Cloud’s deprec...
Aug. 7, 2020
Fri. 08/07 – The Executive Order To Ban TikTok and WeChat
The President officially signs an order to block ByteDance AND Tencent. Apple confirms the reasons why xCloud and Stadia aren’t coming to iOS any time soon. Uber is now, officially, more burrito delivery company than taxi com...
Aug. 6, 2020
Thu. 08/06 – Will The US’s “Clean Network” Plan Break The Internet?
Will the US Government’s “Clean Network” plan lead to the definitive fracturing of the Internet we’ve all feared? Nintendo is killing it thanks to Covid and Animal Crossing. Are Samsung’s new earbuds actually Cool Beans? You ...
Aug. 3, 2020
Mon. 08/03 – The TikTok, Microsoft, Trump Ban Saga Explained
TikTok has not been banned by Trump, but it came close this weekend. Microsoft almost walked away from buying TikTok this weekend, but it looks like it’s back on board and might buy non-Chinese TikTok operations soon. Google ...
July 30, 2020
Thu. 07/30 – A Comprehensive (8-Minute) Rundown of the Big Tech Congressional Testimony
A comprehensive rundown of the big tech testimony in Congress yesterday. Don’t worry. I tried to keep it brief. Are seller fees quietly twice as big a business for Amazon as AWS is? There’s a new king of the smartphone hill a...
July 29, 2020
Wed. 07/29 – Big Tech CEO’s Testimony Before Congress
A rundown of what the big tech CEO’s told Congress this afternoon. Are Samsung and Google about to get a lot more integrated? The biggest news in the ongoing streaming media transformation of Hollywood. Buying out TikTok is g...
July 7, 2020
Tue. 07/07 – Will The US Government Ban TikTok?
TikTok pulls it’s app completely for the Hong Kong market. But could the US ban TikTok in the US market? And India shows us what happens when TikTok gets banned. Palantir is about to IPO. A new video compression standard is a...
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July 2, 2020
Thu. 07/02 – ALL of Silicon Valley (kinda) Has A Date With Washington
Zuckerberg has told Facebook staff he’s not overly worried about the boycotts. The Fab 4 CEOs of the biggest tech companies (minus Microsoft) all have a date to testify before Congress later this month. Police hacked an encry...
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June 11, 2020
Thu. 06/11 – Regulation News Thursday
It’s regulation news day. The EU might be about to file antitrust charges against Amazon and California officially labeled Uber and Lyft workers as employees. Amazon also hit pause on its facial recognition tech as it waits f...
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