Hillicon Valley: Google workers announce global union alliance | Biden admin vows to ‘hold China accountable’ while weighing approach to Huawei, TikTok | Facebook to grant access to targeting information about political ads
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GOOGLERS TO FORM GLOBAL ALLIANCE: Google employees across 10 countries on Monday announced they would be forming a global union alliance aimed at holding the tech giant accountable.
Alpha Google, named in recognition of Google’s parent company Alphabet, was announced just weeks after more than 200 Google employees in the U.S. announced the creation of the Alphabet Workers Union.
“[Google] is a place where many workers came to change the world—to make it more democratic—only to find Google suppressing speech and cracking down on worker organizing while consolidating monopolistic power,” the Alpha Global alliance said in a joint statement.
Read more about the union alliance here.
NEXT STEPS PENDING: The Biden administration on Monday signaled it plans to “hold China accountable” on technology issues, while stopping short of saying how President Biden plans to approach groups including telecom company Huawei or social media app TikTok.
“Technology…is of course at the center of U.S.-China competition,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing on Monday. “China has been willing to do whatever it takes to gain a technological advantage, stealing intellectual property, engaging in industrial espionage, and forcing technology transfer.”
“The president’s view is we need to play a better defense, which must include holding China accountable for its unfair and illegal practices and making sure that American technologies aren’t facilitating China’s military build up,” Psaki added.
FACEBOOK TO GRANT INFO ABOUT ADS: Facebook said Monday it will launch a new tool next week that will grant access for researchers regarding the targeting information used for social issues, electoral and political ads.
The Facebook Open Research and Transparency (FORT) platform will allow researchers to review data about ads including those that ran during the three-month period leading up to Election Day.
“By making the targeting criteria, such as location and interests, selected by advertisers running social issue, electoral or political ads available for analysis and reporting, we hope to help people better understand the practices used to reach potential voters on Facebook,” the social media giant said in a blog post.
TWITTER TURNS TO USERS: The platform launched a pilot of a new platform Monday that will allow users to discuss and provide context to tweets in an effort to combat misinformation.
The “Birdwatch” feature will be open to a small set of users on a first-come, first-served basis.
The new community based feature appears to draw on the content moderation strategies of Reddit and Wikipedia, both of which depend on users for the bulk of their oversight.
MICROSOFT TO HALT DONATIONS: Microsoft confirmed it is halting political donations while reviewing whether to further suspend donations to lawmakers who voted against the certification of the election results.
Microsoft President Brad Smith internally announced the decision to employees on Jan. 8. The company said it will announce its final decision about a suspension of donations by Feb. 15.
They join a growing list of tech companies pausing political spending after the insurrection at the Capitol on jan. 6.
ICYMI – QANON OPPORTUNITY: Donald’s Trump exit from office offers a new opportunity to pull people out of the expansive conspiracy theory.
Doing so will take both interpersonal kindness and structural changes aimed at reducing the fuel for the conspiracy.
Read more about those tactics here.
Lighter click: Welcome to your new life, Major and Champ
An op-ed to chew on: Drastic measures for drastic times — caregivers need mobile health apps
NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
The Road To The Capitol Insurrection Was Paved With MAGA Disinformation (BuzzFeed News / Craig Silverman, Jane Lytvynenko and Pranav Dixit)
Amazon Union Drive Takes Hold in Unlikely Place (New York Times / Michael Corkery and Karen Weise)
QAnon Believers Are Pushing New Trump Conspiracy Theories on TikTok (RollingStone / EJ Dickson)
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