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According to a court document viewed by Engadget, the Federal Trade Commission accused Amazon of using Signals disappearing messages feature to conceal communications as part of its antitrust suit against the company. The FTC says the retailer continued to auto-delete its communications even after the agency notified it that it was under investigation and asked it to preserve them. Founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos and current CEO Andy Jassy are among the accused. For years, Amazons top executives, including founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos, discuss[ed] sensitive business matters, including antitrust, over the Signal encrypted-messaging app instead of email, the FTC wrote in the full document, acquired by (Bezos-owned) The Washington Post. These executives turned on Signals disappearing message feature, which irrevocably destroys messages, even after Amazon was on notice that Plaintiffs were investigating its conduct. The FTC wants a federal judge to compel Amazon to provide documents related to its data handling. The government agency says the retailer didnt disclose its Signal use until March 2022, ahead of a Wall Street Journal article highlighting the covert practice. Although the contents of deleted messages are impossible to recover, the app shows when a user turns the disappearing message feature on, off, or changes the timer for deletions, leaving breadcrumbs showing that Amazon executives deletions were widespread, the document reads. From the messages that were not deleted, it is apparent that Amazon executives used Signal to talk about competition-related business issues. The issue appears to be an increasingly common business practice in Silicon Valley. Last year, the DOJ accused Google of routinely destroying its internal chat histories, which it was required to preserve under federal law. In addition, before Elon Musk bought Twitter and changed its name to X, the company asked a judge to sanction the Tesla founder for using Signals auto-deletion to withhold messages sent through the app. In addition to Bezos and Jassy, The Washington Post reports that the full document names General Counsel David Zapolsky, former CEO of Worldwide Consumer Jeff Wilke and former CEO of Worldwide Operations Dave Clark as participating in the practice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-ftc-accuses-amazon-of-using-signals-auto-deleting-messages-to-erase-evidence-205431161.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Drake apparently learned it isnt wise to mess with Tupac Shakur even decades after his untimely death. Billboard first spotted that the Canadian hip-hop artist deleted the X (Twitter) post with his track Taylor Made Freestyle, which used an AI-generated recreation of Shakurs voice to try to get under Kendrick Lamars skin. The takedown came after an attorney representing the late hip-hop legend threatened to sue the Canadian rapper for his unauthorized use of Tupacs voice if he didnt remove it from social channels within 24 hours. However, the track was online for a week and unsurprisingly has been copiously reposted. The Estate is deeply dismayed and disappointed by your unauthorized use of Tupacs voice and personality, Howard King, the attorney representing Shakurs estate, wrote earlier this week in a cease-and-desist letter acquired by Billboard. Not only is the record a flagrant violation of Tupacs publicity and the estates legal rights, it is also a blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time. The Estate would never have given its approval for this use. 2PAC.com King implied that using Shakurs voice to diss Lamar was an especially egregious show of disrespect. Lamar, a 17-time Grammy winner and Pulitzer recipient, has spoken frequently about his deep admiration for Tupac, and the Oakland rappers estate says the feelings are mutual. The unauthorized, equally dismaying use of Tupacs voice against Kendrick Lamar, a good friend to the Estate who has given nothing but respect to Tupac and his legacy publicly and privately, compounds the insult, King wrote in a cease-and-desist letter. Drakes track also included an AI-generated clone of Snoop Doggs voice. The Doggystyle rapper and cannabis aficionado appeared surprised in a social post last week: They did what? When? How? Are you sure? He continued, Why everybody calling my phone, blowing me up? What the fuck? What happened? Whats going on? Im going back to bed. Good night. However, the one-time Doggy Fizzle Televizzle host has a history of poker-faced coyness. Last year, he took to Instagram to solemnly announce he was giving up smoke, leading to rampant speculation about why the stoner icon would quit his favorite pastime. Soon after, his announcement was revealed as a PR stunt for Solo Stove which, marketing gimmicks aside, makes some terrific bonfire pits.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/drake-deletes-ai-generated-tupac-track-after-shakurs-estate-threatened-to-sue-191810881.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Aaron Sorkin has announced that hes currently writing a followup script to The Social Network, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He broke the news during an episode of The Town podcast that centered on how Facebook and social media have influenced democracy in the years since his Oscar-winning hit. The first film chronicled the early days of Mark Zuckerbergs social network and starred Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake, among others. Sorkin is cagey on the actual details of the new script, but it looks to follow Facebook throughout the Trump era. He went on to tell the podcast hosts that he actually blames the social media site for the January 6 riots that claimed the lives of five people and led to the injuries of more than 140 police officers. Look, yeah, Ill be writing about this, Sorkin told podcast hosts Matthew Belloni and Peter Hamby. I blame Facebook for January 6. He didnt give any reason as to why he blames Facebook for the attack on the capitol, telling the podcast hosts that they will have to buy a movie ticket. Facebook, Google, Twitter and Reddit were all subpoenaed as part of the investigation into January 6. Lawmakers have suggested that Facebook didnt take the proper steps to handle the Stop the Steal movement, which was organized on the platform, and that it didnt recognize the danger posed by these groups until after the violence in DC. Whistleblower Frances Haugen told Congress that Facebook disbanded its civic integrity team after the 2020 election. She also has said that Facebook knew its algorithms and platforms promoted harmful content and that it failed to deploy internally recommended or lasting countermeasures. According to Haugen, the company chose profits over safety. Sorkin has obviously been paying attention to all of this, saying in the same interview that Facebook has been, among other things, tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible. Because that is what will increase engagement. He further dinged the company by suggesting that theres supposed to be a constant tension at Facebook between growth and integrity. There isnt. Theres just growth. Now, dont go heading to your local multiplex to buy a ticket for The Social Network 2: Electric Boogaloo just yet. The script is still in the early stages and Sorkin hasnt announced a partnership with any studio to get the film made. This also isnt his first attempt to get something like this off the ground. He was previously working on a script entirely about January 6, but it didnt move forward. It remains to be seen if some aspects of that script will end up in followup to The Social Network, should it actually get made. He told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he would only push to make a sequel to The Social Network if David Fincher returned to direct it. If a studio does sign on to make this project, which is fairly likely given the success of the 2010 film, it leaves me with two glaring questions. Can Jesse Eisenberg grow a sweet beard and what are his thoughts on ultra-premium livestock?This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/aaron-sorkin-is-working-on-a-jan-6-focused-follow-up-to-the-social-network-190010714.html?src=rss
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