Facebook’s Libra: Three things we don’t know about the digital currency - MIT Technology Review
▻https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613801/facebooks-libra-three-things-we-dont-know-about-the-digital-curren
If it’s not the most high-profile cryptocurrency-related event ever, Facebook’s launch of a test network for its new digital currency, called Libra coin, has been the most hyped. It is also polarizing among cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Some think it’s good for the crypto industry; others dislike the fact that a big tech company appears to be co-opting a technology that was supposed to help people avoid big tech companies. Still others say it’s not even a real cryptocurrency.
Libra’s network won’t work that way. Instead, running a “validator node” requires permission. To begin with, Facebook has signed up dozens of firms—including Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Uber, Lyft, Vodafone, Spotify, eBay, and popular Argentine e-commerce company MercadoLibre—to participate in the network that will validate transactions. Each of these “founding members” has invested around $10 million in the project.
That obviously runs counter to the pro-decentralization ideology popular among cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
Today’s public blockchains use too much energy and process transactions too slowly to elicit mainstream demand. This is probably the biggest obstacle to adoption of cryptocurrencies. It’s why Facebook chose not to use proof of work, the process that Bitcoin uses to reach agreement among the blockchain network’s nodes, citing its “poor performance and high energy (and environmental) costs.”
If the high-powered roster of financial firms and technology companies beat Ethereum to the punch on proof of stake, it would be ironic: public blockchains are supposed to disrupt Big Tech, not the other way around.
On top of all that, how serious is Facebook is about achieving decentralization and becoming a “real” cryptocurrency? Perhaps the fact it has made a big song and dance about being decentralized is simply a way of offsetting the firm’s appalling record on data privacy. But will users demand that the currency be more decentralized—or will many simply not care?
]]>While you’re sleeping, your #iPhone stays busy — snooping on you - NZ Herald
▻https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12235267
IPhone apps I discovered tracking me by passing information to third parties - just while I was asleep - include Microsoft OneDrive, Intuit’s Mint, Nike, Spotify, the Washington Post and IBM’s the Weather Channel. One app, the crime-alert service Citizen, shared personally identifiable information in violation of its published privacy policy.
And your iPhone doesn’t feed data trackers only while you sleep. In a single week, I encountered over 5400 trackers, mostly in apps, not including the incessant Yelp traffic. According to privacy firm Disconnect, which helped test my iPhone, those unwanted trackers would have spewed out 1.5 gigabytes of data over the span of a month. That’s half of an entire basic wireless service plan from US telecommunictions company AT&T.
“This is your data, why should it even leave your phone? Why should it be collected by someone when you don’t know what they’re going to do with it?” says Patrick Jackson, a former National Security Agency researcher who is chief technology officer for Disconnect. He hooked my iPhone into special software so we could examine the traffic. “I know the value of data, and I don’t want mine in any hands where it doesn’t need to be.”
In a world of data brokers, Jackson is the data breaker. He developed an app called Privacy Pro that identifies and blocks many trackers. If you’re a little bit techie, I recommend trying the free iOS version to glimpse the secret life of your iPhone.
]]>Why content, not tech, is king in podcasting
▻https://hackernoon.com/why-content-not-tech-is-king-in-podcasting-d0ce3d177b72?source=rss----3a
A look at Spotify’s recent acquisitions, and the upcoming launch of Luminary2019 has been an unprecedented year for exits in the #podcast industry, driven by one company: Spotify. Spotify paid $340M to acquire content studio Gimlet and hosting platform Anchor in February, and last month purchased true crime content studio Parcast for an estimated $100M. A press release shortly after the first two acquisitions announced Spotify had “line-of-sight on total spend of $400-$500M in multiple acquisitions” for 2019, with planned further spend if the strategy paid off.This acquisition activity is especially notable in a space with few prior exits — iHeartMedia’s acquisition of Stuff Media (creators of How Stuff Works) for $55M was the largest previous exit. Podcasts also generate surprisingly little (...)
#venture-capital #podcasting-content #hackernoon-top-story #podcasting-tech
]]>How to Hire a Python Developer With Right Skill Set?
▻https://hackernoon.com/how-to-hire-a-python-developer-with-right-skill-set-764a12cc5b4f?source=
Bram Cohen has beautifully crafted Python language in a nutshell, as “simple, clean syntax, object encapsulation, good library support and optional named parameters”.Hence hiring a Python developer is the best approach for any company where it has a huge potential to grow any business to a great extent. Some of the pioneers in the technology industry like YouTube, Reddit, NASA, PayPal, Spotify, Quora etc are the popular projects that are built using Python language. Hire a python developer to get benefited from the compelling features of the Python program.Why Python is a preferable language among the companies?In the era of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning certain programming languages always have a standard demand in the market irrespective of the evolution of other niche (...)
#hire-python-developers #python-programming #python-web-development #hire-python-programmers #python-web-developer
]]>Managing Ubuntu Snaps: the stuff no one tells you
▻https://hackernoon.com/managing-ubuntu-snaps-the-stuff-no-one-tells-you-625dfbe4b26c?source=rss
The snapcraft.io site: where #snap developers and users meetCanonical’s Snaps are definitely the real deal. The secure and portable #linux package management system is more than a geeky tool for showing off your tech creds. Just consider the growing list of companies that have already bought in and are providing their desktop software through snaps, including Blender, Slack, Spotify, Android Studio, and Microsoft’s (Microsoft!) Visual Studio Code. And don’t forget that the real growth of the snap system is in the world of IoT devices and servers rather than desktops.But as the popularity of snaps grows — some new Linux distros come with the snapd service installed by default — you might be forgiven for wondering how you’re supposed to make them work. Don’t get me wrong: there are all kinds of (...)
]]>Lily Liu on #bitcoin Rationalism
▻https://hackernoon.com/lily-liu-on-bitcoin-rationalism-ad7c45050aeb?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3-
Audio interview transcription — WBD081Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Lily Liu. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with the founder of Earn.com, Lily Liu. We discuss Silicon Valley and how funds approach investing in Crypto and what they don’t understand about it. We also talk about Bitcoin Rationalism and what that means to Lily.▻https://medium.com/media/4aae0608dfbbc86f4b1acc0aa74499f0/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneInFollow: Website | Email | Blog | Twitter | Medium | Instagram | YouTubeInterview (...)
]]>Jed McCaleb on the Creation of Mt. Gox
▻https://hackernoon.com/jed-mccaleb-on-the-creation-of-mt-gox-85645521eabf?source=rss----3a8144e
Audio interview transcription — WBD075Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Jed McCaleb from Interstellar. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.The first part of my series of interviews relating to Mt. Gox. I talk with Jed McCaleb from #stellar about the creation of Mt. Gox, the handover to Mark Karpelès and what responsibility he shares for its collapse.▻https://medium.com/media/eb030edcfd736584202e101762b54951/hrefConnect with What #bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneInFollow: Website | Email | Blog | Twitter | Medium | Instagram | YouTubeInterview (...)
]]>Brock Pierce on Reviving Mt. Gox
▻https://hackernoon.com/brock-pierce-on-reviving-mt-gox-d08a838ecc0a?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3-
Audio interview transcription — WBD079Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Brock Pierce. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In the fifth part of my series of interviews relating to Mt. Gox, I talk with Brock Pierce, the architect of Gox Rising, a mission to support creditors, maximise revenues and relaunch the exchange.▻https://medium.com/media/7ffa516a38be32ca705b1fadbfaab96b/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneInFollow: Website | Email | Blog | Twitter | Medium | Instagram | YouTubeInterview TranscriptionInterview Date: Wednesday 13th (...)
]]>Reflecting on Mt. Gox with Andy Pag
▻https://hackernoon.com/reflecting-on-mt-gox-with-andy-pag-d68cac57cba6?source=rss----3a8144eabf
Audio interview transcription — WBD080Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with reported, Andy Pag. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In the final part of my series of interviews relating to Mt. Gox, I talk with Andy Pag, creator and elected administrator of Mt. Gox Legal. We reflect on my conversations, the history of what happened between Jed and Mark, CoinLab and Brock Pierce.▻https://medium.com/media/6344a744c066d53c9274927d36ce8108/hrefConnect with What #bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneInFollow: Website | Email | Blog | Twitter | Medium | Instagram | (...)
]]>Daniel Kelman on the Creditors of Mt. Gox and Civil Rehabilitation
▻https://hackernoon.com/daniel-kelman-on-the-creditors-of-mt-gox-and-civil-rehabilitation-ad8b8c
Audio interview transcription — WBD077Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Daniel Kelman, a lawyer and creditor of Mt. Gox. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In the third part of my series of interviews relating to Mt. Gox, I talk with the lawyer, Daniel Kelman, the architect of the civil rehabilitation plan for Mt. Gox creditors. We discuss this as well as the claims from Brock Pierce and Peter Vessenes.▻https://medium.com/media/df3b3927dfc2d17bcc83c75a9684352b/hrefConnect with What #bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneInFollow: Website | Email | Blog | (...)
]]>Mark Karpelès on the Collapse of Mt. Gox
▻https://hackernoon.com/mark-karpel%C3%A8s-on-the-collapse-of-mt-gox-3568c2a86f9b?source=rss----
Audio interview transcription — WBD076Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Mark Karpeles, the ex-CEO of Mt. Gox. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In the second part of my series of interviews relating to Mt. Gox, I talk with Mark Karpelès, the CEO of the now bankrupt #bitcoin exchange. We discuss how he acquired the site, how it was hacked and who is responsible for its collapse.▻https://medium.com/media/086079234ee9ad258a3277e2178d74f7/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneInFollow: Website | Email | Blog | Twitter | Medium | Instagram | (...)
]]>Bill Barhydt on How #abra Is Building a Global Bank With #bitcoin
▻https://hackernoon.com/bill-barhydt-on-how-abra-is-building-a-global-bank-with-bitcoin-ef5f66d9
Audio interview transcription — WBD073Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Bill Barhydt, CEO and Founder of ABRA. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with Bill Barhydt, the CEO of ABRA. We discuss their recent announcement whereby users of the app can use Bitcoin to trade stocks and ETFs and the complexity of building a global bank on Bitcoin.▻https://medium.com/media/18869c019574e610f6724906afed6ebf/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | (...)
]]>Whitfield Diffie on the History of #cryptography
▻https://hackernoon.com/whitfield-diffie-on-the-history-of-cryptography-cae4d2469268?source=rss-
Audio interview transcription — WBD069Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Whitfield Diffie. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with legend of cryptography, Whitfield Diffie. Whit was working on cryptography long before #bitcoin existed, building the foundations for which Bitcoin relies upon. We discuss his history, Bitcoin and his views on privacy.▻https://medium.com/media/b36e9c77d8b36d44f94deccbd50dd50e/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | (...)
#tech
]]>#gab’s Andrew Torba on Why #bitcoin Is Free Speech Money
▻https://hackernoon.com/gabs-andrew-torba-on-why-bitcoin-is-free-speech-money-dcbe15be5e43?sourc
Audio interview transcription — WBD067Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Andrew Torba from Gab.com. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with Andrew Torba, CEO of Gab.com. We discuss free speech, censorship, the First Amendment, the #deplatforming of Gab.com by Silicon Valley giants and payment processors and why Bitcoin is free speech money.▻https://medium.com/media/db0db34d311fef40a4d20aa68f4a51eb/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | (...)
]]>Peter Todd on the Essence of #bitcoin
▻https://hackernoon.com/peter-todd-on-the-essence-of-bitcoin-b8d0c6d16f43?source=rss----3a8144ea
Audio interview transcription — WBD068Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Peter Todd. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with Bitcoin legend Peter Todd. We talk about the essence of Bitcoin, why it worked whether other attempts at digital currencies failed as well as key topics such as fungibility, lightning and why other projects are scams.▻https://medium.com/media/ff83f743006e77b61bf2549648386e0b/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | (...)
]]>Spotify. It’s Not Just for Music Anymore. - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/business/dealbook/spotify-gimlet-anchor-podcasts.html
No longer does it aim to be a go-to destination for just music fans. It now sees itself as a provider of online audio, period.
The company’s chief executive, Daniel Ek, emphasized the shift in direction in a blog post on Wednesday. “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, but what I didn’t know when we launched to consumers in 2008 was that audio — not just music — would be the future of Spotify,” he wrote.
With the acquisitions, Spotify becomes the latest player to invest in a medium once considered a low-stakes sandbox in the larger media environment. Now that podcasts have become part of the listening routine for millions of people, major companies have recognized them as an important — but still relatively cheap — source of content.
In September, the radio giant iHeartMedia bought Stuff Media, another influential producer, and recently Hollywood has begun buying up rights to popular podcasts. “Homecoming,” an Amazon series starring Julia Roberts, is based on a fictional podcast from Gimlet.
“I don’t think Spotify woke up one day and realized that audio storytelling has some incredible emotional place in the life of their brand,” said Owen Grover, the chief executive of Pocket Casts, a podcast app. “Strategically, if they can get their users to listen to podcasts in place of music, it improves their margins.”
While podcasts are hardly a new invention — they became part of Apple’s iTunes in 2005 — their popularity has surged in recent years. By some estimates, more than 600,000 podcasts are available through Apple, a number that does not include shows that are exclusive to other providers, like Spotify.
But while it may seem as if every other person on earth is either a podcast listener or a podcast host, the money thrown off by the boomlet has been relatively modest. According to a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PwC, the podcast industry as a whole generated $314 million in 2017, though that survey also predicts that by 2020 the number will more than double, to $659 million.
Spotify, which went public in April, announced on Wednesday that it ended 2018 with 207 million active users around the world, 96 million of whom paid for monthly subscriptions. Its revenue for the year was 5.3 billion euros, about $6 billion, an increase of 29 percent from 2017.
And while in 2018 the company lost €78 million, about $89 million, it had a net income of €442 million, or about $502 million, in its fourth quarter. Spotify’s gross profit margin also grew in that quarter, to 26.7 percent, from 25.3 percent in the previous three months.
Despite Spotify’s dominance among music listeners (its chief rival, Apple Music, has 50 million paying subscribers), Mr. Ek, the company’s chief executive, predicted that “over time,” about 20 percent of all Spotify listening would involve something other than music.
]]>What Does the Future of Cloud Computing Mean for Media?
▻https://hackernoon.com/what-does-the-future-of-cloud-computing-mean-for-media-c4894d0bbaa?sourc
Would it surprise you to hear that 73% of companies run at least one application in the cloud? Maybe the only surprise is that the percentage isn’t higher.This is especially true for media and entertainment companies in segments such as publishing, broadcasting, music, and sports. The amount of content we now produce, stream, watch online or download to our devices is mind-blowing. Each day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated in the digital sphere.For example, every minute in 2017, Spotify added 13 new songs, Wikipedia users published 600 new page edits, Instagram users posted 46,740 pictures, Netflix viewers streamed 69,444 hours of video, and YouTube users watched 4,146,600 videos.In the increasingly digitized era of growing connectivity, cloud data storage and cloud computing (...)
#media-and-entertainment #cloud-services #cloud-storage #cloud-computing
]]>Top Seven Apps Built With #python
▻https://hackernoon.com/top-seven-apps-built-with-python-2cd8dfd3c00a?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3
Over its almost 30 years of existence, Python has become one of the most popular programming languages. But if most startups once used it because of its simplicity and low cost, modern giants like Instagram or Spotify use Python and the Django framework to create smooth working experiences. Famously, Django provides fast work processes, clean design, and transparent functionality, among many other advantages. It allows developers at all levels to focus on writing their apps instead of reinventing the wheel (or fixing it, for that matter). On top of that, it’s free, open source, and has gathered a mighty community of developers over the years. Large companies appreciate this. To give you an example, let’s take a look at some apps written in Python that you probably didn’t know about.1. (...)
#python-app #most-used-python-apps #largest-python-apps #most-popular-python-apps
]]>Defending #bitcoin with John Carvalho
▻https://hackernoon.com/defending-bitcoin-with-john-carvalho-17f549b5e059?source=rss----3a8144ea
Audio interview transcription — WBD064Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with John Carvalho from Bitrefill. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with John Carvalho from Bitrefill, @BitcoinErrorLog on Twitter. We discuss why John feels the need to defend Bitcoin, the types of attacks such as S2X and Bitcoin Cash and why most people shouldn’t be trading.▻https://medium.com/media/04ead185e75ae404be78b6572ca81981/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | (...)
]]>Matt Odell and Neil Woodfine on What They Would Like to See for #bitcoin in 2019
▻https://hackernoon.com/matt-odell-and-neil-woodfine-on-what-they-would-like-to-see-for-bitcoin-
Audio interview transcription — WBD062Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Matt Odell from Rabit Hole Recap and Neil Woodfine from Blockstream. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with Bitcoin Maximalists Matt Odell from Rabbit Hole Recap and Neil Woodfine from Blockstream. We discuss what we would like to see for Bitcoin in 2019, challenges Bitcoin companies face and Bitcoin education.▻https://medium.com/media/a916f5ff84e8ffa5fa82dcc0a7e797b4/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify (...)
]]>Mike Dudas from The Block on Crypto #journalism
▻https://hackernoon.com/mike-dudas-from-the-block-on-crypto-journalism-aad23e516e09?source=rss--
Audio interview transcription — WBD062Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Mike Dudas, Founder and CEO of The Block. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with Mike Dudas, founder and CEO of The Block. We discuss crypto journalism, the hard-hitting approach of The Block, conflicts of interest with crypto media, the Ripplecoin community and dealing with mental health issues.▻https://medium.com/media/356efad42cb7152db0eb27a5d8b460a9/hrefConnect with What #bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | (...)
]]>I’ve Come From the Future to Save #spotify
▻https://hackernoon.com/ive-come-from-the-future-to-save-spotify-f69bea631ee4?source=rss----3a81
Disclaimer: I’m obliged to inform you that I haven’t really come from the future.Growing up in Sweden, I’ve had the opportunity to watch Spotify’s development sitting front-row. Like a new member of our monarchy, Spotify has been the royal child that we’ve proudly watched grow up to become a crown princess with 170 million users.The road to be crowned Queen is far from a straight one though. When Spotify started the seemingly impossible mission to make #music listeners pay for music through streaming, it was mostly alone in doing so, competing mainly against itself. Incredibly, the streaming company achieved this feat and indisputably proved a lot of people wrong. Today however, its not only competing against itself, as some serious competitors have emerged to cause an external threat to (...)
]]>Is Tech Too Easy to Use ?
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/technology/tech-friction-frictionless.html
Seven years ago, a younger and more carefree Mark Zuckerberg went onstage at Facebook’s annual developer conference and announced a major change to the social network’s design. Until then, apps connected to Facebook would regularly ask users if they wanted to publish their latest activity to their feed on the social network. Those pop-up messages — from apps like Spotify, Netflix and The Washington Post — were annoying, Mr. Zuckerberg said, so the company had created a new category of apps (...)
#Alphabet #Google #Facebook #Twitter #manipulation #solutionnisme #marketing #Jigsaw
]]>Core Developer Bryan Bishop on Building #bitcoin
▻https://hackernoon.com/core-developer-bryan-bishop-on-building-bitcoin-17be3a3e9c07?source=rss-
Audio interview transcription — WBD057Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Bryan Bishop, a Bitcoin Core developer. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with Bitcoin Core Developer, Bryan Bishop. We discuss how developers work on Bitcoin, how ideas go from concept to code, testing procedures, fungibility and the future of Bitcoin.▻https://medium.com/media/42dc7668cbf50b70c8af35988bc6ac77/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneInFollow: Website | (...)
]]>What is Salesforce? Four days, 170,000 people, and one Metallica concert later, I figured out what Salesforce is — Quartz
►https://qz.com/1500717/what-is-salesforce-four-days-170000-people-and-one-metallica-concert-later-i-fig
I had not registered for this session, and had to convince the conference bouncers that my press pass allowed me entry. They allowed me to attend on the condition that I wouldn’t take up a precious chair.
What dawned on me over the course of this discussion was the sheer ubiquity of software.
I agreed and sat in a chair at the far end of the room. Slowly, several people, all of them white, nearly all of them women, joined our table. One worked for a community bank in Wisconsin. Another for Freddie Mac. Two of the women, it turned out, worked for the company my brother co-founded, which often helps financial firms with Salesforce.
This was the closest I had come to understanding what Salesforce is actually good for, beyond throwing swanky parties. Everyone at the table had used Salesforce to solve problems at their companies. It had worked well. They had many more problems, and wanted to figure out the best way to use the platform to solve those, too. As they discussed how best to “leverage Financial Services Cloud,” their heads nodded.
What dawned on me over the course of this discussion was the sheer ubiquity of software. Yes, it is several years now since Marc Andreessen wrote that “software is eating the world.” But it’s not just the smartphones and websites that we have come to be familiar with as “software.” It’s literally everything. Do anything in a modern city and it will trigger a long string of computational processes. Test-drive a car, express interest in an insurance plan, apply for a loan, contribute to a nonprofit, use a credit card, call airline customer service, change a t-shirt order from “large” to “medium,” and you will be entered into a database, added to annual reports, sent automated emails, plugged into “people who buy X also buy Y” algorithms. This is obviously true for hip startups like AirBnb. It is also true for boring, ancient, bailed-out behemoths like Freddie Mac.
Usually, the software that runs in the dark server rooms of non-tech companies either comes with hefty license fees or is barely functional, hacked together over years by in-house coders who have come and gone. Information relevant to the company may be spread across hundreds of spreadsheets and thousands of emails, accessible only from certain computers or networks. One of the chief complaints of the woman from Freddie Mac was that the company has “a lot of legacy systems” that need to be modernized.
“Enterprise software”—specifically “customer relationship management” software—aims to solve, or at least alleviate, such problems. Benioff’s insight was to do so using the “cloud.” Instead of charging people for a license to use your software, a la Windows XP, have them pay for a subscription to use your service, which can be accessed anywhere. It’s like Gmail, but for all of the mind-numbing tasks of the modern salesperson, customer service representative, or middle manager, like inputting what happened on a call with a customer or generating inventory reports. No more understaffed IT departments, no more inaccessible spreadsheets, no more massive upfront costs.
These days, most people use several cloud-based services, like Spotify or Dropbox. It’s why the Google Chromebook can be a thing, and why Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, can get by without ever using a computer. It’s why Salesforce can count among its several mascots SaaSy, named after “Software as a Service,” a dancing white circle with arms and legs, but no face, that displays the word “software” in a red circle with a red line crossing it out. Nothing to install, just the cloud. That is sassy.
But Benioff was onto the idea early. Less than 20 years have passed since he staged a sassy fake protest at the annual conference of the incumbent CRM giant, Siebel Systems, with protesters chanting, “The internet is really neat, software is obsolete!” Now 89 of the companies on the Fortune 100 use Salesforce. For the past three years, Salesforce has grown over 20% year-over-year every single quarter.
What is Salesforce? Four days, 170,000 people, and one Metallica concert later, I figured out what Salesforce is — Quartz
►https://qz.com/1500717/what-is-salesforce-four-days-170000-people-and-one-metallica-concert-later-i-fig
Giving more people access to high-paying tech jobs. Looks great.
Soon after that, though, a darker, less altruistic interpretation of “inclusive capitalism” began to emerge. One that sees it not primarily as a way to bring in the excluded, but to boost the Salesforce brand, to fortify the cult, to attract talent and investors. To establish a place in history.
After the PepUp Tech video, another told the story of billionaire Italian fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli, who uses Salesforce at his company. Cucinelli was himself in attendance. After the video finished, he took the microphone and spoke directly to Benioff in rapid-fire Italian, through an interpreter, as if he were the effusive prognosticator of an ancient king.
“For your birthday,” Cucinelli pronounced, “I have a special request to submit to you.” This was how I learned that the keynote speech was happening on the day of Benioff’s 54th birthday.
If “inclusive capitalism” has any chance of succeeding, one could hope for no better agent than Benioff.
“I would like you, in this special world, which is the cradle of genius, you should envision something that lasts for the next 2,000 years,” Cucinelli continued. “In ancient Greece, Pericles 2,500 years ago stated, ‘as long as our Parthenon is standing, our Athens will be standing, too.’ In ancient Rome, Hadrian stated, ‘I feel responsible for the beauty in the world,’ and he states, ‘my Rome will be there forever.’ In my Florence, during the Renaissance, there is Lorenzo the Magnificent, another genius, who basically sits around the same table, Michelangelo, Leonardo, all together, and they design and plan for eternity…I think you, Marc, you could be the new Lorenzo the Magnificent of this side of the world.”
Benioff was certainly positive about the first video, but this speech appeared to affect him in a deeper way. Salesforce Tower is now the tallest building in San Francisco. There is a children’s hospital in the city with his name on it. Maybe not quite 2,000 years, but those will last. And with Time under his belt, Benioff is in a position to become known as the guy who figured out how to improve the world while making loads of cash. He has deflected suggestions that he intends to run for political office by saying he can do even more good as a CEO.
If “inclusive capitalism” has any chance of succeeding, one could hope for no better agent than Benioff. He’s a large, imposing, wealthy white man with ties to cultural icons and A-level politicians, but also to community leaders and local activists. Instead of making grand, world-changing gestures to “cure all diseases,” his focus is local, on things he has a personal stake in and can observe, like the well-being of the Bay Area. He has a chief philanthropy officer. Salesforce develops tools that make charitable giving easier for companies and organizations. His intentions appear to be good.
But it’s also true that Benioff probably couldn’t have bought Time magazine, or built such a tall tower, if not for the exclusive capitalism that he hopes to rid the world of. This is the hard thing about being a billionaire who wants to do good: they only feel responsible for the beauty in the world so long as they still get to have lots and lots and lots of money. Benioff can donate tens of millions of dollars, marginally expanding the set of people who benefit from the status quo, without really losing any of his own wealth. And if anything, it raises his status even further.
But if “inclusive” and “capitalism” turn out to be incompatible, would he be willing to give it all up for the greater good?
]]>As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants
►https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html
Internal documents show that the social network gave Microsoft, Amazon, Spotify and others far greater access to people’s data than it has disclosed. For years, Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules, according to internal records and interviews. The special arrangements are detailed in hundreds of pages of Facebook documents (...)
#CambridgeAnalytica #Microsoft #Amazon #Bing #Facebook #Spotify #données #écoutes (...)
##FTC
Zac Prince on the Future of Banking With #bitcoin
▻https://hackernoon.com/zac-prince-on-the-future-of-banking-with-bitcoin-4e6706be8df4?source=rss
Audio interview transcription — WBD051Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Zac Prince, Founder and CEO of #blockfi. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with Zac Prince, Founder and CEO of BlockFi, a company offering loads back by cryptocurrencies. We discuss credit and debt services with Bitcoin, how BlockFi works and the future of banking with crypto.▻https://medium.com/media/5d2d8b3fae06f84bb82f85a6801b4a3a/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | (...)
]]>Why #blockchain Might not be the Perfect Technology for the #music Industry
▻https://hackernoon.com/why-blockchain-might-not-be-the-perfect-technology-for-the-music-industr
Music is great, we all love it. So why don’t we want the best for the artists we spend so much time listening to? Sure, we may feel that we’re supporting them when we listen to the “Shape of You” on repeat through Spotify, but consider the fact that each play earns Ed Sheeran only a fraction of a fraction of a dollar. Many people tend to believe that the blockchain is the solution, but the technology fueling the majority of cryptocurrencies may be too slow and the transaction fees may be too heavy for the music industry, which begs the question: What type of distributed ledger technology could be the key to a music industry makeover?Compact discs (and how far we haven’t come)CDs changed the face of music by making it more accessible than ever before, and streaming did the same thing a (...)
]]>Spotify’s Palestinian launch puts local artists on the map | MEO
▻https://middle-east-online.com/en/spotifys-palestinian-launch-puts-local-artists-map
Palestinian musicians are fast reaping dividends from their presence on Spotify, which launched its internet streaming service in the Middle East and North Africa last week.
“The Arab hub provides a unique platform that brings the full spectrum of Arab culture and creativity, past and present,” said Suhel Nafar, a musician from the Israeli city of Lod who serves as the music streaming service’s senior Arab music and culture editor.
Spotify is the first major streaming company to launch a programme specific to the occupied Palestinian territories, allowing local artists to reach new global audiences despite local challenges.
]]>Jesse Powell is Building a Culture of Crypto Values at #kraken
▻https://hackernoon.com/jesse-powell-is-building-a-culture-of-crypto-values-at-kraken-9d4983227c
Audio interview transcription — WBD048Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken. We discuss the challenges of building and exchange, from building a culture with a distributed team to managing security. We also talk about mainstream crypto journalism and industry regulations.▻https://medium.com/media/bb1525ab931fa9dec06202aee591d605/hrefConnect with What #bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | (...)
]]>Adam Back on a Decade of #bitcoin
▻https://hackernoon.com/adam-back-on-a-decade-of-bitcoin-bdef16566c9?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3-
Audio interview transcription — WBD047Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Adam Back, CEO of #blockstream. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with Bitcoin OG and Blockstream CEO, Adam Back. We reflect on a decade of Bitcoin, how Adam views Bitcoin now compared to the early days, what was different with the white paper and the launch of Liquid.▻https://medium.com/media/929e417a898a3ba65705bdde43756ab0/hrefConnect with What Bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | (...)
]]>Outcomes, not codebases
▻https://hackernoon.com/outcomes-not-codebases-5fe81e21be52?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3---4
One of the greatest challenges in setting up a Product & #engineering org to succeed is the team structure. Team structure dictates the collaboration that can be fostered, the bottlenecks that can occur and the ability for teams to run autonomously without stepping on each others toes and cannibalising product strategy efforts.To complicate this, there are multiple ways to setup teams — for example there’s the much publicised and overly adopted Spotify model, there is arrangement around subject matter expertise (e.g. codebases), there are pirate metrics (AARRR) and then there structuring them in a manner that enables your very unique org to be successful and not treated as a cookie cut team — I’ve frequently plumped for the latter because lets face it, your org is unique.The Spotify model — (...)
]]>Brave’s Brendan Eich on Fixing Online #advertising
▻https://hackernoon.com/braves-brendan-eich-on-fixing-online-advertising-7a3a98809e4d?source=rss
Audio interview transcription — WBD045Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with Brendan Eich, the creator of #javascript and the Founder and President of Brave. I use Rev.com from translations and they remove ums, errs and half sentences. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to all episodes here.In this episode, I talk with Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript and founder of Brave and the Basic Attention Token. We talk about how Brave is attempting to change the broken online advertising model.▻https://medium.com/media/dbef713f3544680ed36a4fd34a46ed82/hrefConnect with What #bitcoin Did:Listen: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | (...)
]]> La Grande-Bretagne veut taxer les géants du web Ingrid Vergara - 30 Octobre 2018 - Le figaro
▻http://www.lefigaro.fr/secteur/high-tech/2018/10/30/32001-20181030ARTFIG00131-la-grande-bretagne-veut-taxer-les-geants-du-web.p
Dans son projet de budget, le gouvernement prévoit une imposition de 2% sur le chiffre d’affaires réalisé par les grandes plateformes sur le sol britannique. Mais, les patrons d’entreprises numériques européennes comme Spotify, Booking.com ou Zalando expriment leur « grave préoccupation » sur le projet de taxe européenne.
L’Union européenne en parle depuis des années sans arriver à s’accorder... C’est finalement la Grande-Bretagne qui pourrait être la première à le faire ! Dans son projet de budget 2019-2020, le dernier avant la sortie de l’Union européenne présenté lundi à la Chambre des Communes, le gouvernement britannique annonce la création d’une taxe qui vise sans les nommer les grands acteurs de l’Internet. Concrètement, il s’agirait d’imposer à 2% le chiffre d’affaires généré sur le sol britannique par les grandes entreprises du numérique (plateforme, place de marché, moteur de recherche, réseaux sociaux...). Deux conditions sont posées : avoir réalisé un bénéfice et réaliser un chiffre d’affaires global d’au moins 500 millions de livres annuel (561 millions d’euros). La taxe est clairement conçue pour toucher les géants comme Google, Facebook, Amazon, Aibnb et autres et non les start-up britanniques, a voulu rassurer Philip Hammond, le chancelier de l’Échiquier.
Ce nouvel impôt pourrait être introduit à partir d’avril 2020 et devrait, selon les calculs du ministère, rapporter plus de 400 millions de livres par an (450 millions d’euros) en année pleine.
« Des progrès douloureusement lents »
« Il n’est clairement pas soutenable, ni équitable, que des plates-formes numériques puissent générer des bénéfices substantiels au Royaume-Uni sans payer de taxes ici en lien avec ces activités », a déclaré le ministre des Finances Philip Hammond. Selon des chiffres de l’association Tax Watch, cités par the Guardian, Facebook par exemple aurait payé 15,8 millions de livres l’an dernier pour un chiffre d’affaires de 1,3 milliard de livres au Royaume-Uni.
En parallèle, le chancelier de l’Échiquier explique que son pays continuera à travailler avec l’OCDE et le G20 pour trouver une solution au niveau international. Si un accord était trouvé avant 2020, la Grande-Bretagne renoncerait à sa taxe locale au profit de l’accord global. « Un nouvel accord mondial est la meilleure solution à long terme. Mais les progrès sont douloureusement lents. Nous ne pouvons pas nous contenter de parler pour toujours. Nous allons donc maintenant introduire une taxe sur les services numériques au Royaume-Uni » a-t-il martelé.
« Grave préoccupation » des entreprises européennes de la Tech
Pour l’instant , les grandes plateformes américaines n’ont pas réagi officiellement à l’annonce. Philip Hammond a taclé au passage Nick Clegg, l’ancien vice premier ministre britannique devenu le nouveau visage public de Facebook. « J’attends déjà avec impatience son appel de l’ancien chef des libéraux démocrates. » a-t-il déclaré devant les députés britanniques. Ce dernier ne prendra ses fonctions qu’à partir de janvier prochain. Julian David, représentant des entreprises de la Tech britannique trouve que le seuil de 500 millions de livres de chiffre d’affaires était bas et risquait de toucher des entreprises plus petites que celles visées par le projet de taxe. D’ailleurs, dans une lettre publiée mardi, les patrons de 16 entreprises numériques européennes comme #Spotify, #Booking.com ou #Zalando ont exprimé leur « grave préoccupation » face à ce projet de taxe européenne. Ils estiment que cela « causerait un préjudice matériel à la croissance économique et à l’innovation, à l’investissement et à l’emploi dans toute l’Europe ».
De son côté, l’Europe patauge toujours. En attendant une éventuelle solution au niveau de l’OCDE, Paris cherche toujours à convaincre ses partenaires européens d’adopter avant la fin de l’année son projet de taxe Gafa mis sur la table par la Commission européenne en mars. Elle propose d’instaurer une taxe de 3% sur le chiffre d’affaires généré par les entreprises du numérique dont le chiffre d’affaires annuel mondial dépasse 750 milions d’euros et dont les revenus dans l’UE dépassent 50 millions d’euros. La semaine dernière, le ministre français de l’Économie Bruno Le Maire a défendu devant les députés européens la « priorité absolue » que représentait cette taxe. « Nous aurons d’autant plus vite une solution à l’OCDE que l’Europe aura été capable (...) de créer cette taxe sur le numérique », a assuré Bruno Le Maire à Strasbourg a-t-il expliqué. Le projet est loin de faire l’unanimité, pourtant indispensable pour toute réforme touchant à la fiscalité : les pays nordiques sont réticents, l’Irlande y est totalement opposée. Redoutant des représailles américaines sur son industrie automobile, l’Allemagne plaide plutôt pour un impôt minimum mondial. Les ministres européens doivent à nouveau débattre de cette taxe lors d’une prochaine réunion à Bruxelles le mardi 6 novembre.
L’Espagne pourrait emboîter le pas à la Grande-Bretagne. Elle envisage d’adopter une taxe de 3% sur les entreprises ayant un chiffre d’affaires d’au moins 750 millions d’euros par an dans le monde et d’au moins 3 millions en Espagne.
#gafa #facebook #google #internet #numérique #amazon #silicon_valley #apple #économie_numérique #fraude_fiscale #Angleterre #ue #union_européenne
]]>Amazon’s Echo May Be Able To Read Your Emotions - The Atlantic
▻https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/alexa-emotion-detection-ai-surveillance/572884
Amazon has patented technology that would allow its devices to read your emotional and physical state, and sell advertisements based on them. Are we entering the era of the mood-targeted ad?
Patents are not products, of course—but they can offer insight into how companies will approach emergent tech. In this case, the patent hints at new possibilities for dynamic targeted advertising in its always-on line of products. The patent lays out an example: Say you tell Alexa you’re hungry, and she can tell by the sniffle in your voice that you’re coming down with something. She can then ask if you want a recipe for chicken soup, or she can ask a question “associated with particular advertisers.” Perhaps Panera wants to tell you about its soups.
Amazon isn’t the only technology company to pursue technology that takes full advantage of these emotional windows. Google has a similar patent, for a method to augment devices to detect negative emotions then automatically suggest advice. IBM has one that would help search engines return web results based on the user’s “current emotional state.” Searching for “good podcasts,” “football,” or “events near me,” for example, would return different results based on user mood, as determined via face recognition in the webcam, a scan of the person’s heart rate or—and this is where the “patents are not products” disclaimer must be emphasized most heavily—the “user’s brain waves.”
Spotify, meanwhile, is already practicing a type of dynamic emotional targeting all its own. Starting in 2014, it began associating playlists with different moods and events, selling ad space to companies based on the associations. An Adele-centric playlist may be a dead giveaway for emotional turmoil, so products associated with sadness (ice cream, tissues) would be recommended. A hip-hop heavy playlist might come with a “block party” association, and Spotify would suggest the playlist for a company advertising barbecue sauce, and so on.
The purpose of profiling is to sell products. Each of us are made up of dozens of marketable categories. Dynamic emotional targeting ups the ante: Now we are a collection of categories both stable (gender, age, residence) and in flux (mental and emotional states), and our devices are eager to hear all about it.
]]>Huge Facebook breach leaves thousands of other apps vulnerable
▻https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/02/facebook-hack-compromised-accounts-tokens
The breach affecting 50m accounts took advantage of ‘tokens’, a system used by third-party platforms such as Spotify Remember the Facebook hack last week that compromised at least 50m accounts ? It’s worse than you think. Last Friday, the social media company revealed a vulnerability that allowed attackers to steal automated log-in credentials (or “tokens”). The tokens make it easier for people to log into popular apps and services like Spotify, Pinterest or Yelp. The flaw, which has been (...)
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b56023c0b616b481ad30aae7fe0717641c6319b3/0_185_5545_3327/master/5545.jpg
]]>La chanson la plus triste...
BBC - Culture - Can data reveal the saddest number one song ever?
▻http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180821-can-data-reveal-the-saddest-song-ever
Data journalist Miriam Quick put Spotify’s new algorithm to the test, analysing over 1000 tracks to find the saddest pop songs to top the charts. The results were surprising.
By Miriam Quick
22 August 2018
When I was 15 I discovered The Smiths, a band whose name had by then long been synonymous with misery. But it was Morrissey’s unique style of being miserable – coquettish and laced with Northern English humour, flipping between self-pity and irony – that appealed to my teenage self. That and the grandiose but intricately layered sweeps of Johnny Marr’s guitar. I’d always cry at the same points in each song: the end of Hand in Glove, the chord changes before the chorus of Girl Afraid, the line in The Queen is Dead where he sings “we can go for a walk where it’s quiet and dry”. I’m still not sure why the last one had such an effect.
Roberta Flack - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
]]>Deplatforming Works - Motherboard
▻https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bjbp9d/do-social-media-bans-work
The dust is still settling after Alex Jones’s InfoWars was more-or-less simultaneously banned by YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and Facebook. The move has spawned thousands of takes about whether deplatforming Jones was the right move or a slippery slope toward more censorship. But just as important to consider: Will it work?
This is called “deplatforming” or “no platform,”—social media companies (sans Twitter, which says he hasn’t broken its rules) have decided to stop being complicit in spreading Jones’s conspiracy theories and hate. And we’ve seen no indication Jones will stop. But will his business remain viable and will his influence wane?
“The good that comes with deplatforming is, their main goal was to redpill or get people within mainstream communities more in line with their beliefs, so we need to get them off those platforms,” Robyn Caplan, a PhD student at Rutgers University and Data and Society affiliate, told me on the phone. “But now we’ve put them down into their holes where they were before, and they could strengthen their beliefs and become more extreme.”
The question is whether it’s more harmful to society to have many millions of people exposed to kinda hateful content or to have a much smaller number of ultra-radicalized true believers.
Donovan believes that, ultimately, it’s important to deplatform people when their rhetoric is resulting in negative, real-world consequences: “The way Jones activates his audiences has implications for people who have already been victimized,” she said. “We have always had groups of white supremacists, misogynists, and violent insurrectionists joining message boards. But social media has made these tools much more powerful. So yes, we must take away the kinds of coordinative power they’re able to gain on platforms.”
]]>Je crois qu’il se passe quelque chose d’important par ici :
▻https://twitter.com/jack/status/1026984242893357056
Pas seulement parce que le patron de twitter explique pourquoi #twitter ne va pas clôturer le compte de #Alex_Jones ni de #Infowars, contrairement à la plupart des autres réseaux sociaux, mais parce qu’il réaffirme le besoin de confronter les opinions et surtout de contrer les fausses informations de manière visible, chose que peut se permettre un twitter où les commentaires sont beaucoup plus lus qu’ailleurs...
If we succumb and simply react to outside pressure, rather than straightforward principles we enforce (and evolve) impartially regardless of political viewpoints, we become a service that’s constructed by our personal views that can swing in any direction. That’s not us.
Accounts like Jones’ can often sensationalize issues and spread unsubstantiated rumors, so it’s critical journalists document, validate, and refute such information directly so people can form their own opinions. This is what serves the public conversation best.
Je suis tombée là dessus grâce à un tweet de #Olivier_Tesquet qui fait un article super complet pour telerama sur la descente aux enfers des #GAFAM de Alex Jones :
La “Big Tech” à l’épreuve du roi des conspirationnistes
En privant Alex Jones, conspirationniste en chef de l’extrême-droite américaine, de ses comptes Facebook, Spotify ou Youtube, les géants de l’Internet prennent le risque d’ouvrir un débat sur la privatisation de la liberté d’expression.
▻https://www.telerama.fr/medias/la-big-tech-a-lepreuve-du-roi-des-conspirationnistes,n5756062.php
#liberte_d_expression #conspirationnisme #complotisme #extreme_droite ...
]]>Salut, Anastasia GAFA
▻http://www.dedefensa.org/article/salutanastasiagafa
Salut, Anastasia GAFA
… Au reste, l’acronyme GAFA est largement insuffisant et de toutes les façon inadéquat. L’attaque concertéecontre Infowars.comet Alex Jonesvient des sociétés Google, Facebook, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher et Youtube (GFASSY ferait l’affaire si l’on s’en tient à cette seule brochette) ; mais GAFA nous sert de symbole pour désigner le première attaque de censure politique de cette amplitude, venue de groupes privés prétendant par le fait s’ériger en censeur politique, au nom d’une solide morale démocratique, et accessoirement pour la liberté d’expression également démocratique, pourquoi pas ? (D’ailleurs on s’y perd dans le décompte des agresseurs puisque, dans une seconde fournée, Twitters prend le relaisen suspendant les comptes de plusieurs chroniqueurs libertariens et antiguerre, dont le (...)
]]>