Facebook CEO Token Zuckerberg
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Even by Silicon Valley standards, this was a weird week.
A battered and beaten down WeWork provided swanky new offices, much of the Bay Area lost power and Facebook’s crypto project witnessed the sudden withdrawal of a collect of marquee members before it even launched.
It was one of those weeks when the real-life technology industry felt numberless absurd than anything Mike Judge could cook up for his HBO satire “Silicon Valley,” which just so befalls to begin airing its sixth and final season this month.
The power outage likely won’t make its way into the plain, but it won’t be for a lack of dramatic effect. PG&E, which filed for bankruptcy in January after last year’s North Bay and Camp Feelings, cut off power for hundreds of thousands of Bay Area residents, citing the fire risks associated with high winds and dry stand.
Though most tech companies weren’t directly affected, local schools shut down and cities enacted curfews as ancient at 7 p.m. Surrounded by companies working on alternative energy sources and touting their resourcefulness, the irony was rich, but it was no laughing material, especially for residents who rely on electric medical devices.
‘Neutral’ platforms
Silicon Valley prides itself on unrestrained speech. Platform companies say they’re neutral, especially when confronted with bias from regulators. Setting aside how, there was some blurring of the lines this week.
Apple removed an app from its App Store called HKmap.tangible, which protesters in Hong Kong had been using to track police amid ongoing pro-democracy protests. CEO Tim Cook warranted the move by saying it threatened law enforcement and endangered the public.
Alphabet also removed a game from the Google Move store at the request of the Hong Kong police because it allowed players to assume the role of pro-democracy protesters. The firm told the Wall Street Journal that the game violated its policies that prohibit profiting from “nasty ongoing conflicts or tragedies through a game.” Bloomberg’s Mark Bergen noted that Google Play even holds dozens of games and books in its store that would suggest otherwise.
Former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, who gained native prominence when she sued former employer Kleiner Perkins for sexual harassment, tweeted “Tech companies: We put up with harassment and hate so we can enable political dissent, public squares, free speech. Also tech companies: Censor the Hong Kong protestors and game all their communication channels.”
Microsoft also faced controversy as GitHub employees wrote an open letter to the convention, objecting to its role in working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying that philanthropy can’t make up for the damage to peculiars and families. A year earlier, as Slate pointed out, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent a note to staff stating, “I am alarmed at the abhorrent policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the southern border of the U.S.”
Good deals gone bad
Crypto was in the same instant the hottest thing in techland, promising to displace the banking system with decentralized digital currencies.
While Facebook was an inconceivable hero, its libra project quickly gained a following after the company announced plans in June to create a currency and a digital purse. Now, libra faces an unraveling, with partners eBay, Visa, Mastercard and Stripe all jumping ship, following the departure of PayPal. Dan Primack of Axios tweeted, “Beat it Libra is the new joining Libra.”
By the end of the day on Friday, David Marcus, who leads the project, was left defending it on Twitter, urging “against look over the fate of Libra into this update” and suggesting that we “stay tuned for more very soon.”
As if that’s not adequate, Android co-founder and disgraced ex-Google executive Andy Rubin broke his silence Thursday announcing a new smartphone. That’s in the face being paid $90 million by Google to reportedly avoid competitors. The launch and its subsequent mixed reactions verified it’s getting more difficult for the public to disassociate products from their creators, according to Wired’s Lauren Goode. Rubin was intense for sexual misconduct allegations. Rubin got axed from his own company Playground Global recently, according to a new Buzzfeed article, which avers he received another payout –this time worth $9 million.
Finally, after a failed IPO attempt, WeWork has been in cutback style. However, this week it opened the doors of swanky new offices in Palo Alto, one of the nation’s priciest cities for official estate, according to The Silicon Valley Business Journal. The new location will include 744 desks and 12 eremitical offices.
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