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Breakdown: Silicon Valley privacy caught in a jam

29 Jul 2019

IBM is the latest to call for changes to a 23-year-old law that exempts the likes of YouTube and Facebook from lawsuits over content on their sites. The provision no longer encourages the kind of policing their platforms need. Yet scrapping it wouldn’t solve that, either.

Viewsroom: UK’s new PM looks for the exit

25 Jul 2019

Boris Johnson helped persuade Britons to vote to leave the EU. London’s former mayor now leads the country – and may find his pledge to quit the European bloc hard to keep. Meanwhile, U.S. watchdogs are circling Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Facebook. Plus: Protests rock Hong Kong.

Weak Facebook penalty mirrors weak U.S. watchdog

23 Jul 2019

The social network will pay a $5 bln fine and must form a privacy oversight panel after accusations it mishandled user data. The Federal Trade Commission doesn’t have enough powers or staff to punch harder. Unless Congress acts, Big Tech can expect more slaps on the wrist.

ByteDance charts a global path for China tech

23 Jul 2019

The $75 bln outfit behind video app TikTok is mending relations with Indian officials to avoid a ban. Even so, boss Zhang Yiming has outshone peers like Tencent's Pony Ma abroad, growing fast in the U.S. and beyond. Deep pockets and bold ambition could deliver a big payback.

Aging app kerfuffle shows fun trumps privacy

18 Jul 2019

Consumers love FaceApp’s filter for making selfies look older or sexier. Its Russian ownership has suddenly sparked privacy worries. Yet the app isn’t new, and people have been posting their images on social media for years. It’s past time for regulators to set some boundaries.

Congress is all bark and no bite on Big Tech

17 Jul 2019

U.S. lawmakers failed to disrupt Silicon Valley executives in hearings about antitrust concerns and Facebook’s crypto coin. Amazon faced some heat about third-party sellers but queries about MySpace and iCloud ads were distractions. It provides little incentive to change.

Silicon Valley is trapped in political purgatory

15 Jul 2019

Facebook can shrug off a $5 bln fine over privacy but the U.S. Treasury is questioning its crypto-coin plan. It also faces, with others, an antitrust grilling in Congress. Big tech doesn’t want a Wall St-like straitjacket, but growth will suffer without clear rules of the road.

Facebook sets diversity goals for others to follow

10 Jul 2019

The $570 bln social network wants at least half its staff to be women or from minorities in the next five years. Aside from being more representative, a more inclusive staff can help the bottom line. Facebook is not aiming for the stars, but it’s doing more than many companies.

The Exchange: Surviving the digital-media meltdown

8 Jul 2019

Venture capitalist Ben Lerer, whose firm backed BuzzFeed and Axios, drops by Breakingviews to discuss why startups in the news industry have been suffering. Unlike some of his peers, Lerer reckons these minnows can have mutually beneficial relationships with giants like Facebook.

Facebook discovers money is tougher than data

26 Jun 2019

Fed Chair Jerome Powell joined foreign watchdogs in vowing tough scrutiny of the $539 billion company’s planned crypto coin. Some of its own partners may have doubts about the project, too. The tactics Facebook used to pioneer social networking don’t transfer easily to finance.

Creepy data practices go beyond Silicon Valley

26 Jun 2019

A U.S. Senate plan requires big tech firms like Facebook to disclose the value of user information. Large merchants such as Walmart are included; financial firms like JPMorgan aren’t. Yet they all monetize data in ways not clear to consumers. There’s a case for widening the net.

Tech’s finance push is disrupting regulators too

25 Jun 2019

Innovations like Facebook’s proposed digital currency challenge established banking rules. New arrivals are hard to pin down, weaken existing players, and invert the risks and rewards of competition. A joined-up global response is necessary - but will be hard to agree.

Viewsroom: UBS gets lost in translation

20 Jun 2019

A star economist at the Swiss bank sparked outrage on Chinese social media after his remarks about the country’s pigs were misconstrued. UBS’s decision to put him on leave seems overdone. And: Those weighing the benefit of a Facebook cryptocurrency must ask if “In Zuck we trust.”

Facebook throws down crypto-gauntlet to critics

18 Jun 2019

The social network’s poor track record on privacy makes it an unlikely creator of digital money. Yet it boasts 2.4 bln users and has enlisted some of the biggest names in tech and finance as partners. The new currency, Libra, is a bet that Facebook’s trust problems are overblown.

UBS sets a troubling precedent in China

17 Jun 2019

The Swiss bank put economist Paul Donovan on leave after misconstrued comments triggered outrage in the mainland. Local rivals fed the unwarranted flare-up. The episode hints at new pressures for outsiders in the country; excessive subservience, however, creates bigger headaches.

Silicon Valley struggles to crack the D.C. code

13 Jun 2019

Alphabet is the latest big tech firm to revamp its Washington lobbying. Google’s parent is also spending more, doling out $22 mln last year. Facebook and others are doing the same. Until they show they are engineering change within, their effort to sway outsiders will fall flat.

Facebook coin may aid crypto-rivals more than self

6 Jun 2019

Mark Zuckerberg’s social network could launch its own digital currency as a way into global payments, but it faces daunting trust and regulatory issues. Still, if some of its 2.4 bln users get hooked, that would boost the likes of bitcoin as well as blockchain technology overall.

U.S. watchdog should throw down Facebook gauntlet

29 May 2019

The FTC is working with the social network on a settlement for failing to protect user data, including a mooted fine of up to $5 bln. A lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg’s firm might be a better option. It’s risky, but it could grab Facebook’s attention and change its behavior.