How Google and Facebook Are Slowly Strangling Their Digital Offspring

as declared in If you live by Google and Facebook, you die by them. The same day, Verizon, the corporate overlord of HuffPost, announced big layoffs in its media division, including HuffPost journalists. HuffPost rode the Google search wave, mainly by figuring out the digital science of search-engine optimization. For BuzzFeed, as for other digital publishers who had become dependent on Facebook traffic, things did not work out as expected. Peretti has proposed merging with other digital companies, including Vox, Vice, and others, to force Facebook to share the wealth.

Google and Facebook Backed an Event Denying Climate Change

Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have publicly acknowledged the dangers of global warming, but last week they all sponsored a conference that promoted climate change denial to young libertarians. Google was a platinum sponsor, ponying up $25,000, and Facebook and Microsoft each contributed $10,000 as gold sponsors. The coalition is funded by conservative foundations that have backed other climate change denial efforts. The CO2 Coalition wasn't the only group sponsoring LibertyCon that is known for its work undermining efforts to combat climate change. He noted that LibertyCon met its criteria for support and cited the number of sessions unrelated to climate change.

Thieves of Experience: How Google and Facebook Corrupted Capitalism

according to By removing the tangible product from the center of commerce, surveillance capitalism upsets the equilibrium. As much as the dot-com crash, the horrors of 9/11 set the stage for the rise of surveillance capitalism. Online surveillance came to be viewed as normal and even necessary by politicians, government bureaucrats, and the general public. V. The BargainThe Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a long, sprawling book, but there's a piece missing. It is to point out that a full examination of surveillance capitalism requires as rigorous and honest an accounting of its boons as of its banes.

Regulating Facebook and Google Won't Save Journalism

Surveillance has been the key to the rising dominance of Google and Facebook. Today, Google and Facebook can provide detailed information about millions of users, allowing national outlets to micro-target sneakerheads. But it's especially tricky for news outlets, who struggle to monetize stories that appear in Facebook and Google. Other changes will be necessary, such as increased regulation of hedge funds and private equity and a commitment of public investment, particularly for local journalism. CJR's Emily Bell has suggested that tech companies spend billions funding journalism, in part as a kind of reparations for the economic harm that they've caused.

The Week in Tech: How Google and Facebook Spawned Surveillance Capitalism

collected by :Roy Mark