Good morning. This email was delayed because I’m working on a little-longer-than-usual piece on the UK’s new investigation against Google. Hopefully, it will be on the next Right Click.
Need to Know
1 — Computers need evacuation too. When the mob attacked US Capitol building, lawmakers and congressional staff were evacuated. But they forgot about their computers and smartphones. Any tech-savvy attacker could’ve tried to access it. Heck, they could’ve even stolen computers. (And they did.)
2 — WhatsApp’s new privacy policy (which sends all your data to Facebook except messages) is now: WhatsApp’s new privacy policy*
*Not applicable if you’re European, thanks to EU’s stricter privacy laws: the GDPR.
If anything, this means we need more such Digital Privacy Laws in India and elsewhere.
3 — Facebook hired civil rights attorney Roy L. Austin, Jr to build a civil rights organisation inside Facebook. Back in July, an internal civil rights audit of Facebook recommended such an organisation.
Can’t go to Parler anymore.
After Trump incited violence at the US Capitol and got banned on all social media platforms, he went to Parler. Think of Parler as Twitter but mainly used by Trump supporters.
Parler didn’t remove tweets or ban accounts. Because all the popularity it had got was thanks to it’s “free speech” promise. So Parler did almost nothing.
That was when Google and Apple took charge. Banning the app on their app stores and, more importantly, creating a chain reaction. Soon, Amazon’s AWS said it’d not host their service on its servers. And then *all* services Parler used to stay on the Internet kicked them.
“Every vendor from text message services to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too on the same day.” ~ Parler CEO John Matze
Matze went on to say that this was “a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the marketplace." And then Parler sued Amazon for banning the platform for political reasons and to benefit Twitter.
Good to Know
1 — Apple x Hyundai. A Korean local newspaper reported that Apple will sign a partnership with Hyundai by March aiming to produce 100,000 cars in 2024. The Car’s beta version will be out by next year.
2 — Watch Quibi on Roku. After Quibi shut down, it had to do something of the highly-produced shows. And so it sold its 75 shows and documentaries to Roku for “significantly less” than $100 million. Anyone can now watch it for free on the Roku Channel. (Sadly, it’s not available in India.)
3 — After the attack, Facebook is now removing signs of it by deleting posts that mention “Stop the Steal.“ Isn’t it too late for that?
4 — Only one person showed up at the protest at Twitter’s San Francisco HQ after Twitter permanently banned Trump.
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