TWITTER ANGST OVER TRUMP: Twitter insiders are at odds over whether to celebrate President Trump’s headline-grabbing use of their platform.
Some Twitter executives have praised Trump’s prolific Twitter habit, saying it brings welcome transparency to government. Others lament the way Trump has used the social media platform in his rise to power.
Trump used Twitter to help him connect directly with his base in the 2016 presidential race and has often marveled at its ability to shape the agenda and drive coverage on cable news.
“Without the tweets, I wouldn’t be here,” Trump told the Financial Times in April, adding, “I don’t have to go to the fake media.”
{mosads}Since his inauguration, Trump has been using Twitter to call out his detractors, target companies and conduct foreign policy.
Wall Street analysts have said that Trump’s tweets — and the free publicity it generates — have boosted Twitter’s financial fortunes after a long period during which the company was criticized for stagnant user growth.
The company’s stock soared after its last quarterly earnings report, which contained figures on user growth that shattered Wall Street estimates. Trump was largely seen as the reason.
One financial analysis firm, BTIG, specifically advised clients to buy shares of Twitter because of the president.
“The incessant news flow from the Trump administration playing out on Twitter and the ensuing global reaction pushes Twitter users to be increasingly engaged with the platform,” BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield wrote in a letter to clients.
Twitter has acknowledged the Trump bump but publicly attributed the growth to “product changes” and “marketing” during its last earnings call.
But even if Trump has improved Twitter’s bottom line, not everyone involved with the company is happy about it.
Read more here.
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GROUP ASKS FCC TO TAKE DOWN FAKE NET NEUTRALITY COMMENTS: Individuals whose identities were used without their permission on comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are speaking out to the agency.
In a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai signed by 14 people, the group offers support for the principle of net neutrality, after the fake comments under their names called for the end of those rules. They also called for the comments to be removed.
“We are disturbed by reports that indicate you have no plans to remove these fraudulent comments from the public docket,” the group wrote in a letter posted on Fight for the Future’s web site
Read more here.
ZUCKERBERG’S HARVARD SPEECH: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg challenged the graduating class of Harvard University to fight against isolationism and nationalism on Thursday.
“We live in an unstable time,” he said.
“There’s pressure to turn inwards. This is the struggle of our time,” Zuckerberg told the crowd at his alma mater’s commencement.
“The forces of freedom, openness and global community are up against the forces of authoritarianism, isolationism and nationalism.
“The forces for the flow of knowledge, trade and immigration against those who would slow them down. This is not a battle of nations, this is a battle of ideas.”
Zuckerberg used his commencement speech to lay out a vision for America, covering political topics such as climate change, the prison system, automation and healthcare.
Read more here.
DEM PUSHES BENEFITS FOR GIG ECONOMY WORKERS: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) wants the government to explore employment benefits for workers in the gig economy.
Warner and Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) have introduced legislation to look at “portable benefit designs for the growing independent workforce.”
Uber, Lyft and other gig economy-style apps are fueling a shift in the labor force toward contract work, which usually comes without normal full-time job benefits such as healthcare and retirement plans.
Read more here.
POLL FINDS SOME AMERICANS ABANDONING CARS FOR RIDE-SHARING: A new survey finds that some drivers are giving up their cars and using ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber as their primary means of transportation.
Almost a quarter of Americans sold or traded in their cars over the last year, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Thursday. Nine percent of that group moved to ride-hailing apps as their primary means of transportation. And the poll found a similar number plan to do so in the next 12 months.
While the numbers don’t clearly indicate a trend, ride-hailing companies touted the poll.
Read more here.
APPLE NEWS POACHES NY MAG EDITOR: New York Magazine executive editor Lauren Kern will become Apple News’s first editor in chief.
“I am not happy to report that we are losing our beloved Lauren Kern to the Apple corporation,” NY Mag Editor-in-Chief Adam Moss wrote in a Wednesday staff memo obtained by CNN Money on Thursday.
Politico first reported Thursday that Apple had made Kern its first editor-in-chief of Apple News, its mobile news aggregation app launched in the summer of 2015.
“I mean, I’m happy for Lauren certainly,” Moss added. “It’s an exciting opportunity to be the editor in chief of Apple News, to bring a journalistic vigor and intelligence to an operation that has always seemed to me so full of promise.”
Read more here.
DHS CHIEF TOUTS RANSOMWARE RESPONSE: Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly is touting as a success his department’s response to the ransomware attack that targeted systems around the world earlier this month.
“What was really impressive to me in all of the high-level meetings I was at — at the White House — on this topic … how almost every part of every conversation ended with, ‘DHS is in the lead, DHS has got this,'” Kelly said during testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday.
Kelly said the minimal effect of the “Wanna Cry” ransomware on systems in the United States was a result of DHS’s work with the private sector.
Read more here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Airbnb registers new lobbyist amid escalating fight with hotels
Axios: SoftBank invests $100 million in Uber rival in Brazil
Internet lobbying group is skeptical about new privacy bill
Recode: Gig economy to double in next four years
Group accuses Comcast of trying to ‘censor’ pro-net neutrality site