Hillicon Valley — Presented by Nokia — Checking in on Truth Social

Today is Wednesday. Welcome to Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Subscribe here: digital-release.thehill.com/newsletter-signup. 

Follow The Hill’s tech team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@millsrodrigo) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), and cyber reporter Ines Kagubare (@ineskagubare) for more coverage. 

Former President Trump’s platform Truth Social has been available for download a little over two weeks and early returns are not promising. The platform has struggled with technical issues, been unwilling or unable to onboard new users and failed to keep active users engaged. 

In other news, lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee referred Amazon to the Justice Department, accusing the company of stonewalling the panel. 

Let’s jump into the news. 

 

Truth Social’s rocky start  

Truth Social, the app backed by former President Trump, has made little impact on the social media market roughly two weeks after launching on the Apple app store, with hundreds of thousands of potential users stuck on a lengthy waitlist. 

The nascent social media platform initially roared onto the scene, capturing the top spot for free downloads on the Apple app store market. But after less than 20 days, Truth Social finds itself far down the list at 116, right between the app for DoorDash drivers and a game in which a genie guesses internet celebrities. 

The explanation for the precipitous drop is fairly straightforward: The app has been inaccessible for most users, while the ones who have been admitted have had little to be excited about. 

Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes did previously caution that the app would not be “fully functional” until the end of March.  

But the platform’s rocky start cannot be wholly dismissed and is likely indicative of problems to come. 

Read more here.  

House panel refers Amazon to DOJ

Bipartisan members of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday referred Amazon to the Department of Justice, saying it sought to stymie their investigation into competition within the tech industry. 

In a 24-page letter, the lawmakers accused the company of misleading and stonewalling the committee. 

“Without producing any evidence to the contrary, Amazon has left standing what appear to be false and misleading statements to the Committee. It has refused to turn over business documents or communications that would either corroborate its claims or correct the record,” the members wrote. 

The lawmakers said Amazon lied and attempted to block the investigation in an effort to “conceal the truth” about how the company uses third-party sellers’ data to help boost its own products in its own search results. 

Read more here.

 

LYFT’S ‘FLEXIBLE’ WORKPLACE

Most Lyft employees will be allowed to work and live wherever they choose, the company announced on Wednesday as more companies are rethinking their post-pandemic workplace strategies.  

Dubbing it a “fully flexible workplace,” Kristin Sverchek, Lyft’s president of business affairs, said in a statement that the company made the decision to allow most employees to work wherever they please as part of efforts to retain and attract top talent. 

“We also wanted to create a strategy that was simple and doesn’t add burdensome process for managers or team members. In general, team members won’t need permission to relocate within the country,” Sverchek said. “Managers will keep their teams on the same page with written norms that guide general expectations, team culture, and the cadence of in-person gatherings.” 

Read more here.  

DRAWING BUZZ

Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer (COO) of Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said Tuesday that she believes that “no two countries run by women would ever go to war,” when speaking with CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on International Women’s Day. 

Sandberg’s comments come amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  

The Meta COO said she also believes that if half the world were run by women, it would be “safer” and “much more prosperous,” according to CNBC. 

Sandberg pointed out that many countries that were led by women during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic fared far better than those run by men. 

She noted, however, that the pandemic has seen major setbacks for gender equality and women in the workforce. 

Read more. 

BITS AND PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: Americans’ data should be protected, no matter who holds it 

Lighter click: Highly processed tap water 

Notable links from around the web: 

In the Ukraine Conflict, Fake Fact-Checks Are Being Used to Spread Disinformation (ProPublica / Craig Silverman and Jeff Kao) 

Another Study Shows How Drastically Publisher Revenue Is Being Swallowed by Ad-Tech Fees (AdWeek / Catherine Perloff) 

Uber and Lyft Drivers’ Take-Home Pay Plummets as Gas Prices Soar (Bloomberg / Jackie Davalos) 

Google Needs to Unlock Its Ad Privacy Black Box (Gizmodo / Dan Calacci) 

The Many Escapes Of Justin Sun (The Verge / Christopher Harland-Dunaway) 

One last thing: Better.com does it again 

Online mortgage lender Better.com, which laid off 900 people via a Zoom call in December, confirmed that it has laid off a “small number” of additional employees by accidentally notifying them via its payroll app. 

According to TechCrunch, the layoffs were supposed to be announced on March 8 but were pushed back to March 9th after the information was leaked to the press. 

The snafu occurred after the company forgot to change the date in its employee payroll app — Workday — which led to employees receiving severance checks at 12 a.m. on March 8th, before they had been informed of the reduction.  

Approximately 3,000 workers in the U.S. and India, who make up almost half of the company’s 8000 employees, are being made redundant. TechCrunch added that the severance package reportedly consisted of 60 to 80 days worth of pay. 

In an email to employees, Better.com Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ryan wrote that the company “had to adjust to volatility in the interest rate environment and refinancing market.” 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s technology and cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Thursday.