Here are just a few of the stories I’ve been paying attention to over the past few days.
Google v Epic Lawsuit Brings New Information
Epic’s lawsuit against Google is still going through the discovery phase, and a judge has unsealed some documents that were previously heavily redacted from the public. These documents show that Google gave phone manufacturers special deals if they agreed not to include 3rd party app stores on their phones. Deals would range from a greater cut of revenue from Google searches conducted on the device, to a straight payout from Google to the phone maker.
I’m not a lawyer or a legal expert so I don’t know if those tactics are actually illegal, but it is pretty damming evidence in the court of public opinion. It shows Google was taking extreme steps in order to protect its Play Store monopoly on Android
https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/19/22632804/epic-google-lawsuit-unredacted-complaint-antitrust
OnlyFans Facing Backlash After Policy Change
I didn’t highlight this earlier because I try to be sensitive to “adult” content websites, but this has become a huge story, so here we are.
OnlyFans is one of the biggest websites on the internet for adult content. At it’s core, OnlyFans is a similar service to Twitter, except that creators can accept payment for users to follow their accounts. In the reverse, think of it like if you had to pay a monthly fee to follow someone on Twitter. OnlyFans is home to all kinds of content, some of it very PG rated, some of it very not PG rated, and everything in between. But that is changing.
After what it says is immense pressure from 3 major US banks, the company is taking drastic action, and banning sexually explicit content from its platform. Nudity will still be allowed, but sexually explicit content will not be. As stated, the company says it took this action because 3 large US banks threatened to cut off OnlyFans from taking payments, which would have crippled the company.
However, banning adult content could have the same effect. OnlyFans doesn’t share the percentage of content on its service that will be affected by this change, but considering that the service is synonymous with that type of content, it’s probably pretty large.
It gets worse because not only is that content not allowed going forward, as of October all existing content must be taken down, forcing content creators to go and remove countless posts to the service.
This is showing the outsized impact payment processors do have on all business. OnlyFans believes that losing the content that people know it for the most is a the lesser of the evils here. But payment providers and banks becoming the “moral police” of the internet is not a good look.
Twitter Labels Tweet from Liberal Candidate as Manipulated Media
With the Canadian Election in full swing, we have an example of social media companies applying their policies on our election. Chrystia Freeland, a Liberal Candidate who was serviing as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister at dissolution of Parliament, tweeted a video of Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole which appeared to show Erin O’Toole talking about the benefits of private health care. The video that was tweeted was a clip from a longer video in which O’Toole said that private health care options are acceptable as part of a publicly funded health care system.
Twitter deemed that clip a violation of their policy on manipulated media, since the clip omitted the majority of O’Toole’s comments and had a significant impact on the perception of what he was saying. As such, the platform labelled the tweet as manipulated media. After the tweet was labelled, Freeland’s twitter account posted a link to the full video, but the tweet remains labelled at this time. The Liberal Party disagreed with the decision, but frankly, it is a pretty cut and dry application of the policy.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/twitter-labels-freeland-tweet-manipulated-media-1.6149734
Canadian Internet Provider Teksavvy increasing Prices, Blames CRTC
Teksavvy has announced it is increasing internet prices by $3/month. The company claims the increase is a direct result of the CRTC’s decision not to lower the wholesale price it has to pay to Rogers, Bell, Telus, and Shaw for access to their infrastructure.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/08/24/teksavvy-internet-price-increase-3-crtc/
Rogers Communications Buying Nova Scotia Based Telecom Provider
In another example of large telecom companies swallowing up the smaller regional operators, Rogers is buying Seaside Communications, which operates in Nova Scotia. Another independently owned telecommunications provider has bit the dust.
Black Widow has made $125 Million on Disney+ Premiere Access
Scarlett Johansson sued Disney because she felt that releasing Black Widow on Disney+ Premier Access along with theatres would affect its box office performance, and her salary for the movie was partially tied to how much money the movie made in theatres. We now have an idea as to just how much revenue is at question, with Black Widow Grossing $125 Million USD on the streaming platform. That’s a huge number and while it doesn’t translate 1:1 to box office numbers, it does show that the movie made significant money outside of the theatre, and Scarlett Johansson believes she is entitled to some of that revenue.
This is going to play out for several months, but in the end I think Disney will quietly write Johansson a cheque, and future contracts with actors will be negotiated differently.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/08/23/black-widow-125-million-streaming-disney-plus/