Weekly Roundup 11.13.2020
Posted in Newsletters
Happy Friday! We have a little bit of hard news this week, but we’re mostly sticking to fun stuff post-election. This week’s highlights include the Biden transition, Quibi’s demise, election TikTok, and Twitch:
Biden Transition
Four major tech issues facing the Biden Administration: TLDR- Content moderation, antitrust, privacy, and broadband. Silicon valley seems to support the upcoming Biden administration, but the relationship likely won’t be the same as under the Obama administration.
Biden Promised to Reclassify Gig Workers. But How Will He Actually Do it?: President-elect Biden wants to reclassify gig workers as employees- but will it be so easy? Motherboard spoke to organizers, labor policy experts and union officials to better understand how Biden can achieve his goal after January.
Biden Has a Plan to Tackle Online Harassment. What Does It Actually Say?: Biden’s plan to end violence against women includes a section to “confront online harassment, abuse and stalking.” Some of the proposals include creating a task force, giving more funding to law enforcement, and supporting federal and state legislation that prohibit the nonconsensual dissemination of intimate images.
Silicon Valley
YouTube is canceling Rewind this year because 2020 has been too much: YouTube Rewind, the platform’s (often forcefully mocked) end of year video honoring notable creators, trends, and moments, will not be released this year. Devastating.
Twitch apologizes to streamers for its mishandling of music copyright: In music-related DMCA news this week, it looks like the music industry has issued a ton of copyright takedown notices against creators’ streaming archives on Twitch. The platform is creating new tools to help streamers who have been affected by the takedown notices, but their efforts might be too little too late for some streamers.
Online gaming flourished during the pandemic. So have Apple’s antitrust troubles: Apple currently ranks as the number three gaming company in the world, but its restrictive contracts and high commissions might incentivize gaming companies to push back on Apple’s gaming monopoly.
Media
THE QUICKEST BITE: Inside the Final Days of Quibi, the $2 billion streaming platform that didn’t even last six months: Quibi was supposed to save us from our commutes. No time to watch TV? No problem, watch it on the subway. But in a world without commutes and time to binge more abundant than ever, it met a demise so swift few even knew it existed.
Facebook groups dedicated to animated flops are in a renaissance: Movies like The Road to el Dorado, Atlantis, and The Emperor’s New Groove are making a comeback online. Facebook groups dedicated to sharing memes from the early-aughts box office flops are exploding with content from users stuck inside during quarantine.
Memes
Meet the professional memers: The memes have gone corporate. Call them sell-outs, if you will, but our favorite dark-humor internet celebrities are taking brands like McDonalds and Dunkin’ Donuts to internet virality.
The 2020 election, explained by TikTok: For everyone who suddenly knows names like Maricopa, Dekalb, and Allegheny by heart, the incessant doom-scrolling of the election was given comedic relief by one thing: Tik Tok. For 100 different hilarious takes on why Nevada results took forever for us to know (will we ever?), Gen Z had us covered.
Remote Living
Active Shooter Drills Look Pretty Weird Over Zoom: Hybrid classrooms still need to perform classroom safety drills- and students who call in via Zoom still have to participate, remotely. This can be pretty awkward for students who have to turn off their cameras and sit in silence until the drill is over.