Fact Sheet: TikTok Layoffs, Uber Lyft Lockouts, Apple Meddling, Threads Under Fire

Did you know that only one in five high schools on Indian reservations offers computer science? (The national average is almost 3 out of 5.)

Additionally, only 0.02% of all venture capital invested goes to people who identify as Indigenous, even though they make up 3% of the U.S. population. (To put that in perspective, Black women, who make up 7.8% of the population, get 0.39% of VC dollars… and they're not exactly happy about it.)

Great progress has been made and there is still a lot ahead of us. The news below. —Andrew Nusca

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Layoffs at TikTok favor AI moderation

Chalk one up to the machines.

TikTok Friday said that 500 employees would be laid off, most of whom moderated content on the service. That's a relative fraction of the 110,000 people that parent company ByteDance employs worldwide.

TikTok said the changes were an attempt to improve the quality of its moderation, which was certainly a bitter pill to swallow if you were among those receiving a pink slip. TikTok's moderation is currently handled by a mix of humans and machines, but it's not an even split: 80% of violations are managed by the latter, the company said Reuters.

Content – ​​and financial savings– is certainly keeping TikTok busy. Beijing-based ownership is one reason US lawmakers are targeting the social media service; The other reason is allegations that TikTok knowingly addicted and harmed young users of its service to increase engagement. (Addiction? On a social media service? Groundbreaking.)

TikTok is currently undergoing a series of investigations and lawsuits in the US and elsewhereplus the onerous January 19, 2025 deadline by which the company must find a U.S. government-approved buyer or risk an outright ban. Previously: “I am ByteDance, I am TikTok and we are not the same person” did not convince the authorities. -A

Uber and Lyft lock out New York drivers

Alicia Keys once sang in New York: “There's nothing you can't do… except log into Uber or Lyft when the companies don't want to pay you.”

A new Bloomberg report Details of how the ride-hailing services locked out drivers who, under local law, must be paid for time between rides. A great way to save millions of dollars? Don't let them log in right from the start.

The lockouts, which occurred without warning, “occurred nearly every hour of every day” and affected hundreds of drivers, the report said. Lockouts even affected drivers who worked in high-demand areas, sometimes resulting in higher fares due to reduced supply.

Uber and Lyft acknowledged the existence of the practice and the harm it causes to drivers to the outlet, but blamed New York law requiring a minimum wage for rideshare workers. (Unlike elsewhere, New York's law is variable rather than fixed, based in part on a “occupancy rate” that can be affected by lockouts.)

Currently, ride-hailing companies are working under a summer agreement with the mayor and the city's taxi authority to end lockouts as long as business returns remain acceptable. But it is hardly binding. -A

The US labor authority accuses Apple of interfering with employees

The National Labor Relations Board accused Apple of interfering with the right of U.S. workers to collectively advocate for themselves, according to a complaint Reportedly filed last week.

The accusations are varied. According to the NLRB, Apple unlawfully fired an employee who advocated for workplace changes at Slack, required another employee to delete a post made using his personal social media account, illegal workplace rules regarding acceptable use of Slack complied with and created the impression that employees were being monitored on social media.

This is not the first time that the Labor Relations Authority has complained about Apple this month, and we're not even halfway there yet. Just last week, the NLRB said Apple unlawfully required employees to sign unlawful confidentiality, non-disclosure and non-compete agreements.

Apple told Reuters it “strongly disagrees” with the claims. A hearing is scheduled for February – assuming, of course, that the parties do not reach an agreement before then. -A

Metas threads under fire, Bluesky pounces

It's not easy being a meta-employee with a statement necklace, and no, I'm not talking about Mark Zuckerberg.

It was Adam Mosseri, the Facebook product designer turned Instagram boss absorbs heat from all sides after users of IG's

“We … have already found bugs and made changes,” Mosseri said published on the service. Was the AI ​​to blame? On the contrary, it turns out, “Our reviewers (people) made calls without being given the context of how the conversations were going.” We’ve all been there, dude.

Microblogging rival Bluesky, founded by Twitter veterans but lagging well behind in relative popularity, saw an opportunity and pounced. The company created its own Threads account and went into town: “We're not like the other girls… we don't belong to a billionaire 🤪” Oh, burn. -A

The chips are fine

The semiconductor industry needs to be massively relieved because of the mining of a key material was resumed after an attack by Hurricane Helene.

The hurricane hit Spruce Pine—a town in North Carolina that happens to be the world's premier source of high-purity quartz—hard. The material is an essential part of the crucibles in which chips are made.

Now Sibelco, one of the major mining companies there, says its production has resumed and deliveries have resumed.

“Although the road to full recovery will be long for our communities, resuming our operations and resuming deliveries to customers is an important contribution to rebuilding the local economy,” said CEO Hilmar Rode.

Quartz Corp, the other major mining company in Spruce Pine, still has not resumed its own operations. But at least the chip industry won't come to a standstill any time soon. –David Meyer

More data

—Evaluating the possible outcomes of Google's antitrust lawsuit. Stop looking for answers.

—The “Salt Typhoon” hack of US broadband providers now looks like “a disastrous counterintelligence failure.” Ruh raw.

—Coming soon: Stream Xbox games you own. The feature was first promised –checks the clock—four years ago.

—Apple opens a new research center in Shenzhen. Its market share in China is shrinking.

—Cerebra's IPO is under scrutiny. Major banks reportedly ignored concerns about customer concentration.

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