What Biden means for Big Tech—and Google in particular

Republicans spent millions on last-minute voting ads on Facebook  

Sponsored by Amazon Web Services The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology 11.10.20 Good morning! Today: what Biden means for Big Tech, the millions Republicans spent on a last-minute voting push on Facebook, and new European rules aim to crack down on surveillance tech. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. What Biden means for Big Tech—and Google in particular A puzzle: Throughout his campaign, president-elect Joe Biden has been relatively quiet about the technology industry. He’s used some strong words in the past, saying he wanted to revoke Section 230 and referring to tech executives as “little creeps” who displayed an “overwhelming arrogance.” But internet companies have also been one of his campaign’s top 10 donors, industry insiders joined his campaign, and incoming vice president Kamala Harris has long-standing ties to Silicon Valley. So what’s his plan? Aside from expanding broadband access, technology may just not be that high on Biden’s list of priorities. Despite that, there are several areas worth paying attention to. The Google antitrust lawsuit will continue, and may even be strengthened, but the overall issue of tech competition may slide down the to-do list. The debate on Section 230 should become more nuanced, and regulators will likely drop the enforcement actions they’ve threatened under Trump. And a national consumer privacy and data protection bill might be in the offing. Read the full story. —Eileen Guo Republicans spent millions on last-minute voting ads on Facebook What happened: Facebook banned new political advertisements in the week running up to the US election, but that didn’t stop campaigns from running old ads. And they did. We already know that turnout was historically high across all voters, but one possible explanation was a huge last-minute investment in ads that encouraged turnout by Republicans.  The details: The biggest spender on Election Day was “Register to Vote Republican,” which spent $1.3 million on ads on November 3 alone. The spending was heavily concentrated in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.  What about the Democrats? The Biden campaign spent more money on Facebook ads intended to turn out voters in total during the campaign, but this spending was concentrated earlier in the cycle. Democrats had focused on mail-in votes and early voting because of the pandemic, and they may have invested less in turnout ads toward the end because of the longer runway and the knowledge that voters had already cast their ballots before Election Day. What’s next: Facebook’s ban on new political ads appears to be continuing indefinitely. Read the full story. —Tate Ryan-Mosley Europe is adopting stricter rules on surveillance tech The news: The European Union has agreed to stricter rules on the sale and export of cyber-surveillance technologies like facial recognition and spyware. The details: The regulation requires companies to get a government license to sell technology with military applications; calls for more due diligence on such sales to assess the possible human rights risks; and requires governments to publicly share details of the licenses they grant. These sales are typically cloaked in secrecy, meaning that multibillion-dollar technology is bought and sold with little public scrutiny. Why it matters: The main thing the new regulation achieves, according to its backers, is more transparency. The goal is to make it easier to publicly shame governments that sell surveillance tools to dictatorships. However, it remains to be seen how much of a difference the new rules will make, given national governments are responsible for implementing them, and they are non-binding. Read the full story. —Patrick Howell O’Neill We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Researchers just discovered two new mammals in Australia.    + How the public reacted when edible underwear launched in the UK in 1982.    + Read Mary Oliver’s poem on why you should give in to moments of joy.   + The Rolling Stones’ first live performance of Sympathy for the Devil.   + A photo series of Brutalist apartment complexes in former Soviet states, and their inhabitants.    + Japanese mayor Joe Baiden has found himself in the spotlight, for obvious reasons. Sponsor Message Have hands-on AWS experience? Now become AWS Certified Prepare for your AWS Certification exam with Exam Readiness training by AWS, and then take your exam online. Explore our role-based certifications for those in cloud practitioner, architect, developer, and operations roles, as well as our Specialty certifications in specific technical areas. Learn more here. The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine is highly effective, but don’t expect to get it soon It’s great news, but supplies are likely to be limited until well into 2021. (TR)   + Is this the breakthrough we’ve all been waiting for? (New Scientist $)   + Why you’re allowed to get (at least a bit) excited. (UnHerd)    + This could be the start of the end of the pandemic. (The Economist $)   + Prepare for a ton of vaccine misinformation on social media. (Recode)   + We need to talk about logistics. (Nature)   + Don’t vaccinate the vulnerable first. Vaccinate the superspreaders. (Wired $)   + The FDA has granted approval for Eli Lilly’s covid-19 antibody treatment for emergency use. (NBC)  2 We need to make buildings breathe better 🏢 There are good reasons to work on improving ventilation regardless of any vaccine—or even the pandemic. (Wired $)   + How to make restaurants safer. (TR)  3 An infamous hoaxer is behind Trumpworld’s latest voter fraud conspiracy It’s hard to tell if it’s stupidity or venality that’s winning here, or both. (The Daily Beast)   + To be clear: software glitches are not affecting vote counts. (NYT $)   + Trump’s campaign has had to launch a new voter fraud hotline after the last one was inundated with prank calls. (Gizmodo)    + Trump fired his defense secretary by tweet. (WP $)  4 A physics breakthrough: information can escape from a black hole  🕳️ This has thrown a lot of received wisdom into disarray. (Wired $)   5 McDonald’s is making a plant-based burger 🍔 Everyone’s getting in on the act. (The Next Web)   6 Iran’s authorities are cracking down on Instagram On top of their fears over hijab-less selfies, it’s increasingly becoming a platform for political dissent. (Rest of World)   7 A modern hunt for treasure in the American West 🔍 The word “obsessive” doesn’t even begin to cover this. (NY Mag)   8 Students have to jump through bizarre hoops to use exam monitoring software Because this year isn’t stressful enough. (Vice)   9 Inside the weird world of AI music 🎵 This is deep in uncanny valley territory. (The Guardian)   + To see what makes AI hard to use, ask it to write a pop song. (TR)  10 Four Seasons Total Landscaping has been immortalized in VR You have to love the internet sometimes, you really do. (The Verge) Get practical guidance on breach prevention and incident response. With the growing frequency and sophistication of attacks, now is the time to build your cyber-resilient action plan. Join us virtually at CyberSecure, our inaugural event on the business of cyber risk. Register now. Quote of the day “It's gonna be fine!” —Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky tweets that he’s still upbeat despite his covid-19 diagnosis. Top image credit: AP PHOTO | JEFF CHIU, FILE Please send new mammals to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free Don't settle for half the story. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for access to subscriber-only content and more. Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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