Techmeme
April 9, 2021, 8:15 PM

Top News

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon wins enough votes to beat union effort in Alabama; of the 3,215 ballots cast, there were 1,798 votes opposing the union and 738 votes in favor  —  - Amazon on Friday secured enough votes to defeat the unionization drive at one of its Alabama warehouses.
About Amazon:
Amazon thanks workers for voting against unionizing, says less than 16% voted to join the union and counters the union's claims that Amazon won by intimidation  —  Thank you to employees at our BHM1 fulfillment center in Alabama for participating in the election.
Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:
The union election signaled a big shift in Amazon's labor relations, but Amazon will now cite its outcome as vindication for its employment policies  —  The union loss against Amazon.com Inc. in Bessemer, Ala. marks a stinging defeat for the U.S. labor movement, one made all the more painful by its familiarity.
Kellen / Droid Life:
Epic filing reveals that in a 2016 email Phil Schiller said “moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us”, which Epic argues is proof of lock-in  —  Epic and Apple are preparing to battle it out in court over the App Store (remember that whole Fortnite debacle?) …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
In a letter to Tim Cook, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee “strongly urge” Apple to reconsider refusal to provide a witness for upcoming hearing on app stores  —  ‘We strongly urge Apple to reconsider its position,’ the senators said  —  Senate Judiciary Committee leaders …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google denies reports Pixel 5a 5G is canceled, says it'll be available this year in the US and Japan and announced in line with last year's a-series phone  —  Despite rumors this morning to the contrary, Google has just issued an on the record statement that the “Pixel 5a” does indeed exist and will not be canceled.
Jeff Horwitz / Wall Street Journal:
Researchers say Facebook's algorithms disproportionately show certain types of job ads to men and women; no evidence of gender skewing was found on LinkedIn  —  Researchers found the platform's algorithms promoted roles to certain users; company pledges to continue work in removing bias from recommendations
The Markup:
YouTube blocks advertisers from using terms like “Black Lives Matter” to find videos to advertise against but was letting them use phrases like “White power”  —  “Black power” and “Black Lives Matter” can't be used to find videos for ads, but “White power” and “White lives matter” were just fine
The Markup:
CTech:
TipRanks, which uses NLP to measure the performance of and rank 7,000+ professional stock analysts, raises $77M led by Prytek and More Investment House  —  Israeli-based fintech company provides a simplified stock research platform that makes alternative datasets accessible and visual for retail investors
New York Times:
Taiwan is going to great lengths to keep water flowing to chip factories of TSMC and others, including shutting off irrigation to legions of rice growers  —  The island is going to great lengths to keep water flowing to its all-important semiconductor industry, including shutting off irrigation to legions of rice growers.

Sponsor Posts

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Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 11/21 - What The DOJ Wants Google To Do
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