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Business & Tech

Justice Department Files Landmark Antitrust Suit Against Google; Google Calls Suit 'Deeply Flawed'

An expected federal antitrust suit against Google dropped today which has many parallels with an antitrust case filed against Microsoft two decades ago, and while it may seem like part of a Republican vendetta against the tech industry, it has plenty of support from congressional Democrats.

Business & Tech

Local Experts Question WHO Study That Called Into Question the Effectiveness Of Remdesivir for COVID Patients

The results of a study released Friday prior to being peer-reviewed are alarming some Bay Area infectious disease specialists because they may mislead other doctors or the public.

Business & Tech

Twitter Suspends Trump Campaign Account for Three Hours, as Trump-Twitter Battle Escalates

Trump is threatening a “big lawsuit” after his campaign account was given a three-hour timeout on Twitter, and Senate Republicans have subpoena'd Jack Dorsey because they think this is the equivalent of Pearl Harbor.

Business & Tech

Elizabeth Holmes Tried Six Ways to Get Out of Going to Trial, and a Judge Denied All Six

Embattled Theranos founder and uncanny humanoid impersonator Elizabeth Holmes, along with her attorneys, filed six motions in federal court in August in an attempt to have the indictments and criminal charges against her thrown out before going to trial. On Wednesday, a judge denied all of them.

Business & Tech

Facebook Says It Is Restricting the Spread of an Inflammatory, Dubious Story About Hunter Biden

Facebook claims it is restricting access to a New York Post story published Wednesday that suggests, via emails purportedly "obtained" by Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon, some new untoward business involving Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian oil company he sat on the board of, Burisma.

Business & Tech

City's First Latina-Owned Pot Dispensary Opens In Union Square

A sleek new dispensary just debuted in Union Square Friday morning to an eager crowd of early customers, and it's the first in the city to be owned by a Latina woman.

Business & Tech

Waymo Unleashes ‘Fully Driverless’ Taxis (In Phoenix Only), Elon Musk Stews With Jealous Tweets

The Google-Alphabet-Waymo dream of fully autonomous taxicabs is a reality as of today, but only in a small patch of the Phoenix, Arizona area.

Business & Tech

New Attack Ad By Democrat-Led Group Calls Out Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook for Ruining Everything

Just a day after the House released a scathing report on antitrust issues, a nonprofit group that reportedly includes former Facebook employees and Clinton campaign staffers has launched an attack ad that focuses on Mark Zuckerberg himself.

Business & Tech

Celebrated UC Berkeley Biochemist and CRISPR Pioneer Jennifer Doudna Wins Nobel Prize

UC Berkeley professor Jennifer Doudna, along with French colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry today for the pair's pioneering work in the genome-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9.

Business & Tech

Facebook Actually Removes Trump Post Containing False COVID Claim; Twitter Temporarily Freezes Trump's Account

Facebook manned up and actually took down a post that Trump put up on Tuesday in which he, egregiously and falsely, claimed that COVID is less lethal than the flu.

Business & Tech

Biden Campaign Calls Out Facebook For Allowing 'Claptrap' From Trump About Mail-In Ballots to Continue Being Posted

Once again the Trump campaign, and Donald Trump Jr. in particular, are spreading misinformation about Democrats trying to flood the election with bogus or duplicate ballots, via a campaign ad, and the Biden campaign is calling Facebook out for allowing this to be amplified.

Business & Tech

Google Cracking Down On Apps That Don’t Pay Them a 30% Cut

The Fortnite legal kerfuffle has Apple and now also Google digging in their heels that they should get a 30% cut of any purchase made within apps on their respective platforms.

Business & Tech

Facebook Employee Raises Powered by ‘Really Dangerous’ Algorithm That Favors Angry Posts

Employee raises at Facebook depend on engagement, and newly leaked private Zuckerberg recordings show the Groups algorithm prioritizes enragement.

Business & Tech

Day Around the Bay: Uber Self-Driving Car Operator Charged In Arizona Killing

A federally funded Berkeley lab has stopped its diversity training due to Trump's order, Tom Steyer is selling his Pac Heights mansion for $11 million, and Oregon is being threatened with dry lightning.

Business & Tech

Celebrities Are Taking a Day Off of Instagram and Facebook to Protest Hate Speech and Yeah That Should Work

Kim Kardashian West, Jennifer Lawrence, and Sacha Baron Cohen are among the celebrities leading a charge to boycott Facebook and Instagram for a day. But is a one-day boycott really sending a message that a monthslong boycott by high-paying advertisers hasn't?

Business & Tech

Oracle Wins TikTok Sweepstakes, Rewarding Trump Donor Larry Ellison

Microsoft and Twitter get left at the altar, as the Redwood City-based enterprise software giant with no real experience in social media wins the prized video app that Trump pressured into being sold.

Business & Tech

As Trump Reverses and Recommends Mailing In Ballots and Voting Twice, Twitter Slaps Label On Tweet

The President continued his unhinged lunacy on Thursday, changing course in his rhetorical war on mail-in voting by recommending that voters — presumably only those who vote for him — to mail in ballots and then show up in person at polling places as well.

Business & Tech

Twitter Says It Is Adding 'Context' to Trending Topics; Facebook and Google at War With Australian Government

Ahead of the latest U.S. election, Twitter is responding to criticism that one of its defining features, the Trending Topics sidebar, tends to promote misinformation and conspiracies.

Business & Tech

Facebook (Finally) Removes Racial Ad Targeting

After four years of scandals over targeting users by race — including a white users only option — Facebook has very quietly removed the racial targeting option for advertisements.

Business & Tech

Will TikTok Youth Rock the Vote? Or Will Conservatives Game Facebook to Win Trump Another Four Years?

Right-wingers have already won the fight to dominate Facebook engagement, but rival social media upstarts could blaze a new path, or go down in flames of election misinformation.

Business & Tech

Tesla Successfully Thwarts Russian Ransomware Attack

A Tesla employee succeeded in thwarting a recent attempted malware hack of its computer systems, after bringing the attempt quickly to the attention of company brass and the FBI.

Business & Tech

Facebook Gets Heat For Not Removing ‘Kenosha Guard’ Militia Page Before Shootings

Two users flagged a militia group's page for inciting violence in Wisconsin, but Facebook did not take the page down until after two people were killed Tuesday night.

Business & Tech

Some SF Hotels Reopen to Accommodate Wildfire Evacuees at a Discount

San Francisco's largely vacant hotels have an opportunity both to provide shelter to Bay Area residents displaced from their homes due to wildfire evacuation orders, and to make some revenue after months of nearly zero in the process.

Business & Tech

Facebook Mulls 'Kill Switch' For Political Ads To Prevent Trump From Contesting Election Results

Facebook is doing some disaster planning for the days and weeks after the election, given that all signs point to Donald Trump attempting to hold on to power by questioning the results of the election — should he, god willing, lose.