The real-world mayhem many predicted for the 2020 election never quite materialized. But there has been plenty of online mayhem before and after – much of it on Facebook. With powerful forces sowing confusion and chaos across every major platform, our collective rage, mistrust, and anxiety just keeps on burning... Read more
By Justin Sanders
There are so many big pleasures we miss about going to movie theaters – the popcorn, the velvety seats, the camaraderie – that it’s easy to overlook the small ones, like movie posters. But the life-sized posters lining the walls at the cinema are an intrinsic part of the movie-going... Read more
It’s been a long, tough year – and yes, we are as tired of hearing that sentiment as you are. That is why we suggest taking a much-deserved break from, well, the world this Thanksgiving and just living your best life for a few days. If you are anything like... Read more
It’s official: On October 20, the Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to “stop Google from unlawfully maintaining monopolies through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices.” From making itself the default search engine on billions of mobile devices to then making its own products “undeletable” on those devices, Google has... Read more
By Justin Sanders
In July, The New York Times reported on an organization called the Global Antitrust Institute (GAI), a think tank funded by the likes of Google and other Big Tech heavyweights. Its goal, per the newspaper: to wine and dine, cajole, pamper, and influence government officials around the world who enforce competition laws. Offering opulent... Read more
ALL TIMELINE UPDATES August 18, 2004 A Catchphrase Is Born Google makes its unofficial corporate motto, “Don’t Be Evil,” part of the public record, devoting an entire section to the catchphrase in their public offering prospectus. “We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served—as shareholders and... Read more
By Justin Sanders
You might think that the jobs of actor and doctor are colossally, incompatibly different. That not only do they have nothing to do with each other, but that each is rife with its own tremendous challenges and time commitments. “Surely,” you might be thinking, “it’s difficult enough pursuing just one of these... Read more
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results, then Google and the Internet Archive (IA) are clearly driving creatives insane. For those who may not be familiar with the Internet Archive, it is the nonprofit entity that congratulated itself for making... Read more
By Ruth Vitale
I produced and distributed movies for over 30 years. During that time, I never really gave a second thought to how a news article came to be. I assumed that reporters came across a story they found intriguing, went out to gather the facts, and then presented them fairly without... Read more
We recently saw a Mercury News interview with Wendy Liu, a former Google software engineer turned techlash cheerleader, talking about her new book, “Abolish Silicon Valley.” And we found ourselves nodding in agreement with some of her concerns. “Why are Google and Facebook so big? They have control over the advertising thing and... Read more