10 things in tech you need to know today
Donald Trump.Win McNamee/Getty Images
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday.
1. Facebook's opening statement to Congress today will say that it was "too slow" to act on Russian interference. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will appear before congress today.
2. Tesla employees described the frenetic pace of working at the company, revealing that CEO Elon Musk is a visionary but unpredictable boss. They described an attitude of worship that some employees have toward Musk, likening it to a "cult."
3. The FCC boss who repealed net neutrality says Google, Facebook, and Twitter might need "transparency obligations." Ajit Pai, the chairman of the FCC, called for the big tech companies to be more transparent about how they run their services on Tuesday.
4. Google posted its testimony for the congressional hearing today, but won't have anyone there representing it. The Senate Intelligence Committee said it rejected Google's proposed witness because he wasn't senior enough.
5. A watchdog group with ties to Oracle pretended to be Russian and bought "divisive" Google ads. The group posed as an infamous group of Russian trolls to find out how effective Google was at combatting foreign agents from buying "politically divisive ads."
6. Samsung might upstage Apple's new iPhone by unveiling its foldable phone in 2018. Samsung executive DJ Koh said on Monday that the firm might unveil its foldable phone, nicknamed the Galaxy X, in November - just when the new iPhone would be hitting the shelves.
7. Not even Trump is safe from being banned for tweets that go too far, according to Twitter. Twitter says it's possible that President Trump could be banned if he exhibits abusive, rule-breaking behavior on the platform.
8. Elon Musk told a reporter to "stop defending child rapists" as he doubled down on attacking Thailand cave rescuer Vernon Unsworth. In an email to a Buzzfeed reporter, Musk repeated unsubstantiated accusations against Unsworth and said that "I f-ing hope" that he gets sued.
9. Sony still refuses to allow "Fortnite" players on PS4 to play with other platforms. Sony president Kenichiro Yoshida reaffirmed the company's stance on "cross-play" in a recent interview.
10. Google Chrome is playing with the idea of fundamentally changing how we interact with the internet by changing the way URLs work. The Google Chrome team is looking at ways to revolutionize URLs, to make them easier to understand and more secure.
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