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- The Trump administration is asking a court to dismiss the tech industry's legal challenge his executive order taking aim at social media companies. The lawsuit was brought in June by the Center for Democracy and Technology, a group backed by Facebook, Twitter, and Alphabet subsidiary Google, which called Trump's directive "unconstitutional."
- Uber and Lyft have threatened to temporarily shut down in California if a court rules their drivers must be classified as employees. A group of companies that rely on independent contractors has proposed a third way of classifying workers, which includes a benefits pool that can follow workers across apps and platforms while maintaining flexibility.
- Lyft reported a 61% revenue slowdown as the coronavirus hobbles ride-hailing, but still managed to beat Wall Street expectations. Unlike Uber, Lyft has no food delivery or international businesses to rely on for revenue as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across the US.
- Airbnb's revenue reportedly plunged 67% in the second quarter as COVID-19 wreaks havoc on its business. The steep drop-off is a reflection of the impact of COVID-19, which has restricted travel across the globe.
- Facebook and Snap both reportedly inquired about acquiring TikTok rival Dubsmash. As TikTok's future in the US remains uncertain, short-form video-making apps and formats have emerged as competitors eager to attract some of TikTok's 100 million monthly US users.
- Instagram could face up up to $500 billion in fines in a class-action lawsuit alleging it illegally harvested biometric data. A new lawsuit accuses Instagram of collecting people's biometric data without their consent in violation of a state law.
- Chinese giant ByteDance is engaging in early discussions with Reliance Industries about backing TikTok's business in India. TikTok has been banned in India since June 29 as a fallout of geo-political tensions with China that led New Delhi to ban the app along with 58 other Chinese apps over security and privacy concerns, TechCrunch reported.
- Palantir is planning to go public through a direct listing of its shares in late September. The company, which sells data analysis software used by governments and large companies worldwide, might still change its plans, Bloomberg reported.
- Google, Facebook, Twitter and other major social media companies are working together to scenario-plan for the last three months before Election Day in the United States. Politico reports that the Silicon Valley tech giants are gaming for scenarios including a situation in which there is no quickly declared winner in November's election.
- Twitter launched a new API as it tries to make amends with third-party developers. The API v2 is the first complete rebuild of Twitter's API since 2012, when the company famously began limiting how third-party developers could build on its product, The Verge reported.
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