How tech poll measures fared this election cycle

Under: Amazon plans to implement the most important layoffs in firm historical past, and Google reaches a file settlement with state attorneys basic. First:

How tech poll measures fared this election cycle

Management of the Home and Senate wasn’t the one major battleground tech leaders in Washington and Silicon Valley have been monitoring this election cycle. 

The midterms additionally settled a slew of state poll initiatives and constitutional amendments on points together with gig labor, knowledge privateness and broadband funding. 

Right here’s a rundown of the place voters got here down on key proposals nationwide: 

Lyft-backed push to develop electrical car use defeated

Californians shot down a push backed by ride-hailing large Lyft to boost taxes on the rich to assist develop use of electrical automobiles within the state. 

The measure would have raised taxes on residents with incomes above $2 million and use these funds to incentivize folks to purchase electrical automobiles or set up extra charging stations.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) publicly opposed the push in an ad earlier than the election, saying that though it had “been marketed as a local weather initiative” it was “devised by a single company to funnel state revenue taxes to profit their firm” — a jab at Lyft. 

Gig employee reclassification proponents dealt a blow in Maine

Voters in Portland rejected a referendum that will have categorized ride-hailing and meals supply employees as workers and set their minimal wage, amongst others, at $18 an hour. 

Corporations together with Uber lobbied towards the push, which waded right into a nationally debated labor dispute. However the referendum drew a major endorsement from former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who released a video saying that the measure would “be sure each employee in Portland receives a secure, livable wage.”

The push was seen as a potential litmus test for comparable measures nationwide. 

Voters bitter on ride-hailing premiums in Washington

A majority of voters in Washington voiced support for repealing a recently passed law imposing a premium on ride-hailing corporations to cowl employees’ compensation insurance coverage.

Washington’s H.B. 2076, signed in March, created a slew of recent rights for ride-hailing drivers within the state, together with a assured minimal charge for particular person journeys and paid sick go away. 

Lyft earlier this year hailed the measure, which stopped in need of reclassifying gig employees as full-time workers, as a “new mannequin for the way forward for app-based work.”

However as a result of it included a tax enhance for corporations, the state required that voters be given an opportunity to weigh in on that facet of the legislation in a nonbinding advisory opinion, which could serve as a guidepost for policymakers on their subsequent steps on the state and nationwide stage.  

As of Monday, 52.4 p.c of voters favored repealing the premiums whereas 47.6 p.c backed holding them in place.

Montanans overwhelmingly cross surveillance safeguards

Greater than 4-in-5 voters in Montana backed an amendment to their state structure explicitly banning legislation enforcement from seizing shoppers’ private knowledge with out a warrant. 

Modification 48 will add “digital knowledge or communications” to the checklist of enumerated locations the place Montanans are protected from unreasonable searches and seizures below their structure. 

The vote comes amid mounting bipartisan scrutiny nationwide of how legislation enforcement companies and native authorities use digital surveillance instruments to prosecute circumstances and monitor residents. 

Alabama, New Mexico loosen restrictions on broadband funding

Voters in Alabama and New Mexico signed off on similar amendments to their state constitutions eradicating obstacles for funding to spice up web entry. 

Each states had restrictions on native governments offering help or grants to personal entities, which created a significant hurdle for officers to disperse the broadband funding it received through the covid-19 economic recovery package signed into legislation final March. 

The accredited amendments will create exceptions permitting officers at both the state or native stage to dole out broadband funds extra simply. 

Amazon prepares to make huge layoffs

The cuts of roughly 10,000 employees will likely be focused on Amazon’s company workforce, Rachel Lerman, Jacob Bogage and Julian Mark report. It’s the newest batch of layoffs to hit the know-how sector. The layoffs, first reported by the New York Occasions, can be the most important cuts carried out by Amazon within the firm’s historical past. Amazon declined to touch upon the report. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Publish.

“The deliberate job cuts additionally symbolize a outstanding turnabout for Amazon, which has hungrily employed tens of 1000’s of workers in each its warehouses and company workplaces prior to now decade,” my colleagues write. “The corporate had greater than 1.5 million workers on the finish of September, a 5 p.c enhance from the yr earlier than.” 

Google reaches file $392 million settlement with state AGs over location monitoring

Connecticut Legal professional Normal William Tong (D) referred to as the 40-state settlement a “historic win for shoppers,” the Related Press’s Dave Collins and Marcy Gordon report. The state investigation of Google got here after a 2018 AP story that discovered that Google nonetheless tracked customers’ places even after they turned off Google’s “location historical past” characteristic.

“The attorneys basic stated Google misled customers about its location monitoring practices since at the very least 2014, violating state client safety legal guidelines,” Collins and Gordon write. “As a part of the settlement, Google additionally agreed to make these practices extra clear to customers. That features displaying them extra data after they flip location account settings on and off and holding a webpage that provides customers details about the info Google collects.”

Google says it has up to date the insurance policies on the heart of the case. “Per enhancements we’ve made in recent times, we’ve settled this investigation, which was primarily based on outdated product insurance policies that we modified years in the past,” firm spokesperson Jose Castaneda stated, per the AP.

Trial over Musk’s Tesla pay begins in Delaware

The primary day of the trial centered on Elon Musok’s function in setting his compensation bundle, the Wall Road Journal’s Rebecca Elliott and Meghan Bobrowsky report. Musk is anticipated to testify Wednesday.

“A Tesla shareholder, Richard Tornetta, is searching for to nullify Mr. Musk’s 2018 compensation grant, alleging that Mr. Musk managed the board’s consideration of his pay bundle and did not disclose essential data to shareholders, who signed off on it,” Elliott and Bobrowsky write. “The bundle is value round $51 billion at current share costs.” 

Elon Musk’s dialog with — and firing of — a Twitter engineer by tweet was extensively mentioned on Twitter. Author Ashlee Vance and Musk:

Journalist Omar S. Rashad:

YMTC could be added to U.S. trade blacklist next month: U.S. official (Reuters)

Washington lobbyists sever ties with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried after crypto exchange implodes (CNBC)

UK government criticized for failing to protect children from online harm (The Guardian)

Google, Apple rivals to launch ad campaign for bill against Big Tech (Bloomberg News)

Facebook $90 million privacy settlement approved over antitrust lawyers’ objection (Reuters)

Italy outlaws facial recognition tech, except to fight crime (Reuters)

Twitter engineer fired on Twitter calls Musk’s team ‘a bunch of cowards’ (Forbes)

Musk fires chief Brussels lobbyist in Twitter’s layoff round (Politico Europe)

Trump filing in suit against Twitter compares former president to Galileo (Politico)

• Adrienne A. Harris and Pete Marton, the superintendent and digital forex chief at New York state’s Division of Monetary Providers, converse at a Brookings Establishment event immediately at 2 p.m.
• The Middle for Democracy and Expertise hosts an occasion on on-line harassment and focused disinformation geared toward ladies of colour candidates in U.S. elections on Wednesday at 11 a.m. 

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