TechCrunch Newsletters - Week in Review - Facebook's about-face

Saturday, November 06, 2021 • By Lucas Matney

Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review!

Last week, we talked about the meaninglessness of the metaverse. This week, we’re talking about a meaningful decision from Meta.

If someone forwarded you this message, you can get this in your inbox from the newsletter page, and follow my tweets @lucasmtny.

[Heads-up that I’m out this upcoming week to take a little time off. I leave you in the loving hands of my colleague Greg Kumparak, though I’ll return the week after to our regularly schedule programming.]

the big thing

This was honestly a pretty low-key week for news, which drew even more attention to Facebook’s surprise announcement that they would be deleting all of their facial recognition data, which spans more than one billion users.

Facebook has rarely been one to make the altruistic shutdown decision that could damage the health of its core profits, but the company and app are entering a much more volatile arena of brand destruction as users and regulators hoist their pitchforks. It’s a backlash that’s pushed the company to rename itself with a focus on a product class that it hopes to one day build but has little to show for today.

Killing its facial recognition database is a positive move that will earn them the goodwill of being able to say they made this choice themselves, rather than a seemingly inevitable shutdown at the hands of regulators. It’s also a big PR win for them that I’m sure they will highlight for years to come.

The shutdown is also a signal of how much hardware device-makers are pushing for on-device machine learning, something that will be increasingly important to Facebook/Meta as they build out a suite of AR/VR hardware. Meta’s products will likely still one day be able to learn which faces belong to friends and family members of a device user but they’ll be tapping on-device processing rather than a centralized database. This feature shutdown does likely mean that Meta’s eventual AR glasses won’t be enabling users to look at complete strangers and pull up detailed information on them.

It certainly seems that the new Meta is only half-heartedly embracing dystopia.

Tackle Core Web Vitals with Ease!

other things

Here are a few stories this week I think you should take a closer look at:

Top Apple exec rails against app sideloading
Apple has generally opted to let its products speak for themselves when it comes to how its platform should be allowed to develop, but that strategy isn’t working as well as it used to. Amid unprecedented calls for regulation among world governments, Apple sent one of its top public-facing execs, head of software engineering Craig Federighi, to the Web Summit conference in Lisbon to air his grievances around a recent EU proposal that would force Apple to allow sideloading of apps onto iPhones.

This is a pretty defensive and unusual move for Apple. I don’t think people understand how much Apple is flirting with disaster here; they’ve enjoyed a couple decades of unparalleled positive PR, but as their ecosystem continues to restrict developers I think they’re starting to lose control of the narrative. Expect the development of crypto apps and platforms due to crypto payment restrictions to be a big cause of backlash from technologists that could also lead to a shifting tide.

10 publications produce bulk of climate change denial content on Facebook
Social media is a platform where network effects reign supreme so it’s not all that surprising that the bulk of disinformation around climate change denialism has been tied to a handful of publications. This week, a report emerged detailing that nearly 70% of climate change misinformation on Facebook was tied to 10 publications; the CCDH organization that produced the report previously released a study showcasing that 12 Facebook users were behind 73% of vaccine misinformation on the platform.

Facebook’s disinformation networks seem to be much more centralized than on platforms like Twitter, which exercise a lighter-handed algorithmic approach. Facebook’s algorithmic heft has its advantages, but the negative effects are growing crystal clear.

Sam Altman has his Elon Musk moment
Fusion energy has been a dream for decades, but an efficient implementation of it has remained firmly out of reach. This week, former YC chief Sam Altman’s announced his $375 million bet on the startup Helion, which is aiming to usher in a new era of clean energy. It’s a massive bet for the entrepreneur and one which my colleague Haje has plenty more details on in the article linked above.

“I’m delighted to be investing more in Helion, which is by far the most promising approach to fusion I’ve ever seen,” said Altman. “With a tiny fraction of the money spent on other fusion efforts, and the culture of a startup, this team has a clear path to net electricity. If Helion is successful, we can avert climate disaster and provide a much better quality of life for people.”

Image Credits: KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty Images

added things

Some of my favorite reads from our newly renamed TechCrunch+ subscription service this week:

Is China building the metaverse?
“…Built upon infrastructural technologies like AI, the metaverse refers to the vast array of digital experiences and ecosystems, from e-commerce and entertainment to social media and work, where we spend more and more of our lives. It’s soon going to be hard to conceive of a world in which much of our social and economic lives are not defined by the rules of the metaverse. To the builder goes the opportunity to establish rules to their own benefit. In truth, both the U.S. and China are trying to build and lay claim to the metaverse, with other actors such as Europe trying to do so as well, but they simply don’t control enough of the core technologies that make the metaverse possible….”

The consequences of SaaS sprawl
“…SaaS sprawl is a natural consequence of the SaaS revolution. An analysis of Okta’s 2020 customer database revealed that companies employing 2,000 or more individuals maintained an inventory of 175 SaaS apps on average. A similar survey conducted by Blissfully in 2019 indicated that firms employing more than 1,000 individuals used 288 SaaS apps on average. …“

VCs are racing to pay more for less
“…While perusing the collected information, we found an interesting pattern: Venture capital investors are racing to pay more to buy smaller pieces of startups that are less profitable than before. While that may sound somewhat rude, it isn’t. Instead, the capital crush that we’ve seen overtake startups around the world, the round preemption that has become common, the rising valuation marks that have become the entry price to hot startups’ cap tables and investments into growth have all come together to create a venture capital market unlike any that I can recall…”