Daily Archives: July 7, 2021

I went on Royal Caribbean’s 7-day vaccinated cruise to the Bahamas – Business Insider

Posted: July 7, 2021 at 3:04 pm

I went on a seven-day cruise embarking from the Nassau cruise port in the Bahamas and visited Royal Caribbean's private island Perfect Day at Coco Cay, as well as the islands of Grand Bahama and Cozumel, Mexico.

This was my first time taking a solo trip in almost two years.

I started my own hospitality company during the pandemic and am a travel blogger, so it's been a very taxing year maybe not as taxing as it's been for a medical professional, but working in the tourism industry and watching people's livelihoods go up in flames has been hard.

Because of the Bahamas' regulations, you had to be vaccinated for the cruise unless you were a child. You also had to apply for a Bahamian health certificate through the Bahamian government two weeks before embarking with all of your passport and vaccine information ready. I had mine accepted within a day and it cost $40.

Then we found out three or four days before our cruise that they were going to provide us with antigen rapid tests as well.

You got there and brought the barcode you used to register for the test, you took your test, and then you had results within 20 to 40 minutes and were able to board. We were also tested again a couple days before the end of the cruise.

We were all kind of waiting to see if anyone got sick because Royal Caribbean said they'd inform us if anyone tested positive for COVID-19, but it seemed that no one had an issue. I know there's been positive cases on other cruises, but it's going to happen anywhere a hotel or a ship.

Masks were required for the crew but not for guests. I kept one on me in case I got in a tighter situation like an elevator and used it occasionally. I also had to have one to obey the masks laws for whichever port we were in. So in Cozumel, for example, until we were seated at a restaurant, we had to wear a mask.

I think they're still figuring out which procedures really work.

For example, you could sit at the swim-up bar in the pool, but you couldn't sit at a bar on the ship.

They held a dance party one night, and instead of hosting it in one of the lounges, they had it at the ice-skating arena where there was more space. And they had these lights shining on the floor so you could see where your area was.

Some activities were missing Royal Caribbean does a fun adults-only scavenger hunt that it wasn't able to host with social distancing. For karaoke, they were cleaning the microphone between people. For the classes, they had spaced-out seating. Things were just done differently.

Also, unless your reservation was linked to another guest's, you couldn't dine together. So I saw one of my friends at the restaurant, and our reservations were about 40 minutes apart, but he couldn't come to my table and eat with me. But he could order a drink and sit at the opposite side of my table, which was funny.

I went with a friend and had about 25 friends on board, but if I was sailing by myself and didn't know a soul, it would have been a little more difficult to socialize because of the protocols.

I'll almost be sad to see when things go back to normal because you never had to wait for an elevator or look for a pool seat.

The staff was really great and eager to have everyone back on board. Every single person, no matter which hall or promenade you were walking through, said, "Hello, thank you for sailing with us again."

You could see they were very cautious because their jobs depended on it. At one point, a server tripped and spilled some wine in the restaurant and started crying. You could tell they were on edge and wanted to make sure things went great, but they're always going above and beyond anyway.

It's still a struggle for the people in the Bahamas and Cozumel, which are two of the biggest cruise ports. A lot of the businesses aren't open, and my favorite car-rental place in Cozumel had to end its lease right at the port because it couldn't support it anymore and moved down the street.

One day, I got back on the ship, sat on my balcony, and just started crying. I was so beside myself and texting my husband and my friend saying "I just feel so bad" because there are people just begging you to come shop.

I wish I could have spent even more money than I did, and thankfully, everyone in my group felt the same way. Tourism can't come back fast enough.

I was all in my feels. It broke my heart.

I'm also glad I'm scheduled for another cruise in August out of Florida because I'm interested in seeing how that sailing is. In Florida, it's now illegal to ask to see someone's vaccination record, so the cruise line will instead have additional testing and a different onboard experience.

My husband and I might even book a last-minute sailing in July.

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If you love travel then Netflix’s The World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals is your next watch – Woman & Home

Posted: at 3:04 pm

Going on vacation may feel like a distant memory as travel restrictions continue to put paid to our plans, but Netflix is serving us with a brand new show to fulfill our travel needs.

The World's Most Amazing Vacation Rentals is an eight-part series on Netflix, showcasing 24 of the world's weirdest and wackiest places to stay on vacation.

With the help of three experts: Million Dollar Listing's star Luis D. Ortiz, interior designer Megan Batoon and travel influencer Jo Franco, viewers get to explore inside some of the world's most incredible vacation rentals.

From treehouses to private islands and even a cave condo, there's something for all tastes and budgets on this innovative new show.

And, what's better is all of the rentals are available to rent on platforms like Airbnb, so you can add them straight to your bucket list.

(Image credit: Netflix )

Each of the experts is in charge of bringing something slightly different to the show, with Luis Ortiz championing luxury properties, Megan ensuring she's finding style on an affordable budget and Jo who is keen to add a slice of something differentfocussing on properties that are entirely out-of-the-box.

You'll see the trio travel to a beach house in Bali, a private island in the Bahamas, an igloo in Finland and so many more incredible places. It's enough to give you instant FOMO.

More from woman&home: Wild camping in Scotlandeverything you need to know The best lodges with hot tubs, don't miss these Scottish gems Bare all on the UK's best nudist beaches for families and couples

(Image credit: Netflix)

With the world opening up again and the prospect of travel back on the cardsjust how easy is it to find your own hidden gem on Airbnb?

Whether it's for a cosy staycation or something further afield, travel blogger, Jo, told Architectural Digest, "Everywhere we went, I would look geographically where most people havent gone."

As is happening with the van life travel trend, rather than follow the path well-travelled, look outside the box.

"That is my trick. Avoid the top-10 list and look for the people, culture, and festivals. Sometimes that is the catalyst to get you somewhere you might not otherwise go."

(Image credit: Netflix )

Stream The World's Most Amazing Vacation Rentals on Netflix now. But be warned, there are only eight episodesdon't binge them all at once!

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If you love travel then Netflix's The World's Most Amazing Vacation Rentals is your next watch - Woman & Home

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House Republicans unveil legislative plan to break up Big Tech and stop censorship – Yahoo News

Posted: at 3:03 pm

Under pressure to come up with a conservative approach to holding Big Tech companies accountable, House Republicans announced on Wednesday an agenda that would make it easier to break up tech companies in court and challenge unfair censorship.

House Judiciary Committee Republicans, led by ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio, said their agenda would speed up and strengthen antitrust enforcement, hold Big Tech accountable for censorship, and increase transparency around tech companies' content moderation decisions.

The proposals in the agenda will be introduced as legislation in the coming weeks by House Judiciary Republicans after they consult House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and other top Republicans.

Big Tech has targeted conservatives for far too long. House Judiciary Republicans have had enough," Jordan told the Washington Examiner.

"We believe that this agenda will serve as the Republican platform to take on Big Tech going forward and unite our party to reject Big Techs cancel culture practices," he added.

APPLE APPS, GOOGLE SEARCH, AND AMAZON BASICS FACE DRASTIC CHANGES FROM BIPARTISAN HOUSE ANTITRUST BILL

The Republican agenda is meant to provide an alternative to the six bipartisan anti-Big Tech bills passed in June by the Judiciary Committee that many Republicans, including Jordan and McCarthy, oppose.

They claim the bills, six sweeping antitrust bills aimed at reining in tech companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook, fail to address the censorship of conservatives.

Instead, the House Judiciary Republican agenda suggests proposals to make it easier to seek legal remedies against Big Tech companies' content moderation decisions by allowing individuals to sue the companies for censorship and overhaul the tech companies' tech liability protections.

Republicans want to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the controversial law that gives online platforms legal immunity for third-party content, to ensure content moderation decisions "are done in good faith, based on objectively reasonable criteria," according to the Big Tech agenda document obtained by the Washington Examiner.

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The Republicans will introduce a proposal to require that large social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, make their content moderation decision and censorship actions publicly available and force them to pay a "massive fine," the agenda said, for failing to do so.

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The Republican agenda also proposes making it easier to break up the Big Tech companies altogether by expediting trial court consideration of antitrust cases and empowering state attorneys general to utilize the same fast-track legal procedures available to the federal government.

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Tags: News, Policy, Big Tech, Jim Jordan, House Judiciary Committee, House Republicans, Kevin McCarthy, Censorship, Monopoly, Antitrust, Section 230

Original Author: Nihal Krishan

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House Republicans unveil legislative plan to break up Big Tech and stop censorship - Yahoo News

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READ IT: Trump lawsuits against Twitter, Facebook, Google over alleged big tech censorship – Fox News

Posted: at 3:03 pm

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he will lead class-action lawsuits against Twitter, Google and Facebook over alleged censorship, declaring that "big tech is out of control" and is functioning as "the de-facto censorship arm of the U.S. government."

"While the social media companies are officially private entities, in recent years they have ceased to be private with the enactment and their historical use of Section 230, which profoundly protects them from liability," Trump said as he announced the lawsuits in conjunction with the America First Policy Institute.

TRUMP TO SUE FACEBOOK, TWITTER, GOOGLE OVER ALLEGED CENSORSHIP, SAYS THEY'VE CEASED TO BE PRIVATE

"It is in effect a massive government subsidy, these companies have been co-opted, coerced and weaponized by government actors to become the enforcers of illegal, unconstitutional censorship," Trump added.

Trump was booted from Twitter, Facebook and Google's YouTube earlier this year after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. The companies said that his false claims that the presidential election risked future violence. But Trump's supporters say that the companies are engaging in politically-motivated censorship.

Trump's suit likely faces an uphill battle, according to experts, who say the First Amendment can't apply to private companies, even if they do benefit from government policies like Section 230.

"I don't think the lawsuit has much chance of success because it first and foremost accuses the companies of violating the U.S. Constitution, and the U.S. Constitution only restricts government," Vanderbilt Law School Professor Brian Fitzpatrick told Fox News. "It does not restrict what private parties can and cannot do."

Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Wednesday, July 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

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In response to Trump's argument that the companies are essentially public because of Section 230, Fitzpatrick said, "All of us benefit in some way from some law but that does not transform all of us into the government It has zero chance of success. I think it's mainly for publicity, it's not to get real relief in a court."

But Trump nevertheless warned that the power of social media companies is growing to be too great.

"There is no better evidence that big tech is out of control than the fact that they banned the sitting president of the United States earlier this year," Trump added. "If they can do it to me they can do it to anyone."

Read Trump's lawsuit against Twitter HERE, the lawsuit against Facebook HERE, and his lawsuit against Google HERE.

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CNN and MSNBC ignore Trump press conference on big tech lawsuit while Fox News cuts away – The Independent

Posted: at 3:03 pm

Cable news networks CNN and MSNBC declined to air Donald Trumps press conference announcing a class action lawsuit against Silicon Valleys tech giants while Fox News cut away before the former president began reliving his list of grievances over the election, the Capitol riot and Hunter Bidens laptop.

Right-wing cable station Newsmax TV continued covering the press conference in full.

The broadcaster double-downed on its coverage of the event, promoting an upcoming interview with Mr Trump to discuss the lawsuit later on Wednesday.

Mr Trump announced the class-action lawsuit against the three major tech giants and their respective CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai over what he called blatant violations of the constitution.

Facebook, Twitter and Google kicked Mr Trump off their platforms in the wake of the Capitol riot by a mob of his supporters on 6 January.

The former president announced he would be the lead plaintiff representing a group of broader people he argues have had their First Amendment rights violated.

The major networks began cutting away from Mr Trump, or completely ignoring him, following his election loss to Joe Biden on 3 November last year. ABC, CBS and NBC all cut short the presidents White House address to the nation as he claimed the presidential election was being stolen.

MSNBC cut away during the 5 November address while CNN aired it in full before anchor Anderson Cooper called Mr Trump an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun realising his time was over.

Since that moment, networks have continued to scale back on their unfettered live airing of Mr Trumps speeches and announcements, with even Fox News becoming more judicious in covering his remarks after leaving office.

Silicon Valley, meanwhile, completely memory-holed the ex-presidents accounts following the 6 January Capitol riots, leading to todays class-action lawsuit.

After an hour-long criticism of Silicon Valley that was mostly ignored by the major broadcasters, Mr Trump ended his press conference bemoaning the mainstream media and network news not covering whats going on, pointing to the violence and people being killed on a weekly basis in Democrat-run cities.

Why youre not talking about it, youre not helping Biden, youre not helping the Democrats, youre hurting the country, Mr Trump said of the media.

If the people dont hear this youll never be able to solve the problem The loss of human life on a weekly basis and you turn on these major newscasts and a lot of people are watching and its not even mentioned, you have to change, youve got to get your credibility back, you dont have the credibility, you have to get it back.

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CNN and MSNBC ignore Trump press conference on big tech lawsuit while Fox News cuts away - The Independent

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Bet on Big Tech in the U.S. or China? Traders stake their claims – CNBC

Posted: at 3:03 pm

In the battle of China tech versus U.S. tech, there's been one clear winner this year.

The technology giants in the U.S. are back at their recent highs, up 15% in 2021, while the CQQQ China tech ETF is lower. Tech names on the mainland continue to struggle as Beijing cracks down on companies such as Alibaba in an anti-monopoly push.

So, should investors stick with the winners in the U.S. or bet on the underdogs in Chinese tech?

The answer depends on the reasoning behind China's latest moves, according to Gina Sanchez, CEO of Chantico Global and chief market strategist at Lido Advisors.

"If this is truly just an antitrust, anti-competitiveness push, then you can argue that a lot of the bad news is really priced in to these stocks. They have just gotten pummeled and the top stocks in the CQQQ are all well below their five-year and 10-year P/E levels which is to say they could look very attractive," Sanchez told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Thursday.

The CQQQ ETF, which holds stocks such as Tencent and Bilibili, trades at 27 times trailing earnings. In February, it hit a peak of 52 times.

"If this is more than that, if this is a matter of the Chinese government expressing its desire to have key corporates go along with their social agenda, then this could actually morph into something bigger," said Sanchez.

China's five-year plan, she pointed out, aims to strengthen the domestic base, broadening wealth creation and boosting consumption power. This could put pressure on its domestic tech companies, she said.

"If this is actually a move to force wages higher, to force broader wealth sharing and to force wealth creation, then in fact the margins that we've seen in these companies could actually be changing and the business model could be changing and the PEs that we've been used to may no longer be as applicable," said Sanchez. "That's the risk that we're playing right now."

Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, agreed that long-term issues remain for Chinese tech stocks. However, after weakness in the first half of the year, they could be due for a short-term bounce.

"Looking at the chart of the CQQQ, it's formed an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. Of course, a head-and-shoulders pattern tends to be a bearish one so an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern is a bullish one," Maley said during the same segment.

"It has to break that neckline that's up at the $85 level. if we can break above that level, it would surprise a few people, catch them off sides and cause the China tech stocks to outperform for a couple of months," said Maley.

The CQQQ ETF traded just above $81 a share on Friday. It would need to rally 5% to get to $85.

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Bet on Big Tech in the U.S. or China? Traders stake their claims - CNBC

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We need to kick Big Tech out of the Metaverse – Wired.co.uk

Posted: at 3:03 pm

The global pandemic has pushed us all indoors and further online. We work, learn, live and play in virtual spaces and digital communities. We spend time with friends via a screen and a Zoom filter and explore fictional and ancient worlds on gaming or e-learning platforms. Video game worlds have become so much more than play, with players hanging out in lobbies and splurging billions on the latest skins and avatar mods, or enjoying concerts in virtual reality. Cryptocurrency-backed digital artworks such as BEEPLEs record-breaking Everydays: the First 5000 Days witnessed a sudden boom, and burst into the mainstream. We are marching toward what author Neal Stephenson called the Metaverse: a global, interconnected galaxy of virtual worlds, avatars, online communities, and mixed reality. Stephenson first conceived the Metaverse in 1992 in his novel Snow Crash, now widely considered a science fiction classic. More and more, this concept is leaving the realm of sci-fi, and entering our current reality.

But curb your enthusiasm. As things stand, this new reality is already shaping up along the familiar, proprietary, monopolistic lines that have characterised and dogged the most recent phase of the internets evolution. The platforms where the Metaverse is being created have become walled gardens, increasingly centralised and controlled by corporate interests. Facebook owns WhatsApp, Instagram and Oculus, giving them ownership of our friends, our behaviour, our gait, eye movement and emotional state. Google, Amazon and Apple all are vying to build the next dominant VR and gaming platforms, hoping to build upon their data dominance and entrenched market positions.

That is no small risk. Our past reluctance to challenge the dangers of black-box algorithms, opaque curation systems and predatory privacy practices has already brought the world a splurge of disinformation and manipulation, the rise of pernicious conspiracy theories and the triumph of surveillance capitalism. As we enter the age of the Metaverse we are sleepwalking into a future where continuing to ignore these red flags could be catastrophic where the true danger is not just that we are known, but that we can be led.

Virtual reality developers will be familiar with the concept of redirected walking a clever technique to cause a player to walk in circles while thinking they are walking in a straight line. It allows you to explore huge dungeons in the comfort of your living room without ever walking into the wall, as you are nudged in the directions the game developers want you to take. Its classic misdirection, and surprisingly easy to do a little visual nudge here, an audio cue there and before you know it, you're facing the way you came without ever realising you've been turned around.

In the same way, what we see, who we speak to, and what we learn is being manipulated every day, turning our opinions this way and that. Facebook decides which of our friends we keep track of and what news we see; Twitter and YouTube control who is recommended, who is monetised, and who gets de-platformed; Google orchestrates the direction and spin of our search results. As movement-tracking, eye-tracking, neural input and biometrics are integrated to enrich our experience in the Metaverse, these platforms will become even more deft at inferring our moods and use them to manipulate our opinions, sources of information and community in real time.

As that data is collected, shared, sold and inevitably hacked, it will be weaponised by those seeking profit or new ways to hurt or intimidate by ruthless advertisers, hateful trolls and malicious state actors. Social media and voice assistant data will allow predators to graduate from text-chat to deepfake videos of grandma Facetiming our children to have them unlock the front door. Todays Twitter harassment pales against the future ability to target Jewish people with mixed-reality recreations of deathcamps in their front yards, or bombard sexual assault survivors with violent imagery on their walk to work. Automated, cross-reality illusions, tailor-made by using intimate knowledge of each individuals life and mental states will take disinformation on a whole new level, destroying our ability to trust any source of information. If the rise of QAnon worried you, brace yourself for QAnon in VR.

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We need to kick Big Tech out of the Metaverse - Wired.co.uk

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Ravi Shankar Prasad: The minister who took on big tech over compliance – Business Standard

Posted: at 3:03 pm

While Digital India, PLI for electronics have been big focus areas for him, Prasad will be remembered for sending a strong message to FB, WhatsApp and Twitter to follow the rules of the land

Topics Ravi Shankar Prasad|Twitter|big tech

On Wednesday evening, after the President accepted his resignation, the former Electronics and Information Technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad changed his Twitter bio to "Member of Parliament from Patna Sahib Lok Sabha, Bihar. BJP worker".

Prasad has had a long stintseven yearsin his role as the IT minister for the country, in a government focused heavily on technology and digitalisation. Programmes like Digital India, the Performance-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for electronics manufacturing, Common Service Centres, the Business Process Outsourcing ...

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First Published: Wed, July 07 2021. 19:22 IST

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Ravi Shankar Prasad: The minister who took on big tech over compliance - Business Standard

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How Facebook And Big Tech Wage Publicity Wars Through Close Ties With Small Businesses – Forbes

Posted: at 3:03 pm

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When Facebook wanted to turn up the heat on Apple earlier this year in a dispute about ads and data privacy, Facebook brought some ringers to the fight. In a prominent online ad campaign, it featured several small businesses discussing how Apples decision to allow users to turn off data collection would not only eat away at Facebooks trillion-dollar market cap, it would hurt the little guys, too, limiting the effectiveness of Facebooks targeted ads.

The marketing tugged at the heartstrings, highlighting the imperilment of what seemed like ordinary mom-and-pop-type companies. But at least two of the featured small businesses, Morgan Miller Plumbing in Grandview, Missouri, and Enlightened Marketing in Windsor, Colorado, actually have deep connections to Facebook, part of a familiar Big Tech strategy to use relationships with small businesses and pro-small-business lobbyist groups in public-policy PR campaigns, according to new research from the nonpartisan Tech Transparency Project.

They're portraying these as sort of an upswelling of grassroots, small-business support for Big Tech rather than what they really are, which is this very highly cultivated group of mouthpieces, says Katie Paul, the Tech Transparency Projects director.

In the recent example of Facebooks campaign, Morgan Millers founder, Jeff Morgan, says in his official bio on his company website that he has had the privilege of visiting Facebook headquarters to share ideas. Meanwhile, Enlightened Marketing founder Jeremy Howie belongs to Facebooks Small Business Council, an advisory group set up by the social network to help it better understand its small business customers. Moreover, Howie, on his companys website, says hes also visited Facebook HQ several times, met with Facebook Chief Operating OfficerSheryl Sandberg and has taken part in several internal Facebook beta tests.

Moreover, the researchers point out, both Morgan Millers CEO, Stella Crewse, and Enlightened Marketings founder, Howie, sit on the board of the Connected Commerce Council. The pro-small-business lobbying group, known as 3C, counts Amazon, Google and Square as official partners; Facebook was also one until recently, a 3C spokesman says. (3C appreciates the investment of our partner companies in our education programs and general support of 3C member companies, the lobbying groups website reads.)

To be clear, theres nothing illegal about creating ad campaigns that could strike some viewers as less than wholly authentic. Facebook makes no apologies for working directly with some of the 200 million businesses on our platform to showcase how they are able to reach new customers and create jobs in their communities, a Facebook spokesperson says. We are public about our efforts, including creating opportunities for small businesses to give feedback and advice to us and to each other. We will continue to offer free services and affordable advertising that used to only be available to the biggest advertisers.

But it is illustrative of the tightly coordinated inner workings of Big Techs fights in these public policy battles. Back when the antitrust movement against Big Tech started up in 2019, 3C produced pro-Big Tech marketing aimed to sway Congress that featured Myles Hagan, the owner of Geoffs Farmhouse Tables in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, and several other small businesses, according to an earlier Tech Transparency Project report. Without companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon, I would not have been able to find a customer base beyond the borders of my beloved Palmetto state, Myles Hagan said in one press release. Small businesses like mine tend to get hurt when Congress goes after the big guys. And sometimes these small businesses even get recycled: While Morgan Miller appeared most recently in a Facebook campaign, it also appeared in a 2020 and a 2021 Google marketing campaign heralding the benefit of its tools for small businesses.

3C was founded in 2018 by Jake Ward, a former public relations executive and, briefly, a press secretary for Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican. In the past, 3C has submitted comments from small businesses to the FTC that supported digital tools from Big Tech like digital payments and videoconferencing; flown other small businesses into Washington to meet with regulators and legislative staff; and assembled press statements like this one, in which it argued against the governments new antitrust cases against Big Tech and included quotes from small businesses praising those large companies.

3C, which wouldnt comment for this story, isnt the only firm devoted to helping Big Tech defend itself in this manner. Another active lobbying group identified by the Tech Transparency Project is the Small Business Roundtable, a Washington, D.C.-based organization founded by two Democratic political operatives, Rhett Buttle and John Stanford. Last May, the Small Business Roundtable and Facebook partnered on a report, State of Small Business. The document cited findings drawn from a survey of 68,000 small businesses already active on Facebook. Given this background, their main conclusion isnt too surprising, that digital tools had been crucial in shoring up their failing companies. Sandberg publicly promoted the report in a press release and through op-eds, and the company also used it in paid advertising campaigns online.

Big Tech has got this group of small businesses that they can tap, and theyre pre-vetted: They know theyre going to be on message, says Paul, the Tech Transparency Project director. Its just very easy for them to keep going back to that well because these guys are part of the team.

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Big Tech executives find new frontier in FreightTech – FreightWaves

Posted: at 3:03 pm

The supply chain industry has accepted its technological revolution.

Investors have flooded supply chain tech startups with billions in capital $7.7 billion in Q1 alone, a 355% increase year-over-year to address the inefficiency that has historically plagued the industry.

These same startups have seen increasing valuations around 100% year-over-year for late-stage startups, as questions on supply chain resiliency flood earnings calls, while government administrations call on specialized task forces to address supply chain disruptions.

All of this attention is attracting Big Tech executives to the industry, filling roles in product development and capital deployment to consult the innovators behind this technological insurgence.

Many of these leaders gravitate toward the opportunity to be a part of the supply chains own version of the 1990s Information Revolution and the industrys startup founders are welcoming these assets with open arms.

Inefficiencies allow value creation

The fragmentation of the supply chain industry is one of the leading factors attracting Big Tech executives to one of the last industries yet to embrace the technology needed to eliminate its inefficiencies.

Mark Hoyt, former chief financial officer of Groupons Europe, Middle East and Africa finance function, spoke with FreightWaves about his transition last month to Loadsmart, a digital freight brokerage, as the companys new CFO.

Im [working] on the floor with everybody else and Im able to hear whats actually happening with our shippers and carriers, he said. My eyes have been opened to how much commerce takes place in the US and how important logistics is to the entire underpinning of the US economy. There are opportunities for us to step in and help make this overall process more efficient.

With Loadsmarts $90 million Series C raise from late 2020, Hoyt will be able to take his experience at the two-sided marketplace Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) and apply it to the same business model Loadsmart is building for its customers.

With our healthy balance sheet and the cash infusion we raised in November, we are putting capital to work, he said. We are starting to add new solutions to our platform and looking to leverage other outside technologies that would take us 18 to 24 months to build. When we combine all of that within our platform, you can create this multiplier effect where we can generate more value for our customers.

Convoys recent Big Tech recruits have found the same attraction to the inefficient industry. Mark Okerstrom, the president and COO and acting CFO of Convoy described to FreightWaves the challenges of the industry that mirrored the problems he helped solve during his tenure at Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) and Vrbo.

Its similar to what we did with Vrbo at Expedia, he said. Small hotels were unable to compete with a lot of the big hotels because they didnt have the big marketing budgets and other assets that they have.

We democratized all of that. We found the same on the carrier side, small owner-operators dont have big marketing budgets. They dont have big sales teams to go and sign up freight from around the country, so they sign up with Convoy and we give them full access to that.

Solving these inefficiencies in a groundbreaking way is something that fuels these innovators.

Coming to Convoy is bringing me back to my roots, said Dorothy Li, past vice president of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and newly appointed CTO of Convoy.

What Convoy is doing is really democratizing the set of services for smaller companies. What I have been doing at Amazon Web Services is really making data and analytics very accessible to even nontechnical people. Its a combination of building a user interface thats friendly, but also building platforms that allow other people to build on top of our services as well.

Revolution of the human experience

Li wasnt just attracted to innovating an industry desperately needing innovation. What brought her real joy was being a part of a revolution that affects the lives and habits of people around the world.

Convoy has this bold and big mission of transporting the worlds goods with a network of endless capacity and zero waste, she said. I think about this mission and I think about the fact that if we fulfill this mission, the world is better off and not many opportunities have that. The bigger the company is, the better it is for the planet.

Christian Lee shared similar thoughts after joining the team at Transfix, a transportation solutions provider.

I think what we are doing at Transfix goes much deeper than providing transportation services in the sense that the fundamental premise of the business model is less waste, the former CFO of WeWork told FreightWaves. Its a massive win for everyone involved.

That is the very definition of the business were building is one that reduces waste in every aspect of the transportation ecosystem. That gets me really excited because I think theres a way to tell that story and investment in that just continues to have benefits for literally every part of society.

Supply chain needs them

As lucky as the industry is to be going through an attractive technology revolution, industry leaders need these individuals to help strategize the development, deployment, and ultimately, the recruitment of individuals to build these solutions.

Ben Eachus, co-founder and CEO of the warehousing and fulfillment platform Flowspace, explained to FreightWaves the importance of bringing on the companys new chief product officer, Sam Daoud.

We want to build one of the biggest fulfillment networks in the country and to do that you need people who have both seen what that looks like and have done it themselves, he said. Sams experience building a successful e-commerce business from the ground in the Middle East and at Amazon is the reason we felt strongly about bringing Sam on to the team.

He explained that the experience building teams to create this innovation is a big piece of the equation as well.

We are trying to solve a really big problem in fulfillment and in order to do that you want the best, Eachus said. I think people get excited about being around people with a track record of success. That in turn has helped us recruit even more people with track records to solve these problems.

Dan Lewis, the founder and CEO of Convoy, described the similar reasoning behind recruiting Li to build innovative teams to build tools for problems that have been deeply rooted in transportation for decades.

Amazon Prime and the Kindle were groundbreaking and they set the stage for many other companies to try to build similar tools, he said. I think a big part of her experience is thinking about these problems that are uncharted and figuring out how to get people whove been doing it the same way to do them differently.

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Carriers bet on Capacity-as-a-Service

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Big Tech executives find new frontier in FreightTech - FreightWaves

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