A Meta-Coincidence? Absolutely. Pure Chance from the Zucksters
August 15, 2022
I noted to separate news items about Meta (formerly Zuckbook).
The first item “WhatsApp Boss Says No to AI Filters Policing Encrypted Chat” reports:
Will Cathcart, who has been at parent company Meta for more than 12 years and head of WhatsApp since 2019, told the BBC that the popular communications service wouldn’t downgrade or bypass its end-to-end encryption (EE2E) just for British snoops, saying it would be “foolish” to do so and that WhatsApp needs to offer a consistent set of standards around the globe. “If we had to lower security for the world, to accommodate the requirement in one country, that … would be very foolish for us to accept, making our product less desirable to 98 percent of our users because of the requirements from 2 percent,” Cathcart told the broadcaster. “What’s being proposed is that we – either directly or indirectly through software – read everyone’s messages. I don’t think people want that.”
Okay, customer centricity, clear talk, and sincere. Remember this is the Zuck outfit talking. With regulations making visible functions that some believe have been running on certain high-traffic nodes for some time, the principled stand of the Zuck’s WhatsApp is interesting. Keep in mind that the comments, according to the cited article were made on the BBC and referenced a desire to have child porn monitoring implemented. Yep, the Brexit outfit rejected by the Zuck outfit.
The second item with a bigly, Google-ized headline “Nick Clegg Joins Exodus of Silicon Valley Execs in Return to London: Ex-Deputy PM Will Split Time between UK and California to Spend More Time with Elderly Parents – After Instagram Boss Also Moved to the Capital” states:
In its results last week, Meta’s total costs and expenses increased 22 per cent year on year in the first quarter, while headcount was up 32 per cent. Net income plunged by 36 percent compared to the previous quarter, to $6.7 billion.
Coincidence? Nope, revenue crash, Kardashian pushback on Instagram changes, EU and UK government scrutiny, and job opportunities for the next prime minister. Just chance. These coincidences say to me, “Yo, big trouble ahead because who wants to move in today’s travel unfriendly, Covid and Monkeypox ravaged environment?.” Obviously the Zucksters do.
Stephen E Arnold, August 15, 2022
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