Investigations, investigations, investigations. Big Tech’s regulatory reckoning might finally be here. It’s been hard to keep up with the Washington rumblings over the last few days, but things continued to escalate on Monday, with House Democrats promising a “top-to-bottom” antitrust investigation that will bring scrutiny to Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google. David Cicilline, the Democrat leading the probe, said he didn’t have “a lot of confidence” in federal agencies reported to be preparing their own inquiries. On Monday, reports emerged that the Federal Trade Commission would oversee any additional inquiries into Facebook, while the Department of Justice eyes new scrutiny of Apple. All four company’s stocks plunged Monday after reports of the feds’ plans.
[Brian Fung / CNN Business]
Recode Daily: Big Tech’s regulatory reckoning might finally be here
Plus: Another longtime Facebook hand takes the reins at Instagram.
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Another longtime Facebook hand takes the reins at Instagram. After Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger abruptly left their company last year, Facebook moved to put an executive long close to Mark Zuckerberg, Adam Mosseri, in the big chair (though his title is not CEO, but rather “head of Instagram.”) On Monday, Mosseri announced his second-in-command will be Justin Osofsky, Instagram’s new chief operating officer. Osofsky is an 11-year veteran of Facebook, which further cements Facebook’s grip on the photo-sharing app it acquired. Given that Instagram very well could be the future of Facebook, he’s a name to watch.
[Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg]
Donald Trump suggests consumers should stop using AT&T and thereby punish CNN. President Donald Trump floated the idea that people should stop subscribing to AT&T, which now owns CNN after acquiring Time Warner, because of his long-standing complaints over CNN’s coverage of him. It’s a tired argument, but shows the new responsibilities that the telecom company is accumulating along with its new journalism properties. “I believe that if people stoped [sic] using or subscribing to @ATT, they would be forced to make big changes at @CNN, which is dying in the ratings anyway. It is so unfair with such bad, Fake News! Why wouldn’t they act. When the World watches @CNN, it gets a false picture of USA. Sad!” Trump tweeted.
[Michael Grynbaum and Edmund Lee / New York Times]
Goodbye, iTunes. “The music store that changed the industry forever is an ugly old clunker, scrapped for parts,” writes Vox’s Kaitlyn Tiffany. Apple said Monday at its annual developers conference that the iTunes store would be broken into three component parts — with separate homes for podcasts, music, and television programming. Apple’s iTunes, which was created in 2003, harkens back to an earlier era of the internet. Few people use it now — except when you plug your phone into your computer and it loads automatically. Thankfully, that’s no more.
[Kaitlyn Tiffany / Vox]
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