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Tech and politics: The problem with digital ads isn’t the technology, it’s that there isn’t enough online video content to run political ads against. That epiphany led Dan Beckmann to create the Programming Corporation of America, which, as Sasha Issenberg reports for Bloomberg, has developed a whole new digital political industry. His company pays freelance video makers to create cheap series in partnership with local media, with the political ads pre-sold. The content isn’t political: 99 Counties in Iowa! (And We’re Visiting Them All!) appeared on the website of the Des Moines Register, and Swimming Hole Secrets went on WMUR in Manchester, N.H.
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Conservative writer David French talked with NPR’s Terry Gross about what it’s like to be trolled and harassed by the alt-right. He says, “Twitter itself, I think, has a real problem on its hands. I mean, this is a platform that right now I use only because professionally I feel like I must. Every journalist is on Twitter. Following journalists on Twitter is a great way to see breaking news as it’s unfolding and emerging. And so for right now, it’s indispensable for our profession for a very limited purpose. But I know journalist after journalist, writer after writer, public figure after public figure who literally dreads opening their Twitter app right now.”
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In a clear victory for privacy advocates, the FCC approved new rules that will prevent broadband providers from collecting and using information about their subscribers’ web browsing, app use, location and financial information without their permission, Cecilia Kang reports for the New York Times.
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What sharing economy? Josh Eidelson takes a close look for Bloomberg at a quasi union called the Independent Drivers Guild, which is funded by Uber and created in partnership with the International Association of Machinists. As he points out, “The IDG isn’t a traditional union. Drivers didn’t vote for it. It has no formal collective-bargaining rights. And its very existence helps the company resist formal unionization.”
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The New York City Council just unanimously approved the “Freelance Isn’t Free Act,” which is designed to insure that people working in the gig economy get paid. Councilman Brad Lander introduced the legislation and the Freelancers Union played a big part in getting it passed, Noam Scheiber reports for The New York Times.
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Tech and equity: Don’t miss this story by Jessi Hempel of Backchannel about how Meetup, one of New York’s oldest tech companies, “ditched its boys club” management team and in the process transformed itself.
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