Since the company is so concerned about diversity, you’d think it would jump at the opportunity to disclose how the company’s diversity efforts are going ( Boston Globe).
#DEFINE GAWKER DRIVERS#
Hey, Uber, How’s That Pivot to Better Behavior Going?īack in April, when drivers demanded that Uber make it easier for riders to tip them, Uber declined, arguing that its customers’ unconscious racial biases would lead them to tip white drivers better than black drivers. Meanwhile, the director of operations at bitcoin trading firm Whaleclub says, “No clear fundamentals or catalysts are powering this rise in price.” Should be no surprise that it’s hard to tell why such an opaque currency is moving in one direction or another. Some say it’s related to China (more than 95% of bitcoin trading value is in yuan, after all), others say it might have something to do with the digital platform ethereum, which said it will trade bitcoin as well as another digital currency called ether. It’s now at its highest price in two years. As analyst Ken Elias puts it, “People have short-term memories and, really, the function of the automobile business has always been about the product.”Īfter a many-months-long drop, the price of bitcoin just surged to a 20-month high (Quartz). According to Karl Brauer, an analyst with Kelley Blue Book, “The company is looking far more progressive and forward-looking than they did even seven or eight months ago” (Quartz). The company is emphasizing its shift to electric cars. Profits are down, but they’re still profits, and if you don’t count currency issues, first-quarter operating earnings were roughly at the same level as last year ( WSJ). Despite its multiyear attempt to deceive regulators about its emissions shortcomings, the company is still profitable and analysts are positive. How long do companies have to pay for reprehensible behavior? Not long, it seems. It’s a symptom of our post-Citizens United world - those with the most cash get to control the speech - and it’s a reminder that at least one of the people behind Facebook (Thiel’s on the board) might not be as committed to openness as the company claims to be. And, as Michael Lazerow notes, Thiel’s secret war violates core Silicon Valley principles of trust and transparency. Thiel was deeply wronged by Gawker (the company outed him), but his response, using his considerable power as a billionaire to stifle speech he doesn’t like, is the most un-open, un-NewCo response possible.
Yet, despite how hateful Gawker’s product can be, what Peter Thiel is doing to Gawker, secretly funding lawsuits against it in an attempt to put it out of business, is much worse for the press and society as a whole. Its network of pageview-chasing, high-end-content-farm blogs are a pungent example of junk food masquerading as online news. What Gawker often does for a living can be despicable and cynical.
We Are Where We Work: Three tech giants re-imagine how they present themselves the world - and themselves. Hey, Uber, How’s That Pivot to Better Behavior Going? A demand for diversity numbers goes unanswered. The Bitcoin Roller Coaster Continues: No one know why. The Volkswagen Scandal Recedes: The emissions scandal isn’t going away, but the company is profitable. But one side is definitely more dangerous. There’s No Side To Root for in the Gawker-Thiel Battle.
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