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Facebook court is now in session

Good morning! This Friday, Facebook's Oversight Board is getting ready to hear cases, the Senate wants to hear even more from Big Tech, and what it's like to spend your days and nights canvassing over Zoom.
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After months of preparation and internal discussion, Facebook's oversight board (the real one, not to be confused with the Real Oversight Board, which is not the real one) is getting ready to hear cases. More importantly, its leaders explained how the thing's supposed to work — and set a blueprint I expect other tech companies will follow.
The board won't do much of anything before the election. But when it does, there will be three ways it can receive cases for review:
Only in that last case does the board definitely have to engage; otherwise, it decides which issues to weigh in on. Whenever it does take up a case, it will announce it publicly and ask for public input. (It's all very intense and Supreme Court-y — it's gonna make a great Aaron Sorkin show.)
The big question: How much power does the board have? At first glance, a lot! When it says something should be taken down (presumably with a "Gladiator"-style thumbs-down), Facebook will take it down. Beyond that? It's kind of up to Facebook:
The oversight board is a good idea, and could be a useful thing. Or it could be nothing more than a convenient way for Mark Zuckerberg to avoid complicated decisions, right up until the moment he doesn't feel like listening anymore. And without more real-world consequences, what's to stop him?
Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg should start real estate shopping in D.C. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted yesterday to subpoena both CEOs to come in front of the committee about The New York Post's Hunter Biden saga. No subpoenas have been served yet, but the threat might be enough to get the two men to appear "willingly."
This sounds like it'll be the knock-down-drag-out hearing over alleged conservative bias on social platforms:
These two hearings are going to be exhausting, and I expect they're not going to accomplish very much. Par for the course with the recent Section 230 fight, really. But I am curious to hear how Dorsey explains Twitter's actions on the Post story, after he's already said the company handled it badly.
Anna Kramer writes: Every night at 6 p.m., Democratic-party organizer Pilar McDonald logs onto Zoom to host a phone-banking session. After some chit chat with the volunteers, they get down to business: Each person in each little square mutes their mics and starts dialing Iowa voters.
Organizers traditionally lead get-out-the-vote campaigns in person, canvassing door-to-door across their assigned region. But this is 2020. So McDonald and other organizers spend about 20 hours a week hosting Zoom phone-banking sessions, in addition to making calls of their own.
But virtual platforms have made it easier for volunteers to engage with campaigns, said McDonald and others, which makes the whole experience worth it to them.
The DNC and Democratic organizers have long been lambasted for their comparatively poor tech capabilities, and 2020 has been more of the same. Many Republicans continue to door-knock despite the pandemic, and while some Republicans are phone-banking as well, the pandemic has motivated an important technological development that's been missing for Democrats — and organizers told me the Zoom-based network will last well beyond 2020.
Keep reading: Here's Anna's full story on the newly Zoom-filled canvassing process.
Strengthening healthcare interoperability and cybersecurity in the COVID era
A stronger healthcare system means connecting people, data and technology for a frictionless experience across care settings. At Philips, we're developing interoperable solutions that seamlessly transfer data so clinicians can stay focused on what matters most: the patient.
The Facebook ad boycott really did bring about change, said Facebook's Carolyn Everson:
Phil Spencer had a good explanation for what it meant for Microsoft to lean into gaming – and of the mistake too many companies make:
Expensify CEO David Barrett emailed all his customers and told them to vote for Biden:
The key to good design during a pandemic is flexibility, Google's Ivy Ross said:
Josh Buckley is the new CEO of Product Hunt. He's also investing in the company. Ryan Hoover, Product Hunt's founder, is staying on as a strategic advisor.
BitTorrent is buying DLive and combining with it to create a company called BitTorrent X, which is going to be heavily focused on all things blockchain. The company also said there's more to come on that front in November.
Katelin Holloway is the newest partner at Seven Seven Six. She joins from Reddit, where she was head of people and culture.
More from Anna: Dutch security researcher Victor Gevers claimed he managed to log into Trump's Twitter account on the fifth try yesterday. The password? "maga2020!" (That's apparently the same password used for the Wi-Fi at his rallies.) Twitter said this hack shouldn't be possible and that there's no evidence it happened, but Gevers claimed that the Secret Service thanked him for addressing the problem.
Strengthening healthcare interoperability and cybersecurity in the COVID era
A stronger healthcare system means connecting people, data and technology for a frictionless experience across care settings. At Philips, we're developing interoperable solutions that seamlessly transfer data so clinicians can stay focused on what matters most: the patient.
Today's Source Code was written by David Pierce, with help from Shakeel Hashim. Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you tomorrow.
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