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The 12 words that scare the gig economy

Good morning! This Friday, the White House might be looking to change the gig economy, Microsoft changed its game store commissions, the EU unveiled antitrust charges against Apple and everybody at Facebook is getting into VR.
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Just 12 words. "In a lot of cases gig workers should be classified as employees." That's all it took for U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh to send a chill up the spine of the entire gig economy.
The comments dampened the mood around gig companies. They had been optimistic in recent months, riding their Proposition 22 victory in California into a series of similar debates around the country and world. But a Labor Department rule would stop that in its tracks.
But this could be a moment for positive change by the companies. There seems to be a growing recognition in the industry that the way things currently work just … doesn't.
As offices reopen, people get more comfortable going out again and stimulus boosts start to dwindle, we're due for a full-fledged reckoning on the gig economy. It might start with an edict from Walsh's Labor Department, or it might come from one of the gig companies finally cracking the problem. But the gig economy has been a house of cards for too long. And something's going to give.
EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager announced antitrust charges against Apple this morning, with a specific focus on Apple Music and the App Store.
Apple's 15% to 30% commission is a big target in almost every antitrust fight against Apple. It's going to come up a lot in the trial with Epic starting next week. Apple's defense typically hinges on the fact that it's an industry standard for app stores, but that might be starting to change.
Solidarity around these numbers matters. If the industry standard starts to shift to a number like 12%, that will make it harder for anyone — no matter how competitive the market — to justify a higher number.
T-Mobile is making big network changes, and Dish CEO Charlie Ergen called foul:
Lamba School laid off 65 employees, and Austen Allred said it's part of a required restructuring:
U.K. government minister Oliver Dowden responded to soccer's social media boycott, and said change to stamp out online abuse is coming:
Spotify's Daniel Ek sees live audio as the next big universal social feature:
The internet has changed a lot since 1996 - internet regulations should too. It's been 25 years since comprehensive internet regulations passed. See why we support updated regulations on key issues, including: protecting people's privacy, enabling safe and easy data portability between platforms, preventing election interference and reforming Section 230.
Bill Nelson is the new NASA administrator. He has said some conflicting things about the agency's relationship with the private industry, so keep an eye on him going forward.
Alex Karp earned about $1.1 billion last year, Palantir said in a filing this week. Seems good?
Facebook asked for the FTC's antitrust case to be dropped after the Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that the FTC can't force defendants to pay back money. Facebook argues that means the FTC can't force it to undo previous actions … like buying Instagram, for instance.
On Protocol: Snap dropped coding terms like "master" and "slave," joining the trend as part of its ongoing efforts to increase diversity at the company.
Anna Kramer writes: In perhaps the first legitimate widespread use of VR in a workplace setting, Facebook is allowing all employees to expense the Oculus Quest VR 2 (meaning they can keep it even when they leave). Zuckerberg announced the new program in an internal workplace meeting, and it sounds like the thinking is that VR can be a health and wellness benefit because it's increasingly used in workout settings. It's also a brilliant PR move: What better way to get a massive group of tech-obsessed people to try things and make their friends nice and jelly?
2021 is the 25th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the last major update to internet regulation. It's time for an update to set clear rules for addressing today's toughest challenges. See how we're taking action on key issues and why we support updated internet regulations.
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Correction: An earlier version of this newsletter miscounted the number of words in Marty Walsh's statement. There are 12 of them.
Today's Source Code was written by David Pierce, with help from Anna Kramer and Shakeel Hashim. Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your weekend; see you Sunday.
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