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Robinhood the outlaw

Good morning! This Thursday, everybody has thoughts about Section 230, Robinhood keeps running into trouble, and everybody's spending big on 5G.
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Yesterday was the deadline for comment on the Trump administration's Section 230 executive order and the NTIA's subsequent petition to change it. And it turns out some people had some comments. Were many of them from bots? Were some of those bots pretending to be Mark Zuckerberg saying wild stuff? Yes and yes.
Protocol's Emily Birnbaum bravely waded through the insane, the off-topic and the deeply bizarre to find the most important and telling comments. Here are a few:
As with all these sorts of petitions and request-for-comments, most responses are either entirely fake or a copy-and-paste job:
The overarching sentiment, from people who seem to be writing their own words? People feel like they're being censored on online platforms for their conservative views.
Company comes along and makes previously complicated/expensive thing easy/free. Everybody loves Company! Company grows fast. People realize easy/free has both hidden costs and serious side effects, and that Company grew so fast it made some irresponsible decisions along the way. But Company is now so big and so popular that it has a massive bank account. Company thinks it can weather a few big storms. Usually Company is right. And through it all, most people still love Company! It's so easy/free! A few fines won't change their mind. But eventually, there's only so much controversy Company can handle. Things get messy for Company. (Unless Company is Facebook.)
Anyway, this time, Company is Robinhood.
On the one hand, things are great over at Robinhood: It's raised money three times this year, a total of $800 million, and is one of the hottest names in fintech. IPO rumors are everywhere.
On the other hand, it's hot in part because it's kind of a mess. Just yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC is investigating the company "over its early failure to fully disclose its practice of selling clients' orders to high-speed trading firms." And that's just the latest:
Robinhood's is a story as old as the internet, really. Now all that's left to see is whether it can weather controversy the way Facebook can.
In related news:Jack Randall, Robinhood's longtime head of communications, left the company this week. I'm not saying it's not a coincidence, but I'm not not saying that either.
Shakeel Hashim writes: This morning, Facebook announced that it's expanding its data transfer tool, allowing users to move their photos and videos from Facebook to Dropbox or Koofr. The tool was first launched in the U.S. earlier this year, allowing transfers to Google Photos, and the timing of this expansion is pretty telling.
Facebook's new tool will likely please regulators in the EU — and at the FTC, which is hosting a workshop on data portability on Sept. 22. In comments submitted ahead of the FTC hearing, Facebook said it "supports the passage of comprehensive federal privacy legislation in the United States, alongside dedicated portability legislation," and made it pretty clear that it has thoughts on what that legislation should look like. (It's shown support for Richard Blumenthal, Mark Warner and Josh Hawley's Access Act.) Showing a practical commitment to data portability could help it influence proceedings.
It also helps head off antitrust concerns: Facebook can point to the tool as evidence that it clearly doesn't stifle competition, because users can easily leave whenever they want. But as Privacy Valley's Gert-Jan Kroese wrote on LinkedIn last year, the real question is whether anyone will actually use these tools. When we asked Facebook how many people have transferred data to Google Photos, a spokesperson didn't give specific numbers, saying only "we've been pleased with the response so far." Wonder if regulators will be too?
Stronger care … from anywhere, to anywhere
A strong healthcare system can scale to meet increasing patient demands. At Philips, we're charting a new way forward by moving care beyond the hospital's walls with advanced virtual health capabilities that expand clinical reach and increase care team capacity.
An appeals court found that the NSA's phone-record collection was illegal, and Edward Snowden was thrilled:
On Protocol: In uncertain times, there's one place every company's placing bets, Accenture's Jimmy Etheredge said:
A number of advocacy groups are telling Joe Biden not to hire Facebook employees:
The current stock market has shades of the dot-com burst, Dick Costolo warned:
That's how many 5G licenses Dish bought in the most recent spectrum auction, as it tries desperately to become the fourth player in the wireless business now that Sprint's out of the game. Total cost? $913 million. But Verizon spent the most in the auction, dropping $1.9 billion for 557 licenses around the U.S.
DraftKings naming Michael Jordan as a special adviser to its board of directors is truly a match made in heaven. It'd be like giving Joey Chestnut a seat at the Nathan's table, or getting Tom Cruise to help you run a cybersecurity firm. Always good to get the people who know your product best!
Though I do wonder if DraftKings tried to get Pete Rose first.
Stronger care … from anywhere, to anywhere
A strong healthcare system can scale to meet increasing patient demands. At Philips, we're charting a new way forward by moving care beyond the hospital's walls with advanced virtual health capabilities that expand clinical reach and increase care team capacity.
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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