Image: The White House / Protocol
The techlash has reached peak nonsense

Good morning! This Thursday, Trump takes another swing at Big Tech, Planet Labs is going public, Google's getting sued over the Play Store, and nobody can beat built-in apps.
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Maybe the easiest way to get attention on the internet is to complain about being censored on the internet. At least that's former President Trump's strategy.
Trump stood behind an American flag-flanked podium at his Bedminster golf club yesterday to announce that he was suing Facebook, Google and Twitter over their decision to ban him. He called on the platforms to restore his account and on the court to toss out Section 230 as unconstitutional. And just like that, Trump was back to being the talk of the very platforms he claims have silenced him.
The suits are fundamentally unserious. Look no further than the Facebook complaint's citation of the 1996 "Community Decency Act" — not the Communications Decency Act — as evidence.
It's officially techlash silly season, with laws and lawsuits coming from seemingly every direction that willfully misread the First Amendment and its implications on private businesses. But they don't want to set policy; they just want to score political points.
These efforts all attempt to misuse The First Amendment, which prevents the government, not businesses, from infringing on people's speech. The people behind the bills and suits likely know that. They're just hoping their audiences don't.
Trump's team, meanwhile, is using some whiplash-inducing logic to iron out that wrinkle, arguing that the social media platforms banned him under so much pressure from Democrats in Congress that they effectively became state actors themselves.
The absurdity of Trump's argument doesn't mean that governments using pressure campaigns to influence tech companies' decisions isn't an issue worth addressing, as some legal scholars rightly pointed out Wednesday.
But if Trump really wants to crack down on Big Tech, blurring the line between the government and tech platforms in this way would only hurt his case. If something as simple as taking cues from Congress could turn a tech platform into a state actor, as Trump argues, surely that's an argument for even less government oversight of the industry than currently exists.
Perhaps the most ridiculous part of all this is that just last week, Trump's team launched a social network of its own called Gettr. Not only was Gettr immediately hacked, but in its terms of service, it clearly asserted its rights to block content and users as it so pleases — rights Section 230 protects.
The Chinese government isn't trying to cut down its tech industry, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, it's trying to help it:
Binance is doubling down on its regulatory compliance problem, CEO Changpeng Zhao said:
Satya Nadella proved he deserved to be Microsoft's board chair, former chair John Thompson said:
Auto companies should prepare to deal with a chip supply shortage for at least another year, Renault CEO Luca de Meo said:
Ajay Arora is the new SVP of product, commerce and experimentation for Disney's streaming division. Prior to that he was at Netflix, where he worked on lower subscription tiers for emerging markets.
Tracy Maleeff is joining Krebs Stamos Group as a security researcher. She was previously an information security analyst at The New York Times.
Planet Labs is going public. The Earth imaging company is getting SPAC'd by dMY Technology Group and will be valued at $2.8 billion in the deal.
Wise had a big first day on the London Stock Exchange. The fintech company notched an over $11 billion market value, much more than anticipated.
Recently, Micron announced new memory and storage innovations across its portfolio based on its industry-leading 176-layer NAND and 1α (1-alpha) DRAM technology. But what does "1α" mean, and just how amazing is it?
If you haven't yet seen it, immediately add Bo Burnham's "Inside" to your Netflix queue. It's technically a comedy special, but that doesn't quite cover it. It's really a meditation on the internet, social media and life in general.
It also features the bop of the summer, as far as we're concerned. It's called, simply, "Bezos." It's been a big summer for Jeff, really: He has a new job, he's heading to space and he has a hit single about him! Though like Zuck and "The Social Network," this may not be the cultural phenomenon he was hoping to become. The whole thing is seriously worth a watch, though.
Have another rec? Loved "Inside" and want to talk about it? Let us know by replying directly to this email.
Recently, Micron announced new memory and storage innovations across its portfolio based on its industry-leading 176-layer NAND and 1α (1-alpha) DRAM technology. But what does "1α" mean, and just how amazing is it?
Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to sourcecode@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you tomorrow.
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