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The new new rules of online politics

Good morning! This Friday, are Facebook's new politics rules enough? Is the Google antitrust case really coming? And is that a real Mario Kart in your living room?
Some housekeeping: Source Code will be taking a break for Labor Day, so we'll be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. Enjoy the long weekend!
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We're now less than two months from Election Day, and everyone's starting to realize that it's not going to be your average first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
Both Twitter and Facebook on Thursday put labels on President Trump's posts, in which he essentially urged people to try to vote twice. (Which, don't.) Twitter said two Trump tweets violated its rules "about civic and election integrity," and Facebook said, sort of coyly, that "voting by mail has a long history of trustworthiness in the U.S., and the same is predicted this year."
Tech companies are working together, and with officials, to make plans for all scenarios for this election, as we wrote last month. But what Facebook does might matter more than what any other company does, and to that end, Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday announced a bunch of new policies:
But is Facebook doing enough? Opinion on that is, as you'd expect, divided:
Whatever you make of the new policies, as always with Facebook, enforcement is the thing. And history says it won't go well. (See: Kenosha.)
There's a tricky logic behind all of this from Zuckerberg, though, which he ought to try to reconcile. He has always framed political ads as a net good for the political process, helping everyone be heard and get their message out. But somehow that now doesn't apply in the days right before people actually go to the polls? You can't have it both ways, Mark.
It's encouraging to see Facebook proactively trying to solve these problems and continuing to acknowledge that it really is influential in the democratic process. But critics continue to say that the problem with Facebook is … Facebook. Can the company fix its issues by tinkering around the edges, or is there something rotten at the core? The next two months will tell us a lot.
In related news: Pinterest, which cut off political ads in 2018, now won't even allow ads on politics-related searches. It's also giving staff time off to vote or work at the polls.
It's pretty clear now that the most important moment of the Big Tech Congressional hearing in July was when Tim Cook admitted that Apple had made a special deal with Amazon and others to collect a lower commission on in-app purchases. "It's available to anyone meeting the conditions, yes," Cook said. And just like that, every developer's ears perked up.
Apple seemed to start listening to developers this week, though.
This new friendliness can only go so far: I don't see Apple magnanimously dropping its commission fee to 10% anytime soon. But it's clear that, just like Facebook's finally reckoning with its outsize influence, Apple is starting to think more about the implications of its decisions. I guess a $2 trillion market cap makes you reflect on things?
The long-awaited, much-rumored, super-hyped Google antitrust case may be coming this month. The New York Times reported that "Attorney General William P. Barr overruled career lawyers who said they needed more time to build a strong case" against Google, and that he wants to bring the case as soon as possible.
Two interesting, semi-related data points on all of this:
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.
Suffice to say Evan Spiegel does not want to buy TikTok:
This recent digital transformation everyone's going through? Great for big companies and rough for startups, Box's Aaron Levie said:
Making "remote" or "distributed" offices work is less about physical space and more about how information moves, HelloOffice CEO Justin Bedecarre said:
Leading a team remotely is hard, and it's definitely different, Verizon's Tami Erwin said:
Alvina Antar is Okta's new CIO. She joins from the same job at Zuora, and joins as Okta tries to position itself for the remote-work future.
Gavin Orleow is Intuit's new VP of Global Partner Channels. He'd been working on partnerships at Microsoft for almost two decades, and is now the guy to go to for all things QuickBooks.
Carrie Wheeler is Opendoor's new CFO. She's been on the company's board for the last year, but is now leaving TPG Global to join full time. Gautam Gupta, who's held a bunch of C-level jobs at the company, is leaving to start something new.
Cher Wang is now CEO of HTC. Again. Yves Maitre is leaving after less than a year as CEO, so Wang, the company's co-founder and chairwoman, is now back at the helm. Maitre blamed COVID in part for his departure, as it forced him to be away from his family for nearly all of his tenure at the company.
For the next, I don't know, forever, when people say "why are you so convinced augmented reality is the future?" I'm just going to show them this new Nintendo video.
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.
Update: This newsletter was updated to properly reflect Alvina Antar's new job — she is Okta's new CIO, but not its first CIO.
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 weekend, see you Tuesday.
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