Facebook refuses to send Zuckerberg to Canada

https://a16z.com/2019/05/23/po...Canadian parliament has demanded Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg attend a hearing this week in Ottawa, with direct summons for the two executives being sent to the company—but Facebook says they won't come.

Unlike how other countries have handled this—in the UK, the hearing went ahead with symbolic empty chairs for the CEO—Canadian politicians are mulling whether to hold Zuckerberg personally in contempt of parliament.

Facebook, for its part, says it's sending Kevin Chan and Neil Potts, public policy talking heads for Canada, and globally, instead, but it's not enough for Canada. Rightfully so, the country has repeatedly said that only these two alone could answer their questions properly:

"Knowing the structure of Facebook and how it is micro-managed right from the top, any change on the platform is done through Mr. Zuckerberg or through Ms. Sandberg."

Being held in contempt doesn't have immediate consequences, and it's largely seen as a move that would show that Facebook willingly blocked the progress of investigations into the company—which will be an important factor when later deciding how to properly punish or sanction it.

To end up there, politicians will have to vote on the matter later this week, but it would be a fascinating move if the company—and Zuckerberg—were directly held in contempt by an entire country. 

Facebook also faces a FTC ruling in the coming days that may see it fined up to $5 billion over privacy missteps, though The Wall Street Journal reports that the announcement is likely to be delayed by political problems.


Tab Dump

A peek inside the secretive factory where Apple tortures the 'secure enclave'
Lots to digest in this piece, but the key line that the company is trying to push is that its products aren't expensive like people claim—it's just the price of privacy, or something:

"I don't buy into the luxury good dig," says Federighi, giving the impression he was genuinely surprised by the public attack. "On the one hand gratifying that other companies in space over the last few months, seemed to be making a lot of positive noises about caring about privacy. I think it's a deeper issue than then, what a couple of months and a couple of press releases would make. I think you've got to look fundamentally at company cultures and values and business model. And those don't change overnight. 

Intel's next-generation processors are here (and they're coming for ultra-thin laptops first)

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It's been three entire processor generations since Intel actually changed architecture, following nigh-constant delays, which makes this all the more meaningful. Unfortunately, the rollout is going to be very gradual: Ice Lake will start with 9W, 15W and 28W cores—which means it'll top out at the 13-inch MacBook style hardware for now. Larger, powerful cores will come as the company improves the process and scale of 10nm chips—probably in 2020.

Good read: Investing in the podcast ecosystem in 2019
Interesting breakdown of where we're at with podcasts today—a category that's taken a long, slow road to adoption—and what the landscape looks like as the war for your ears heats up.