The parent company of Facebook and Instagram fears that it will not be able to meet new EU requirements. Also: Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty and there are new complaints against OpenAI.
Good morning! While you slept, work continued elsewhere in the digital scene.
The top topics:
At Meta a company-wide ban on political advertising in Europe is being discussed. The reason for this is new EU regulations against disinformation during elections. According to the company, the concept of political advertising is so broad in the new regulations that it would be easier to ban such campaigns completely. With the tightened requirements, which are due to come into force next year, Brussels wants to oblige large tech companies to be more transparent with political advertising on social media such as Facebook and Instagram. After the US elections in 2016, social media platforms were sharply criticized for not doing enough to counter misinformation and conspiracy theories and thus promote election rigging.
From those around Meta it is said that the step is also being considered because users are largely not interested in such content and the income from political advertising is comparatively low. Between 2019 and 2020, the company generated nearly $800 million in revenue from political advertising in the United States, according to research group Insider Intelligence — less than 1 percent of total advertising revenue during that period. [Mehr bei Financial Times und Handelsblatt]
On Founder Scene: Data leaks, vulnerabilities, uselessness. What was he Luca App not accused? Founder Patrick Hennig now wants to turn it into a booking and payment app: Calling up menus, reserving a table, checking in at the hotel – Luca should be able to do all of this soon. Can that work? [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
And here are the other headlines of the night:
FTX-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to five counts in federal court in New York related to the collapse of his crypto exchange FTX. The new indictment concerns the alleged bribery of a foreign government by the disgraced businessman. Bankman-Fried’s attorney said he wants to challenge the allegations – arguing they violate the terms of the former CEO’s extradition. Accordingly, Bankman-Fried can only be tried on the basis of the charges for which he was extradited from the Bahamas to the United States. [Mehr bei CNBC und Wall Street Journal]
OpenAI faces a new complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The US trade regulator is asked to investigate OpenAI and to suspend the commercial use of the popular tool ChatGPT. The complaint, published Thursday by the nonprofit research group Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP), alleges OpenAI violated Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive business practices. The CAIDP calls GPT-4 “biased, misleading and a risk to privacy and public safety”. According to the CAIDP, GPT products are to be independently examined in the future before they can be used. [Mehr bei CNBC und Reuters]
Apples The highly anticipated mixed reality headset may not be ready in time for the annual WWDC developer conference in June after all. Top Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote on Twitter on Thursday. According to Kuo, Apple doesn’t believe the headset would get the “iPhone moment” it was hoping for, which could result in a delay until Q3 2023. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple plans to announce the headset at its developer conference. [Mehr bei The Information und CNBC]
Redundancies: The streaming specialist Year lays off 200 employees, about six percent of the workforce, in a new round of job cuts. The tech group based in San Jose, California, cut 200 jobs last November. Unused office space will be vacated or sublet as Roku says it “prioritizes projects that the company believes will generate a higher return on investment.” Also at Disney more jobs will be cut: The entertainment group has laid off more than 300 employees in Beijing who worked on its streaming services. A total of 7,000 jobs are to be cut at Disney. [Mehr bei The Information, Bloomberg und Wall Street Journal]
The French startup Ledger raised EUR 100 million in its Series C funding round. The company designs and manufactures so-called hardware wallets to secure crypto assets. In 2021, the company already collected 356 million euros. The company’s new investors include True Global Ventures, Digital Finance Group and VaynerFund. Some existing investors are also reinvesting in Ledger, such as 10T, Cité Gestion Private Bank, Cap Horn, Morgan Creek, Cathay Innovation, Korelya Capital and Molten Ventures. [Mehr bei TechCrunch]
Our reading tip on Gründerszene: Business angels like Mario Götze are already making bets Talk about it. Artificial intelligence (AI) can conduct thousands of customer dialogues at the same time. The founders now want to expand – and get more money for it. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
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Happy Friday!
Your Gründerszene editors