Huat Zai

They were wrong because they got caught

A leaked cache of confidential files from ride-sharing company Uber illustrates ethically dubious and potentially illegal tactics it used to fuel its frenetic global expansion beginning nearly a decade ago, a joint media investigation showed Sunday. Dubbed the “Uber Files,” the investigation involving dozens of news organizations found that company officials leveraged the sometimes violent backlash from the taxi industry against drivers to garner support and evaded regulatory authorities as it looked to conquer new markets early in its history. Culled from 124,000 documents from 2013-2017 initially obtained by British daily the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the revelations are the latest hit for a company dogged by controversy as it exploded into a disruptive force in local transportation. The cache includes unvarnished text and email exchanges between executives, with standouts from co-founder and former chief executive Travis Kalanick, who was forced to resign in 2017 following accusations of brutal management practices and multiple episodes of sexual and psychological harassment at the company. “Violence guarantee(s) success,” Kalanick messaged other company leaders as he pushed for a counter protest amid sometimes heated demonstrations in Paris in 2016 against Uber’s arrival in the market. Uber’s rapid expansion leaned on subsidized drivers and discounted fares that undercut the taxi industry, and “often without seeking licenses to operate as a taxi and livery service,” reported The Washington Post, one of the media outlets involved in the probe. Drivers across Europe had faced violent retaliation as taxi drivers felt their livelihoods threatened. The investigation found that “in some instances, when drivers were attacked, Uber executives pivoted quickly to capitalize” to seek public and regulatory support, the Post said. According to the Guardian, Uber has adopted similar tactics in European countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, mobilizing drivers and encouraging them to complain to the police when they were victims of violence, in order to use media coverage to obtain concessions from the authorities. A spokesperson for Kalanick strongly denied the findings as a “false agenda,” saying he “never suggested that Uber should take advantage of violence at the expense of driver safety.” Uber, however, placed the blame Sunday on previously publicized “mistakes” made by leadership under Kalanick. “We’ve moved from an era of confrontation to one of collaboration, demonstrating a willingness to come to the table and find common ground with former opponents, including labor unions and taxi companies,” it said, noting that his replacement, Dara Khosrowshahi, “was tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates.” ‘Kill switch’ The investigation also found that Uber worked to evade regulatory probes by leveraging a technological edge, the Post wrote. It described an instance when Kalanick implemented a “kill switch” to remotely cut off access of devices in an Amsterdam office to Uber’s internal systems during a raid by authorities. “Please hit the kill switch ASAP,” he wrote in an email to an employee. “Access must be shut down in AMS (Amsterdam).” Kalanick spokesperson Devon Spurgeon said the former chief executive “never authorized any actions or programs that would obstruct justice in any country.” Kalanick “did not create, direct or oversee these systems set up by legal and compliance departments and has never been charged in any jurisdiction for obstruction of justice or any related offense,” she said. But the investigation charged that Uber’s actions flouted laws and that executives were aware, citing one joking that they had become “pirates.” The reports say the files reveal Uber also lobbied governments to aid its expansion, finding in particular an ally in France’s Emmanuel Macron, who was economy minister from 2014 to 2016 and is now the country’s president. The company believed Macron would encourage regulators “to be ‘less conservative’ in their interpretation of rules limiting the company’s operations,” the Post said. Macron was an open supporter of Uber and the idea of turning France into a “start-up nation” in general, but the leaked documents suggest that the minister’s support even sometimes clashed with the leftist government’s policies. The revelations sparked indignation among leftist politicians, who denounced the Uber-Macron links as against “all our rules, all our social rights and against workers’ rights,” and condemned the “pillage of the country.” https://www.france24.com/en/business/20220710-leaked-uber-docs-reveal-dubious-tactics-used-to-conquer-new-markets

Various Japanese media services projected on Sunday evening that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has won enough votes in the 26th House of Councillors election to secure a seat for manga creator Ken Akamatsu. In a Twitter post announcing the win, Ken Akamatsu noted that he will be the first manga creator in Japan's legislature. (Some novelists such as Grave of the Fireflies' Akiyuki Nosaka have previously been legislators.) Akamatsu secured a seat in the proportional district of the House of Councillors, the upper house of Japan's House of Representatives. Instead of representing a district linked to a specific local area, he will represent the LDP nationwide. He campaigned in person in all 47 prefectures of Japan. Akamatsu announced his intention to run for the House of Councillors in December. He stated that his major goal is to protect the freedom of expression. He ended his UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 manga in February during his campaign. Akamatsu delved into politics in 2011 when he warned that proposed changes to Japan's Copyright Law would "destroy" derivative dōjin (self-published) works. Kensaku Fukui, a lawyer and a Nihon University professor, wrote an essay about the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) talks that prompted Akamatsu's remarks. Akamatsu continued to speak about his concerns on the TPP talks in the following years. In 2013, Akamatsu joined other creators in opposing the LDP and its partners' proposed amendment to child pornography laws. According to the bill's opponents, the initial drafts did not differentiate between pornography featuring real children and images of children. Akamatsu visited the Diet and the LDP headquarters to express his concern, and the final bill passed in 2014 without a ban on explicit anime and manga. In 2019, Akamatsu and the rest of the Japan Cartoonists Association formally expressed their concerns on a government subcommittee's plan to expand the scope of copyright law. Downloading anime images, illustrations, and photographs that are illegally posted to personal blogs and Twitter accounts would have also been illegal, as would copying and pasting song lyrics. The propposed change would not be limited to directly downloading images themselves — taking screenshots of illegally uploaded media would also be against the proposed new laws. This year, Akamatsu characterized criticism from the global gender equality organization UN Women as "external pressure" to regulate Japan's "freedom of expression, especially for manga, anime, and games" and added that such pressure is not new. He elaborated that such regulations need to be approached with rationality and not be obeyed simply because an outside party is demanding it. Akamatsu's definition of "external pressure" does not necessarily mean "outside Japan." He used the removal of PSAs featuring Virtual YouTuber Tojou Linka as an example. /thumbnails/max450x450/cms/news.5/180676/love-hina.jpgAkamatsu launched his J-Comi digital manga library service in 2008, and launched a beta test of the site in 2010. Akamatsu initially posted all 14 volumes of his Love Hina manga for free with six pages of advertising and no digital rights management (DRM) for one month to test the viability of the business model. Japanese publishers Shueisha and Kodansha began collaborating with the site in 2010. The site gained notoriety in 2011 when it posted Seiji Matsuyama's Oku-sama wa Shōgakusei (My Wife Is an Elementary Student) manga, which Naoki Inose, Tokyo Vice Governor at the time, cited as an example of which manga should be restricted under Tokyo's then-recently revised Youth Healthy Development Ordinance. Though the site was only available in Japanese, it launched an English and foreign-language version beta test for select titles in 2011. Akamatsu launched the UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 manga with the title of UQ Holder! in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in Japan in August 2013. The manga transferred to Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in October 2016, with the new title UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2, fully revealing the manga as a sequel to Akamatsu's earlier Negima! manga. Tokyopop published Love Hina in North America, and Del Rey and Kodansha Comics have published Negima!. Both manga and Akamatsu's Itsudatte My Santa! manga inspired various anime projects, and Negima! also inspired a live-action television series. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2022-07-10/manga-creator-ken-akamatsu-wins-seat-in-japan-house-of-councillors/.187556

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A bit of a kerfuffle recently took place on the Second Link between Singapore and Malaysia. The video, which was posted by Facebook page SG Road Vigilante, has garnered over 9,800 shares within a day. Reportedly taking place in the morning of Jul. 9, 2022, the incident saw a woman single-handedly attempting to stop a car from moving forward. Kerfuffle The road towards the Malaysian checkpoint appears to be jam-packed with vehicles, but as a black car inches forward, a woman was filmed doing her mighty best to push against it. She then tears off its licence plate and swings it around to fling it at the black car's windshield. Video from SG Road Vigilante / FB As she saunters away, a man in a Yishun Innova Junior College shirt emerges from a stationary red Singapore-registered car up ahead. The man then runs over to the black car, but it was not to offer assistance. Instead, he throws up two middle fingers, while the woman holds him back. The pair then quickly return to their car when the driver of the black car exits his vehicle to retrieve the tossed licence plate. Video from SG Road Vigilante / FB Stands in front of car Another clip filmed from the dashcam of the black car depicts the woman calmly standing in the middle of the lane, preventing the vehicle from moving forward. At one point, she brings out her phone to film the car and the people inside, who can be heard calling her a "crazy woman". A man inside the car says that he will call the police. This does not deter the woman, who nods and smirks at the driver and passengers. Other vehicles start to sound their horn, and she vigorously gestures for them to move on and filter past her and the car. Video from SG Road Vigilante / FB It is uncertain what incited the woman's anger, but a Facebook user who uploaded a similar video said that the dispute started over switching lanes. This possibility was reported by Zaobao as well. The videos also do not show how the conflict was resolved in the end. You can watch the full video here. https://mothership.sg/2022/07/second-link-woman-plucks-out-licence-plate/

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World richest man and Twitter user Elon Musk has withdrawn his US$44 billion (S$61.5 billion) bid to buy social media platform Twitter. According to Reuters, Musk accused Twitter of breaching multiple provisions of the merger agreement. Twitter however said it would pursue legal action to enforce the deal. Alleged breaches In a filing to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Jul. 8, 2022, Musk's lawyers said that Twitter had failed or refused to provide information on fake or spam accounts on the platform, which is "fundamental" to its business and financial performance. "Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information," the filing stated. The filing also said that Twitter had fired two key, high-ranking employees, laid off a third of its talent acquisition team, and instituted a general hiring freeze without Musk's consent, therefore breaching its obligation to "preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organisation". Twitter planning to pursue legal action Twitter's chairman, Bret Taylor, has responded to Musk's decision to pull out of his bid. In a tweet on July 9, 2022, Taylor said that the Twitter Board is planning to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. "We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery," he added. According to BBC, the original merger agreement includes a US$1 billion break-up fee. Following the turn of events with the merger agreement, The New York Times obtained a memo sent by the general counsel at Twitter on July 8. The memo urged Twitter employees to refrain from tweeting or sharing any commentary about the merger agreement as it is an "ongoing legal matter". Musk and Twitter's rocky relationship Musk's decision to terminate his bid may not come as a surprise given his rocky relationship with Twitter over the past few months. The billionaire first showed interest in Twitter in January 2022, when he quietly bought Twitter shares and steadily increased his stake. Months later, on April 21, Musk struck a US$46.5 billion deal to buy the social media platform. Twitter announced a few days later that it agreed to sell itself to Musk for US$44 billion. Since then, however, Musk's relationship with Twitter gradually turned sour. In May 2022, Musk said that his deal with Twitter was "temporarily on hold" as he did not receive any information that proves spam or fake accounts represent less than five per cent of users on Twitter. He then decided to investigate the issue on his own by getting his team to "do a random sample of 100 followers of @twitter". Musk later explained in a subsequent tweet that he picked 100 as the sample size number as "that is what Twitter uses to calculate <5% fake/spam/duplicate". The next day, Musk tweeted: "Twitter legal just called to complain that I violated their NDA by revealing the bot check sample size is 100!" A few days later, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal shared a lengthy Twitter thread about spam accounts. One of Agrawal's tweet appeared to have gotten under Musk's skin as he responded with a poop emoji. https://mothership.sg/2022/07/elon-musk-ends-twitter-bid/

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