It's the end of another week. I'm your host, Jordan Parker Erb, writing to you from New York before heading west for the holidays.
It's been an eventful few months for the tech industry, but you don't need me to tell you that. We've talked a lot about the full-time tech workers whose jobs have been directly affected by the layoffs sweeping the sector. But today, we're talking about another group of people who will be affected by the recent tumult: content creators.
Let's get started.
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1. The chaos at social media companies is hurting the most vulnerable content creators. Tumult is sweeping Big Tech, with thousands of full-time employees affected by industry layoffs. But some of the biggest losers from the shake-up will be the content creators who have fashioned careers on social media.
- If you create content for a tech platform, your career is at risk, writes Cornell professor Brooke Erin Duffy — especially if your work isn't favored by social media's algorithms.
- That's particularly the case for marginalized creators, says Duffy, who's spent more than a decade studying the working lives of digital cultural producers.
- Given that the creator economy is already rife with inequities, Duffy writes, the creators best positioned to succeed are those who come from already-privileged positions: white, straight, cis-gendered, and thin.
Read the full story here.
In other news:
2. Salesforce employees are bracing for more layoffs. Amid leadership shakeups, increasing pressure to make sales goals, and the influence of an activist investor, Salesforce staffers said they're preparing for the worst: "People are afraid it could come at any point." More on that here.
3. Meta's making a change that could see more people leave the company. Meta wants managers to rank twice as many employees in its lowest performance-review categories. The range includes layoffs and "non-regrettable" exits by staff who managers aren't sad to see go. Read the full report.
4. The FTC is suing to block Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard. The $68.7 billion deal would "enable Microsoft to suppress competitors," the Federal Trade Commission said. Here's a look at what that means.
5. Tesla investors are telling Elon Musk to stop wasting time on Twitter. Musk's tweets about politics and memes have dented some investors' confidence — prompting them to sell their shares. One investor told Bloomberg that Musk's erratic behavior has been too much to deal with. Here's what else investors are saying.
6. Inside SoftBank Vision Fund's awful, terrible, really bad year. The fund just experienced one of its most dismal years in its history, losing billions from failed bets like FTX and seeing high-profile execs hit the exits. Former employees and rival VCs explain how the venture firm tumbled.
7. Google's most profitable businesses, ranked. As investors press the tech giant to cut costs, a Bernstein analyst outlined the profitability of each of Alphabet's businesses. The more profitable the business is, the less pressure Google has to cut employee costs to improve the margins. See the ranking here.
8. Amazon has a new TikTok-like feature. Amazon's new short-form video feature will let customers buy products from a customized feed of photos and short videos. Get the rundown on the feature, named Inspire.
Odds and ends:
9. This AI tool shows you what you would look like throughout history. MyHeritage's AI Time Machine can generate pictures of what you might have looked like hundreds of years ago, from Ancient Rome to the Renaissance. Here's how to use the tool and watch yourself time travel.
10. These are the four best Android tablets of 2022. For anyone looking for an alternative to the iPad, we put together a list of the top Android tablets for all ages and budgets. See our top picks.
People moves:
Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.)
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