🗓 What Happened on Tech Twitter in August

🤳 TikTok acquisition drama 🤬 Antitrust anger heightened ⛔️ Uber and Lyft almost shut down 🧠 Neuralink demoed mind-blowing technology 🤪 Tech Twitter turned into McCarthyists

Yo! ✌️ I’m Brett! I am a founder and former Cognitive Science researcher. Social Studies is a semi-weekly newsletter for people building great products for humans. It includes recaps of what happened on Tech Twitter every week plus deep analysis using frameworks from Psychology, Economics, and the other Social Sciences.

Welcome to the 245 new subscribers since last month!

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✨ TLDR

🤳 TikTok acquisition drama - Trump ordered TikTok get acquired by the 15th of september or get banned. Hilarity ensued when random companies tried to buy.

🤬 Antitrust anger heightened - Big Tech stood trial for antitrust as the TikTok drama unfolded. Apple’s blocking of Hey and Fortnite demonstrated the problem.

⛔️ Uber and Lyft almost shut down - Judges ordered that Uber and Lyft classify drivers as employees. In response, they threatened to shut down. It worked.

🧠 Neuralink demoed mind-blowing technology - Musk unveiled his brain machine interface that he believes will save humanity from getting destroyed by AI.

🤪 Tech Twitter turned into McCarthyists - Everyone thought the CEO of Gumroad was behind a troll Twitter account. He couldn’t prove he wasn’t. Things got complicated.

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🤳 TikTok acquisition drama

Read Facebook's TikTok Clone Wars and The Tik Tok Ban & The Future of Online Society

Trump said he would ban TikTok if it isn’t sold by September 15th. Virtually every company you could imagine seems to have been evaluating buying the social media company including some obscure players like Walmart and IBM.

Ben Thompson @benthompson

“Trump is banning TikTok because of Tulsa” is a classic example of the right thing being done for the right reasons but perhaps the wrong motivations. Folks really need to get past the third point and realize that the second matters: ByteDance answers to the CCP.

Facebook and a handful of new startups have been looking to capitalize on the uncertainty by launching TikTok clones like Reels.

Josh Constine -SignalFire @JoshConstine

In the race to replace TikTok, Triller has emerged as where stars fearing a ban are begging people to follow them ...well that and OnlyFans

🤬 Antitrust anger heightened

Read Congress vs Big Tech, The Ecology of Antitrust, and The Epic Conspiracy

This TikTok drama was set in the backdrop of increasing scrutiny of Big Tech around antitrust. CEOs of Big Tech companies testified before congress and sweeping antitrust regulation was passed… jk, nothing substantial happened outside of a bunch of grandstanding.

Apple in particular had an egregious month of anti-competitive behavior.

Ben Thompson @benthompson

Notable to see Apple confirming a point I’ve been trying to make: the company believes it is entitled to *all* commerce that happens on an iPhone.

Epic Games enabled their own payments processor in Fortnite to get around Apple’s fees and Apple (and Google) responded by suspending that app. It caused an uproar.

⛔️ Uber and Lyft almost shut down

Read How Uber's Psychological Weapon Saved 100,000 Jobs

A California judge ordered Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees, which would basically entirely defeat the point of the ride-sharing companies. Fortunately, Uber and Lyft flawlessly pulled off one of their oldest tricks - pitting users against regulator - to avoid shutdown.

Zack Kanter @zackkanter

If you're thinking "if Uber and Lyft are such a blight on society, why are local politicians angrily accusing them of blackmail instead of celebrating them shutting down operations," then the good news is that your brain is working.

Ayush Sharma @ayushswrites

An absolute masterclass in strategy – Lyft + Uber choosing to cooperate in a game of repeated Prisoner's dilemma! Threatening to shut down was the right tactic, but even I didn't expect it to work this fast.

The Wall Street Journal @WSJ

Breaking: Uber and Lyft can keep operating in California without reclassifying drivers as employees under an emergency stay granted by an appeals court https://t.co/JA36uK6pdM

🧠 Neuralink demoed mind-blowing technology

Read Elon Musk's plan to save humanity by merging with machines

Elon Musk demoed his brain machine interface company, Neuralink, and it was mind-blowing.

Luke Gilfillan @LukeGilfillan1

Elon Musk tests Neuralink On Pigs during Live Demo #Neuralink #ElonMusk #neurolink

Elon Musk believes that super-powerful AI will destroy humanity unless we merge with it - that’s why he’s building Neuralink.

Elon Musk @elonmusk

If you can’t beat em, join em Neuralink mission statement

🤪 Tech Twitter turned into McCarthyists

Read The Accidental McCarthyists of Tech Twitter

Tech Twitter was convinced that Sahil Lavingia was the person behind the loathed anonymous account, VC Brags. He denied it but many still believed. Unfortunately, there was literally no way for him to disprove his connection. Eventually, the VC Brags account apologized and shut down.

quadrillion dollar coach @ryandawidjan

rolling reputation 👀 @shl

Sahil @shl

It really, really isn't me! I didn't realize how negatively this account is viewed in the industry or else I wouldn't have been so flippant the first time around. As always, my DMs are open.

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📚 Great reads in August

Eugene Wei @eugenewei

New blog post, this the first of maybe a 3 part series on the company du jour, TikTok. This first piece isn't about the possible ban or divestment or the security or geopolitical issues but about what makes it so unique and fascinating to me.

eugenewei.comTikTok and the Sorting Hat — Remains of the DayNEXT POST: Part II of my thoughts on TikTok, on how the app design is informed by its algorithm and vice versa in a virtuous circle.

Ben Thompson @benthompson

Re-upping because I’m pretty surprised at the number of folks not thinking this specific point through. Addressed Tulsa specifically.

stratechery.comThe TikTok WarHow TikTok exposed Facebook’s blindspot, thanks to its Chinese roots, and why those Chinese roots make TikTok a genuine concern.

Turner Novak @TurnerNovak

Pinduoduo was founded in 2015 and is now worth $100 billion in the public markets. I wrote about its founding story, the tactics and strategies used to beat incumbents, and what we should expect to see from one of the worlds fastest growing companies.

turner.substack.comPinduoduo and Vertically Integrated Social CommerceHow the son of factory workers grew Pinduoduo from Zero to $100 billion in five years.

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✨ Thanks

Stay safe from those fires, california friends! Have a great September!

abena @abenaanim21

I love bill gates tiktok