By David Farrell
A Little Good News by Anne Murray; her Grammy award winning smash #1 hit from 1983
Shaw Q2 profit dips 10%
Shaw Communications Inc. on Wednesday reported a 10% fall in profit in its fiscal second quarter as revenue declined more than analysts expected.
The Canadian telecommunications company recorded earnings of 39 Canadian cents a share in the three months ended Feb. 28, down from $0.43 in the comparable quarter a year ago.
Net income was $196 million, compared with $217 million a year earlier.
Revenue fell to $1.36 billion from $1.39 billion. Analysts polled on FactSet were expecting $1.38 billion.
The company said that it continues to work with Rogers Communications Inc. to obtain the remaining approvals from various Canadian regulators for their proposed merger, and said it continues to expect the transaction will close in the first half of this year. – Adriano Marchese, MarketWatch
TikTok ad revenue to surpass Twitter and Snapchat combined
Chinese-owned social media app TikTok is set to triple its ad revenue in 2022 to more than $11 billion, totalling more ad sales than Twitter and Snapchat combined.
Reuters reports that TikTok, owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance, is set to reach $11 billion in advertising revenue this year, more than Twitter and Snapchat’s advertising revenue combined. TikTok currently boasts more than 1 billion users and is one of the most popular social media apps in the world. – Breitbart News
Here's what one Internet provider is doing other than maximizing its profits
Defending freedom in times of war
Like many of you, we have been saddened to see the loss of innocent lives in Ukraine. Proton was created to safeguard democracy and civil liberties in the internet age. In response, we are taking the following actions:
→ In the first half of March, we donated 10% of new ProtonMail and ProtonVPN subscription revenue towards relief efforts in Ukraine.
→ We're matching all employee contributions towards relief efforts.
→ We're providing direct help to journalists who need support via advocacy@protonmail.com.
→ Anyone in Ukraine who cannot pay for their Proton subscription due to the war can contact us for a free subscription renewal.
Many companies have announced they will no longer serve Russian customers. Proton's mission, however, is to defend online freedom everywhere. We remain committed to ensuring the free flow of information in Russia for as long as possible, and we will renew Proton subscriptions for people in Russia if they expire due to the financial sanctions. If you are impacted, don’t hesitate to contact us through our support channels for assistance. - Message sent to all Proton e-mail subscribers
Web 3 will change media forever
What happens when a group of Fox News viewers watch CNN for a month?
A study that paid viewers of the right-wing cable network to switch shed light on the media’s influence on people’s views. – Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian
Why the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid
Social scientists have identified at least three major forces that collectively bind together successful democracies: social capital (extensive social networks with high levels of trust), strong institutions, and shared stories. Social media has weakened all three. To see how, we must understand how social media changed over time—and especially in the several years following 2009.
In their early incarnations, platforms such as Myspace and Facebook were relatively harmless. – Jonathan Haidt, The Atlantic
Five predictions about music streaming's future
having spent most of my career in streaming, building niche models that can live side-by-side with streaming’s status quo, I have various deep-rooted beliefs that allow me to project with more confidence.
The following predictions are based on a 5-to-10-year time horizon. – Bas Grasmayer, Substack
Elon Musk On Putin, nuclear power, and love
Elon Musk’s dire warning about the danger of AI altering the human race
Elon Musk has just shocked the world with his latest warning. According to Elon, humanity needs to prepare itself for advanced artificial intelligence, as it could destroy mankind. Elon Musk compares the advancement of AI to "Summoning The Demon".
Blood The dark side of electric vehicles
Are Electric Vehicles really clean? They run on dirty energy and blood of children as young as 6. Electric cars drive human rights abuse and child labour. China is one of the villains in this story. Are electric carmakers equally guilty too? Palki Sharma Upadhyay tells you. – WIO News
You never really know who your enemies are
Did a really good talk this week in Stockholm on the dangers of tracking and the unsustainability of the current model of advertising. The audience of advertising, marketing, and media people hated it. Like the man said, "It's hard to get people to believe something when their livelihoods depend on believing the opposite."
Some of the points I made:
- By the time the average child is 13-years-old, the AdTech industry has 72,000,000 data points on him/her.
- According to the World Federation of Advertisers, by 2025 ad fraud could be the world's second-largest source of criminal income.
- The whole tracking "consent pop-up" racket has been ruled illegal by the enforcement arm of GDPR.
- About 2/3 of people who join extremist groups on Facebook do so as a result of a Facebook recommendation.
- The ad industry is now the least trusted industry in the world. – Bob Hoffman, The Ad Contrarian
Finland prepares for a potential war with Russia
Russia's Ukraine invasion has sparked concerns in Finland. The Nordic country is preparing for a possible conflict with Russia. Its citizens are learning how to use a gun. the government is stockpiling essentials. Palki Sharma tells you more. – WIO News
Human Rights: Time for America to look within?
The US lectures the world on human rights. But it has failed to check the rise in hate crimes at home. It has also failed to control guns. In New York, a man opened fire in a subway, on the same day 2 Sikhs were attacked with a rod. Palki Sharma raises important questions. – WIO News
