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FYI

Media Beat: October 21, 2021

Media Beat: October 21, 2021

By David Farrell

Rogers boardroom rift deepens as Edward Rogers faces resistance in bid to overhaul telecom giant’s leadership

Independent directors at Rogers Communications Inc. are pushing back against attempts by chair Edward Rogers to overhaul the telecom and media giant’s leadership, and the company’s family trust will hold an emergency meeting to consider limiting Mr. Rogers’s ability to exercise voting control.


The boardroom rift in the middle of the $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. erupted after Mr. Rogers attempted to replace Rogers chief executive officer Joe Natale with chief financial officer Tony Staffieri and oust other members of the company’s leadership team. It pits Mr. Rogers against his mother, Loretta Rogers, and sisters Martha Rogers and deputy chair Melinda Rogers-Hixon. – Alexandra Posadzki, The Globe and Mail

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Facebook fined $70M for flouting Giphy order made by UK watchdog

Facebook — or whatever name the tech giant picks for a reportedly looming rebrand of its data-mining empire as it seeks to teleport its business into the metaverse to escape the unending cavalcade of toxic publicity its execs generate — has a new “bad behavior” badge to sport: It’s just been fined nearly $70 million (£50.5 million) by a U.K. watchdog for deliberately withholding information related to ongoing antitrust oversight of its acquisition of US database and search enginge Giphy.– Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch

eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar is backing the Facebook whistleblower

Omidyar is no stranger to the media, providing financial backing to The Intercept, for example, and the open internet advocacy group Public Knowledge. According to Politico, when asked to comment, his advocacy group Omidyar Network pointed to an unbylined blog post that went up today titled “In Support of Tech Whistleblowers Who are Holding Tech to Account.” – Richard Lawler, The Verge

Facebook, don't change your name -- change your CEO

As the world begins to truly contend with just how dangerous social media platforms can be, Facebook's reckoning has been kicked into overdrive following former staffer Frances Haugen's shocking allegations that the company has long known about its platform's toxic effects on society -- and has done little to try to fix them.  Now, amid this firestorm of criticism, the company has reportedly come up with a new public relations strategy: changing its name.  – Kara Alaimo, CNN

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Trump to launch new social media platform TRUTH Social

Donald Trump's team is making a big deal of this. Yet there's no indication that the new company has a working platform yet. The new site is just a registration page. – BBC News

Ransomware gangs are complaining that other crooks are stealing their ransoms

For those scammers who think they've been scammed, there's not a lot they can do (and few would have sympathy for them). One forum user suggested any attempt at dealing with this situation would be as useless as trying to arbitrate "against Stalin". – Danny Palmer, ZDNet

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Kaytranada at the 67th GRAMMY Awards held at the Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 2, 2025 in Los Angeles.
Gilbert Flores

Kaytranada at the 67th GRAMMY Awards held at the Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 2, 2025 in Los Angeles.

Rb Hip Hop

Kaytranada Wants Fans to Dance at Shows: ‘If You Put Your Phone Up, Let’s Move Them Hips at Least!’

"It looks mad awkward from where I stand," he said of seeing phones at his performances.

Kaytranada isn’t the biggest fan of how audiences choose to enjoy live shows in the age of smartphones and social media.

Over the weekend, the Montreal-based producer responded to a fan on X who apologized on behalf of “real fans” who dance at his shows as opposed to “standing still” in order to capture content for their social media pages. “Kaytranada, I am so sorry you got TikTok famous and now bastards are standing still during ‘Intimidated,’ ‘Freefall,’ ‘Vex Oh,’ ‘You’re the One,'” the fan wrote. “What the f—k is going on??? All points was I miss you @kaytranada please do some private show for the real fans because I can’t take this no more.”

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