The Morning: Tech giants vs. governments

Plus, Lebanon's hospitals, China's panda program and America's dairy farms.

View in browser|nytimes.com October 15, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleagues Jack Nicas and Paul Mozur write about the battle over who controls the internet. We're also covering Lebanon's hospitals, China's panda program and America's dairy farms. —David Leonhardt In São Paulo, Brazil. Dado Galdieri for The New York Times The contest By Jack Nicas and Paul Mozur We've each covered the conflict between tech companies and governments for a decade. For years, the battle between governments and tech giants has played out behind the scenes. Then Brazil blocked X, Elon Musk's social network. For the past five weeks, the site went dark across the nation of 200 million after Musk ignored court orders to pull down certain accounts. (It came back online last week after he eventually complied.) Meanwhile, in France, authorities have charged Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, a free-for-all messaging app, with a slew of crimes. They accuse him of refusing to comply with investigations into the spread of illicit content on the platform. We are witnessing an important shift in the yearslong struggle over who controls the internet. Governments are becoming more demanding, just as some tech leaders seek to promote themselves as free-speech martyrs. But as the dust has settled, a clear winner has emerged. In today's newsletter, we'll explain. Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram. Jim Wilson/The New York Times Governments assert control The world woke up to the dangers of online disinformation about a decade ago. But governments do not typically move fast. That means, in many places, regulation is just arriving now. Last year, a European Union law required tech companies to better police their platforms. In Brazil, a Supreme Court judge has been ordering the removal of social media accounts he calls threats to democracy. In some countries, the crackdown is tied to an erosion of democracy. The Indian government, for example, is forcing social networks to limit content it sees as critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And Indonesia has unfurled one of the world's harshest laws against online speech in what authorities have described as an effort to maintain public order. As a result, tech companies are taking down more content. Google said it fielded more than 100,000 government requests to remove content from its platforms last year, up 87 percent from 2021. Meta — which runs Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — reported the number of accounts, posts and comments it took down at the request of governments last year was up sixfold. (This doesn't include Indonesia, because enforcement of its new law breaks the curve; it ordered Meta to take down 47.7 million items last year.) Elon Musk Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Two defiant tech leaders For years, tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Larry Page and Jack Dorsey have mostly either acquiesced to the requests or walked away from markets. The executives sat for congressional hearings and hired more content moderators. They censored at the behest of dictators. They issued timid statements saying they had no choice but to follow local laws. As a result, governments didn't shut the companies out, and they became some of the most valuable firms in history. Musk and Durov have tried to pave a different way. Musk complained loudly about the Brazilian Supreme Court justice's orders. Then he simply stopped obeying. When the judge responded by blocking X, Musk tried various workarounds to evade the ban (they didn't work) and even called on Brazilians to take to the streets against the judge. Durov has taken a quieter approach. Under his watch, Telegram ignored government demands, as if it didn't see their email. (When the same Brazilian judge briefly blocked Telegram in 2022, the company actually argued just that.) Together the two men represent a new type of tech leader, one who sometimes uses his power to flout government orders. Both men appear emboldened by the culture wars, where pushing an absolutist vision of free speech has won them many devotees. The state strikes back But the governments have kept the upper hand. Three weeks into X's block in Brazil, Musk surrendered. X took down various accounts, complying with orders Musk had vowed to resist, while his lawyers asked the court to lift the ban. The site went live again last week. Source: Company reports | Notes: Takedown requests comprise court orders and other legal demands. Twitter did not report data for 2022 and 2023. Figures are rounded. | By Karl Russell Publicly, Musk didn't mention his capitulation. That followed a pattern. While he has cast himself as a free-speech warrior, his own company has released data showing X has complied with government takedown requests more often than before he bought it. X said it obeyed such requests about 70 percent of the time in the first half of the year, compared with roughly half the time in 2021, the last time it disclosed data. (Japan and Turkey have filed the most takedown requests this year.) Durov, meanwhile, has sounded more conciliatory than ever. In his first post after he was arrested in France, he admitted that Telegram's fast growth "made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform." Then he announced the app would work more closely with governments to fight criminal activity. For more Brazil gave one judge broad power to combat misinformation. After he blocked X, some wonder whether that was a good idea. On Telegram, criminals sell drugs, far-right protesters coordinate rallies and terrorists broadcast attacks. See how that happened. Apple, Google and Meta are making major changes in response to new laws and regulations. Twitter once banned people like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alex Jones who spread conspiracy theories. Musk brought them back on X. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election Has the debate bump faded? Kenny Holston/The New York Times With three weeks to go, The Times's polling average shows Kamala Harris and Donald Trump essentially tied across seven battleground states. Nate Cohn explains what to make of the polls. Harris will visit Detroit today to court Black voters. Some Democratic leaders in the city say she needs to do more there to counter an assertive Trump campaign. Trump's border proposals appear more focused on tapping into anger and fear than on practical details, Zolan Kanno-Youngs writes. Harris has agreed to an interview tomorrow with a not-so-friendly outlet: Fox News. At least one third-party or independent candidate is on the ballot in every battleground state. In such a tight race, they present a wild card. Middle East As Israel intensifies its offensive against Hezbollah, Lebanese hospitals say they are struggling or being forced to close. The Israeli military has accused Hezbollah of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure. A deadly Hezbollah strike on an army base exploited one of Israel's weaknesses: Its missile defenses struggle to detect slower-moving drones. Survivors of a fire at the Aqsa hospital in central Gaza say they have endured repeated Israeli attacks. "It is like living inside a recurring nightmare," said one man whose family have sheltered at the compound for months. More International News In Sichuan Province, China.  The New York Times In the 1990s, China began sending pandas to foreign zoos to be bred, with the goal that future generations would return to nature. Decades later, more pandas have been removed from the wild than have been released, a Times investigation found. Canada expelled six Indian diplomats and accused them of running a criminal network that intimidated and harassed Sikh separatists. Nearly two million children in Africa may die of malnutrition because a treatment is in short supply, the U.N. Children's Fund said. Archaeologists in Jordan found an untouched tomb in one of the architectural wonders of Petra, the ancient city carved from a sandstone canyon. Other Big Stories America's dairy farms quietly depend on undocumented labor. A crackdown on immigration could make cheap milk dry up. An armed man in North Carolina was arrested and accused of threatening emergency workers who were delivering aid after Hurricane Helene. A New Jersey Transit train struck a chunk of a tree lying on the tracks near Trenton, killing the train operator. Opinions Sheriffs wield tremendous power over their communities. Learn about these candidates before you vote in November, Maurice Chammah writes. Ann Patchett regrets getting an email account 29 years ago. The time she's spent answering messages could have been spent on the real people in front of her, she writes. Here are columns by Michelle Goldberg on Democrats' Republican outreach and Paul Krugman on Trump's outdated rhetoric. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS In Bridgehampton, N.Y. Andrew Kelly for The New York Times Closing time: The last full-size Kmart in the continental U.S. is about to shut. Shoppers reminisced about the store that once sold everything, everywhere. What's so funny? Venezuela's comedians in exile are finding a way to laugh despite the pain. "Unbalanced" muscles: Repeatedly doing the same type of activity — whether it's running, lifting or sitting — can have serious downsides. Ask Well: On TikTok, some people call bone broth "liquid gold." Here's what the experts say about its health benefits. Lives Lived: Lilly Ledbetter, a former supervisor at an Alabama tire factory, persevered all the way to the Supreme Court and Congress in her successful fight to expand women's rights to sue employers over wage discrimination. She died at 86. SPORTS Aaron Rodgers' 52-yard Hail Mary.  NFL N.F.L.: The Buffalo Bills defeated the New York Jets, 23-20, in a wild game that featured two critical missed field goals and a completed Hail Mary pass. M.L.B.: In the first A.L.C.S. game, the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians, 5-2. And the Mets throttled the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-3, to tie the N.L.C.S. at 1-1. N.B.A.: The Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George left the team's preseason game with a knee injury. It could have a huge impact. ARTS AND IDEAS An excerpt from "American Idiot." Chad Unger for The New York Times A Los Angeles revival of "American Idiot," the stage musical based on the music of Green Day, communicates the show's Iraq War-era angst in a new way: The lead roles are performed by two actors at once, one singing and the other using sign language. Read about the production — and see video of the performers. More on culture U.S. Army Natick Labs Archive Decades of formerly classified Army photographs get the fine art treatment in a new book, "Fashion Army." Kaseem Ryan, who built a small but fervent following as the underground Brooklyn rapper Ka while maintaining a career as a firefighter, died at 52. Tina Brown, the queen of legacy media, is starting a Substack newsletter. Stephen Colbert joked about Harris's medical records: "Harris works out daily and eats healthy. OK, but politicians are supposed to be relatable to Americans." THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … David Malosh for The New York Times Sauté crispy chicken thighs in a sweet and savory balsamic glaze. Find peace of mind with a home security system. Clean your fireplace. GAMES Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was pendulum. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. 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