Below: Amazon plans to implement the largest layoffs in company history, and Google reaches a record settlement with state attorneys general. First:
How tech ballot measures fared this election cycle
Control of the House and Senate wasn’t the only major battleground tech leaders in Washington and Silicon Valley were tracking this election cycle.
The midterms also settled a slew of state ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments on issues including gig labor, data privacy and broadband funding.
Here’s a rundown of where voters came down on key proposals nationwide:
Lyft-backed push to expand electric vehicle use defeated
Californians shot down a push backed by ride-hailing giant Lyft to raise taxes on the wealthy to help expand use of electric cars in the state.
The measure would have raised taxes on residents with incomes above $2 million and use those funds to incentivize people to buy electric cars or install more charging stations.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) publicly opposed the push in an ad before the election, saying that although it had “been advertised as a climate initiative” it was “devised by a single corporation to funnel state income taxes to benefit their company” — a jab at Lyft.
Gig worker reclassification proponents dealt a blow in Maine
Voters in Portland rejected a referendum that would have classified ride-hailing and food delivery workers as employees and set their minimum wage, among others, at $18 an hour.
Companies including Uber lobbied against the push, which waded into a nationally debated labor dispute. But the referendum drew a major endorsement from former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who released a video saying that the measure would “make sure every worker in Portland receives a stable, livable wage.”
The push was seen as a potential litmus test for similar measures nationwide.
Voters sour on ride-hailing premiums in Washington
A majority of voters in Washington voiced support for repealing a recently passed law imposing a premium on ride-hailing companies to cover workers’ compensation insurance.
Washington’s H.B. 2076, signed in March, created a slew of new rights for ride-hailing drivers in the state, including a guaranteed minimum fee for individual trips and paid sick leave.
Lyft earlier this year hailed the measure, which stopped short of reclassifying gig workers as full-time employees, as a “new model for the future of app-based work.”
But because it included a tax increase for companies, the state required that voters be given a chance to weigh in on that aspect of the law in a nonbinding advisory opinion, which could serve as a guidepost for policymakers on their next steps at the state and national level.
As of Monday, 52.4 percent of voters favored repealing the premiums while 47.6 percent backed keeping them in place.
Montanans overwhelmingly pass surveillance safeguards
More than 4-in-5 voters in Montana backed an amendment to their state constitution explicitly banning law enforcement from seizing consumers’ personal data without a warrant.
Amendment 48 will add “electronic data or communications” to the list of enumerated places where Montanans are safe from unreasonable searches and seizures under their constitution.
The vote comes amid mounting bipartisan scrutiny nationwide of how law enforcement agencies and local authorities use digital surveillance tools to prosecute cases and monitor residents.
Alabama, New Mexico loosen restrictions on broadband funding
Voters in Alabama and New Mexico signed off on similar amendments to their state constitutions removing barriers for funding to boost internet access.
Both states had restrictions on local governments providing aid or grants to private entities, which created a major hurdle for officials to disperse the broadband funding it received through the covid-19 economic recovery package signed into law last March.
The approved amendments will create exceptions allowing officials at either the state or local level to dole out broadband funds more easily.
Amazon prepares to make massive layoffs
The cuts of roughly 10,000 workers will be concentrated on Amazon’s corporate workforce, Rachel Lerman, Jacob Bogage and Julian Mark report. It’s the latest batch of layoffs to hit the technology sector. The layoffs, first reported by the New York Times, would be the largest cuts carried out by Amazon in the company’s history. Amazon declined to comment on the report. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.
“The planned job cuts also represent a remarkable turnabout for Amazon, which has hungrily hired tens of thousands of employees in both its warehouses and corporate offices in the past decade,” my colleagues write. “The company had more than 1.5 million employees at the end of September, a 5 percent increase from the year before.”
Google reaches record $392 million settlement with state AGs over location tracking
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) called the 40-state settlement a “historic win for consumers,” the Associated Press’s Dave Collins and Marcy Gordon report. The state investigation of Google came after a 2018 AP story that found that Google still tracked users’ locations even after they turned off Google’s “location history” feature.
“The attorneys general said Google misled users about its location tracking practices since at least 2014, violating state consumer protection laws,” Collins and Gordon write. “As part of the settlement, Google also agreed to make those practices more transparent to users. That includes showing them more information when they turn location account settings on and off and keeping a webpage that gives users information about the data Google collects.”
Google says it has updated the policies at the center of the case. “Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this investigation, which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago,” company spokesperson Jose Castaneda said, per the AP.
Trial over Musk’s Tesla pay begins in Delaware
The first day of the trial focused on Elon Musk’s role in setting his compensation package, the Wall Street Journal’s Rebecca Elliott and Meghan Bobrowsky report. Musk is expected to testify Wednesday.
“A Tesla shareholder, Richard Tornetta, is seeking to nullify Mr. Musk’s 2018 compensation grant, alleging that Mr. Musk controlled the board’s consideration of his pay package and failed to disclose crucial information to shareholders, who signed off on it,” Elliott and Bobrowsky write. “The package is worth around $51 billion at recent share prices.”
Elon Musk’s conversation with — and firing of — a Twitter engineer by tweet was widely discussed on Twitter. Writer Ashlee Vance and Musk:
Journalist Omar S. Rashad:
imagine the convo elon had to have with whoever’s left on hr at twitter, explaining they needed to fire a dev on their android team. truly hoping he had explain it was over a public fact check. or maybe he just sent them this tweet lol https://t.co/7TuWbwbd36
— Omar S. Rashad عمر (@omarsrashad) November 14, 2022
- Adrienne A. Harris and Pete Marton, the superintendent and virtual currency chief at New York state’s Department of Financial Services, speak at a Brookings Institution event today at 2 p.m.
- The Center for Democracy and Technology hosts an event on online harassment and targeted disinformation aimed at women of color candidates in U.S. elections on Wednesday at 11 a.m.
