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Catch up on everything you missed from the world of tech this week. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Thursday, November 8, 2018 [For the latest updates, go to nytimes.com/bits »]( Social Media Faces Another Election Test [Facebook set up a “war room” to catch any last-minute information operations meant to influence the midterm elections.] Facebook set up a “war room” to catch any last-minute information operations meant to influence the midterm elections. Noah Berger/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Each week, technology reporters and columnists from The New York Times review [the week’s news]( offering analysis and maybe a joke or two about the most important developments in the tech industry. Want this newsletter in your inbox? [Sign up here](. Hello there, everyone! Mike Isaac here, your trusty, San Francisco-based reporter covering all things Facebook, ride-hailing and other Silicon Valley ephemera. It has been a while since I wrote my last newsletter, so bear with me if I’m a bit rusty. Social media was the thing to watch this week. The midterm elections finally took place, with Americans poised to see whether or not a widely predicted “blue wave” of Democrats would sweep the country. As it turned out, that wave was more of a choppy surf; Dems took back the House, while Republicans held onto their majority in the Senate. As Americans made their way to the polls on Tuesday, another big story was whether we would see a repeat of the 2016 presidential election: Everyone was looking for trolls and disinformation. Facebook, home to more than two billion regular users, was the obvious target. Since Russian-backed trolls succeeded in a widespread influence campaign that reached millions of Americans in 2016, Facebook has been under pressure to safeguard its network against the threat of further foreign meddling. The company, to much ado from the press, set up a “War Room” to catch any last-minute information operations. There were other blind spots even before the election in the United States. WhatsApp, the encrypted messaging app owned by Facebook used by more than a billion people globally, was [a key target for political disinformation in Brazil]( ahead of its presidential election. Jair Bolsonaro, often called the Donald Trump of Brazil, surged to an Election Day victory, aided — at least in part — by voter suppression and disinformation tactics that flooded private groups in WhatsApp. That problem is more difficult to deal with on WhatsApp because it is encrypted. And users generally trust private messaging services more than they do more public venues like Facebook. Facebook has also spent the past month dealing with fallout from [a breach involving tens of millions of its users]( a gargantuan lapse that came at the worst possible time. Regulators are taking a closer look at the company in response, while Facebook-connected apps have [scrambled to increase their security]( Now the social media giant is on the hunt to buy a security company to help out, though it hasn’t publicly announced a decision. Election Day in the United States was indeed a spectacle for Facebook, but for different reasons than we thought. Save for one episode, the day went off without much of a hitch. We’re still holding our breath, but according to Facebook, there were no enormous reveals, no last-minute election night disasters, nothing that seemed to throw the electoral process completely off the rails. Crazy, right? Not so fast, [says my colleagueÂ]( Roose. We shouldn’t be letting Facebook off the hook so easily. It was months of pressure that made Facebook take disinformation issues seriously. Just because we made it through the midterms without a significant impact from disinformation doesn’t mean meddlers won’t give it another try somewhere else in the world. No doubt, it wasn’t for lack of trying by a Russia-linked group. The day before the election, [Facebook, acting on a tip from the F.B.I., took down a handful of rogue accounts]( linked to a Russian troll outfit, the Internet Research Agency. Finally, Facebook and law enforcement officials seem to be on the same page in the disinformation fight. I guess we should be happy that things didn’t go completely sideways after two years of scrutiny and preparation. Perhaps, at least for a moment, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief. That is, until the [next]( [Election Day](. Here are a handful of other things you may have missed last week: ■ In a last-minute decision, Amazon appears close to [deciding on splitting its second headquarters]( outside Seattle, settling on locations in Long Island City, in Queens, and Arlington, Va. There is a [growing concern]( among [critics]( that [Amazon has played cities in a prolonged game]( to get the best possible deal on taxes and concessions from local government leaders. ■ After a New York Times article shed light on a [history of sexual harassment scandals at Google]( workers at the [company’s global offices walked out in protest]( last week. Now, Google has acquiesced to at least part of the workers’ list of demands, [overhauling its sexual harassment policies](. ■ In more Google news, the company is said to be [shopping for new real estate in New York City]( which could result in a 1.3-million-square-foot expansion into St. John’s Terminal in the West Village. The site, if it goes through, is expected to be finished in 2022. An expansion of that size could more than double the number of workers Google employs in New York, which is now around 7,000. ■ Facebook released its Portal video chat device this week, the first piece of hardware it has built from the ground up. I [tested the Portal and Portal Plus units with my colleague Farhad Manjoo and found them useful]( if not otherwise creepy because of Facebook’s privacy scandals. ■ And finally, Mario A. Segale, a Seattle-area real estate developer who unwittingly lent his name to Nintendo’s most famous video game hero — Super Mario — [died this week at the age of 84](. When Nintendo’s game designers were struggling to name the character, Mr. Segale knocked on their office door. He was there to yell at Minoru Arakawa, then the president of Nintendo of America, for being past due on the rent. As soon as he left, the team knew it had its name: “Super Mario!” Mr. Arakawa said. Mike Isaac writes about social media and other technology for The New York Times. You can follow him on Twitter here: [@MikeIsaac]( HOW ARE WE DOING? We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [bits_newsletter@nytimes.com](mailto:bits_newsletter@nytimes.com?subject=Bits%20Newsletter%20Feedback%20223). ADVERTISEMENT LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. In Case You Missed It [Google Overhauls Sexual Misconduct Policy After Employee Walkout]( By KATE CONGER AND DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI A week after 20,000 employees around the globe staged a walkout over the handling of sexual harassment and assault cases, Google said it was altering some of its policies. State of the Art [Why the Google Walkout Was a Watershed Moment in Tech]( By FARHAD MANJOO Outsiders have little leverage to force the industry to change. The companies’ own workers are another matter. [At China’s Internet Conference, a Darker Side of Tech Emerges]( By RAYMOND ZHONG The World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, China, has long showcased flashy new tech. This year, discussions also dealt with counterterrorism, data breaches and surveillance. [Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 Between Long Island City, N.Y., and Arlington, Va.]( By KAREN WEISE AND J. DAVID GOODMAN The surprise change would allow the company to tap into the talent pools of two different regions. [Google Is Said to Be Shopping for More Real Estate in New York]( By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI Amazon appears to be leaning toward opening a new office in New York. Now word comes that Google, already a big employer in the city, may add on. [After Protest, Booksellers Are Victorious Against Amazon Subsidiary]( By DAVID STREITFELD Two days into a strike by antiquarian booksellers against the Amazon unit AbeBooks, the company capitulated. [Russian Trolls Were at It Again Before Midterms, Facebook Says]( By SHEERA FRENKEL AND MIKE ISAAC The company said Tuesday that it had taken down more than 100 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm. Corner Office [Sundar Pichai of Google: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’]( By DAVID GELLES Growing up in India, he slept on the floor of a house without a refrigerator. Today, the chief executive is steering Google through the most turbulent period in its history. [We Tried Facebook’s New Portal Device (So You Don’t Have To)]( By MIKE ISAAC AND FARHAD MANJOO Here’s what happened when two Times tech reporters installed Facebook’s new Portal video-calling gadgets in their bedrooms. [Beyond Bros: What is next for leadership in tech]( Thursday, Nov. 15 in San Francisco, Calif. Join New York Times technology editor and renowned Silicon Valley journalist Pui-Wing Tam to discuss one of the thorniest issues in tech: how to build the next wave of industry leadership. What qualities do leaders need to move beyond an era of cultish corporate command to create fair and functional work environments? How do you keep workers and investors happy? Ms. Tam will talk about these and other concerns with: Bridget Frey, chief technology officer at Redfin, one of the few female executives in that role; Tina Sharkey, an American entrepreneur, adviser, and co-founder of Brandless; and Josh Reeves, chief executive officer and co-founder of Gusto, and a longtime champion of bettering work life. [Get tickets here]( for $12 to $40. We’ve got more newsletters! You might like DealBook.  Make sense of the major business and policy headlines — and the power-brokers who shape them. [Sign up for the Dealbook briefing]( written by our columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and his Times colleagues.  ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW BITS [Twitter] [@nytimesbits]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Bits newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018

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