Sidewalk Labs finally reveals its plans for Toronto project; Facebook could soon need to reveal the value of data they collect on you; Could media companies be responsible for comments on their social media posts?
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Trending on Twitter is some big news for Canadians as Sidewalk Labs finally unveiled its plans for its Toronto smart city project. As part of its 1,500 page master plan, Sidewalk Labs said it intends to take on the role of lead developer on the 12-acre plot of land at Parliament St. and Queens Quay named The Quayside phase. This will serve as a testing ground to see if this is a viable option for Toronto. Additionally, they unveiled the fact that they intend to develop the western part of Villiers Island with the hopes of it housing an expanded Google Canada headquarters.
Next up we have a couple stories trending on Reddit with major implications for the international stage of online media.
https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-and-google-could-reveal-value-of-data-2019-6?r=US&IR=T
US senators Mark Warner and Josh Hawley introduced a bill that would stipulate that large tech companies would need to disclose not only what information they have collected about you, but also what that information is worth to them. Titled the Designing Accounting Safeguards to Help Broaden Oversight and Regulations on Data Act, DASHBOARD for short, the bill would require companies to send out a report every 90 days to share this information with users. It is being reported that only companies with over 100 million monthly users would be eligible for this proposal.
Over in Australia, media companies are scrambling after a judge ruled that they are responsible for all comments left on their social media posts. Judge Stephen Rothman of the New South Wales supreme court, ruled that commercial entities, including media companies, could be seen as the publisher of comments on Facebook, and therefore are responsible to ensure defamatory comments are not left in the first place. And yet somehow, Facebook and other social media platforms are still not being held responsible for ensuring this does not happen… Huh…