4 things to watch in social media

Hey all, it’s Kurt and Alex in California. There are four big things we’re watching in social media this year. But first...Today’s must-read [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hey all, it’s Kurt and Alex in California. There are four big things we’re watching in social media this year. But first... Today’s must-reads: • Salesforce will [cut 10% of staff](, and Amazon is [laying off 17,000]( • The EU fined Meta and [ordered changes to personalized ads]( • Apple’s stock [is losing its shine]( More drama In a world of unpredictability, at least we can always count on social media companies to provide us with one thing — lots of drama. Last year was no exception (see: Twitter) and there’s certainly more to come in 2023. It would be foolish to try to forecast exactly where we’ll be even a few months from now, but here are four things we’ll be watching during the first few months of the year: 1. Musk’s Twitter Elon Musk is on the hunt for a permanent chief executive officer of Twitter Inc., though [there are questions]( about how important that role will be with Musk remaining as Twitter’s owner and self-appointed chief twit. Still, finding someone to lead the day-to-day at Twitter will be a big task and could mean that Musk starts to redirect his attention back to Tesla Inc. or Space Exploration Technologies Corp. We’ll also be keeping tabs on Twitter’s business, especially since Musk keeps discussing the possibility of bankruptcy. Twitter has to make some very sizable interest payments on the roughly $13 billion in debt assumed during the deal process. Musk has suggested Twitter’s business is in dire straits. (Then again, he has said this a lot about his companies.) Bringing Twitter to bankruptcy just a few months after buying it would [not be very hardcore](. 2. The fate of Trump’s Facebook account We don’t know for certain whether former US President Donald Trump will return to Facebook, though it’s certainly possible and could happen very soon. Trump’s two-year ban is set to expire on Jan. 7, and while Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., is under no obligation to bring him back, the company has promised an update on his account, and we should have that by the end of the month. Maybe it won’t matter if Trump is reinstated. The ex-president still hasn’t tweeted since Musk lifted the Twitter ban in November. But if Trump is serious about another presidential run, we imagine it’ll be hard for him to do all his campaigning on Truth Social. 3. TikTok: Should it stay, or should it go? TikTok and its Chinese parent company are still waiting on the end of an intensive national security review from the Biden administration that could force it to change the way it does business, explore new ownership or leave America entirely. The review started in 2019, and the calls are growing louder to wrap it up. Senators from both major parties have pressed the White House to take action, and lawmakers voted to ban TikTok from US government devices. Limiting or kicking out an app with more than 1 billion users worldwide would be a dramatic step, but the owner, ByteDance Ltd., isn’t making a very good case to keep it around. In December, ByteDance said [employees inappropriately accessed]( some American users’ data, including the personal information of journalists. The episode undermined ByteDance’s claims to have strict controls on access to user data. 4. The techlash returns The Biden administration’s moves to rein in US tech giants will soon be tested. Twice last year, regulators sued to block acquisitions by technology companies using a novel, untested argument: that deals in still-developing industries would harm competition in the future. Typically, antitrust enforcers focus on violations in established markets. The first of these deals, against Meta, is expected to come to a resolution early this year. The Federal Trade Commission sued over Meta’s acquisition of a small virtual reality fitness company, arguing that it could give the company an unfair advantage in the future of VR. If the judge rules that Meta can close the deal, it will hamper the FTC’s strategy, though regulators will still have a chance to block the deal through an antitrust trial process. If the judge decides to stop the deal from closing, Meta has said it will abandon the acquisition. Either way, the outcome will be closely watched by Microsoft Corp. — the other company fighting the FTC — which is now tasked with defending its much-larger, $69 billion takeover of video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. The FTC argues it could give Microsoft an anticompetitive advantage in the nascent market of streaming games. —[Kurt Wagner](mailto:kwagner71@bloomberg.net) and [Alexa Barinka](mailto:abarinka2@bloomberg.net) The big story Cell phone scams involving SIM swaps are sometimes [aided by insiders at the mobile operators](, Bloomberg Technology reported in Cyber Bulletin. [Sign up for the weekly newsletter]( on all things cybersecurity. Get fully charged The Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko will [join the cybersecurity company Rapid7]( as a part-time adviser. Walmart and other shareholders of PhonePe will have to [pay a nearly $1 billion tax bill]( after the digital payments company split from Flipkart and relocated its headquarters to India from Singapore. Samsung unveiled a smart home hub and a new budget smartphone at CES. [The hub doubles as a wireless phone charger](, and the [phone costs $200](. Tech companies “are not good cost cutters,” Morgan Stanley’s chief US equity strategist [said on Bloomberg TV](. Israel abandoned a reform to its “kosher” phone program, which would have loosened restrictions on [devices designed for the ultra-Orthodox](. Panasonic will stop making rice cookers in Japan, [ending a six-decade tradition]( as it relocates production to China. Follow Us twMore from Bloomberg Get Bloomberg Tech weeklies in your inbox: - [Power On]( for Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more, every Sunday - [Game On]( for reporting on the video game business, delivered on Friday - [Cyber Bulletin]( for exclusive coverage on the shadow world of hackers and cyber-espionage, sent every Wednesday Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Tech Daily newsletter. 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