The Giants Hold Too Much Power: A Year of Politics and Tech in 2020

In 2020, giants hold too much power, what we got was mostly a political show, lots of posturing from politicians and fairly standard company lines from Sundar Pachai, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. The rest of the action against these companies in 2020 well that played out in the courts, the Department of Justice sued Google over its supposed search and advertising monopolies, Epic Games sued Apple saying its app store rules were anti-competitive.

In the closing months of the year, the FTC and more than 40 states filed suits calling on Facebook to break up Instagram and WhatsApp from its business. We haven't even mentioned TickTock in August, the Trump administration tried to ban the Chinese-owned video app but the move was eventually blocked by federal judges. TickTock's parent company, ByteDance, is still trying to hash out a deal to sell the US business but it doesn't look like it'll be disappearing off your phone anytime soon.

Which is good because I've become kind of addicted to Tick-Tock memes. Yes, I'm that guy. This next one is surreal and it has to do with Elon Musk and a pig named Gertrude in August. Neurolink, the neurotech company headed up by Musk showed off its brain computer interface implanted in a live pig and we saw readings of the pig's brain activity in real-time. Me too pig me too now Musk says that this "Fitbit for the skull" as he called it could one day be used to download memories and even replay them in a robot body.

From Pig Screens to the Big Screen: The Year Was a Wild Ride

September was the month that movies really changed for good, ah fashion amuse real Tin. After months of delays, Disney took a lesson from other box office failures where looking at u-tenant and pushed its live-action remake of Mulan straight to streaming on Disney+. Warner Bros followed suit announcing that Wonder Woman 1984 would go straight to HBO Max on the same day it hit theaters.

And that all's well that ends well all right. It has been a huge year, and we didn't even get to things like Dr. Fauci murder hornets Italian balcony concerts but I think all that is going to have to wait for another video in the meantime. Thank you for sticking with CNET this year and here is to a better 2021 cannot emphasize enough how much of a bad decision it was to drink gin my throat is on fire um okay

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en2020 was scientifically speaking 400 months long we had zoom bombing tick-tock and i want to say quibby let's break down everything that happened in tech in 2020 back in january when we were still young and innocent the year kicked off with ces now it's a show known for tech but one of the biggest stories was edible impossible foods new meat-free pork we also saw sony's futuristic concept car and a shaman robot that brings you toilet paper that turned out to be quite prophetic for 2020 as for exciting tech we'd actually see out in the wild that came in february with the arrival of fun new folding phones motorola gave us an updated version of its cult classic razer flip phone but samsung undoubtedly won the day with two folding phones the galaxy z flip eraser rival and the brand new galaxy z fold 2. now if it was a normal year we would have seen these devices on show in march at the world's biggest mobile phone conference mwc but in a sign of things to come mwc was cancelled over fears of a new virus spreading across the world and then came march we watched as an early outbreak of the coronavirus in wuhan china went global by the time the world health organization declared a pandemic on march 11 the world had completely changed outbreaks sprung up in italy iran the united states our tv screens were filled with images that looked like something out of a movie and we went from hand washing to social distancing to complete global lockdown within a matter of weeks while medical experts were learning about this threat in real time the rest of us were adapting to a new normal and tech played a huge role starting with zoom this boardroom software quickly became our go-to for everything from work to homeschooling socializing and just staying sane the company faced a number of problems in the early days including zoom bombing where strangers crashed zoom calls uninvited but still user numbers skyrocketed and zoom became a verb working from home also became the new normal facebook google and twitter closed their mega campuses for what was initially supposed to be only a few weeks but eventually it became clear that no one would be going back to the office before the year was out by april we were stuck indoors looking for ways to pass the time in between sourdough baking sessions so that should be the perfect time to binge a brand new series on the big screen tv right instead we got quibby the short form content mobile only streaming platform it might have been a case of bad timing or bigger problems don't even get me started on golden arm what was that show i just want you to be happy can you make it out of gold either way after more than a billion dollars in investment quibby was eventually killed off just over six months after its launch we might not have wanted short shows to watch on the bus but you know what we did want crazy tattooed men running animal parks and accusing their rivals of tiger murder by april tiger king had taken the world by storm and we could not look away next up came exciting space news spacex and nasa launched the demo 2 mission in may the first privately built crude spacecraft and the first space flight to launch on u.s soil since the shuttle era ended in 2011. space is no longer just the domain of government agencies companies like spacex blue origin and virgin galactic have proven that private space travel is here to stay in june came another seismic shift that was felt across the world after the police killing of george floyd on may 25th the us faced a moment of reckoning on civil rights black lives matter protests swept across the country and the world and tech companies were forced to make their stance on civil rights known acknowledging systemic racism and promising to make change we also saw the stop hate for profit campaign brands like verizon unilever and ford pulled ads from facebook after civil rights groups said the company wasn't doing enough to combat hate speech big tech wasn't out of the spotlight yet in july the ceos of google apple amazon and facebook fronted up to an anti-trust hearing in congress on whether the tech giants hold too much power what we got was mostly a political show lots of posturing from politicians and fairly standard company lines from sundar pachai tim cook jeff bezos and mark zuckerberg the rest of the action against these companies in 2020 well that played out in the courts the department of justice sued google over its supposed search and advertising monopolies epic games sued apple saying its app store rules were anti-competitive and in the closing months of the year the ftc and more than 40 states filed suits calling on facebook to break up instagram and whatsapp from its business and we haven't even mentioned tick tock in august the trump administration tried to ban the chinese owned video app but the move was eventually blocked by federal judges tick tock's parent company bite dance is still trying to hash out a deal to sell the us business but it doesn't look like it'll be disappearing off your phone anytime soon which is good because i've become kind of addicted to tick-tock memes yes i'm that guy alright this next one is surreal and it has to do with elon musk and a pig named gertrude in august neurolink the neurotech company headed up by musk showed off its brain computer interface implanted in a live pig and we saw readings of the pig's brain activity in real time me too pig me too now musk says that this fitbit for the skull as he called it could one day be used to download memories and even replay them in a robot body from pig screens to the big screen yeah okay i'm doing it i've run out of segways it's september i don't have anything left september was the month that movies really changed for good ah fashion amuse real tin after months of delays disney took a lesson from other box office failures where looking at u-tenant and pushed its live-action remake of mulan straight to streaming on disney plus warner bros followed suit announcing that wonder woman 1984 would go straight to hbo max on the same day it hit theaters and that all 2021 warner brothers titles would do the same now disney wasn't just sending mulan straight to streaming either at an investor call at the end of the year disney announced a raft of new titles coming straight to disney plus including new star wars and marvel originals it's clear the internet is shaking up hollywood once again speaking of how the internet reshaped our world let's talk about online misinformation 2020 saw this in spades whether it was conspiracy theories about coronavirus or misinformation about politics in october the ceos of facebook twitter and google were back before congress again to answer questions about hate speech censorship and what content they allow on their platforms democrats accuse the ceos of allowing hate speech to run wild while republicans accuse them of playing politics and censoring conservative voices mr dorsey who the hell elected you of course this whole hearing took on much greater significance because it all happened one month before the elections which brings us to november and the social networks had their work cut out for them trying to limit the spread of misinformation around voting and elections twitter and facebook used warning labels to slow the spread of incorrect posts and twitter even went as far as hiding some of president trump's tweets then after the election slower vote counting and delays around postal votes meant we saw even more misinformation but there was one good thing about the slow vote count it gave us plenty of time to share map daddy memes speaking of things that take forever the playstation 5 and xbox series x launched in november but good luck getting your hands on one with holiday sales and literally everyone being stuck inside it was a matter of watching online stock levels and then fighting off your fellow gamers and let's not lie probably a few bots to get your hands on one and while gamers got their next gen consoles in november apple fans got a next generation processor the m1 chip goodbye intel hello apple silicon which brings us to december and at this point it really feels like it's been 84 years but we finally closed out on some good news the first covert 19 vaccines from pfizer and biontech started being given to members of the public the first dose went to a 90 year old woman in the uk and then well in a sign that we couldn't have predicted 2020 if we tried the second vaccine went to william shakespeare so i guess all's well that ends well all right it has been a huge year and we didn't even get to things like dr fauci murder hornets italian balcony concerts but i think all that is going to have to wait for another video in the meantime thank you for sticking with cnet this year and here is to a better 2021 cannot emphasize enough how much of a bad decision it was to drink gin my throat is on fire um okay2020 was scientifically speaking 400 months long we had zoom bombing tick-tock and i want to say quibby let's break down everything that happened in tech in 2020 back in january when we were still young and innocent the year kicked off with ces now it's a show known for tech but one of the biggest stories was edible impossible foods new meat-free pork we also saw sony's futuristic concept car and a shaman robot that brings you toilet paper that turned out to be quite prophetic for 2020 as for exciting tech we'd actually see out in the wild that came in february with the arrival of fun new folding phones motorola gave us an updated version of its cult classic razer flip phone but samsung undoubtedly won the day with two folding phones the galaxy z flip eraser rival and the brand new galaxy z fold 2. now if it was a normal year we would have seen these devices on show in march at the world's biggest mobile phone conference mwc but in a sign of things to come mwc was cancelled over fears of a new virus spreading across the world and then came march we watched as an early outbreak of the coronavirus in wuhan china went global by the time the world health organization declared a pandemic on march 11 the world had completely changed outbreaks sprung up in italy iran the united states our tv screens were filled with images that looked like something out of a movie and we went from hand washing to social distancing to complete global lockdown within a matter of weeks while medical experts were learning about this threat in real time the rest of us were adapting to a new normal and tech played a huge role starting with zoom this boardroom software quickly became our go-to for everything from work to homeschooling socializing and just staying sane the company faced a number of problems in the early days including zoom bombing where strangers crashed zoom calls uninvited but still user numbers skyrocketed and zoom became a verb working from home also became the new normal facebook google and twitter closed their mega campuses for what was initially supposed to be only a few weeks but eventually it became clear that no one would be going back to the office before the year was out by april we were stuck indoors looking for ways to pass the time in between sourdough baking sessions so that should be the perfect time to binge a brand new series on the big screen tv right instead we got quibby the short form content mobile only streaming platform it might have been a case of bad timing or bigger problems don't even get me started on golden arm what was that show i just want you to be happy can you make it out of gold either way after more than a billion dollars in investment quibby was eventually killed off just over six months after its launch we might not have wanted short shows to watch on the bus but you know what we did want crazy tattooed men running animal parks and accusing their rivals of tiger murder by april tiger king had taken the world by storm and we could not look away next up came exciting space news spacex and nasa launched the demo 2 mission in may the first privately built crude spacecraft and the first space flight to launch on u.s soil since the shuttle era ended in 2011. space is no longer just the domain of government agencies companies like spacex blue origin and virgin galactic have proven that private space travel is here to stay in june came another seismic shift that was felt across the world after the police killing of george floyd on may 25th the us faced a moment of reckoning on civil rights black lives matter protests swept across the country and the world and tech companies were forced to make their stance on civil rights known acknowledging systemic racism and promising to make change we also saw the stop hate for profit campaign brands like verizon unilever and ford pulled ads from facebook after civil rights groups said the company wasn't doing enough to combat hate speech big tech wasn't out of the spotlight yet in july the ceos of google apple amazon and facebook fronted up to an anti-trust hearing in congress on whether the tech giants hold too much power what we got was mostly a political show lots of posturing from politicians and fairly standard company lines from sundar pachai tim cook jeff bezos and mark zuckerberg the rest of the action against these companies in 2020 well that played out in the courts the department of justice sued google over its supposed search and advertising monopolies epic games sued apple saying its app store rules were anti-competitive and in the closing months of the year the ftc and more than 40 states filed suits calling on facebook to break up instagram and whatsapp from its business and we haven't even mentioned tick tock in august the trump administration tried to ban the chinese owned video app but the move was eventually blocked by federal judges tick tock's parent company bite dance is still trying to hash out a deal to sell the us business but it doesn't look like it'll be disappearing off your phone anytime soon which is good because i've become kind of addicted to tick-tock memes yes i'm that guy alright this next one is surreal and it has to do with elon musk and a pig named gertrude in august neurolink the neurotech company headed up by musk showed off its brain computer interface implanted in a live pig and we saw readings of the pig's brain activity in real time me too pig me too now musk says that this fitbit for the skull as he called it could one day be used to download memories and even replay them in a robot body from pig screens to the big screen yeah okay i'm doing it i've run out of segways it's september i don't have anything left september was the month that movies really changed for good ah fashion amuse real tin after months of delays disney took a lesson from other box office failures where looking at u-tenant and pushed its live-action remake of mulan straight to streaming on disney plus warner bros followed suit announcing that wonder woman 1984 would go straight to hbo max on the same day it hit theaters and that all 2021 warner brothers titles would do the same now disney wasn't just sending mulan straight to streaming either at an investor call at the end of the year disney announced a raft of new titles coming straight to disney plus including new star wars and marvel originals it's clear the internet is shaking up hollywood once again speaking of how the internet reshaped our world let's talk about online misinformation 2020 saw this in spades whether it was conspiracy theories about coronavirus or misinformation about politics in october the ceos of facebook twitter and google were back before congress again to answer questions about hate speech censorship and what content they allow on their platforms democrats accuse the ceos of allowing hate speech to run wild while republicans accuse them of playing politics and censoring conservative voices mr dorsey who the hell elected you of course this whole hearing took on much greater significance because it all happened one month before the elections which brings us to november and the social networks had their work cut out for them trying to limit the spread of misinformation around voting and elections twitter and facebook used warning labels to slow the spread of incorrect posts and twitter even went as far as hiding some of president trump's tweets then after the election slower vote counting and delays around postal votes meant we saw even more misinformation but there was one good thing about the slow vote count it gave us plenty of time to share map daddy memes speaking of things that take forever the playstation 5 and xbox series x launched in november but good luck getting your hands on one with holiday sales and literally everyone being stuck inside it was a matter of watching online stock levels and then fighting off your fellow gamers and let's not lie probably a few bots to get your hands on one and while gamers got their next gen consoles in november apple fans got a next generation processor the m1 chip goodbye intel hello apple silicon which brings us to december and at this point it really feels like it's been 84 years but we finally closed out on some good news the first covert 19 vaccines from pfizer and biontech started being given to members of the public the first dose went to a 90 year old woman in the uk and then well in a sign that we couldn't have predicted 2020 if we tried the second vaccine went to william shakespeare so i guess all's well that ends well all right it has been a huge year and we didn't even get to things like dr fauci murder hornets italian balcony concerts but i think all that is going to have to wait for another video in the meantime thank you for sticking with cnet this year and here is to a better 2021 cannot emphasize enough how much of a bad decision it was to drink gin my throat is on fire um okay\n"