Reverberate: Media and marketing news you need to know today – Twitter gender lawsuit, UN halt Uber partnership & Starbucks drops #RaceTogether in stores
Morning all, here’s a glimpse at all the media and marketing news you should know today.
Reverberate: Media and marketing news you need to know today
1. Twitter is facing a gender discrimination lawsuit by a former female engineer, reports Time. Tina Huang has claimed in a proposed class action lawsuit filed that Twitter’s promotion process unfairly favors men, adding that the company has no formal procedures for granting promotions and instead relies on a “shoulder tap” process.
2. Uber has inked a marketing deal with major Indian media conglomerate Times Internet, notes the Wall Street Journal. The deal, worth an estimated $24m, is to support the ride-sharing firm's expansion in the region.
3. But the startup has hit the headlines again this week as the United Nations (UN) has decided to halt plans to partner with Uber on an initiative designed to generate a million jobs for women, reports Bloomberg. Amid pressure from labor unions and non-governmental organizations the UN announced that it did "not plan to expand" it's collaboration with the company.
4. Taylor Swift has bought the web domain names TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult, says USA Today. The pop star is ahead of the curve, having snapped up the domains as part of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' generic top-level sale, which is open to the public until 1 June.
5. Starbucks has ditched its unpopular #RaceTogether campaign in stores, according to the Guardian. Baristas will no longer write “Race Together” on customers’ cups as part of the brand's initiative to encourage discussion about race. Jim Olson, spokesman for the coffee chain, says the campaign will continue without the handwritten messages.
6. Google isn't giving up on Google Glass, notes the Wall Steet Journal. The tech giant is allegedly sticking with the controversial wearable according to executive chairman Eric Schmidt, who said that "Google is about taking risks and there’s nothing about adjusting Glass that suggests we’re ending it".
7. Apple is set to release a new incarnation of Apple TV set-top box, writes Wired. The new Apple TV hardware will allegedly comprise an iPhone-like app store and a Siri-like speech-recognizing digital assistant, as well as offering a way of remotely controlling other tech in your home.
8. And Ted Cruz, Republican senator for Texas and the chair of the committee in charge of Nasa has announced his intentions to run for president in 2016 via Twitter, The Verge reports that Cruz's tweet was accompanied by a 30-second video, in which the senator called on "a new generation of courageous conservatives" to "make America great again".
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