Facebook’s fake news frenzy continued as the company came under scrutiny for its debated influence on the U.S. election, LinkedIn was blocked in Russia and a person was treated with CRISPR technology for the first time. Also, the human species has about 1,000 years left according to Stephen Hawking. But do we deserve survival? The existence of Coca-Cola’s selfie bottle points toward no.
1. Mark Zuckerberg published a response to accusations that fake news on Facebook influenced the outcome of the U.S. election. The Facebook CEO claims that at least 99 percent of news content on Facebook was “authentic.” However, many still argue that Facebook has locked users inside of an echo chamber.
2. Apple and U.S. auto sales could suffer a setback if President-elect Donald Trump takes action on his pre-election comments about global trade. Back in September, Trump said he would impose a 45 percent tariff on imports from China. And now the country is threatening to squeeze iPhone sales if a trade war comes to be.
3. A full four years after the last major upgrade, the new MacBook Pro is finally here. It’s slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, has a new Touch Bar feature and a larger TrackPad.
4. Chinese scientists injected a human being with cells genetically edited using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. This is the first time CRISPR has been used on a fully formed adult human, and scientists are hoping that this will help their patient fend off a deadly type of lung cancer.
5. Snap Inc. appears to be moving forward in its plans to go public early next year. The company reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO. Snap is already targeting as much as $1 billion in revenue for 2017. It has 150 million daily active users and has rapidly become one of the most enticing new advertising platforms for marketers. Snapchat also continued selling its Spectacles glasses to the public in the most millennial way possible — through pop-up vending machines across California and in Oklahoma. But they didn’t give them away to techies.
6. Microsoft and the Linux community often felt like they were at war with each other in the past. But this week, Microsoft, one of the biggest open-source contributors, joined the Linux Foundation as a high-paying Platinum member.
7. Shareholders approved Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity in an important hurdle for the deal. Tesla expects the transaction to close in the coming days. Overall, the acquisition is pushed forward by Elon Musk’s vision of a unified sustainable energy track.
8. It was confirmed that fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel are merging into one company in what will be a dual-operating structure. DraftKings CEO Jason Robins will become CEO of the newly combined company and FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles will become Chairman of the Board.
9. WhatsApp is on its way to becoming the global multi-platform FaceTime. The Facebook-owned communication app launched video calling for everyone.
10. A red-hot new startup called Hustle announced it’s raised $3 million led by Social Capital. The text-distribution tool’s goal is to let organizers quickly start individual, personalized conversations with huge groups of supporters. It has already been used by Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
11. Samsung is gunning to increase its focus on connected cars as it announced plans to buy auto and audio product maker Harman in an $8 billion all-cash deal.
12. LinkedIn was officially blocked in Russia after the social network failed to transfer Russian user data to servers located in the country. This violates a law instituted in Russia requiring all online sites to store personal data on national servers.