Elections
Google deletes 100,000 bad reviews of Robinhood from its app store
Google removed over 100,000 angry reviews of the stock-trading app Robinhood on its app store after a furious response to the company’s move to block users Thursday from buying or sharing stocks that were trending on a popular Reddit forum, The Verge and Gizmodo reported.
After users on Reddit called on others to leave one-star reviews over Robinhood’s decision to prevent the trading of stocks in companies that were popularized on the subreddit called r/WallStreetBets, negative reviews flooded the Google Play store. These stocks included GameStop, BlackBerry, and AMC.
A Google spokesperson confirmed to Gizmodo that it had deleted the reviews and defended the move overnight, saying that it has rules against “coordinated or inorganic reviews.” Gizmodo‘s report noted that it then asked the spokesperson how someone could determine negative reviews as “inorganic” when so many people seem reasonably upset at Robinhood, as phrased in the report. The tech publication reported that Google “stopped responding to Gizmodo’s emails after that inquiry.”
Furthermore, the tech giant’s policies prohibit “fake ratings” that are “meant to manipulate an app’s average rating or top reviews,” according to The Hill. Likewise, app developers are not permitted to delete reviews or try to change their app’s rating by bombarding it with five-star reviews.
This news comes after a class-action lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York against Robinhood on Thursday for its decision to block users from buying stock in GameStop.
At the same time, politicians at both ideological extremes have been united in their anger at Robinhood and in their desire for the government to look into the company for its Thursday decision, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
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You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.
Elections
Canada Beefs up Border Security After Trump Threatened Sweeping Tariffs
In November, president-elect Donald Trump announced on social media that he would impose a 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico if they do not take an active role in containing illegal immigration as well as the level of illicit drugs entering into the United States.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, after which the Canadian government vowed to secure the border. “We got, I think, a mutual understanding of what they’re concerned about in terms of border security,” Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc, who accompanied Trudeau at Mar-a-Largo, said of the meeting in an interview with Canadian media. “All of their concerns are shared by Canadians and by the government of Canada.”
“We talked about the security posture currently at the border that we believe to be effective, and we also discussed additional measures and visible measures that we’re going to put in place over the coming weeks,” LeBlanc continued. “And we also established, Rosemary, a personal series of rapport that I think will continue to allow us to make that case.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation reports the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is preparing to beef up its immigration enforcement capabilities by hiring more staff, adding more vehicles and creating more processing facilities, in the chance that there is an immigration surge sparked by Trump’s presidential election victory. The moves are a change in direction from Trudeau’s public declaration in January 2017 that Canada was a “welcoming” country and that “diversity is our strength” just days after Trump was sworn into office the first time.
The Daily Caller notes the differences in response from the Canadian government verses Mexico’s:
Trudeau’s recent overtures largely differ from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has indicated she is not willing to bend the knee to Trump’s tariff threats. The Mexican leader in November said “there will be a response in kind” to any tariff levied on Mexican goods going into the U.S., and she appeared to deny the president-elect’s claims that she agreed to do more to beef up border security in a recent phone call.
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