← Morning Brew Daily
Morning Brew Daily
Meta Kills Fact-Checking & Medical Debt Gone From Credit Reports?
00:27:17
Meta nixes fact-checking & medical bills won’t be a problem for credit reports
Loading summary
Transcript63 lines
- [00:00]
Discover
When it comes to smart money management, one of the best pieces of advice is how to make your money work for you. Well, Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide, and you automatically earn cash back on all of your purchases. That means there's plenty of opportunities to make that money work. So shop smarter and not harder. Basically, anywhere you go nationwide, it pays to Discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. Learn more at discover.com credit card Good.
- [00:30]
Neal Freyman
Morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.
- [00:32]
Kyle Hagee
And I'm Kyle Hagee.
- [00:33]
Neal Freyman
Today, Mark Zuckerberg takes a page from Elon Musk's book and rips up Meta's fact checking system.
- [00:39]
Kyle Hagee
And Greenland is back in the news after Trump reaffirms his intention to purchase the island. The only issue Greenland says it's not for sale. It's Wednesday, January 8th. Let's ride.
- [00:55]
Neal Freyman
Like many people you know right now, Toby is out sick and hopefully crushing tea at home. Feel better, Toby and everyone else who's laid up this winter. But we are Delighted to have 2024 Sixth man of the year, Kyle Haggie back on board. Kyle, thank you for joining me.
- [01:11]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah, happy to be here. Happy New Year, Neal. What? Happy New Year.
- [01:14]
Neal Freyman
You can't say that. Oh, you said it yourself, it's January 8th. You cannot say Happy New Year.
- [01:19]
Kyle Hagee
I think you can say Happy New Year all of January and at any time. Whenever it's the first time you're seeing someone, even if it's like October, well.
- [01:27]
Neal Freyman
They'Ll look at you very funny.
- [01:28]
Kyle Hagee
I think you keep the good year, the new cheer going.
- [01:31]
Neal Freyman
But okay. But we know that the authority on such matters, Larry David, of course, has said that the statute of limitations for wishing somebody a happy New year runs out three days after January 1st.
- [01:42]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah, I mean, I'm a big Seinfeld fan. I'm a big Curb fan. But Larry David has this one wrong. I have to talk to him after.
- [01:48]
Neal Freyman
I think you're in the minority here. People are going to look at you weird. You can't say Happy Birthday on or you can't say Happy birthday on January 8th if it's not somebody's birthday and it's similar fashion, you can't say Happy new year on January 8th. I want people to sound off and in the YouTube comments, see who's right, me or you. And it's obviously me.
- [02:04]
Kyle Hagee
We'll have to agree to disagree. Now a word from our sponsor, public.com Neil, you're a foodie. Are you a fan of big menus or small menus.
- [02:10]
Neal Freyman
I like having options. Never know what kind of mood I'm going to be in on any given day.
- [02:14]
Kyle Hagee
I'm the same way when it comes to investing. One month I sample some stocks in crypto, but the next might be an options and bonds kind of day.
- [02:20]
Neal Freyman
The best part is Public doesn't make you choose. You can build a multi asset investment portfolio. It's the all you can eat buffet of investment apps.
- [02:28]
Kyle Hagee
And if you want to rack up that passive income you can park your money in their industry leading 4.1% high yield cash account.
- [02:35]
Neal Freyman
What part of the meal is that?
- [02:36]
Kyle Hagee
I think that's the seasoning. It's not too flashy, but it does give your cash that extra little bump to take things to the next level.
- [02:42]
Neal Freyman
If you want to sample Public's menu of offering, head to public.com/morning brew public Invest in everything paid for by Public Investing Full Disclosures in Podcast Description Last year Mark Zuckerberg was training to fight Elon Musk in a cage match. This year he he's taking notes from him. Yesterday, Mehta made the surprise announcement that it would scrap its third party fact checking process and replace it with a version of Community Notes, the crowdsource moderation system Musk introduced Ad X with billions of users globally across Instagram, Facebook and Threads matters, policy change will mean a profound change in the way people everywhere consume social media. So why Zuck do it? He said that the current fact checking system, which employs news organizations to flag misleading or inaccurate information, had gone too far and and led to the suppression of differing opinions. We've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship, he said. Trump's victory in November was also a major factor. Zuck said the recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech. And it's probably not a coincidence that Metta gave this news exclusively to Fox and Friends, one of Trump's favorite shows. Kyle A clear trend has emerged in recent weeks. Mark Zuckerberg has in a significant way repositioned his company to a tight embrace of Trump, Musk and the philosophies of the incoming White House.
- [04:05]
Kyle Hagee
Yes, and I just have to say when Zuck made the announcement, he had that the chain on. Like he is kind of in his like cool era. This is a big deal. I mean just stepping back from what he actually said, any change to Meta's platforms affects how billions of people interact with information. So I think this will have tons of ripple effects. This is an organization that is trying to get in the good graces of an incoming administration that looks a lot different than the previous administration. You mentioned going on Fox and Friends to make the announcement. The person that made this announcement was Joel Kaplan, who has been at Metta for I think a decade plus, but now is taking over as kind of their lead PR public policy person who is a Republican himself. And so this seems to be Metta kind of shifting focus and trying to align with the new, you know, cultural tipping point, as Zuckerberg said, and with the new administration. This might have some business reasons, some, you know, kind of fact checking reasons, but also some political reason.
- [05:01]
Neal Freyman
He's definitely shifting with the winds. I mean, go back to 2016 when this current fact checking system was put in place. This was on the heels of Trump's first election, when misinformation, social media, Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Russian Russia meddling in the elections was, you know, all the buzz. And Mark Zuckerberg implemented a very heavy handed fact checking and content moderation process in response to that. He employed news organizations like the ap, CNN to flag, to flag misleading or inaccurate posts. And now we're in 2024. Things have completely changed. Elon Musk bought X or Twitter in 2022, changed it to X, ripped up this content moderation for X and employed community notes which if people don't know what community notes is on, you know, because they don't go on Twitter or X, that's it's a community crowdsource based fact checking system. So if you see a post that is misleading or not or false, then you will see oftentimes a note attached to it by, that has been voted on by people that that explains why it's not correct and provides a source at the bottom to say this is why this is not correct.
- [06:12]
Kyle Hagee
And what's very interesting is the people who say like this is not correct, they have to have differing opinions on other things. So that's like it is this ability to like fact check in real time at scale with people who have previously have different opinions. So it's an interesting new approach to content moderation. I'm not sure on like the efficacy of community notes for the old system, but it seems like matter is going in this direction as well as X obviously.
- [06:36]
Neal Freyman
Yeah. And Zuck said there would be a trade off here. He said the reality, this is a trade off. It means that we're going to catch less bad stuff, but we'll also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down. And that admission that, you know, there will be more harmful content on these platforms seen by billions of people, you know, is a serious thing. And people who care about, you know, the lack of, you know, not allowing fake news to spread are very concerned about this. Employees who were against this vented on internal messaging platforms saying this would lead to more transphobic and racist remarks on Meta's platforms that go unchecked. Other employees said this is a welcome change. So certainly sparks a debate. But yeah, as you mentioned, Joel Kaplan going to become the head of policy, public policy for Metta, the addition of Dana White to the board, this move to employ Musk's favored fact checking system. Also all signs are paying are showing that Zuck is trying to get in the good graces of the incoming administration.
- [07:41]
Kyle Hagee
And the last thing I'll say is when X moved to Community Notes and when Elon took over, there was a lot of advertiser backlash and so you might expect the same thing to happen to Metta. However, advertisers have said we just can't get a better ROI than all of Metta's platforms. And so it seems like there won't be as much pushback from advertisers. So I think matter is going to be okay in the long run. In terms of business perspective, Greenland may.
- [08:01]
Neal Freyman
Be the least dense political entity on the planet, but the chatter around it has never been louder after President Elect Trump has in the last few weeks repeated his intention for the US to buy the autonomous territory off of Denmark, its current owner. Those plans were on full symbolic display yesterday when Trump's son John Jr. Visited Greenland in his father's jet. Trump Force One Don Jr. Emphasized he wasn't there to make a land deal, but the implications were clear. The Trumps are eyeing the island for America. There's just one problem. It is not for sale. Remember, Trump floated buying Greenland the last time he was in office in 2019, causing Denmark to lash out at the, quote, absurd idea. Denmark and Greenland leaders said nothing has changed this time around and that the US can't buy it even if they wanted to. It would go against the will and the sovereignty of the 56,000 Inuit majority people who live there. But Trump does not seem to be taking no for an answer. At a press conference yesterday, he said he wouldn't commit to ruling out the use of military force to seize control of Greenland and the Panama Canal for that matter either, calling it a national security issue. Kyle, did you know Greenland isn't even green?
- [09:11]
Kyle Hagee
Greenland is icy and Iceland is green. So that. That's an interesting fun fact. I feel like Denmark is. Or like the USA and Denmark are like, Greenland's my best friend, and Greenland's like, y'all. Like, we would. We just kind of want to be independent, like, leave us out of this. You might be thinking, like, why are we talking so much about Greenland? And I actually think this country is going to become more and more important as climate change continues to affect the Arctic. You mentioned its population. 1. It is about 57,000 people. My hometown in suburban Minnesota is larger, but Greenland is three times the size of Texas. And I think why countries are very interested in it is it is home to, like, 60% of the world's critical minerals. The rest of those critical minerals are typically controlled by China. And so it's clear from a European perspective, a USA perspective, why they want to align with Greenland. Also, as the Arctic starts to melt, unfortunately, those shipping routes get longer or wider and they stay open longer. And so this could be kind of, you know, I think Mike Pompeo maybe hyperbolically said this is the next Suez Canal, the next Panama Canal is these Arctic routes that allow you to transport goods military faster. So it's clear why people are very excited about this aligning with Greenland. And I'm not sure the strategy is the most effective, but we'll see what happens.
- [10:31]
Neal Freyman
Yeah. Greenland is home to 37 of 50 critical minerals. You just go down the periodic tape. I mean, gold, silver, uranium, it's all there. And all of those components are so necessary for the green transition. It's also a strategic region in general because a lot of transatlantic flights, if you've ever flown to Europe, you go over Greenland. The US has a military base there. And you might be thinking, wow, this is such an outlandish idea, but the US has bought land before. Sovereignty purchases are responsible for more than 40% of of U.S. land. And a number of times in our history, the US has tried to buy Greenland. Most recently post World War II. In 1946, we offered $100 million for it. They rejected it. Now, you know, who knows what it's worth? The Washington Post did a deep analysis, and they said it could be worth anywhere from 200 billion to $1.7 trillion. But we should say this is. It's not for sale. Greenland right now is a semi autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark. And as you alluded to, the people of Greenland do not want to be under the auspices of Denmark for much longer. The problem is Denmark pays them $550 million per year in subsidies to protect them and they provide security. So there is an interesting tango going on right now. And you know, people who say Trump like we know that Greenland is a strategic area. Instead of buying it, why don't you invest in it? You know, partner with Denmark and Greenland to to push US Interests there instead of having Russia and China sort of expend their influence there 100% and that.
- [12:09]
Kyle Hagee
We already do partner with them. We have a space force base on Greenland and we also have some outside investors, including Jeff Bezos, who are working on mining companies to extract minerals. So there's already, you know, some good relations. They might be getting strained now. And this will definitely be a story to keep your eye out as we move into the New year. Neal, if you have medical debt, which approximately 100 million Americans have some form of, I have some potentially good news for you. It won't affect your ability to get a loan. This is because the Biden Admin finalized a ruling yesterday that will end the inclusion of medical debt on credit reports and it is going to ban lenders from using certain medical information in loan decisions. This rule will remove an estimated $49 billion in medical bills from credit reports of about 15 million people, the Bureau said in a press release. The bureau also predicted it would increase credit scores by an average of 20 points for those affected and would drive upwards of 22,000 additional mortgages every year. Now if those 22,000 people have want to hit me up and give me some advice on how to buy a home, I am all ears. Neil, we've heard so much about the medical debt problem in America. You heard in my intro it affects about 100 million Americans in some capacity. What are your thoughts on this new rule to get medical debt off of credit report?
- [13:25]
Neal Freyman
Well, the CFPB said they came to the conclusion that medical debt is just a poor predictor of your ability to repay a loan, which is what a credit score does essentially. And the trends have been moving in this direction already. Its medical debt is already treated differently than other kinds of debt on credit reports. The three major credit reporting agencies, which are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion two years ago said they wouldn't include medical debt more than a year old or under $500 on their credit reports. States like New York and California had already done this provision that the CFPV did nationally. So it seems like the, you know, every all the momentum was moving in this direction for for medical debt to sort of not appear on your credit score. And that is a or not have an impact on your credit score. Score. And that is will have a major impact on your ability to get a loan, whether that's to buy a house or do anything else.
- [14:19]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah. And Rohit Chopra, who's the bureau's director, just said point blankly like quote, people who get sick shouldn't have their financial future upended. And so that I think is what this is really trying to help with. It also bar bans lenders from using medical devices such as wheelchairs or prosthetic limbs as collateral. So there was some abuse I think going on by companies to kind of get the money that they're owed or take back assets and they just wanted to stop the abuse. Now it's not without detractors. Several House Republicans wrote to Chopper in August to basically say like they have some serious concerns. Anytime you're removing the ability to look at debt for giving out mortgages or loans, those might get more risky. And can we have a situation where that starts to affect the economy? But according to the bureau's reporting, this doesn't have, you know, it doesn't increase long term instability in financial markets.
- [15:07]
Neal Freyman
Right. And speaking of like predatory practices, as you were talking about, this seemed to be like a major, your lever that debt collectors use to have you pay bills that you may not even owe, saying you have better pay your bills now because it will negatively impact your credit score. And I think that was exactly, that was a popular practice that, that this agency wants to, to get rid of now.
- [15:30]
Kyle Hagee
Next is Dell becoming like Apple?
- [15:34]
Neal Freyman
It's 2025 and that means if your B2B marketing strategy doesn't include improving your ad targeting, your ads could get lost in the noise.
- [15:42]
LinkedIn
Thankfully, LinkedIn ads can make sure your message reaches the right audience. It gives you direct access to a billion members, 130 million decision makers and 10 million C level executives.
- [15:54]
Neal Freyman
Plus with LinkedIn's targeting capabilities, you can precisely reach your target audience by job title, industry, company and more.
- [16:01]
LinkedIn
Yep, and all those capabilities drive big time results. In B2B tech alone, LinkedIn generated two to five times higher return on ad spend than other social media platforms.
- [16:11]
Neal Freyman
Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. They'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com MBD to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com MBD terms and conditions apply.
- [16:28]
Kyle Hagee
Precision Inspiron, Latitude. No, these aren't the names of random billionaires new rocket companies. They are the former names of Dell's laptop and desktop Lineup which are being swapped out for a more simplified naming convention. That's right. Dell announced on Monday ahead of ces, that their laptop and desktop lineup will now be labeled simply Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Max. Now, if you're thinking, hey, that sounds awfully similar to Apple's naming convention of the iPhones, well, you're not alone. In fact, audience members even pushed back during the announcement, one saying, quote, I'm wondering why you guys didn't choose something original, because you essentially have Apple's branding here. Dell CEO Jeff Clark, when talking to reporters, said, quote, customers really prefer names that are easy to remember and easy to pronounce. And so that's the reason Dell is making the moves that they are now. My deepest apologies to all the kids who want iPhones for their birthday and their grandparents accidentally buy them a Dell computer instead. Now, Neil, a good move or a bad move for Dell to copy Apple?
- [17:30]
Neal Freyman
I think it's just inevitable. Someone invents a language and you have to start speaking that language or no one will understand you. And Apple invented this language around pros and Macs, and everyone understands conceptually what those models mean in terms of what you're getting. One is bigger, one has more, one is faster. Right? Like, you just understand that. And Dell had this outdated language that it was like Yiddish. No one speaks it anymore. So it had to move to this simplified language because its PC sales are flagging and it needs to sell more. So this is not a move from a position of offense, obviously, because it's basically copying another company. But I just think it's an inevitable way for. For companies now to. To adopt conventional naming conventions. They're called naming conventions for a reason, and that's because they're conventional. It's the reason why every streaming service decided to do a ad, a plus. You know, they probably wanted to be original, but they said, I don't even remember who the first plus was. Was it ESPN plus? I don't remember. But either way, as soon as plus came to indicate streaming service, then every company just said, okay, well, whatever. We'll just. We want consumers to know that we are launching a streaming service, that this is a streaming service, so we're going to add a plus.
- [18:46]
Kyle Hagee
You want to make it frictionless for a consumer. So to your point, like, once we've understood a naming convention, once we see it other places, oh, we see the plus, we know that streaming. So, you know, good artist copy, great artist steal. It's. It seems like Dell went with the steel and just took it from Apple, I will give them credit. This is the first time I've thought about a Dell computer in years. So they really did make some, some noise. Now their market cap is 84.94 billion. Apple's is 3.66 trillion. So Dell has a way to go to copying their, their market cap. But it got us talking about Dell.
- [19:16]
Neal Freyman
Computers, it got us talking about Dell computers and it got me thinking about what companies do naming. Well, well, one I think is BMW. BMW has so many different cars and different versions of those cars. And I think the way they've done it, they've honed it over years, is, is quite extraordinary. They have, you know, the model 1 through 8. The even numbers indicate two doors, the odd numbers indicate four doors. The cars generally get bigger. You have X for off road, M means fast or souped up, D for diesel. It's just very communicated in a very elegant way. A very complicated product offering.
- [19:52]
Kyle Hagee
Well, now we know, Neal, that you can afford a BMW. So well done. I'll go with the product I can afford, which is Hanes T shirts. I think they crushed it. Small, medium, large, very simple. You know what you're getting.
- [20:03]
Neal Freyman
But some, some coffee companies can't even do that.
- [20:07]
Kyle Hagee
That's true. I, I am excited to see what else Dell does. Like, I feel like their marketing department's just like throwing ideas out. Like we might get a Dell GPT, maybe a Del video, or maybe they get into streaming, a Dell streaming.
- [20:18]
Neal Freyman
Plus, let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. Multiple fires are raging around Los Angeles, sparking evacuation orders for at least 30,000 people and consuming homes in flames. Weather analysts say this is the worst fire event for the area in at least 15 years because you have this combustible recipe of extremely dry vegetation. And Santa Ana winds that gust up to 80 miles per hour and push the fire along quickly, giving firefighters no chance at containing it. The footage coming out of Southern California is truly harrowing. And residents say they've never seen a day like yesterday. The most dangerous conditions are expected to last through this afternoon.
- [20:55]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah, I mean, I was looking at the videos last night and it is terrifying. So I hope everyone is okay and that we get a lot of support down there because it was truly remarkable stuff.
- [21:05]
Neal Freyman
And some more grim news out of Florida. Officials have launched an investigation after the bodies of two individuals were found in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue plane after it landed in Fort Lauderdale Monday night. The bodies were found during a routine post flight maintenance check after the aircraft arrived from JFK In New York. It is unclear why and how these people got into the wheel well, but once you're in there, it is not good news. Any number of things can kill you from a lack of oxygen when the plane is at cruising altitude, hypothermia from freezing temperatures, and potentially falling out once the wheels are deployed for landing. A report, a report from 2011 found that only 18 of 89 people survived attempts to fly in compartments outside the aircraft cabin.
- [21:47]
Kyle Hagee
I'm surprised 18 even survived. I mean, this followed a similar tragedy from United Airlines flying from Chicago to Hawaii. The same thing happened. Like, I didn't even really know that this was a thing. Like, please do not go in the wheel components.
- [21:58]
Neal Freyman
Yeah, I don't think they're doing it because they want to. It's out of, out of desperation. On a lighter note, if you want to be an artificial intelligence engineer or consultant when you grow up, great news. Those are the fastest growing jobs in the United States. LinkedIn released its list of the most in demand jobs for 2025 yesterday, and those two AI facing roles came out on top. Rounding out the top five, physical therapist came in third, workforce development manager fourth and travel advisor fifth. And a sign of the rapid advancement of technology, 60% of the fastest growing jobs are new to the list this year, while about half the positions didn't even exist 25 years ago.
- [22:35]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah, I like how physical therapists are number three. Like literally, we're all hunched over at our AI prompt engineering jobs and it seems to be good for our friends in the physical therapy department.
- [22:44]
Neal Freyman
It is. And I also thought it was interesting that travel advisors fifth and event coordinator was six. That shows that in person meetups are still a thing, thankfully after the pandemic and the rise of AI and all of that. But you know, a lot, you know, the turn of the year is a time when a lot of people are thinking about new jobs. So if you, you know, want an in demand job, maybe go to the the LinkedIn 20 top 25 list and see what's out there. Finally, I'm about to get all your stomachs rumbling because yesterday the Girl Scouts of the USA announced the start of the new season for Girl Scout cookies, which runs through the spring. All of the classic flavors will be back, but two cookies are going to be discontinued after this year. S'mores and toast. Yay. So stock up if you're one of the few who actually like those. We'll see if a black market takes shape. Actually, two years ago, when the Girl Scouts retired raspberry rally boxes were being sold on eBay for $30.
- [23:38]
Kyle Hagee
Okay. One s'mores is delicious. So I got to talk to someone at the Girl Scouts. We can't let that one die. I feel like this should be, like, when an athlete retires and they go to, like, the different away games and everyone claps for them. Like, we should have, like, the governor of each state eat like the last Girl Scout in every state and everyone come. That would bring this country together, Neil.
- [23:56]
Neal Freyman
It will, but I think Derek Jeter ended it forever with his farewell tour. It was just so over the top that we can't even do it even for Girl Scout cookies. What's your favorite?
- [24:05]
Kyle Hagee
Thanks. Derek Jeter. The Samoa. Yeah. What about you?
- [24:08]
Neal Freyman
I don't know what it's called. Tag along. I think just chocolate peanut butter. You can't go wrong.
- [24:12]
Kyle Hagee
You can't go wrong with that.
- [24:13]
Neal Freyman
Okay, let's wrap it up there. Thanks for starting your morning with us and have a wonderful Wednesday. Thanks again for stepping in, Kyle.
- [24:19]
Kyle Hagee
It was great to be here.
- [24:20]
Neal Freyman
For any questions, comments, or feedback, send an email to Morning Brew daily at Morning Broadcom. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our executive producer. Raymond Lu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Eugenia Ogu is our technical director. Billy Menino is on audio hair makeup is the 26th fastest growing job. Devin Emery is our chief content officer. And our show is a production of Morning Brew.
- [24:43]
Kyle Hagee
Let's run it back.