Tech News Today 1687

Google is coming under fire for surfacing its own products at the top of search results that are related to hardware the company actually sells. The Wall Street Journal worked with SEMrush to analyse 25,000 total searches on 25 terms like laptops and speakers. 91 percent of the time, Google’s own products were offered up at the top in place of competitors' products.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has closed its six month inquiry into the May 7th crash of a Tesla that killed the driver, Joshua Brown, while the car was in semi-autonomous Autopilot mode. NHTSA says Tesla was not at fault.

Uber is settling a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission and will pay $20 million dollars as a result. The complaint said that Uber misled its drivers about the amount of money that drivers were able to earn in 20 cities, including New York City and San Francisco.

Netflix announced Q4 earnings and they are crushing it. Subscriber growth appears unstoppable with the addition of 7.05 million new customers in this quarter alone. While Business Insider points out that the company is currently experiencing a free cash flow deficit, that's because they're creating and producing so much of their own original content like Stranger Things - which is cheaper, but only in the long run.

Twitter released its 2016 diversity report showing the company's largest gains since the report began in 2014. Women represented 37 percent of the workforce, up from 34 percent in 2015, and African Americans jumped from 2 to 3 percent in that time. Twitter also set its goals for 2017 which include increasing the hiring of underrepresented minorities in non-technical positions.

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Links

• Google Uses Its Search Engine to Hawk Its Products
• Driver in fatal Tesla Autopilot crash had seven seconds to take action
• Government exonerates Tesla for May 2016 fatal accident
• Uber to Pay $20 Million to Settle FTC Charges on Earnings Claims for Drivers
• Netflix posts its biggest-ever quarterly subscriber growth, stock surges 8%
• Twitter’s workforce is a little more diverse, but still predominantly white and male.
• Here's why we're not downloading Meitu, the red-hot anime photo app (update)