Oculus founder said to fund pro-Trump, anti-Clinton meme machine

In Silicon Valley, most of the big money people are backing Hillary Clinton. Billionaire VC Peter Thiel, who backs Trump, has been one of the main exceptions. Now, it seems, add Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey.

Whether trying to be stealthy, or perhaps wanting to be discovered, Luckey, according to The Daily Beast has been putting his Facebook wealth–Zuck's company bought Oculus for $2 billion in 2014–behind an organization that promotes pro-Trump/anti-Hillary "shitposting" memes.

"The 24-year-old told The Daily Beast that he had used the pseudonym 'NimbleRichMan' on Reddit with a password given him to by the organization's founders," the publication wrote. "Luckey insists he's just the group's the money man—a wealthy booster who thought the meddlesome idea was funny. But he is also listed as the vice-president of the group on its website."

Oculus did not respond to an after-hours Fast Company request for comment. 

This is a message from @PalmerLuckey, the founder of @Oculus. pic.twitter.com/CWlAA8ugMx

— Cody Brown (@CodyBrown) September 23, 2016

DT

The social media company's stock plummeted in after-hours trading Thursday after Mark Mahaney, an analyst for RBC Capital Markets, downgraded it to "underperform." As Bloomberg reports, the downgrade was based on an RBC survey that revealed fewer marketing departments plan to buy advertising on Twitter next year. That troubling news is the last thing Twitter needs. The company is already facing a lawsuit from one shareholder who says Twitter execs made false and misleading statements about the social network's growth potential, thereby causing the stock to trade at artificially inflated levels.

Bloomberg has more about the downgrade here.   CZ

The company will likely delay going public until after 2017, an unnamed source told the Wall Street Journal.

Airbnb faces regulatory challenges from local governments and an uproar over discrimination on its platform. It is suing the city of San Francisco over a decision to fine the company $1,000 per day for each of its unregistered hosts and has asked New York's governor not to sign into law a bill that would make advertising an entire home listing on Airbnb illegal. Last week, it released a report about steps it had taken to prevent racism in its marketplace. Airbnb's previous funding round, which closed last year, valued the company at $25.5 billion.

Google Capital, Alphabet's investment arm, and Technology Crossover Ventures co-led the $850 million round. SK

The last thing Democrats want to hear more of in this election season is "email" and "hack," but those words are in the news again, albeit not related to Hillary Clinton's account.

According to NBC News, a White House contractor's Gmail was the target this time around, and things like First Lady Michelle Obama's passport, as well as several pieces of Secret Service information, appear to have been leaked.

However, while a photo of Obama's passport is making the rounds in the wake of the leak, questions are being raised as to its authenticity. 

Other items that were included in the leak are detailed travel plans for Vice President Joe Biden, as well as personal details of a number of White House staffers, and travel plans for Bill and Hillary Clinton. DT

It's called Little Things, and it's the feel-good viral sensation du jour. According to NewsWhip, which measures social media metrics, the brand was the second most engaged publisher on Facebook last month, with 26.07 million likes, shares, comments, and reactions. That puts Little Things just behind the Huffington Post, which had 26.13 million. Even more astounding is that Little Things is only two years old. Last month it didn't even place in the top 10. 

A quick, very unscientific poll of some media folks I know revealed that people kind of know what Little Things is, but only have a vague awareness of the brand. So what is it? In short, it's a social-first publisher that focuses on sharing short videos and stories of the inspiring and curious variety. (Sample headline: "Mom Spots Trash Bag 'Walking' In The Road, Then Rips It Open To Find A Dog Who's Very Much Alive.") 

The publisher is definitely having a moment. According to NewsWhip, it increased engagements by 15 million last month. But then again, Facebook's algorithm tweaks have a way of letting the air out of its star pupils. Upworthy, whose traffic has fallen significantly since Facebook started to clamp down on so-called clickbait in 2014, is a prime example—and a cautionary tale.   

   CZ

Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiller announced this afternoon that he is charging Betty Shelby, the police officer who shot and killed Terence Crutcher, with first-degree manslaughter.

Crutcher was killed shortly after his SUV stalled on his way from a college class on Sept. 16. The Tulsa, Oklahoma, police department released a considerable amount of video after the incident, which showed Crutcher, who was unarmed, walking with his hands up and back toward Shelby and several other officers before he was tasered and shot. Shelby is white, while Crutcher was black.

Kunzweiller said at a news conference that a warrant had been issued for Shelby's arrest, and that she was communicating through her lawyer with authorities about turning herself in.

In Oklahoma, a first-degree manslaughter conviction carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; the minimum is four years. JJM

How cool is Elon Musk? According to rapper Tyler, the Creator, the answer is, "SO COOL."

This alleged coolness, in fact, led the artist to tweet to Musk that he ordered himself a Tesla. The exchange began when Musk wrote that the company paid back its government-funded loans. 

Here are the tweets:

Tesla is sometimes criticized for government support, but all US car companies (plus some non) got loans and only Tesla has paid its back https://t.co/yRW2hGUcxW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 22, 2016

@tylerthecreator thanks for ordering a car!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 22, 2016

This isn't the first time Musk and Tyler exchanged tweets. In fact, the rapper has a long history of extolling the virtues of the tech founder. So cool, right? CW

We were all excited about Google Allo when the new AI-enhanced messenger app was announced at Google I/O. But upon its release yesterday, some clear limitations in the product were quickly noted. The app doesn't use end-to-end encryption as Google said it would. File sharing is limited. And the personal assistant part of the app isn't that impressive in the range of things it can do. The product lead, Justin Uberti, points out it's just version one and it'll get better.

And a special 👍 to those who asked for a feature, but understood that Allo v1 is just that: a 1.0 product that will improve every few weeks.

— Justin Uberti (@juberti) September 22, 2016

@juberti Allo is terrible. Please make it not terrible.

— ⭐James Welbes⭐ (@JamesWelbes) September 22, 2016

MS

Recruitment and hiring platform Jopwell is kicking off a "national headshot tour" tomorrow that will go to colleges in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Atlanta, offering free professional headshots to underrepresented ethnic minority students.

Sixty percent of employers use social media platforms like LinkedIn to research job candidates, and good profile pictures can boost a person's chances of getting interviewed by 40%. 

Given these realities, Jopwell suggests that a professional headshot might be a good way for underrepresented college students to boost their job prospects. 

ES

If you're one of the 500 million Yahoo users whose account information was stolen by an unidentified "state-sponsored" actor, here's what you should do: 

Change your password immediately. This is always the first thing you should do in the event of a potential breach. Not only should you change your Yahoo password, but you should update passwords on any service for which you use similar passwords. (We all do it.) Yahoo says there is no evidence so far that unprotected passwords or credit card information were part of the stolen data, but there is no need to take chances. The company is working with law enforcement in an ongoing investigation.

Watch what you say on social media and other public forums. This is good advice from security experts interviewed by Recode. Astute hackers may monitor your social media accounts for clues about you—hoping to guess your password or the answer to one of your secret questions.

Wait for an email from Yahoo and await further instructions. Per the Wall Street Journal, the company says it will be contacting potentially affected users. It also says it has already taken steps to secure hacked accounts. The stolen information, according to the Journal, includes user names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, and even answers to security questions.

[Photo courtesy of Pixabay] CZ

Connie Rishwain, a veteran shoe executive who spent the last 20 years at UGG, is now the president of Vionic.

Vionic is a decade-old company that was launched by a podiatrist interested in creating shoes with orthotic support. New president Rishwain's role is to help the brand reach a wider audience and become known for trendy but comfortable shoes. Vionic designers have recently created a fashionable line of ballet flats and booties. "The brand currently appeals to a demographic that is over 35, but we want to start getting younger people to wear these shoes," Rishwain tells Fast Company. 

Rishwain says the brand has grown tremendously over the last two years, with revenues nearly doubling. One of her goals is to develop a smart distribution strategy, ensuring that the shoes are sold at retailers with good reputations, such as Nordstrom and Zappos. This approach worked well with UGG and she believes it can be replicated at Vionic.  ES

When it comes to diseases like cancer, much can be read into the language we use. For instance, there's a great deal of debate about whether military terminology like "battling" cancer are useful, or suggest that the disease is a fight that only the strongest can win. 

Likewise, Silicon Valley's tech companies in recent years have unveiled moonshot initiatives they claim will someday "cure" diseases like cancer. When announcing a $3 billion investment into life sciences research, Mark Zuckerberg described his goal to cure the disease within his daughter's lifetime. 

We've been using such terminology for decades, but is it helpful? Cancer is a particularly tricky one: It fools the immune system—and the drugs we have developed to treat it—by mutating rapidly. It's extremely difficult to cure, so some medical experts opt to use terms like "better managing" cancer when discussing our future prospects. Others say we're at a point where we can use terms like cure, in part due to advancements in novel immunotherapy treatments.

Are you comfortable with tech companies using the word "cure" to describe their disease "moonshot" initiatives?

— Christina Farr (@chrissyfarr) September 22, 2016