Welcome back to Lately, The Globe’s weekly tech newsletter. If you have feedback or just want to say hello to a real-life human, send me an e-mail.
In this week’s issue:
📺 Netflix pulls sponsorship from Canadian arts organizations
🗺️ Google Street View journeys into four new countries
🤳 The restaurant critic is dead. Long live the food influencer
🎙️ The $3-billion industry where almost nobody makes money
STREAMING
Netflix pulling support for Canadian arts
Since Netflix set up shop in Canada in 2017, the streaming giant has invested around $25-million in local art organizations, including HotDocs, imagineNATIVE institute and the Pacific Screenwriting Program. The money, which supported professional training and development programs, became a critical source of funding for Canada’s TV and film industry. But this week Netflix said it was pulling sponsorship in response to the Online Streaming Act, the law that requires foreign-owned streaming services to give 5 per cent of their annual domestic revenues toward productions in Canada. Netflix Canada said the pause in funding was because “we are now required to allocate resources to meet the CRTC’s new investment mandate.”
This is the latest example of tech backlash against the government’s attempts to make foreign-owned companies pay up. But unlike Meta, which pulled out of Canadian news almost entirely in reaction to the Online News Act, Netflix still has productions based in Canada.
MAPS
Google brings Street View to four new countries
A new Street View image from Disappointment Bay, Tasmania.Google Street View
If you’re a Street View cartophile, here’s some exciting news: Google is bringing its eye-level maps for the first time to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Namibia, Liechtenstein and Paraguay. Updated imagery is coming for 80 other countries, and it’s also adding historical satellite and aerial imagery to Google Earth, ideal if you want to go down memory lane and see just how much your hometown has changed in the past decade. Or if you want to take your online exploration to the extreme, you can be like this 25-year-old from Arkansas who memorized the world through Google Maps.
PRIVACY
Telegram will now share user data with police
A month after French authorities charged Telegram CEO Pavel Durov for enabling drug trafficking and child abuse on his messaging platform, the Russian billionaire has announced it will now share user data of suspected criminals with authorities. Telegram’s new policy states it may disclose IP address and phone numbers to law enforcement in response to valid legal requests. Prior to this, Telegram was staunchly opposed to sharing personal information with police and frequently ignored their requests.
INFLUENCERS
The reign of the restaurant critic is over. Welcome the influencer
Tash Mason, a TikTok influencer records video at a Toronto restaurant.Yader Guzman/The Globe and Mail
Ten years ago, a new restaurant’s make-or-break moment was the review in the local city magazine or newspaper. But the food media landscape has been completely overhauled. Rather than restaurant critics, who make reservations under pseudonyms and keep a low profile to avoid any special treatment, it’s now influencers who can have the most sway. This changing of the guard has made restaurant coverage far more inclusive and accessible, highlighting the immigrant-run eateries and fast food joints that were seldom covered by traditional critics. Yet plenty of food influencers are paid by restaurants to post videos, which blurs the line between a review and an advertisement. Reporter Dakshana Bascaramurty digs into the evolution of the food critic, and what’s been lost and gained.
What else we’re reading this week:
Google Serving AI-Generated Images of Mushrooms Could Have ‘Devastating Consequences’ (404 Media)
Mark Zuckerberg is done with politics (New York Times)
Soundbite
“Siphoning money off of your family’s savings and not telling your spouse about that – I heard that more than a couple of times. I know of someone who committed arson and embezzlement in order to pay off debt.” – Jane Marie, author of Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans, as heard on this week’s episode of Lately about MLMs
WORK
Adult Money
This would be an upgrade from my current lunch bag, a biodegradable compost bag.Baggu
Baggu lunch bag, $34
I haven’t had a proper lunch bag/box/receptacle since I was in grade school. In all my work years, I’ve brought leftovers in a plastic grocery bag. This week, I brought a mason jar filled with homemade vegetable soup in a biodegradable compost bag. I know, it’s not very dignified. So in a step toward adulthood, I’ve started looking for a proper lunch bag to bring to work. A Google search for “adult lunch bag” brings a slew of choices, from stackable bento boxes to $100 bags that apparently can keep the contents cold for two days. But I’m looking for something simple, which is why I’m eyeing this cushioned bag from Baggu. It’s cute, affordable and the interior is easy to clean, ideal for when your Tupperware inevitably leaks.
MUSIC
Culture Radar
Pass the aux to AIBrendan McDermid/Reuters
Spotify’s AI playlists coming to Canada
Spotify is finally expanding its AI Playlists to Canada, at least for some users. The tool, which launched in the spring, creates custom playlists based on prompts, such as “chilled electronic music to manifest my dream life in the Caribbean.” The feature is still in beta, so not yet accessible to all Canadians.
Spotify has increasingly made playlists a major focus of the streaming platform, with others including the daylist, a selection of songs that changes throughout the day based on the niche music and microgenres a user usually listens to at specific times. For example, at this very moment, my daylist is called “revival organ thursday afternoon”, because I frequently listen to post-rock and twee around this time. As much as I resent an algorithm knowing what kind of music I would most like at a particular moment, my daylist never misses.
More tech and telecom news:
Lightspeed has already signed NDAs with potential strategic buyers
Five things we learned from bitcoin ETF manager Greg Taylor
China targets Canada’s EV tariffs with anti-discriminatory probe