Russian bots were found to be targeting certain hashtags, including gun control now, gun reform now, and parkland shooting. It is just one way to widen the divide among u. S. Electorate on how to handle gun control, making compromise even more difficult. This has happened with past issues like that nfl anthem debate and the 16 president ial the 2016 president ial election. This ultimately led to Robert Muellers indictment of 13 russians. Facebook and twitter are doing more to expose these bots and fake accounts. Are the tech giants doing enough . We spoke to the senior policy advisor for the counter extremism project from washington. Not only did you see that russian bots come out in full force after the horrific and tragic events in florida but you , also saw the Robert Mueller indictment. Citing facebook thirtysomething times, twitter and youtube. The Tech Companies have a number of problems on their hands. The bots try to create division with divisive rhetoric and fake news conspiracy theories. This is not new. The real concern here is that the same tactic and strategy is going to be taken again in the Midterm Election and the same tactic is also taken by terrorist organizations on the platform. What you are seeing right now is another area that russia is trying to exploit. They clearly have the ability to do so, despite the minor reforms that were made. Take us through it step by step. I spoke to the researcher of the hamilton 68 project who has been , tracking this and he says it was almost exactly the same as what happened in vegas. One, the bots are tweeting and retweeting the breaking news. By day three they start to promote conspiracy theories. This is something that we have seen over and over again. You mentioned earlier the nfl anthem issue and the president ial election, so the fears that this playbook will be applied to the Midterm Elections coming up. How big of a concern is it that this could move to not from just sewing discord, but also fabricating reallife events . We now know that the russians were behind creating a reallife islam protest in in texas . Could we see more of that . Absolutely. Its right out of the russian playbook. They are going to continue to repeat it, it doesnt require them to employ a lot of resource. It is easy and they have been effective. The Tech Companies need to get down content that violates their terms of service, and there are other measures that they can take. You arent going to be able to control every individual does online if they do not cross a particular threshold. ,aving said that, on ad buying there are specific measures that congress is pushing them to take. Companies say they are pushing against it. Why are there so many bots still operating on these platforms . If twitter was serious about that measure, i have seen a Different Levels of reporting, i think 15 of accounts are bots. In any case, there are enough bots that are amplifying the messages of these Counter Intelligence operations, russian propaganda that may influence our elections. If the companies are serious, that are clear measures they can take to crack down on this, unfortunately we have not seen that yet. You cover twitter extensively. What they are doing what they are not doing. How are they actually cracking down here . Twitter is doing all that it can come but they have multiple constraints. This is a company that has had financial issues. They only recently just reported their first profitable quarter. They are dedicating as many engineers to the issue as we can, but we have not heard them actually take steps to hire new people to address the problem. Another issue is that even though these algorithms that twitter has are getting better, these bots are changing their tactics much faster than twitter can keep up. I spoke to some who used to work there who describe it as a whackamole problem. The moment twitter changes are andrhythms to address spam bots, we see a new type of pattern emerge. Thats the challenge that they are up against. They have made steps for transparency. Theyre starting a center for transparency in political ads. They are going to try to keep it as free from russian meddling as possible. When you hear that twitter is doing all that it can, do you agree . If you look at these companies and the amount of money and the size of these companies they are sort of technical wizards. They are able to do a lot with your data when they want to do a lot with your data, and i think they can address some of these problems. Particularly when the line is been crossed, and i would argue that laws are being violated, in terms of what was happening with ad buying. I dont think the Tech Companies are going to have the luxury any longer of being able to operate in this free space where laws are potentially been violated being violated. I think what is going to happen here is that you are going to see not just the public start to get fed up with it, but your you are seeing other parts of the private sector, most notably advertisers. You had unilever executives threatening not to buy ads on these platforms because to be frank, ad companies dont want advertisements running on platforms where there is russian bots undermining our elections. It is bad form for advertisers. I think you are going to hopefully see the Tech Companies step up. I think your seeing pressure out of the u. K. They grilled tech executives here in d. C. Youve seen them being grilled on capitol hill. Mueller has indicted 13 companies and three individuals involved in russian meddling. Are these the same parties were behind this . What we are seeing from the indictment is what russia is doing is much more sophisticated than what congress could have even imagined. I definitely think that creates some fear among lawmakers and these Tech Companies themselves. If they can be this will organize themselves, they have operatives in multiple companies in multiple countries. They had very sophisticated measures to try to cover their tracks. They were buying servers in the u. S. , computers here, and all sorts of very sophisticated tactics to cover up what they were doing. There are many tactics that these companies could employ that they are not doing. Clinton wants, or testified watts, who testified, from the Foreign PolicyResearch Institute said that twitter should ban all social bots. This is not something that they would do, but there are obviously more drastic measures that they could take. These Companies Need to integrate and talk to each other more, and have some sort of shared database about these bots, and figure out how to target them more effectively together. That was the senior policy advisor for the counter extremism project. The federal Communications Commission officially published that they are rolling back obama era Net Neutrality rules. The move is likely to open a floodgate of legal challenges from parties opposing the changes that empower Internet Service providers. Mozilla and vimeo have already filed challenges to the secs repeal. A loss for at t and its time warner deal. The Justice Department says it does not have to identify if there were communications between the white house and jeff sessions. At t has suggested that President Trumps dislike of cnn swayed the decision. An antitrust decision is set for march 19. Offer Broadband Internet around the world. That story ahead. Facebook cofounder chris hughes on his new book and how Silicon Valley can push back on income inequality. This is bloomberg. Emily apple is in talks to buy supplies of cobalt. It is one of the Worlds Largest users of cobalt for its gadgets. It wants to ensure it has enough of the key ingredient in the midst of industry fears of a shortage driven by the electric car boom. Spacex rocket carrying three satellites roared into space yesterday. It is part of a system that would provide Internet Access to remote regions. This particular launch is exciting for a few reasons. One is that it carried two of their the test satellites for their megaconstellation. Going to have 4000 plus satellites. It is going to give people options to the current cable providers. Most importantly, space x is still going to mars, so this is going to be a key piece in their financial architecture that is going to get them there. Talk to me about this effort to bring Internet Access to the farthest corners of the world. This is something that other companies havent shied away from. How is what elon musk is doing different . Satellites provide an alternative way to deliver these Communication Services that go beyond uav based and balloon based things that we have seen previously. Typically these communication satellites are in geostationary orbit. That is very high up. These 4000 satellites going to be much closer to the earth, which gives you a smaller distance that the signal needs to carry. This is going to be incredibly fast broadband connection to the farthest reaches of the planet, on par with new Communications Innovations coming online. Like 5g. Emily each of these launches, also there are new learnings and progress when it comes to rocket reasonability. What did we see here today . This is very cool to see. Space x continues to push boundaries and keep us all interested. Even in the shuttle and apollo years we sought viewership start to fall off, and it is because people want to see what is coming next. Spacex continues to push the envelope. That shield the satellites can back to earth and they attempted to catch them with a giant net on a boat. They missed, but they came very close, and it seems like they have a good plan to catch them next time. Emily you were at the National Space council meeting. They talked about space entrepreneurship at the Space Council meeting. Looking at space travel as a commercial rather than government endeavor. What kind of progress are you seeing there . It was good to be in the room yesterday to hear the conversations. It is good to your the emphasis on streamlining regulation and licensing. The future of space is commercial. The overarching focus in that meeting was really about space entrepreneurship and how the government can continue to partner with them as a customer. Emily what is the mood, given the messaging from President Trump about turning space into the next freemarket paradise . With certainly all have been working towards that for the next few years. So its good to hear the government getting on board with that message. I think the data is starting to back up the story here in a major way. I think we have reached a Tipping Point where the government has really started to pay attention. Emily as comes more commercial, what are the sort of safety concerns, regulatory concerns that you expect to see popup . Net is a great one with the spacex watch that we can talk about. One is the fcc licenses for spectrum. How you bring this unprecedented amount of data back down to earth, and then also how do you navigate the ever increasingly crowded highways in space . Space is very big by a lot of the key orbits are in demand, so how do you monitor all these things . They provide a lot of opportunities for startups. We are seeing startups address a lot of these concerns with Laser Communications to bypass the radio frequency spectrum, new communications that allow them new ground stations that allow them to steer them electronically, you can do that for much smaller, much less upfront cost. And in debris tracking where we are seeing Companies Come in and really do this in a way that we have never seen before. And a cost point that we have never seen before. Being able to track objects and give is a lot more situational awareness. Emily that was chad anderson, space angels ceo. Chris hughes joins us on his new book. Fair shot rethinking inequality and how we earn. Why he says the American Dream is on life support. If you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio. You can listen in the u. S. On sirius xm. This is bloomberg. Emily japans softbank is working with nomura on what could be in 19 billion ipo. Of its Domestic Telecom business. Softbank may market most of the offering to japanese individuals. That ipo would be japans largest in two decades. Facebook cofounder chris uses of the epicenter of the start of one of the biggest Tech Companies. Since stepping away from facebook, hughes has become increasingly aware of what wealth inequality in the united states. We caught up with him and began our conversation on his new book about income inequality. Take a listen. I do think that my story is indicative of an unfairness at work in the American Economy today. Three years worth of work can lead to have a billion dollars in financial reward should give people pause, particularly in a moment where median wages have not budged in 40 years. We have not created fulltime jobs in decades. We create parttime, contingent, flexible jobs. Work has come a part and income any quality is only getting worse. It is important to be honest about the unfairness at work in ader to usher us into situation of wage inequality wage equality. Emily why should we listen to a 1 er about this . A lot of the people i grew up with have told me the American Dream is on life support. When you cant find 400 in the case of an emergency, you cannot find the gas money to go interview for a job, for child care, health care, all of these sorts of things. A lot of us on the left and right are casting about, like what we can actually do about it to change it. That is where i think the guaranteed income comes in. Emily as you came into wealth, how did that shape your ideas around inequality . Did you have your own personal transition . I think particularly in my case where we started facebook and over the course of nearly a decade, grew and grew and grew. I saw my own Financial Holdings grow and grow and grow from the first year that i was working there. For several years after i was not at the company. I was working on different projects, i was working for president obama, i was doing a lot of different things, and yet the wealth just kept growing. It gave me pause. What is the source of this wealth . Is that the actions we are taking more Major Economic forces that are happening behind the scenes . And in a very personal way after facebooks ipo, my husband and i decided to give away the vast majority of this money because , it feels like it is the only way to address the unfairness that it created in the first place. Emily tell me about that discussion . When you were fortunate and you come into this kind of wealth you think about where , this comes from, where did i get it, why did i get it, and what i owed this to particular owed it to other people. What i did with my family and what my husband did with their family, theres a sense that you should be always thinking about what you will one another. We one another. Emily Silicon Valley has created an incredible amount of wealth and somewhat say it comes with a sense of entitlement for some of the richest people. Do you think Silicon Valley is too arrogant these days . Chris i do think there is a sense, particularly among people who have made a lot of money, that it is all because of ones own actions. I think we tend to underestimate the power of these macroeconomic forces behind it all. Things like automation, globalization, the rise of finance. Over the course of 10 years before it went public, facebook raised over 500 million in venture capital. That kind of financing was not possible 30 or 40 years ago. It is specifically because of financial changes that we made in the 1980s. Emily in the meantime, uber has raised billions of dollars. Chris facebook isnt the only company, its a trend. There are many things that are happening that are creating this wealth in addition to anyone individuals contribution to it. Emily Silicon Valley often prides itself on being a meritocracy. Do you think it is a meritocracy . Chris i think we love the idea of meritocracy in america, this idea that one person can work her way up and be successful. Mark zuckerberg said it in a speech that the fact that he was able to learn how to code in high school was because his parents had jobs was an incredible lucky break that made it possible to be at harvard and to create facebook collectively. I think it is a complex interplay between the role of luck in the role of work and the role of work. All of these successes are you are combination of both. Emily that was facebook cofounder chris hughes. One of the fastestgrowing clouded Data Software firms added a tech veteran. We will speak with rubric ceo and microsoft chair John Thompson next. All episodes of Bloomberg Technology are Live Streaming on twitter. This is bloomberg. Emily welcome back to the best of Bloomberg Technology. Ive emily chang. The data in clout Software Company rubrik has grown rapidly since being launched in 2014. It hit unicorn status last year with a 1 billion plus valuation thanks to interest from investors. Now it is picking up the momentum with the help of microsoft chair John Thompson, who