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🗞️Diversity and inclusion news🗞️ |
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💳If you needed a reminder of why DEI matters, just ask Mastercard's lawyers💳
The card company has reached a $26 million settlement following allegations of inequitable pay discrimination. Mastercard will also audit its employment practices after claims that it systematically underpaid an estimated 7,500 female, Black, and Hispanic employees💰 |
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🐈The Linkedin Catfish🐟
Aliyah Jones also known as the "LinkedIn Catfish" was job hunting and wondering if her race played a part in her lack of success in the job market this and wanted to try an experiment using AI.
She created Emily Osbourne, an AI-generated blonde-haired, blue-eyed White woman to test if that would have a better response rate than her authentic profile.
Well, the fake profile received interview invitations 57.9% of the time, while Jones only received 8.9%. When it came to job ghosting, Jones was more likely to be left on as Osbourne had a 1.7% response rate, compared to Jones’s 15.8%. “She [Emily] wasn’t assigned to do any assignments or case studies, meanwhile I was given a laundry list [to get the job],” Jones said.
Surprising? Not really, but thanks for POCIT for bringing it to our attention so take a look at their write up. Image Credit POCIT |
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🧠Things that make you go hmmm🧠 |
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👀TikTok👀
This week, the big news was TikTok📲
Long story short, it was banned by Congress, and the Supreme Court backed that decision🧑🏾⚖️.
However, Trump, who leveraged the platform to gain a significant number of votes, doesn't want to see it banned—at least not while it still benefits him. He used his executive powers to grant TikTok a 90-day stay of execution. Trump stated he wants a joint venture between ByteDance and a U.S.-based entity, arguing that TikTok’s U.S. operations are worth nothing if they can't function within the country. (Of course, that’s not entirely true—the brand still holds considerable value, along with the data and algorithms that make up its IP.)
Nevertheless, his logic is clear: he wants a U.S. entity to own 50% of TikTok to address congressional concerns🤔
It's uncertain whether a deal will happen, as ByteDance has shown little interest in divesting. However, their investors might feel differently, as they'll be eager for a return on investment💰
One interesting proposal that caught attention was from Perplexity AI, which has submitted a bid to ByteDance to create a new merged entity combining Perplexity AI, TikTok U.S., and new capital partners. This deal addresses two major hurdles. First, it allows most of ByteDance’s existing investors to retain their equity stakes. Second, while ByteDance has publicly stated it won't sell TikTok U.S., it might consider merging with Perplexity AI, a $9 billion AI search engine startup💻
Interestingly, as users feared TikTok's potential shutdown, they flocked to a wave of other Chinese-owned apps—seemingly eager to trade their data for a similar experience. This shift surely raises further concerns for Congress, but the law moves much slower than tech🤔
Perhaps the horse has already bolted. TikTok has demonstrated it can mobilize Americans to protest and assert their First Amendment rights more effectively than movements for maternal health, racial equity, or disability rights. More than just a social platform, TikTok serves as a powerful political tool📲
So what?
We had predicted that TikTok wouldn't be banned. And sure enough, a brief outage—dare we say a publicity stunt?—helped remind people that it was Donald Trump who “saved” it, at least for now.
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😅Copycats😅
Meta was back in the news—and right on cue, the same day TikTok went down for American users, they announced a new product. The catch? It looks strikingly similar to CapCut, another ByteDance app used by millions of creators to edit videos for TikTok.😅 Meta likely sees this as an opportunity to grab market share if TikTok disappears📲
Copying competitors isn’t new for Meta. Remember when Stories first appeared? Snapchat did it first. And Reels? That was a straight-up TikTok clone. It’s ironic that, while Meta’s CEO has been criticizing Apple for a lack of innovation, their next big announcement is a direct copy of an existing product. Still, we’ll keep an open mind—there’s nothing wrong with improving on an idea.📈
In related news, Meta also announced more workforce reductions, trimming 5% of their "lowest performers.
Not to be left out, X (formerly Twitter) has launched its own video tab.
Given the content on the platform, they might as well call it the NSFW tab🔞. We expect it to function similarly to TikTok and Meta’s Reels tab.
But what’s the takeaway? The app won’t launch for another month—too late to capitalize on the TikTok uncertainty—so it might end up being redundant if TikTok secures another extension.
So what?
Competition heats up in social media land as the products start to converge to try and sweep up all of your time similar to the super app concept |
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👩🏿✈️Fake jobs👷🏻♂️
It’s not just fake news to watch out for—fake jobs are a growing issue too According to the Wall Street Journal, internal data from hiring platform Greenhouse shows that between 18% and 22% of online job postings are either fake or never filled. Some suggest companies post these roles to give the illusion of growth, even when they aren’t hiring🤔
This has significant consequences. It inflates the perceived number of available jobs, potentially influencing government policy, and leads to frustration among job seekers. Many candidates waste time applying for roles that don't actually exist, making it even harder to land their first job😭
Forbes has pointed out a business opportunity in all this—LinkedIn and Greenhouse now offer job verification services, so at least someone is benefiting from the chaos😅
Meanwhile, companies are tightening remote work policies, cutting travel budgets, and scaling back benefits. As the labour market shifts, the balance of power is tilting back towards employers🔄
So what?
The UK job market isn't the easiest, but perhaps that solution to everything, AI can help weed out fake postings🤔 |
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🧪Biotech gets its moment in the spotlight🧬
We don't often cover biotech in this newsletter, but we’d like to do more of it this year. A standout story is Colossal Biosciences, the de-extinction company that just raised a $200 million Series C at a whopping $10.2 billion valuation💸
Their flagship projects? Resurrecting extinct species such as the woolly Mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, and the dodo. The company maps extinct genomes, compares them to their closest living relatives (for the Mammoth, that's the Asian elephant), and uses CRISPR gene-editing technology to bring them back to life. They're even developing artificial wombs.
Excitingly, their tech could have applications beyond de-extinction, such as biodiversity enhancement and advancements in fertility treatments🧑🏾🍼
They also have a strong track record of spinning off businesses—one focused on breaking down plastics and another computational biology platform that raised $30 million.
So what? Well, their ambitious timeline targets 2028 for the mammoth’s rebirth. If you could bring something back, what would it be? 🦣
So what?
Competition heats up in social media land as the products start to converge to try and sweep up all of your time similar to the super app concept |
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📈 The tools behind the tech📉
📦Product📦
📏Design📏
👩🏿💻Code👩🏿💻
🏢The business behind the tech🏢
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🌐Partner Events & Opportunties 🌐 |
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🙌🏾Depop🙌🏾
Take a look below and -
click source or flag that you heard it about from Colorintech to help make sure you application gets a thorough look😉
See more info here
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🙌🏾Netflix and Ads🙌🏾
We're hosting an event with the team there
New In-Person Recruitment Event in London with Netflix
Lights, Camera, ACTION! On Feb 6th, Netflix is teaming up with Colorintech to host an exclusive in-person recruitment event focusing on hiring in:
Media Sales (6+ years experience);
Advertising Account Management (3+ years experience);
Ad Operations (3+ years experience);
Brand Partnership Marketing.
This is your opportunity to meet and network with the fantastic team at Netflix including the recruitment team who are happy to answer your questions, whilst enjoying some tasty food and drink.
Check out the key details below:
Date: Thursday 6th February
Time: 18:00 - 21:30
Where: London
As this event has limited spaces, we'll need you to register your interest to attend using our application form below:
https://form.typeform.com/to/z6h3Jm9f
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🙌🏾The latest from the Colorintech team🙌🏾 |
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