Monday, January 14, 2019
Bird Backs Off On Legal Threats Against Journalist, Apologizes
Santa Monica-based on-demand scooter rental startup Bird has backed off on legal threats against a local, LA journalist, Cory Doctorow, after widespread outroar over what was perceived as a censorship threat, saying that the company's legal team "overreached" in issuing a takedown letter. Bird told the BBC it has apologized to Doctorow, who writes for BoingBoing, and had described how people were selling $30 kits on eBay that enabled them to take over Bird's scooters with a hardware hack--but which had not described the hack itself. On-demand companies like Uber have drawn fire in the past for their obsessiveness over positive media coverage, with a well known case of Uber running a campaign to threaten technology journalist Sarah Lacy over her negative coverage of the company.