Profit-driven social networks like Facebook pose an existential threat to democracy, argues eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. “For all the ways this technology brings us together, the monetization and manipulation of information is swiftly tearing us apart,” he writes in The Washington Post. “From foreign interference in our elections to targeted campaigns designed to confuse and divide on important social issues, groups looking for an effective way to infiltrate and influence our democracy have found generous hosts in the world of social media.”

For its more secretive projects, Snap is building a research and development lab in Lehi, Utah, TechCrunch reports. “The distance from Facebook and other tech companies could allow Snapchat to develop new app features or hardware devices beyond the prying eyes and ears of its competitors,” it writes.

Bloomberg looks into Google’s “traffic acquisition costs” -- which amount to roughly $19 billion a year -- and why they keep going up. “Investors are obsessed with this money … and they’re particularly worried about the growing slice of those payments going to Apple and Google's Android allies,” Bloomberg writes. “That chunk of fees now amounts to 11 percent of revenue for Google's internet properties” -- up from 7% in 2012.

Flipboard is rolling out new self-serve tools for smaller publishers, Fast Company reports. As such, “Even tiny media brands will be able to use an RSS feed to power a Flipboard magazine -- allowing them, for the first time, to get articles onto Flipboard without any human intervention.” More broadly, Flipboard is trying to "give [smaller publishers] incentives to make their own publishing systems efficient and user-centric.”

Twitter is developing a “save for later” feature, BuzzFeed reports, citing a new tweet by the company’s head of product, Keith Coleman. “The company is working on a bookmarking tool that will allow you to save Tweets and return to them in a dedicated section the product,” BF writes. “Twitter product manager Jesar Shah also tweeted an early demo of what this feature will look like.”

A New York Times investigation finds that many of the videos used by Russian agents  to sow domestic discord leading up the 2016 U.S. presidential election were originally created by Americans. “The Russian pages … cribbed complaints about federal agents from one conservative website, and a gauzy article about a veteran who became an entrepreneur from People magazine,” it writes.

The New York Times explores how, with a new focus on personalization and variety, office life is changing in and around the tech industry. “Under the revised thinking, breaking down walls to bring people together is good, but so are ‘team spaces’ and standing tables, comfortable couches and movable walls,” it writes. More broadly, “It’s partly a backlash against the one-size-fits-all mind-set.”

Relative to Netflix and Hulu, Amazon Studios is struggling to produce award-winning programming. “It has alienated high-profile content creators, who say executives have proven incapable -- or unwilling -- to smooth out conflicts that inevitably crop up during the shooting of a television show,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Meanwhile, “The Hollywood arm of the online giant is pivoting away from dramas for adults but is struggling to define a new strategy.”

In the wake of hurricanes Irma and Maria, Alphabet is working to bring emergency connectivity to Puerto Rico using hot air balloons. “If all goes to plan, Alphabet’s balloons will soon help replace the thousands of cellphone towers knocked out of service by hurricane-strength winds,” Wired reports. “The balloons would provide voice and data service through local carriers to users’ phones.”

Trump campaign digital director Brad Parscale tells CBS’ "60 Minutes" that he had handpicked Republican Facebook employees showing him how to make the best use of the platform. "Parscale tells Lesley Stahl how, [with their help], he fine-tuned political ads posted on Facebook to directly reach voters with the exact messages they cared most about...”