Recode Daily: Silicon Valley may have a Saudi Arabia problem

Silicon Valley may finally have to confront its love affair with Saudi Arabia’s oil money, following reports that the kingdom’s leadership is responsible for the murder of Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. On Thursday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi became the latest big name in business to pull out of a glitzy tech event in Riyadh. But he and Silicon Valley’s investor community would do more than snub a conference if they cared about Saudi human rights abuses. [Theodore Schleifer / Recode]

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Facebook said it has purged more than 800 U.S. publishers and accounts for flooding users with politically oriented content that violated the company’s policies around spam and “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” Although the move risks reigniting accusations of political censorship, Facebook said it was not removing the accounts because of the type of content they posted but because of the behaviors they engaged in, including spamming Facebook groups with identical pieces of content, unauthorized coordination and using fake profiles. [Elizabeth Dwoskin and Tony Romm / The Washington Post]

U.S. stocks hoped for a Friday rebound after posting their worst two-day stretch in eight months. The three major indexes all fell more than 5 percent between Wednesday and Thursday, and tech shares like Apple, Alphabet and Netflix failed to rebound after posting steep losses. President Donald Trump added fuel to the fire, blaming the Federal Reserve for continuing to hike a benchmark rate that affects both business and consumer loans. [Fred Imbert / CNBC]

President Trump signed the Music Modernization Act into law, officially bringing copyright law up to speed for the streaming era and ensuring that artists are paid more and have an easier time collecting money they are owed. Heralded by labels, musicians and politicians, the bill unanimously passed through both the House and Senate before going to the president. Songwriters and artists will now receive royalties on songs recorded before 1972; the law will improve how songwriters are paid by streaming services, with a single mechanical licensing database overseen by music publishers and songwriters. [Dani Deahl / The Verge]

Accusing San Francisco of scooter discrimination, Lime initiated a temporary restraining order on the city’s electric-scooter pilot program, which is slated to start on Monday. Lime, which is backed by Uber, has said that it has been unfairly denied a permit to operate its scooters in San Francisco. Lime and its main rivals, Bird and Spin, have launched scooter-rental services in more than 100 cities. The escalating conflict underscores how high the stakes are in the ongoing struggle over who has the right to use public streets and how. [Eric Newcomer / Bloomberg]

Thoughts for the weekend: A future where everything becomes a computer is as creepy as you feared. And is the secret of productivity really just doing what you enjoy?

Top stories from Recode

Investors are betting $75 million on AllTrails and its content for hikers.
Is there a big business here? [Theodore Schleifer]

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Petition: Turn Salesforce Tower into the Eye of Sauron for Halloween.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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