• Lawyers with the Justice Department and a group of state attorneys general are expected to meet next week to discuss their ongoing investigations into Google, according to people familiar with the matter, as part of a dialogue that could lead to a formal partnership between the two regulatory groups. At least seven attorneys general from the group currently investigating Google have been invited to the meeting, one of the people said, and the parties are likely to discuss Google’s dominance in online search and possible anticompetitive behavior, along with the scope of their respective probes and the best way to divide the workload, according to some of the people. (The Wall Street Journal)

• Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group of workers pushing to change their employer’s environmental policies, published attributable quotes from 357 Amazon.com Inc. employees about the company’s practices in defiance of an internal rule prohibiting workers from speaking publicly about Amazon’s business without executive approval. The group, which also intends to publish a video about the dangers of climate change today, released the comments in support of colleagues who were previously threatened with termination for speaking out publicly. (The Washington Post)

• The Department of Homeland Security said in a report that law enforcement officials will start cracking down on online counterfeit goods on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, pursuing “civil fines and other penalties” and giving officials more authority to search shipments in U.S. warehouses and fulfillment centers. The new directive comes after President Donald Trump signed the “Phase One” trade deal with China, which includes provisions for both countries to combat counterfeit products. (CNBC)

Hillary Clinton: Mark Zuckerberg Has ‘Authoritarian’ Views on Misinformation
Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic

Facebook has traded moral accountability for commercial gain, the former secretary of state tells The Atlantic. Clinton says Zuckerberg’s  reasoning is “Trumpian.”

Tech Giants’ New Appeal to Governments: Please Regulate Us
Sebastian Herrera, The Wall Street Journal

Top executives of big technology companies are presenting global policy makers with an unusual message from an industry once antagonistic to government intervention: Regulate us. Facing antitrust investigations and a growing backlash over privacy, encryption, artificial intelligence and content monitoring, leaders at tech giants including Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. are now calling for new laws on a range of issues—even though some have worked to torpedo others designed to restrict their activities.

U.S. senator slams Tesla’s ‘misleading’ name for Autopilot driver assistance system
David Shephardson, Reuters

A U.S. senator on Friday urged Tesla Inc to rebrand its driver assistance system Autopilot, saying it has “an inherently misleading name” and is subject to potentially dangerous misuse. But Tesla said in a letter that it had taken steps to ensure driver engagement with the system and enhance its safety features.

Saudi Prince Courted Amazon’s Bezos Before Bitter Split
Justin Scheck et al., The Wall Street Journal

Through much of 2018, Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and tech-savvy Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman seemed to be hitting it off. Texting over WhatsApp about a plan for Amazon to build a huge data center in Saudi Arabia, the men forged a cordial and mutually beneficial relationship.

While Microsoft Was Making Its Climate Pledge, It Was Sponsoring an Oil Conference
Maddie Stone, Motherboard

Last week, Microsoft made a splash when it announced its intention to become a “carbon negative” company—one that pulls more climate-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere than it puts in—by 2030.

Prosecutors Have Evidence Bezos’ Girlfriend Gave Texts to Brother Who Leaked to National Enquirer
Joe Palazzolo and Corinne Ramey, The Wall Street Journal

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have evidence indicating Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend provided text messages to her brother that he then sold to the National Enquirer for its article about the Amazon.com Inc. founder’s affair, according to people familiar with the matter.

Virus Fears Batter Stocks and Oil as Bonds Surge: Markets Wrap
Todd White, Bloomberg

Intensifying concern about the economic and human impact of the deadly coronavirus sent stocks, oil and China’s yuan tumbling Monday while spurring haven assets. Treasuries gained and Italian bonds jumped after regional elections.

California Regulators a Potential Obstacle to T-Mobile, Sprint Merger
Sarah Krouse, The Wall Street Journal

T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. are waiting for a federal judge to rule on whether they can merge, but the companies face another hurdle even if they overcome that legal challenge: the California Public Utilities Commission.

The UK won’t implement EU’s controversial copyright directive after Brexit
James Vincent, The Verge

The UK government won’t adopt the EU’s controversial copyright directive after it leaves the bloc on January 31st, though politicians say they still support the legislation’s “overall aims.” The copyright directive was criticized by free speech advocates, who said it would stifle expression online through the so-called “upload filter” and “link tax.”

Apple Owes Quarterhill $85 Million in Royalties, U.S. Jury Says
Malathi Nayak and Susan Decker, Bloomberg

Apple Inc. must pay Quarterhill Inc.’s WiLan $85 million for infringing patents related to wireless communications, a jury in San Diego ruled. WiLan’s two patents cover ways to make phone calls and download data at the same time.

Trump speaks with British PM Johnson about telecoms security: White House
Eric Beech, Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday discussed the security of telecommunications networks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the White House said, as Britain nears a decision on Huawei’s role in the country’s future 5G network.

Bipartisan lawmakers call for watchdog probe into government telecom office
Emily Birnbaum, The Hill

Bipartisan committee leaders are calling for a watchdog investigation into the top office tasked with advising the White House on telecommunications issues. In a letter on Friday, the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to look into “breakdowns” at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an embattled office within the Commerce Department that has been accused of inefficiency and lackluster leadership during the Trump administration.

Google is backtracking on its controversial desktop search results redesign
Nick Statt, The Verge

Google is backtracking on a controversial search engine redesign, announcing today that it will experiment with some elements of the new look in response to user feedback. Google made one of the biggest changes to how it displays search results in the company’s history earlier this month, with the changes taking effect over the course of the last week.

Bytedance’s TikTok hires Microsoft IP chief as general counsel
Katie Paul, Reuters

Popular mobile video app TikTok said on Friday it has hired attorney Erich Andersen from Microsoft to serve as the company’s global general counsel, reporting to president Alex Zhu. Andersen was most recently Microsoft’s chief intellectual property counsel, bringing expertise in an area of key concern to TikTok as it builds out its music offerings.

Byte, the US homegrown competitor to TikTok, admitted to a huge bot problem just 2 days after launching
Charlie Wood, Business Insider

Byte, the spiritual successor to looping video app Vine, is already facing a bot plague. The app was created by one of Vine’s cofounders, Dom Hofmann, and launched for the iPhone and on Android on Friday.

Inside the secret Twitter rooms where Debra Messing, Don Cheadle, and the rest of the celebrity #Resistance organizes
Emily Stewart, Vox

Progressive influencers, activists, and presidential campaigns are organizing behind digital closed doors.

Will You Be My #Content?
Hayley Phelan, The New York Times

For social media influencers and oversharers, life is full of material. But what if their friends don’t want to be the co-stars?

German Court Rules Against Facebook on Data Protection
Sara Germano, The Wall Street Journal

A state court in Berlin ruled that some user terms set by Facebook Inc. violated consumer-data protection law, in the latest example of back-and-forth between companies and courts to define the boundaries of the European Union’s extensive privacy rules.

Have a Search Warrant for Data? Google Wants You to Pay
Gabriel J.X. Dance and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, The New York Times

Facing an increasing number of requests for its users’ information, Google began charging law enforcement and other government agencies this month for legal demands seeking data such as emails, location tracking information and search queries. Google’s fees range from $45 for a subpoena and $60 for a wiretap to $245 for a search warrant, according to a notice sent to law enforcement officials and reviewed by The New York Times.

New Jersey Bars Police From Using Clearview Facial Recognition App
Kashmir Hill, The New York Times

New Jersey police officers are now barred from using a facial recognition app made by a start-up that has licensed its groundbreaking technology to hundreds of law enforcement agencies around the country.

Wyden calls on NSA to examine White House cybersecurity following Bezos hack
Maggie Miller, The Hill

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Friday pressured the National Security Agency (NSA) on efforts to secure personal devices of government employees from foreign hackers and surveillance following news that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s phone was allegedly hacked by Saudi officials.

The FISA court has taken steps to correct the Carter Page abuses. But more reform is needed.
Editorial Board, The Washington Post

The shock waves continue to reverberate from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s Dec. 9 report on major flaws in the federal government’s secret surveillance of former Trump campaign official Carter Page. Mr. Horowitz found that FBI officials repeatedly misled or misinformed judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to obtain its permission for the surveillance of Mr. Page.

You Are Now Remotely Controlled
Shoshana Zuboff, The New York Times

The debate on privacy and law at the Federal Trade Commission was unusually heated that day. Tech industry executives “argued that they were capable of regulating themselves and that government intervention would be costly and counterproductive.”

Phones That Can Read Your Mind
Andy Kessler, The Wall Street Journal

When I first met Larry Page and Sergey Brin around 1999, Google’s accidental billionaire founders (they couldn’t even sell their technology to Yahoo for $1 million) gave a talk about the future of search. Mr. Page rambled for a while, then stopped, grinned and said, “what we really want to do is know what you want before you even think it.”

The Shaky Future of .org Domains
Josephine Wolff, The Wall Street Journal

The sale of the nonprofit domains to a private equity firm threatens the integrity of the open internet. ICANN should investigate.

How staff came to question Google culture
Richard Waters, Financial Times

As the company grew, employees’ early freedom to speak out came to be seen as a liability.

H.R. 4229, Broadband DATA Act
Congressional Budget Office

H.R. 4229 would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to collect detailed data twice a year on the availability of broadband Internet access services. That data would be reported by providers of those broadband services. Under the act, the FCC would establish and maintain a comprehensive database and create detailed and publicly available broadband coverage maps.