General
The Capitol rioters put themselves all over social media. Now the FBI is watching.
Sara Morrison, Recode
Capitol Police may have allowed nearly every member of a mob of pro-Trump rioters to enter, vandalize, and leave the Capitol building scot-free, but internet sleuths and official investigators are determined to hold them accountable. After insurrectionists crashed through barriers surrounding Capitol Hill, overwhelmed police, rampaged through the Capitol building, and left dozens injured and four dead, there were relatively few arrests, and many people were allowed to simply walk out.
‘Nothing can stop what’s coming’: Far-right forums that fomented Capitol riots voice glee in aftermath
Craig Timberg et al., The Washington Post
Men wearing camouflage shirts began building a makeshift defensive camp outside the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon. They moved barricades and green fencing into a circle, and then pulled helmets from a crate and donned goggles in preparation for a clash that had been brewing for weeks and, arguably, for years on far-right forums devoted to President Trump.
‘This is going to come back and bite ‘em’: Capitol breach inflames Democrats’ ire at Silicon Valley
Cristiano Lima and John Hendel, Politico
Social media is poised to pay a price for President Donald Trump’s supporters’ rampage through the Capitol. Democratic lawmakers channeled much of their fury at tech companies’ role in the assault on Congress, an attack organized across a plethora of online platforms and livestreamed by rioters who echoed Trump’s baseless charges of a rigged election.
PayPal and Shopify remove Trump-related accounts, citing policies against supporting violence
Laura Hautala, CNET
Online commerce and payment services have stopped the flow of money to Trump-related accounts in light of Wednesday’s insurrection at the US Capitol. Software maker Shopify removed stores affiliated with President Donald Trump from its platform, and payment processor PayPal shut down an account raising funds for Trump supporters who traveled to Washington, DC.
Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world, passing Jeff Bezos
Robert Frank, CNBC
Elon Musk just became the richest person in the world, with a net worth of more than $185 billion. Thursday’s increase in Tesla’s share price pushed Musk past Jeff Bezos, who had been the richest person since 2017 and is currently worth about $184 billion.
New York City Proposes Regulating Algorithms Used in Hiring
Tom Simonite, Wired
A bill would require firms to disclose when they use software to assess candidates, and vendors would have to ensure that their tech doesn’t discriminate.
Why the Amazon, JPMorgan, Berkshire Venture Collapsed: ‘Health Care Was Too Big a Problem’
Sebastian Herrera and David Benoit, The Wall Street Journal
Amazon.com Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. set out three years ago to join and transform health care. Instead, they struggled to solve even fundamental challenges, such as understanding what some kinds of care actually cost. Haven, the joint venture they set up together in 2018 to use technology and find new ways to reduce costs for their combined 1.5 million employees, will end operations next month.
Intellectual Property and Antitrust
UK’s competition watchdog to probe Google’s browser changes
Tanishaa Nadkar, Reuters
UK’s competition watchdog said on Friday it has launched an investigation into Google’s proposals to remove third-party cookies and other functions from its Chrome browser, following concerns it would curb rival digital advertising. The investigation will assess whether the proposals could cause advertising spend to become even more concentrated on the ecosystem of Alphabet’s Google at the expense of its competitors, the Competition and Markets Authority said.
Telecom, Wireless and TV
FCC Tees Up $47.5 Million in Fines For Education Spectrum Holders
Keith Perine, Bloomberg Law
The Federal Communications Commission is proposing a total of $47.5 million in fines against 10 licensees of airwaves set aside for educational uses, alleging violations of license terms. The licensees “failed to meet their obligations” under conditions of the licenses that existed before the commission decided to make that portion of the airwaves available to advanced wireless services, the agency said in a statement.
Mobile Technology and Social Media
Google’s new union has mounted a searing attack on YouTube for not stripping Trump of his account and fostering fascism
Isobel Asher Hamilton, Business Insider
Google’s new union has penned a searing open letter to YouTube executives, accusing the platform of fostering fascism and failing to act in the wake of the siege by pro-Trump rioters on the US Capitol. The Alphabet Workers Union, which was officially formed on Monday of this week and comprises roughly 400 employees from Google’s parent company Alphabet, published the open letter on Thursday.
TikTok bans videos of Trump inciting mob, blocks #stormthecapital and other hashtags
Sarah Perez, TechCrunch
For obvious reasons, Trump doesn’t have a TikTok account. But the president’s speeches that helped incite the mob who yesterday stormed the U.S. Capitol will have no home on TikTok’s platform. The company confirmed to TechCrunch its content policy around the Capitol riots will see it removing videos of Trump’s speeches to supporters.
Michelle Obama calls on Facebook and other social media platforms to ban Trump permanently
Todd Haselton, CNBC
Several hours after Facebook announced it would block President Donald Trump from making new posts until inauguration day at the earliest, former first lady Michelle Obama called on social media platforms to ban him from their platforms permanently.
A Facial Recognition Company Says That Viral Washington Times “Antifa” Story Is False
Craig Silverman, BuzzFeed News
A facial recognition company says a viral Washington Times story claiming it identified antifa members among the mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday is completely false. XRVision told BuzzFeed News it has asked the conservative outlet for a retraction and apology over the story, which was cited in the House of Representatives after the riot late Wednesday by Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, an ardent Trump supporter.
Chinese censorship invades the U.S. via WeChat
Jeanne Whalen, The Washington Post
Users in North America say the app has blocked them from sharing content displeasing to Chinese authorities. Some support Trump’s ban effort, which will be the subject of a court hearing Jan. 14.
Cybersecurity and Privacy
Hacking victim SolarWinds hires ex-Homeland Security official Krebs as consultant
Joseph Menn, Reuters
The company used by hackers as a springboard for the worst-known breach of U.S. government computers in at least five years has hired some of the biggest names in security to help it recover. SolarWinds Corp, which had backdoored versions of its network-management software go out to thousands of customers, had already hired CrowdStrike Holdings Inc to help it assess the intrusion and protect it going forward.
Don’t worry about the cybersecurity fallout of the Capitol breach
Tom Krazit, Protocol
Among the disasters that visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday, the fact that the people who infiltrated Congressional offices had unfettered access to IT assets for several hours ranks rather low. One of the most iconic images of Wednesday’s events was a picture of the home screen of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office computer, abandoned in haste after a mob broke into the Capitol building, forcing Congress and staffers to retreat to safer locations.
CISA: SolarWinds Hackers Got Into Networks by Guessing Passwords
Mariam Baksh, Nextgov
Perpetrators of a widespread, intelligence-gathering campaign used common hacker techniques to get through passwords in addition to more sophisticated methods, according to an update to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s alert. “CISA incident response investigations have identified that initial access in some cases was obtained by password guessing, password spraying, and inappropriately secured administrative credentials accessible via external remote access services,” reads the activity alert updated Wednesday.
State Department sets up new bureau for cybersecurity and emerging technologies
Maggie Miller, The Hill
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday approved the creation of a new office at the State Department to address cybersecurity and emerging technologies. The new Bureau of Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET) will help lead diplomatic efforts around these topics, including working to prevent cyber conflicts with potentially adversarial nations.
Tapjoy Settles With FTC After Years of Cheating Mobile Gamers
Shoshana Wodinsky, Gizmodo
The Federal Trade Commission announced on Thursday that it has finally reached a settlement with Tapjoy, a California-based adtech company that’s alleged to have defrauded consumers consumers out of the in-app rewards that they were promised. Per the FTC, Tapjoy’s scam had allegedly gone on for “several years,” resulting in “hundreds of thousands” of complaints filed by pissed mobile gamers across the country.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
The President Is Losing His Platforms
Kevin Roose, The New York Times
For years, top executives at social media companies treated President Trump with kid gloves, contorting themselves into pretzels to explain why he was still allowed to post on their platforms despite violating their rules again and again. Fearful of provoking a backlash from the president and his allies, they gave gauzy speeches defending free expression, wrote special policies to justify their inaction and attached weak warning labels to his posts.
The tech platforms are not entirely to blame for Washington unrest
Joe Thornhill, Financial Times
Knee-jerk reactions in the wake of the storming of Capitol Hill could have unintended consequences.
Social media is finally pulling the plug on Trump. We still must fight the lies.
Editorial Board, The Washington Post
Social media is finally pulling the plug on the social media president. The incitements to violence had been coming fast and thick from President Trump’s accounts across platforms — some subtler than others. Yet it was only once violence was successfully incited with Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol that the sites acted decisively: a 12-hour lockout of Mr. Trump’s account on Twitter and a 24-hour freeze on Facebook that turned into a ban until at least Inauguration Day.
Research Reports
Restoring Internet Freedom; Bridging the Digital Divide for Low-Income Consumers; Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization
Federal Communications Commission
In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) responds to a remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit directing the Commission to assess the effects of the Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order on public safety, pole attachments, and the statutory basis for broadband internet access service’s inclusion in the universal service Lifeline program. This document also amends the Commission’s rules to remove broadband internet service from the list of services supported by the universal service Lifeline program, while preserving the Commission’s authority to fund broadband internet access service through the Lifeline program.
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