General
Justice Thomas argues for making Facebook, Twitter and Google utilities
Issie Lapowsky, Protocol
Last fall, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that it was time to rein in Section 230 immunity. Now, Justice Thomas is laying out an argument for why companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google should be regulated as utilities.
Intel CEO to attend White House meeting on chip supply chain
Stephen Nellis, Reuters
Intel Corp Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger will virtually attend a meeting being put together by President Joe Biden’s administration for April 12 to discuss the semiconductor supply chain issues disrupting U.S. automotive factories, according to a person familiar with the matter. Reuters previously reported the meeting will include Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and a top economic aide, Brian Deese, as well as chipmakers and automakers.
Biden Tax Plan Seen Hitting Technology, Pharmaceutical Companies
Laura Davison, Bloomberg
The tax plan President Joe Biden laid out last week will likely hit technology and pharmaceutical companies particularly hard, although the challenge for legislators will be to minimize loopholes that could diminish the impact, tax experts said.
U.S. confronts ‘digital dagger’ from overseas aimed at top tech companies
Gopal Ratnam, Roll Call
Late last month, the Biden administration signaled that it was preparing to slap a 25 percent tariff on goods imported from six countries, including the United Kingdom, in retaliation for a digital service tax those countries were set to collect on search engines, social media companies and online retailers that were mostly American. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said a six-month investigation had found that the digital tax levied by the U.K. and other countries was “unreasonable, or discriminatory and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce.”
Italy emerges as next front in gig economy labour battle
Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli and Davide Ghiglione, Financial Times
Aggressive employment policies and strong unionisation threaten groups such as Amazon and Uber.
Why Shortages of a $1 Chip Sparked Crisis in Global Economy
Debby Wu and Takashi Mochizuki, Bloomberg
To understand why the $450 billion semiconductor industry has lurched into crisis, a helpful place to start is a one-dollar part called a display driver. Hundreds of different kinds of chips make up the global silicon industry, with the flashiest ones from Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp. going for $100 apiece to more than $1,000.
A recruiter joined Facebook to help it meet its diversity targets. He says its hiring practices hurt people of color.
Elizabeth Dwoskin and Nitasha Tiku, The Washington Post
Rhett Lindsey was so eager to work at Facebook, he applied for a job there three times. When he finally got the offer to become a recruiter for highly paid engineers, he says he jumped at the chance to help the social network push for greater employee diversity in its ranks. Eight months later, in August 2020, Lindsey attended a virtual meeting to discuss the company’s goal of hiring more Black engineers.
Facebook, Alphabet and Microsoft shares soar to all-time highs
Jessica Bursztynsky, CNBC
Shares of Facebook, Alphabet and Microsoft each hit all-time highs Monday as investors rotated away from cyclical stocks and poured back into growth. Facebook surged as much as 4%, closing up 3.4%. Alphabet closed up 4.2%, having gained as much as 4.6%, while Microsoft closed up 2.8%. It had jumped as much as 3.1%.
Intellectual Property and Antitrust
Apple, Facebook Spar Over Social Network’s Involvement Epic Games’ Antitrust Case
Josh Sisco, The Information
With Epic Games’ antitrust suit against Apple less than a month away from trial, the iPhone maker is clashing with Facebook over access to documents it says are necessary to defend against the high profile case. In December, Apple subpoenaed Facebook, which is not a party to the case, for information about how it distributes its apps, how it’s been affected by Apple’s App Store approval process and its communications with other developers about possible litigation against Apple.
Google’s Supreme Court win has the software industry breathing easier
Ashley Gold and Ina Fried, Axios
Monday’s Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of Google over Oracle left much of the software industry feeling like they’d dodged a bullet. Why it matters: By resolving an 11-year-old dispute over rights to program code in favor of Google, the Supreme Court is allowing tech companies to largely continue with their practice of building on past software advances in creation of new technology.
Amazon Surpasses 10% of U.S. Digital Ad Market Share
Alexandra Bruell, The Wall Street Journal
Amazon. com Inc.’s share of the U.S. digital ad market grew to 10.3% last year from 7.8% in 2019, according to a new report from research firm eMarketer. The report predicts that Amazon will continue to inch up on market leaders Google, part of Alphabet Inc., and Facebook Inc., a sign brands are increasingly turning to the e-commerce giant to help them reach an expanding base of online shoppers.
Telecom, Wireless and TV
Biden officials open to debate on how $2tn infrastructure plan is funded
James Politi, Financial Times
Democrats say there is room for a deal with Republicans on corporate taxes as they strive to push package forward.
The revolution in satellite technology means there are swarms of spacecraft no bigger than a loaf of bread in orbit
Christian Davenport, The Washington Post
The avalanche was a stunning disaster, 247 million cubic feet of glacial ice and snow hurtling down the Tibetan mountain range at 185 mph. Nine people and scores of animals were killed in an event that startled scientists around the world. As they researched why the avalanche occurred with such force, a team of researchers studying climate change pored over images taken in the days and weeks before and saw ominous cracks had begun to form in the ice and snow.
Mobile Technology and Social Media
Twitter mistakenly suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene, again
The Associated Press
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was briefly suspended from Twitter Sunday in what the company said was an error — its second such mistake in three weeks. The Georgia Republican, who has in the past promoted violence against Democrats and conspiracy theories about QAnon and the 9/11 attacks, was unable to post to her account during the hours-long suspension.
Democrats press Facebook on plans for Instagram for kids
Rebecca Klar, The Hill
Democrats told Facebook on Monday they have concerns about the platform’s plans for an Instagram for children over the company’s “past failures” to protect kids on platforms aimed at youth users. “Facebook has a record of failing to protect children’s privacy and safety, casting serious doubt on its ability to do so on a version of Instagram that is marketed to children,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Clubhouse partners with Stripe to let you send money directly to creators by tapping on their profile
Kate Duffy, Insider
Audio-only app Clubhouse on Monday began allowing users to send money directly to creators on the platform thanks to a partnership with payments company Stripe. All users can donate money to creators via “Clubhouse Payments,” the company wrote in a blog post on Sunday. Not all creators can receive payments yet — Clubhouse said it’s starting with a “small test group.”
Can A.I. help Facebook cure its disinformation problem?
Jeremy Kahn, Fortune
In addition to testing American democracy, November’s election and the subsequent storming of the U.S. Capitol put social media to the test. Facebook and its rivals have spent years creating technology to combat the spread of disinformation, violent rhetoric, and hate speech. By some measure, the systems did better than ever in filtering out hundreds of millions of inflammatory posts. But ultimately the technology failed, allowing many similar posts to slip through.
In a Pennsylvania town, a Facebook group fills the local news void
Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News
The day after Thanksgiving 2019, residents of Chippewa Township, Pennsylvania, watched from their windows as state and local police combed through their backyards looking for Kyle Michael Jones. Jones, 26, had a long rap sheet for offenses like reckless driving and disorderly conduct.
Cybersecurity and Privacy
Once again, someone tampered with an entire drinking water supply via the internet
Sean Hollister, The Verge
You would think that something as critical as a town or county’s drinking water supply would be well-protected — you know, like how America’s nuclear armament was isolated from the internet and even relied on eight-inch floppy disks until just recently? And yet we’ve now had two instances where someone was able to remotely log into a municipal water supply in a way that could have harmed people.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
The information superhighway must be accessible and affordable for all
Antjuan Seawright, The Hill
The older I get, the more I realize the less I know. So, per the usual, I had a history lesson not long ago from House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.). The subject matter this time was a topic familiar to many Americans: broadband access. Now, being a child of the Information Age, I thought that I knew all there was to know about the wired world.
Your ‘smart home’ is watching – and possibly sharing your data with the police
Albert Fox Cahn and Justin Sherman, The Guardian
You may have a roommate you have never met. And even worse, they are nosy. They track what you watch on TV, they track when you leave the lights on in the living room, and they even track whenever you use a key fob to enter the house. This is the reality of living in a “smart home”: the house is always watching, always tracking, and sometimes it offers that data up to the highest bidder – or even to police.
Google’s Free Piracy Pass
The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal
The Supreme Court on Monday handed Google a victory in its decade-long copyright feud with Oracle. Don’t be dazed by the case’s technical argot. By declaring Google’s code-cribbing fair use, the 6-2 majority has weakened intellectual property protections.
Research Reports
How to Close America’s Digital Equity Gaps: Toward a Digital Futures Foundation
Michael Calabrese and Lester Salamon, New America’s Open Technology Institute
At a time when the pandemic has made the nation painfully aware of the digital divides that are widening inequality, slowing productivity, and impeding digital innovation, is our practice of dumping the proceeds from the privatization of the public airwaves into the federal treasury, as is now routinely done, the best use of this precious public resource? The answer, we believe, is decidedly NO.
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