General
FCC Launches Review of Digital Platforms’ Legal Immunity for User Posts Christopher Stern, The Information
The Federal Communications Commission rang the opening bell today on a lobbying battle over a proposal to weaken Internet companies’ immunity to lawsuits over user-posted content. The FCC is inviting public comments on the Trump administration’s effort to weaken a law widely known as Section 230.
ByteDance founder defends TikTok’s U.S. strategy in staff letter Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh, Reuters
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming told employees on Tuesday there were misunderstandings on Chinese social media about TikTok’s situation in the United States and that the company could face more difficulties as anti-Chinese sentiment rose abroad. His comments in a letter to ByteDance’s Chinese employees came after the company and Zhang were heavily criticised on Chinese social media for entering into talks with Microsoft Corp to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations.
Congressional leaders urge Trump administration to release funds to U.S. Internet freedom organization Spencer S. Hsu, The Washington Post
Senior Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Monday urged the Trump administration to release $20 million approved by Congress for a U.S. Internet freedom organization, saying a funding hold has pushed to the “brink of collapse” anti-censorship and surveillance technologies used by activists in China, Iran and countries worldwide.
Silicon Valley is losing the battle against election misinformation Mark Scott and Steven Overly, Politico
Videos peddling false claims about voter fraud and Covid-19 cures draw millions of views on YouTube. Partisan activist groups pretending to be online news sites set up shop on Facebook. Foreign trolls masquerade as U.S. activists on Instagram to sow divisions around the Black Lives Matter protests.
Microsoft’s operations will be zero waste by 2030 Justine Calma, The Verge
Microsoft plans to stop generating trash from its operations by 2030, the company announced today. It also pledged to stop using single-use plastics in its packaging by 2025. As part of its zero waste goal, the company will set up what it’s calling “Circular Centers” to allow the company to reuse or recycle 90 percent of its waste on site, instead of sending it to third-party recyclers.
It’s Not Just TikTok. Chinese Firms Face More US Roadblocks Will Knight and Tom Simonite, Wired
Mark Zuckerber put his lungs on the line in March 2016. On a trip to Beijing seemingly aimed at helping persuade the government to let Facebook operate inside China, the CEO made time for a jog-cum-photo-opp in a polluted Tiananmen Square.
Intellectual Property and Antitrust
Last week the US wanted to break up Big Tech. Now it’s trying to supersize it. Peter Kafka, Recode
Last week, US lawmakers hauled the heads of four giant tech companies into a virtual antitrust hearing, ostensibly over concerns their companies are too big. This week, the president of the United States is sort-of-kind-of-maybe trying to help a different giant US tech company become even bigger — by forcing the Chinese owners of TikTok to sell it to Microsoft.
Google invests in ADT, will integrate its Nest devices into smart home business Jon Porter, The Verge
Google has invested $450 million for a 6.6 percent stake in security company ADT, the companies announced today. The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, will see ADT’s technicians selling and installing Google’s Nest smart home devices, such as cameras and smart displays, as early as this year.
ProtonMail founder: Apple uses monopoly to “hold all of us hostage” Kate Cox, Ars Technica
The developer behind secure email service ProtonMail today came out swinging against the way Apple allegedly uses its App Store to control access to iOS users and cut out competitors. The company is all but begging regulators to take stronger action. “Apple has become a monopoly, crushing potential competitors with exploitative fees and conducting censorship on behalf of dictators,” ProtonMail founder and CEO Andy Yen wrote in a company blog post.
Telecom, Wireless and TV
San Jose makes 11,000 WiFi hotspots available for students Kim Hart, Axios
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo on Monday announced a deal with AT&T to make 11,000 4G hotspots available to keep students and families connected when schools begin virtually this fall. Why it matters: Like other school districts, Santa Clara County in the heart of Silicon Valley will stick with remote learning for the foreseeable future as COVID-19 cases surge in California.
Mobile Technology and Social Media
Top House Republicans request classified TikTok briefing Chris Mills Rodrigo, The Hill
Three top House Republicans are requesting a classified briefing from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Chinese technology platforms including TikTok. “While we remain deeply concerned with TikTok, such concerns extend beyond the popular short-form video app,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Energy and Commerce ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) wrote in a letter Monday.
Facebook moderators call for advertiser boycott to be extended Alex Hern, The Guardian
Current and former Facebook moderators have called for the unprecedented advertiser boycott of the site to be extended to prove that the action is more than a “PR stunt”. Speaking to the Guardian, one current moderator who asked to remain anonymous because they feared for their job, said that without long-term commitments, this was a “PR stunt that will pass when they get enough of the reports that they want.”
Facebook will prepare users for mail-in voting for 2020 election amid pandemic Jessica Bursztynsky, CNBC
Facebook is preparing for the United States to rely on mail-in voting for the 2020 presidential election and will educate users on the process, in an effort to get ahead of potential disinformation. The social media platform has planned a curriculum around “getting people ready for the fact that there’s a high likelihood that it takes days or weeks to count this — and there’s nothing wrong or illegitimate about that,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a New York Times interview.
The Tale of Queer Appalachia Emma Copley Eisenberg, The Washington Post
A popular Instagram account raises funds for LGBTQ people in Appalachia. But does the money really go where it’s supposed to?
Cybersecurity and Privacy
DOD, FBI, DHS release info on malware used in Chinese government-led hacking campaigns Shannon Vavra, CyberScoop
The U.S. government publicly put forth information Monday that exposed malware used in Chinese government hacking efforts for more than a decade. The Chinese government has been using malware, referred to as Taidoor, to target government agencies, entities in the private sector, and think tanks since 2008, according to a joint announcement from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Defense, and the FBI.
House Republicans introduce legislation to give states $400 million for elections Maggie Miller, The Hill
A group of House Republicans on Monday introduced legislation that would appropriate $400 million to states to address election challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Emergency Assistance for Safe Elections (EASE) Act would designate $200 million to assist with sanitizing in-person polling stations and purchasing personal protective equipment, while a further $100 million would go towards recruiting and training new poll workers, following a nationwide shortage of workers due to the pandemic.
This Tool Could Protect Your Photos From Facial Recognition Kashmir Hill, The New York Times
In recent years, companies have been prowling the web for public photos associated with people’s names that they can use to build enormous databases of faces and improve their facial recognition systems, adding to a growing sense that personal privacy is being lost, bit by digital bit.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
What Years of Emails and Texts Reveal About Your Friendly Tech Companies Tim Wu, The New York Times
The spectacle of the chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google testifying before Congress last week made for good TV drama. Yet the theatrics of the showdown distracted from the real payoff of the hearings: the accompanying cache of subpoenaed emails and texts from the past decade and a half.
Trump’s anti-China strategy at home will hurt U.S. companies around the world Editorial Board, The Washington Post
President Trump’s preferred strategy to defeat the Chinese government seems to be to emulate the Chinese government. At least, the White House response to the problems posed by popular smartphone app TikTok seems modeled on Xi Jinping’s brand of nationalist industrial policy.
Congress wants to curb Big Tech. It could end up crushing startups instead Patricia Nakache, Fortune
Thursday’s Congressional antitrust hearing marked an important milestone in the government’s ongoing exploration into whether and, specifically, how to regulate Big Tech. But judging from the lines of questioning, lawmakers may be focusing on some of the wrong issues.
Research Reports
Take a “NetWalk” on the Wild Side McAfee
The NetWalker ransomware, initially known as Mailto, was first detected in August 2019. Since then, new variants were discovered throughout 2019 and the beginning of 2020, with a strong uptick noticed in March of this year. NetWalker has noticeably evolved to a more stable and robust ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, and our research suggests that the malware operators are targeting and attracting a broader range of technically advanced and enterprising criminal affiliates.
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