Top Stories

  • President Donald Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Mike O’Rielly to serve another term as a Republican commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. The withdrawal comes after a Senate panel approved O’Rielly’s nomination last month, but also follows several public instances in which O’Rielly has expressed “deep reservations” about whether the FCC has the power to issue new regulations for social media companies as the agency moves forward on a petition prompted by an executive order to review Section 230 liability protections. (Reuters)
  • Beijing isn’t letting Trump push a sale of TikTok without a fight: In an editorial, the official state paper China Daily said the country wouldn’t accept the “theft” of its own tech company, while Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s ministry of foreign affairs, said “the U.S. generalizes the concept of national security” and presumes guilt “without any evidence.” Trump publicly said he now supports Microsoft’s purchase of TikTok, so long as the deal is completed by Sept. 15, though he suggested that the Treasury Department should receive payment as a part of the deal. (The Guardian)
  • Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing that it could face a fine of up to $250 million from the Federal Trade Commission as the agency investigates a complaint that the company misused users’ phone numbers and email addresses “provided for safety and security purposes” to target advertisements between 2013 and 2019. Twitter said in October that it had “inadvertently” used such data for ad targeting. (CNN)
  • The New York and California attorneys general are working with the FTC to investigate potential anti-competitive behavior in Amazon.com Inc.’s online marketplace, according to people familiar with the matter, with the three groups expected to interview witnesses together on joint calls in the next few weeks. The individual probes from the FTC and California had been reported previously, but this is the first time New York’s involvement in the issue and the collaboration have been identified. (Bloomberg)

Chart Review

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

08/04/2020
Pivot Schooled Live with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway: Media’s Overnight Chaos — livestream
Open RAN Policy Coalition’s first webinar in a series on open radio access network, including Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) 11:00 am
Official Launch of the Institute for Security and Technology – virtual 1:30 pm
Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the findings of the CyberSpace Solarium Commission 2:30 pm
Brookings Institution virtual event on breaking up Big Tech 4:00 pm
Micromobility Industries’ webinar on “What Low-Bandwidth, Low-Cost Connectivity Means for Micromobility” 4:00 pm
08/05/2020
Black Hat USA 2020 – virtual
Aspen Tech Policy Hub Fellows’ virtual showcase feat. projects about improving democracy through technology 9:00 am
Senate Commerce Committee’s FTC oversight hearing 10:00 am
Senate Energy Committee’s hearing on improving cybersecurity in the energy sector 10:00 am
U.S. Copyright Office’s virtual event celebrating its 150th anniversary 12:00 pm
Forbes CIO Summit virtual series, episode 2 2:00 pm
USTelecom virtual event: “#InvestInBroadband: A conversation with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)” 4:15 pm
New America’s virtual event: “A Conversation on Racial Equity and Technology” 5:00 pm
08/06/2020
Black Hat USA 2020 – virtual
FCC August Open Commission Meeting 10:30 am
View full calendar

Webinar – Most Loved Brands: What Drives Brand Love In A Year Like N

Join Morning Consult Wednesday, August 5 at 1:00 PM ET for a webinar breaking down the results in this year’s edition of Most Loved Brands.

The webinar will explore which brands topped the list, what factors tend to drive brand love and how brands can excel in the COVID-19 era.

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.

Morning Consult