General
Trump directs AG to boost enforcement of state laws on social media companies
Jeff Mason, Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he is directing Attorney General William Barr to work with states to enforce their own laws against what he described as deceptive business practices by social media companies.
House Approves Bill Altering Paycheck Protection Program
Kate Clark, The Information
New legislation approved by the House on Thursday would give small businesses more time to spend emergency government loans. The Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act, which passed in an almost-unanimous vote, would give businesses 24 weeks to spend the money, instead of the originally allotted eight weeks.
Uber says 158,000 drivers will lose work if they’re reclassified as employees
Dara Kerr, CNET
Uber has been crunching data, and it’s come up with an internal analysis on what would happen if it reclassified its California drivers as employees. According to the company, passengers could expect to see prices go up 20% to 120%, and tens of thousands of drivers might be out of work.
Uber sends truckloads of e-bikes to scrap yard despite nationwide bike shortage
David Ingram, NBC News
Uber is sending thousands of e-bikes and e-scooters to a scrap yard in North Carolina, even as demand for simple ways to get around has soared during the coronavirus pandemic. The San Francisco tech company confirmed Wednesday that it had sent the e-bikes and e-scooters off for metal recycling and proper disposal of their batteries after photos and video on social media showed the red devices with Uber logos lined up at a scrap yard.
U.S. Futures Dip With Trump Stoking China Tensions: Markets Wrap
Yakob Peterseil, Bloomberg
U.S. futures edged lower and European stocks dropped on Friday as President Donald Trump’s planned press conference on China threatened to further strain ties between the world’s two largest economies. Treasuries gained alongside most European bonds.
Intellectual Property and Antitrust
Forget Trump’s Executive Order. Some Lawmakers Want To Use Antitrust To Really Take On Big Tech.
Paul McLeod, BuzzFeed News
Trump’s executive order may not do much, but a growing movement of unlikely Republican and Democratic allies are pushing for a real crackdown on tech companies.
Google explores Vodafone Idea stake as part of India push
Benjamin Parkin et al., Financial Times
Investment in struggling venture could pit search group against Facebook and Reliance.
Telecom, Wireless and TV
Senior House Lawmakers Push to Speed Up Broadband Funding
Ryan Tracy, The Wall Street Journal
Two House lawmakers are pushing the Federal Communications Commission to speed up broadband infrastructure funding to rural parts of the U.S., in a bid to close gaps in high-speed internet service exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. A bill introduced Wednesday by House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D., S.C.) and Fred Upton (R., Mich.), former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would tap $16 billion in funding the FCC is planning to start doling out this fall.
FCC commissioner says Trump’s Section 230 plan ‘does not work’
Makena Kelly, The Verge
There’s a growing divide at the Federal Communications Commission over a proposed executive order by the Trump administration to regulate speech on social media platforms. In statements made Thursday, Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr took opposing sides over an executive order targeting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Mobile Technology and Social Media
Zuckerberg distances Facebook from Twitter in Trump fight
Elizabeth Culliford and Katie Paul, Reuters
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg distanced his company from Twitter and its fight with U.S. President Donald Trump, as the White House readied an executive order about social media companies. Trump, who accuses social media firms of bias against conservatives, without evidence, stepped up his attacks on Twitter after the company put a fact-checking label on two of his tweets about mail-in ballots on Tuesday for the first time.
YouTube CEO Responds to Trump Order Threatening Web Protections
Mark Bergen, Bloomberg
YouTube boss Susan Wojcicki responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order on Thursday, saying the online video giant supports a wide variety of opinions and runs its service in a neutral way.
TikTok owner ByteDance moves to shift power out of China
Yingzhi Yang et al., Reuters
TikTok’s poaching of Disney’s Kevin Mayer to be its CEO was just the most visible part of a broader strategy by its Chinese owner to shift its centre of power away from China at a time of rising global tensions, several people familiar with the plans said. The short video app’s parent company ByteDance has quietly made a series of moves in recent months to transfer global decision-making and research capabilities out of its home country, the sources told Reuters.
Inside Twitter’s Decision to Fact-Check Trump’s Tweets
Will Oremus, OneZero
At 8:17 a.m. on Tuesday, Donald Trump sent a characteristically aggrieved tweet claiming that mail-in ballots were “fraudulent,” and that ballots would be stolen and forged, leading to a “rigged election.” At first, not much happened: These sorts of tweets from Trump are an everyday occurrence, and Twitter had never taken action on one before.
Victims of online harassment worry about resurgence after Trump’s executive order
Ben Collins, NBC News
Nelba Marquez-Greene got an alert from Facebook’s “Memories” feature Thursday reminding her of a post she made on the social network six years ago to the day. The post was a screenshot she took of “Sandy Hook Hoax,” a since-banned Facebook group that claimed that the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where her 6-year-old daughter, Ana Grace, died, never happened.
A QAnon app banned by Google relaunched using Amazon
Alex Kaplan, Media Matters
An app pushing the QAnon conspiracy theory that was recently banned from Google Play for violating its policies is now using an Amazon service for a workaround onto Android devices. The Amazon service prohibits services that are “harmful to others.”
Cybersecurity and Privacy
The NSA has a warning: Russia’s most infamous hackers are still active
Kevin Collier, NBC News
The same Russian intelligence unit that leaked Democrats’ files in 2016 is engaged in an ongoing email hacking campaign, the National Security Agency announced Thursday. Hackers in Russia’s GRU, its military intelligence agency, regularly target email accounts, as is common for many with robust cyber capabilities.
Federal cyber incidents continue downward trend, according to annual FISMA report to Congress
Billy Mitchell, FedScoop
The federal government as a whole continues to make solid strides in improving cybersecurity management and meeting goals set out by the White House, according to the latest annual Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) report to Congress. The report — which the Office of Management and Budget sent to the Hill on Wednesday afternoon — shows there were 8% fewer cybersecurity incidents reported in fiscal 2019 across government.
Secrecy and Glitches Mar Australia’s Tracing App Rollout
Jamie Tarabay, Bloomberg
In trying to persuade Australians to embrace the government’s new contact-tracing app, officials are invoking images of favorite pastimes — football and beer — with a clear underlying message: If you want things to go back to normal, install it on your phone.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Leave No Small Business Behind in COVID-19 Response
Linda Moore, Morning Consult
While coronavirus continues to take lives, wreak havoc on our economy and cause hardships for workers and businesses of all sizes, small businesses, especially startups, are facing unique challenges with their limited resources. Even in normal and prosperous times, startups operate in a tenuous environment – fighting each month to keep their doors open.
The President Versus the Mods
Kevin Roose, The New York Times
President Trump’s taking aim at Twitter for fact-checking his tweets is part of a long tradition upheld by aggrieved internet trolls. The stakes are high.
Twitter Tsks, and Trump Fumes
Kara Swisher, The New York Times
To use his own ludicrous metaphor, President Trump could once shoot someone on Twitter’s Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Not anymore.
Trump’s Warped Definition of Free Speech
Adam Serwer, The Atlantic
The president is attempting to bring social-media platforms into his authoritarian infrastructure—or otherwise censor them.
The Twitter Fairness Doctrine
The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal
President Trump, personally piqued by a “fact check” that Twitter added to two of his tweets, now wants to pare back the liability protections that have helped the internet flourish for 24 years. This is a mistake, and it would drag the federal government into regulating online speech, aiming for some nebulous “neutrality.”
The FISA Bill Flops
The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal
Nancy Pelosi is known for her iron political control over the House, but on Wednesday the Speaker suffered a rare defeat as she pulled a FISA reauthorization bill before what would have been a losing vote. This is a victory for security and political accountability, and it’s worth rehearsing how we got here.
Research Reports
Building a Global Framework for Digital Health Services in the Era of COVID-19
Nigel Cory and Philip Stevens, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Health data and digital technologies will be essential for improving global health outcomes beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Low- and middle-income nations, with fledgling digital health strategies and many barriers to overcome, stand to benefit the most.
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