• The White House is considering pushing Congress to grant it more legal power to address TikTok and other technology that may send sensitive data to China, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. The Biden administration has provided feedback on a bill being developed by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) that would give the government the ability to restrict apps that could pose a risk to Americans’ data security without outright banning them, two of the people said. (The New York Times)
• Attorneys general from 45 states demanded TikTok produce subpoenaed materials including internal communications as part of an ongoing investigation into whether the video sharing app harmed the mental health of its users, particularly children and teens. The states have urged a Tennessee state court, where the investigation was initially filed last year, to compel TikTok to respond to requests for information. (Reuters)
• The FBI and Defense Department were actively involved in researching and developing facial recognition software that could identify people from video captured by street cameras, drones and other surveillance cameras, according to a slew of internal documents provided in response to an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that the American Civil Liberties Union filed against the FBI. The documents show that program leaders worked with FBI scientists and computer-vision experts to improve facial recognition systems with the goal of quickly and accurately identifying people captured on surveillance cameras in public places without their awareness or consent. (The Washington Post)
• Meta Platforms Inc. is expected to undergo another round of layoffs as early as this week that is expected to cut thousands of employees, according to people familiar with the matter. The rumored downsizing comes after Facebook and Instagram’s parent company let go of 11,000 workers in November 2022 — the company’s first-ever major layoff. (Bloomberg)

Happening today: 

• INCOMPAS, the internet and competitive networks association, is hosting the INCOMPAS Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., with the objective of connecting technology business executives with legislative leadership. Speakers at the event will include Commissioners Brendan Carr (R), Nathan Simington (R) and Geoffrey Starks (D) of the Federal Communications Commission; Evan Feinman, director of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program; Sens. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.); and Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio).
• The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights will hold a hearing titled “Reining in Dominant Digital Platforms: Restoring Competition to Our Digital Markets.”
• The Information will host an event titled “Now Presenting: The Metaverse” that will explore how people are currently interacting with the metaverse and how the virtual platform will evolve. Speakers include Vince Cacace, founder and chief executive of Snap Inc.-owned Vertebrae; Sosti Ropaitis, executive vice president at MediaLink; and Kevan Yalowitz, software and platform industries lead at Accenture PLC.
• Nextgov and GCN’s Emerging Technology and Modernization Summit kicks off today and runs through Thursday with a focus on how emerging technologies will affect government operations. Speakers include Lisa Costa, chief technology and innovation officer at the U.S. Space Force; Garfield Jones, associate chief of strategic technology at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; and Michael LaPointe, Space Technology Mission Directorate Program executive at NASA.

Retail, search and Amazon’s $40bn ‘advertising’ business

Benedict Evans

Elon Musk Documentary Set From Oscar Winner Alex Gibney

Matt Donnelly, Variety

Elon Musk will be the center of a new documentary from the unflinching Alex Gibney, the Oscar-winning director of “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.”

Conservatives push McConnell to fill FTC seats

Ashley Gold, Axios

Conservative groups are pushing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to quickly confirm two Republican commissioners to the Federal Trade Commission, per a letter first seen by Axios.

Microsoft makes Outlook for Mac free to use

Tom Warren, The Verge

Consumers can now use Outlook free of charge on macOS. You no longer need a Microsoft 365 subscription or Office license.

Inside the Suspicion Machine

Eva Constrantaras et al., Wired

Obscure government algorithms are making life-changing decisions about millions of people around the world. Here, for the first time, we reveal how one of these systems works.

Microsoft disputes U.K. regulator’s key Call of Duty stat

Stephen Totilo, Axios

Microsoft says the U.K. regulator that might block its Activision Blizzard acquisition has significantly overcounted the potential impact of making the Call of Duty franchise exclusive to Xbox and PC, the tech giant first tells Axios.

The Daring Ruse That Exposed China’s Campaign to Steal American Secrets

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, The New York Times

How the downfall of one intelligence agent revealed the astonishing depth of Chinese industrial espionage.

Sceptical investors worry whether advances in AI will make money

George Hammond, Financial Times

Silicon Valley VCs fearing a repeat of falling crypto values warn against pouring cash into hype-fuelled start-ups.

Germany planning to ban Huawei, ZTE from parts of 5G networks -paper

Sarah Marsh et al., Reuters

Germany’s government is planning on forbidding telecoms operators from using certain components from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE in their 5G networks, German paper Zeit Online reported on Monday.

U.S. Justice Dept opposes Google bid to move advertising antitrust case to New York

Mike Scarcella, Reuters

The U.S. Justice Department is fighting to keep its digital advertising lawsuit against Google in Virginia federal district court, warning of potential prolonged litigation if the Alphabet Inc unit wins its effort to transfer the government’s new case to New York.

Private Equity Slows China Investments as Biden Prepares Curbs

Dawn Lim et al., Bloomberg

Uncertainty over policy related to China has already contributed to a decrease of capital flowing into the Asian country. In recent years, money-losing buyouts and Beijing’s intervention into deals have diminished firms’ appetite to take majority stakes in Chinese companies. 

American carmakers muscle up on software, tech to keep horsepower wars going

Nathan Gomes and Akash Sriram, Reuters

American carmakers will lean on technology to keep the horsepower wars going among their electric muscle cars, a tectonic shift from the big, rumbling motors of the past.

Qualtrics gets $12.4 bln buyout offer from Silver Lake, Canada’s CPPIB

Yuvraj Malik, Reuters

Software maker Qualtrics International Inc said on Monday it has received a $12.4 billion go-private offer from private equity firm Silver Lake Management and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

Meta must face trial over AI trade secrets, judge says

Blake Brittain, Reuters

Meta Platforms Inc lost a bid on Monday to end a lawsuit in Boston federal court claiming it stole confidential information from artificial-intelligence startup Neural Magic Inc.

Microsoft’s Latest AI Assistant Is Meant for Marketers, Customer Reps and Work Apps

Dina Bass, Bloomberg

Microsoft Corp., having brought artificial intelligence to its battle with Google over search, is now turning to the latest AI technology to catch up with rivals in the corporate applications market such as Oracle Corp., Salesforce Inc. and SAP SE. 

Google’s one step closer to building its 1,000-language AI model

Emma Roth, The Verge

As Microsoft and Google butt heads over whose AI chatbot is better, that isn’t the only use for machine learning and language models. Along with rumored plans to show off more than 20 products powered by artificial intelligence during its annual I/O event this year, Google’s progressing toward its goal of building an AI language model that supports 1,000 different languages.

“This Will Be Dangerous in Elections”: Political Media’s Next Big Challenge is Navigating AI Deepfakes

Charlotte Klein, Vanity Fair

The 2024 presidential election cycle will be among the first where AI technology has almost gotten good enough to pass off as a politician without easy detection, one tech reporter tells Vanity Fair. Will tech giants and mainstream media come up with a strong enough vetting process in time?

State of the Net: ‘This Is Our Chance to Connect Everybody’

Julia Edinger, Government Technology

During the 2023 State of the Net Conference, digital equity experts discussed the importance of seizing the current financial opportunity to bridge the digital divide, and why collaboration is essential.

Verizon Raises Prices on Older Cellphone Plans

Will Feuer, The Wall Street Journal

Wireless carrier adds $2 per phone monthly fee as it looks to reinvigorate growth at consumer unit.

How Apple’s Need for Cutting Edge Screens Kept Tech’s Unhappiest Marriage Alive

Wayne Ma, The Information

Samsung has long been Apple’s biggest adversary in smartphones and, at times, courtrooms. But despite its best efforts, Apple can’t yet cut ties with the Korean electronics giant because of its dependence on Samsung for a crucial ingredient in its devices: displays.

The privacy loophole in your doorbell

Alfred Ng, Politico

Police were investigating his neighbor. A judge gave officers access to all his security-camera footage, including inside his home.

New EU-US data pact may come too late for Facebook -regulator

Conor Humphries, Reuters

A new pact to facilitate the safe transfer of EU citizens’ personal data to the United States might not come into force in time to avoid a suspension of Facebook’s transatlantic data flows, the U.S. firm’s lead European regulator said on Tuesday.

European police, FBI bust international cybercrime gang

Frank Jordans, The Associated Press

German police said Monday they have disrupted a ransomware cybercrime gang tied to Russia that has been blackmailing large companies and institutions for years, raking in millions of euros.

A Tangled Tale of Gun Parts, Identity Theft and the Ease of Buy Now, Pay Later

Matthew Goldstein, The New York Times

In late summer, a delivery service dropped off two packages containing $5,000 in gun parts and accessories at a house in Chino Hills, a community in Southern California.

TikTok Rolls Out ‘Project Clover’ to Assure Europeans on Data

Stu Woo, The Wall Street Journal

TikTok executives are rolling out what they call “Project Clover,” a charm offensive aimed at convincing European politicians that the video-sharing app is safeguarding user data on the continent.

A Gen Z Mystery: My Instagram Posts Keep Showing Up on Facebook!

Kalley Huang and Sheera Frenkel, The New York Times

Teenagers and young adults are flummoxed. The reason it keeps happening involves an online prompt and product design.

Twitter’s lead EU regulator concerned over blue tick roll-out

Connor Humphries, Reuters

Twitter’s lead European Union privacy regulator said on Tuesday she was concerned that the Elon Musk-owned U.S. firm had launched its Twitter Blue subscription service in the region without consulting her office, despite a pledge to do so.

YouTube, Facebook and Instagram Gave Platforms to Indian Cow-Protection Vigilante

Jeff Horowitz and Newley Purnell, The Wall Street Journal

Monu Manesar, the alias of an Indian cow-protection influencer, has spent the past six years documenting his personal war against cattle smugglers on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

The US Can Stop Twitter From Releasing Details in Spy Report

Zoe Tillman and Chris Strohm, Bloomberg

The US can stop Twitter Inc. from releasing details about the government’s demands for user information in national security investigations, a court ruled, in the same week House Republicans are to grill national security officials over surveillance.

How a single engineer brought down Twitter

Zoe Schiffer and Casey Newton, The Verge

Elon Musk’s steep layoffs have left Twitter with so few engineers that only one person was on a major project involving the platform’s API.

Twitter Faces Second Outage in a Week, Musk Calls it “Brittle”

Max Zimmerman, Bloomberg

Twitter Inc. was recovering from its second outage in less than a week, after an “internal change” caused users to get error messages when clicking on links within tweets. 

Medium launches a ‘premium’ Mastodon instance as a membership perk

Sarah Perez, TechCrunch

Publishing platform Medium is opening up its debut Mastodon instance, me.dm, to its members, the company announced today.

Google CEO defends desk-sharing policy, says some offices are like a ‘ghost town’

Jennifer Elias, CNBC

Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended the cloud unit’s new desk-sharing policy for employees, describing some of the company’s offices as practically empty and reminding staffers that real estate is pricey.

Atlassian to Eliminate 500 Jobs in Latest Software Cutbacks

Brody Ford, Bloomberg

Atlassian Corp. will cut about 5% of its workforce, or 500 full-time employees, becoming the latest software company to eliminate jobs.

Salesforce Strives to Make Its Sales Force More Efficient

Tom Dotan, The Wall Street Journal

Business-software company slims its teams and takes other steps to pump up profit margins.