Enlarge (credit: Drew Angerer | Getty Images) Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) proposed a new bill on Monday aimed at blocking mergers and acquisitions for companies with market caps of over $100 billion. The bill introduced by Hawley, a frequent critic of Big Tech, is strikingly brief at just eight pages long. It would amend the […]
Tag: Policy
Victory for municipal broadband as Wash. state lawmakers end restrictions
Enlarge / State Capitol building in Olympia, Washington. (credit: Getty Images | traveler1116) The Washington state legislature has voted to end limits on municipal broadband, and the bill lifting those restrictions now awaits the signature of Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee. The state Senate passed the bill Sunday in a 27-22 vote, and the state House passed […]
Facebook users can now petition oversight board to remove content
Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto/Getty Images) Facebook is allowing its oversight board to rule on moderation decisions relating to content that remains on its Facebook and Instagram platforms. Previously, the only rulings the board could issue were to restore content that moderators had removed. The Facebook Oversight Board was established last year in response to concerns that […]
This is Intel’s plan to dominate driverless car technology
Enlarge / Udelv hasn’t announced details about its forthcoming Mobileye-powered delivery robots—such as who will help Udelv build them—but they are expected to look something like this. (credit: Udelv) I’ve written before that Mobileye, an Intel subsidiary since 2017, is among the most formidable and underrated players in the self-driving sector. The Israeli company is […]
Charter must pay $19 million for tricking customers into switching ISPs
Enlarge / Pinocchio. (credit: Getty Images | malerapaso) A judge has ordered Charter Communications to pay $19.2 million to Windstream for lying to customers in order to trick them into switching from Windstream to Charter’s Spectrum Internet service. Charter also faces a $5,279 penalty for shutting off service to hundreds of Windstream’s resale customers. When […]
Court rules grocery store’s inaccessible website isn’t an ADA violation
Enlarge / A Winn-Dixie supermarket in Florida. (credit: Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) A federal appeals court struck a significant blow against disability rights this week when it ruled that a Florida grocery store’s inaccessible website did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ruling contradicts a 2019 decision by a different […]
No password required: Mobile carrier exposes data for millions of accounts
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Q Link Wireless, a provider of low-cost mobile phone and data services to 2 million US-based customers, has been making sensitive account data available to anyone who knows a valid phone number on the carrier’s network, an analysis of the company’s account management app shows. Dania, Florida-based Q Link Wireless is […]
100,000 people ask Biden, will ya break that 2-2 FCC deadlock already?
Enlarge / President Joe Biden speaks during an event on gun control in the Rose Garden at the White House April 8, 2021 in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Alex Wong ) Over 105,000 people have signed a petition urging President Biden to quickly break the Federal Communications Commission’s 2-2 deadlock between Democrats and […]
YouTube’s policies block ad targeting on Black Lives Matter videos
Enlarge (credit: Rego Korosi) YouTube is blocking advertisers from using social and racial justice terms like “Black Lives Matter” to target videos. At the same time, the site is allowing targeting for terms including “white lives matter” and “all lives matter,” according to an investigation by The Markup. Google’s ad policies officially deter advertisers from […]
US adds Chinese supercomputing companies to export blacklist
Enlarge / A staff member works beside China’s ‘Sunway TaihuLight’ supercomputer at the National Supercomputer Center on August 29, 2020 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province of China. (credit: China News Service | Getty Images) The US has placed Chinese groups accused of building supercomputers to help the Chinese military on an export blacklist, the first such […]