Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (13 August)

Here are Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events:

Coming Events

• On 18 August, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will host the “Bias in AI Workshop, a virtual event to develop a shared understanding of bias in AI, what it is, and how to measure it.”
• The United States’ Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced that its third annual National Cybersecurity Summit “will be held virtually as a series of webinars every Wednesday for four weeks beginning September 16 and ending October 7:”
  • September 16: Key Cyber Insights
  • September 23: Leading the Digital Transformation
  • September 30: Diversity in Cybersecurity
  • October 7: Defending our Democracy
  • One can register for the event here.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights Subcommittee will hold a hearing on 15 September titled “Stacking the Tech: Has Google Harmed Competition in Online Advertising?.” In their press release, Chair Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) asserted:
  • Google is the dominant player in online advertising, a business that accounts for around 85% of its revenues and which allows it to monetize the data it collects through the products it offers for free. Recent consumer complaints and investigations by law enforcement have raised questions about whether Google has acquired or maintained its market power in online advertising in violation of the antitrust laws. News reports indicate this may also be the centerpiece of a forthcoming antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice. This hearing will examine these allegations and provide a forum to assess the most important antitrust investigation of the 21st century.

Other Developments

• Senate Intelligence Committee Acting Chair Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) released a statement indicating the committee had voted to adopt the fifth and final volume of its investigation of the Russian Federation’s interference in the 2016 election. The committee had submitted the report to the Intelligence Community for vetting and have received the report with edits and redactions. The report could be released sometime over the next few weeks.  Rubio and Warner stated “the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to adopt the classified version of the final volume of the Committee’s bipartisan Russia investigation. In the coming days, the Committee will work to incorporate any additional views, as well as work with the Intelligence Community to formalize a properly redacted, declassified, publicly releasable version of the Volume 5 report.” The Senate Intelligence Committee’s has released four previous reports:
  • “Volume I: Russian Efforts Against Election Infrastructure”
  • “Volume II: Russia’s Use of Social Media”
  • “Volume III: U.S. Government Response to Russian Activities”
  • “Volume IV: Review of the Intelligence Community Assessment”
  • Additional declassifications of “Volume IV: Review of Intelligence Community Assessment”
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is accepting comments until 11 September on draft Special Publication 800-53B, “Control Baselines for Information Systems and Organizations,” a guidance document that will serve a key role in the United States government’s efforts to secure and protect the networks and systems it operates and those run by federal contractors. NIST explained:
  • This publication establishes security and privacy control baselines for federal information systems and organizations and provides tailoring guidance for those baselines. The use of the security control baselines is mandatory, in accordance with OMB Circular A-130 [OMB A-130] and the provisions of the Federal Information Security Modernization Act4 [FISMA], which requires the implementation of a set of minimum controls to protect federal information and  information systems. Whereas use of the privacy control baseline is not mandated by law or [OMB A-130], SP 800-53B, along with other supporting NIST publications, is designed to help organizations identify the security and privacy controls needed to manage risk and satisfy the security and privacy requirements in FISMA, the Privacy Act of 1974 [PRIVACT], selected OMB policies (e.g., [OMB A-130]), and designated Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), among others
• The United States Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released an “Election Vulnerability Reporting Guide”
  to provide “election administrators with a step-by-step guide, list of resources, and a template for establishing a successful vulnerability disclosure program to address possible vulnerabilities in their state and local election systems…[and] [t]he six steps include:
  • Step 1: Identify Systems Where You Would Accept Security Testing, and those Off-Limits
  • Step 2: Draft an Easy-to-Read Vulnerability Disclosure Policy (See Appendix III)
  • Step 3: Establish a Way to Receive Reports/Conduct Follow-On Communication
  • Step 4: Assign Someone to Thank and Communicate with Researchers
  • Step 5: Assign Someone to Vet and Fix the Vulnerabilities
  • Step 6: Consider Sharing Information with Other Affected Parties
• The United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued “Guidance on AI and data protection” that “clarifies how you can assess the risks to rights and freedoms that AI can pose from a data protection perspective; and the appropriate measures you can implement to mitigate them.” The ICO explained “[w]hile data protection and ‘AI ethics’ overlap, this guidance does not provide generic ethical or design principles for your use of AI.” The ICO stated “[i]t corresponds to data protection principles, and is structured as follows:
  • part one addresses accountability and governance in AI, including data protection impact assessments (DPIAs);
  • part two covers fair, lawful and transparent processing, including lawful bases, assessing and improving AI system performance, and mitigating potential discrimination;
  • part three addresses data minimisation and security; and
  • part four covers compliance with individual rights, including rights related to automated decision-making.
•  20 state attorneys general wrote Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg “to request  that  you  take  additional  steps  to prevent   Facebook   from   being used   to   spread   disinformation   and   hate   and   to   facilitate discrimination.” They also asked “that you take more steps to provide redress for users who fall victim to intimidation and harassment, including violence and digital abuse.” The attorneys general said that “[b]ased on our collective experience, we believe that Facebook should take additional actions including the following steps—many of which are highlighted in Facebook’s recent Civil Rights Audit—to strengthen its commitment to civil rights and fighting disinformation and discrimination:
  • Aggressively enforce Facebook policies against hate speech and organized hate organizations: Although Facebook has developed policies against hate speech and organizations that peddle it, we remain concerned that Facebook’s policies on Dangerous Individuals and Organizations, including but not limited to its policies on white nationalist and white supremacist content, are not enforced quickly and comprehensively enough. Content that violates Facebook’s own policies too often escapes removal just because it comes as coded language, rather than specific magic words. And even where Facebook takes steps to address a particular violation, it often fails to proactively address the follow-on actions by replacement or splinter groups that quickly emerge.
  • Allow public, third-party audits of hate content and enforcement: To gauge the ongoing progress of Facebook’s enforcement efforts, independent experts should be permitted access to the data necessary to conduct regular, transparent third-party audits of hate and hate-related misinformation on the platform, including any information made available to the Global Oversight Board. As part of this effort, Facebook should capture data on the prevalence of different forms of hate content on the platform, whether or not covered by Facebook’s own community standards, thus allowing the public to determine whether enforcement of anti-hate policies differs based on the type of hate content at issue.
  • Commit to an ongoing, independent analysis of Facebook’s content population scheme and the prompt development of best practices guidance: By funneling users toward particular types of content, Facebook’s content population scheme, including its algorithms, can push users into extremist online communities that feature divisive and inflammatory messages, often directed at particular groups. Although Facebook has conducted research and considered programs to reduce this risk, there is still no mandatory guidance for coders and other teams involved in content population. Facebook should commit to an ongoing, independent analysis of its content population scheme, including its algorithms, and also continuously implement mandatory protocols as best practices are identified to curb bias and prevent recommendations of hate content and groups.
  • Expand policies limiting inflammatory advertisements that vilify minority groups: Although Facebook currently prohibits ads that claim that certain people, because of their membership in a protected group, pose a threat to the physical safety of communities or the nation, its policies still allow attacks that characterize such groups as threats to national culture or values. The current prohibition should be expanded to include such ads.
• New Zealand’s Ministry of Statistics “launched the Algorithm Charter for Aotearoa New Zealand” that “signals that [the nation’s agencies] are committed to being consistent, transparent and accountable in their use of algorithms.”
  • The Ministry explained “[t]he Algorithm Charter is part of a wider ecosystem and works together with existing tools, networks and research, including:
    • Principles for the Safe and Effective Use of Data and Analytics (Privacy Commissioner and Government Chief Data Steward, 2018)
    • Government Use of Artificial Intelligence in New Zealand (New Zealand Law Foundation and Otago University, 2019)
    • Trustworthy AI in Aotearoa – AI Principles (AI Forum New Zealand, 2020)
    • Open Government Partnership, an international agreement to increase transparency.
    • Data Protection and Use Policy (Social Wellbeing Agency, 2020)
    • Privacy, Human Rights and Ethics Framework (Ministry of Social Development).
• The European Union (EU) imposed its first cyber sanctions under its Framework for a Joint EU Diplomatic Response to Malicious Cyber Activities (aka the cyber diplomacy toolbox) against six hackers and three entities from the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for attacks against the against the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Netherlands, the malware attacks known as Petya and WannaCry, and Operation Cloud Hopper. The EU’s cyber sanctions follow sanctions the United States has placed on a number of people and entities from the same nations and also indictments the U.S. Department of Justice has announced over the years. The sanctions are part of the effort to levy costs on nations and actors that conduct cyber attacks. The EU explained:
  • The attempted cyber-attack was aimed at hacking into the Wi-Fi network of the OPCW, which, if successful, would have compromised the security of the network and the OPCW’s ongoing investigatory work. The Netherlands Defence Intelligence and Security Service (DISS) (Militaire Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst – MIVD) disrupted the attempted cyber-attack, thereby preventing serious damage to the OPCW.
  • “WannaCry” disrupted information systems around the world by targeting information systems with ransomware and blocking access to data. It affected information systems of companies in the Union, including information systems relating to services necessary for the maintenance of essential services and economic activities within Member States.
  • “NotPetya” or “EternalPetya” rendered data inaccessible in a number of companies in the Union, wider Europe and worldwide, by targeting computers with ransomware and blocking access to data, resulting amongst others in significant economic loss. The cyber-attack on a Ukrainian power grid resulted in parts of it being switched off during winter.
  • “Operation Cloud Hopper” has targeted information systems of multinational companies in six continents, including companies located in the Union, and gained unauthorised access to commercially sensitive data, resulting in significant economic loss.
• The United States’ Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is asking for comments on the Department of Commerce’s the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) petition asking the agency to start a rulemaking to clarify alleged ambiguities in 47 USC 230 regarding the limits of the liability shield for the content others post online versus the liability protection for “good faith” moderation by the platform itself. The NTIA was acting per direction in an executive order allegedly aiming to correct online censorship. Executive Order 13925, “Preventing Online Censorship” was issued in late May after Twitter factchecked two of President Donald Trump’s Tweets regarding false claims made about mail voting in California in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Comments are due by 2 September.
• The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) released for public consultation a draft of “a mandatory code of conduct to address bargaining power imbalances between Australian news media businesses and digital platforms, specifically Google and Facebook.” The government in Canberra had asked the ACCC to draft this code earlier this year after talks broke down between the Australian Treasury
  • The ACCC explained
    • The code would commence following the introduction and passage of relevant legislation in the Australian Parliament. The ACCC released an exposure draft of this legislation on 31 July 2020, with consultation on the draft due to conclude on 28 August 2020. Final legislation is expected to be introduced to Parliament shortly after conclusion of this consultation process.
  • This is not the ACCC’s first interaction with the companies. Late last year, the ACCC announced a legal action against Google “alleging they engaged in misleading conduct and made false or misleading representations to consumers about the personal location data Google collects, keeps and uses” according to the agency’s press release. In its initial filing, the ACCC is claiming that Google mislead and deceived the public in contravention of the Australian Competition Law and Android users were harmed because those that switched off Location Services were unaware that their location information was still be collected and used by Google for it was not readily apparent that Web & App Activity also needed to be switched off.
  • A year ago, the ACCC released its final report in its “Digital Platforms Inquiry” that “proposes specific recommendations aimed at addressing some of the actual and potential negative impacts of digital platforms in the media and advertising markets, and also more broadly on consumers.”
• The United States’ Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued “released core guidance documentation for the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) program, developed to assist agencies in protecting modern information technology architectures and services.” CISA explained “In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum (M) 19-26: Update to the TIC Initiative, TIC 3.0 expands on the original initiative to drive security standards and leverage advances in technology to secure a wide spectrum of agency network architectures.” Specifically, CISA released three core guidance documents:
  • Program Guidebook (Volume 1) – Outlines the modernized TIC program and includes its historical context
  • Reference Architecture (Volume 2) – Defines the concepts of the program to guide and constrain the diverse implementations of the security capabilities
  • Security Capabilities Catalog (Volume 3) – Indexes security capabilities relevant to TIC
• Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and ten other Members wrote the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urging the agency “to investigate widespread privacy violations by companies in the advertising technology (adtech) industry that are selling private data about millions of Americans, collected without their knowledge or consent from their phones, computers, and smart TVs.” They asked the FTC “to use its authority to conduct broad industry probes under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act to determine whether adtech companies and their data broker partners have violated federal laws prohibiting unfair and deceptive business practices.” They argued “[t]he FTC should not proceed with its review of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule before it has completed this investigation.”
•  “100 U.S. women lawmakers and current and former legislators from around the world,” including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg urging the company “to take decisive action to protect women from rampant and increasing online attacks on their platform that have caused many women to avoid or abandon careers in politics and public service.” They noted “[j]ust a few days ago, a manipulated and widely shared video that depicted Speaker Pelosi slurring her speech was once again circulating on major social media platforms, gaining countless views before TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube all removed the footage…[and] [t]he video remains on Facebook and is labeled “partly false,” continuing to gain millions of views.” The current and former legislators “called on Facebook to enforce existing rules, including:
  • Quick removal of posts that threaten candidates with physical violence, sexual violence or death, and that glorify, incite or praise violence against women; disable the relevant accounts, and refer offenders to law enforcement.
  • Eliminate malicious hate speech targeting women, including violent, objectifying or dehumanizing speech, statements of inferiority, and derogatory sexual terms;
  • Remove accounts that repeatedly violate terms of service by threatening, harassing or doxing or that use false identities to attack women leaders and candidates; and
  • Remove manipulated images or videos misrepresenting women public figures.
• The United States’ Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security released an update “highlighting more than 50 activities led by industry and government that demonstrate progress in the drive to counter botnet threats.” in May 2018, the agencies submitted “A Report to the President on Enhancing the Resilience of the Internet and Communications Ecosystem Against Botnets and Other Automated, Distributed Threats” that identified a number of steps and prompted a follow on “A Road Map Toward Resilience Against Botnets” released in November 2018.
• United States (U.S.) Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders released a joint statement explaining that “[t]he U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission have initiated discussions to evaluate the potential for an enhanced EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework to comply with the July 16 judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Schrems II case.”
  • Maximillian Schrems filed a complaint against Facebook with Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) in 2013, alleging that the company’s transfer of his personal data violated his rights under European Union law because of the mass U.S. surveillance revealed by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden. Ultimately, this case resulted in a 2015 Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling that invalidated the Safe Harbor agreement under which the personal data of EU residents was transferred to the US by commercial concerns. The EU and US executed a follow on agreement, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, that was designed to address some of the problems the CJEU turned up, and the U.S. passed a law, the “Judicial Redress Act of 2015” (P.L. 114-126), to provide EU citizens a way to exercise their EU rights in US courts via the “Privacy Act of 1974.”
  • However, Schrems continued and soon sought to challenge the legality of the European Commission’s signing off on the Privacy Shield agreement, the adequacy decision issued in 2016, and also the use of standard contractual clauses (SCC) by companies for the transfer of personal data to the US. The CJEU struck down the adequacy decision, throwing into doubt many entities’ transfers out of the EU into the U.S. but upheld SCCs in a way that suggested EU data protection authorities (DPA) may need to review all such agreements to ensure they comply with EU law.
• The European Commission (EC) announced an “an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Fitbit by Google under the EU Merger Regulation.” The EC voiced its concern “that the proposed transaction would further entrench Google’s market position in the online advertising markets by increasing the already vast amount of data that Google could use for personalisation of the ads it serves and displays.” The EC detailed its “preliminary competition concerns:
  • Following its first phase investigation, the Commission has concerns about the impact of the transaction on the supply of online search and display advertising services (the sale of advertising space on, respectively, the result page of an internet search engine or other internet pages), as well as on the supply of ”ad tech” services (analytics and digital tools used to facilitate the programmatic sale and purchase of digital advertising). By acquiring Fitbit, Google would acquire (i) the database maintained by Fitbit about its users’ health and fitness; and (ii) the technology to develop a database similar to Fitbit’s one.
  • The data collected via wrist-worn wearable devices appears, at this stage of the Commission’s review of the transaction, to be an important advantage in the online advertising markets. By increasing the data advantage of Google in the personalisation of the ads it serves via its search engine and displays on other internet pages, it would be more difficult for rivals to match Google’s online advertising services. Thus, the transaction would raise barriers to entry and expansion for Google’s competitors for these services, to the ultimate detriment of advertisers and publishers that would face higher prices and have less choice.
  • At this stage of the investigation, the Commission considers that Google:
    • is dominant in the supply of online search advertising services in the EEA countries (with the exception of Portugal for which market shares are not available);
    • holds a strong market position in the supply of online display advertising services at least in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, in particular in relation to off-social networks display ads;
    • holds a strong market position in the supply of ad tech services in the EEA.
  • The Commission will now carry out an in-depth investigation into the effects of the transaction to determine whether its initial competition concerns regarding the online advertising markets are confirmed.
  • In addition, the Commission will also further examine:
    • the effects of the combination of Fitbit’s and Google’s databases and capabilities in the digital healthcare sector, which is still at a nascent stage in Europe; and
    • whether Google would have the ability and incentive to degrade the interoperability of rivals’ wearables with Google’s Android operating system for smartphones once it owns Fitbit.
  • In February after the deal had been announced, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) made clear it position that Google and Fitbit will need to scrupulously observe the General Data Protection Regulation’s privacy and data security requirements if the body is sign off on the proposed $2.2 billion acquisition. Moreover, at present Google has not informed European Union (EU) regulators of the proposed deal. The deal comes at a time when both EU and U.S. regulators are already investigating Google for alleged antitrust and anticompetitive practices, and the EDPB’s opinion could carry weight in this process.
• The United States’ (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security released a Privacy Impact Assessment for the U.S. Border Patrol (USPB) Digital Forensics Programs that details how it may conduct searches of electronic devices at the U.S. border and ports of entry. DHS explained
  • As part of USBP’s law enforcement duties, USBP may search and extract information from electronic devices, including: laptop computers; thumb drives; compact disks; digital versatile disks (DVDs); mobile phones; subscriber identity module (SIM) cards; digital cameras; vehicles; and other devices capable of storing electronic information.
  • Last year, a U.S. District Court held that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) current practices for searches of smartphones and computers at the U.S. border are unconstitutional and the agency must have reasonable suspicion before conducting such a search. However, the Court declined the plaintiffs’ request that the information taken off of their devices be expunged by the agencies. This ruling follows a Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report that found CPB “did not always conduct searches of electronic devices at U.S. ports of entry according to its Standard Operating Procedures” and asserted that “[t]hese deficiencies in supervision, guidance, and equipment management, combined with a lack of performance measures, limit [CPB’s] ability to detect and deter illegal activities related to terrorism; national security; human, drug, and bulk cash smuggling; and child pornography.”
  • In terms of a legal backdrop, the United States Supreme Court has found that searches and seizures of electronic devices at borders and airports are subject to lesser legal standards than those conducted elsewhere in the U.S. under most circumstances. Generally, the government’s interest in securing the border against the flow of contraband and people not allowed to enter allow considerable leeway to the warrant requirements for many other types of searches. However, in recent years two federal appeals courts (the Fourth and Ninth Circuits) have held that searches of electronic devices require suspicion on the part of government agents while another appeals court (the Eleventh Circuit) held differently. Consequently, there is not a uniform legal standard for these searches.
• The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organization of Americans States (OAS) released their second assessment of cybersecurity across Latin America and the Caribbean that used the Cybersecurity Capacity Maturity Model for Nations (CMM) developed at University of Oxford’s Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre (GSCC). The IDB and OAS explained:
  • When the first edition of the report “Cybersecurity: Are We Ready in Latin America and the Caribbean?” was released in March 2016, the IDB and the OAS aimed to provide the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) not only with a picture of the state of cybersecurity but also guidance about the next steps that should be pursued to strengthen national cybersecurity capacities. This was the first study of its kind, presenting the state of cybersecurity with a comprehensive vision and covering all LAC countries.
  • The great challenges of cybersecurity, like those of the internet itself, are of a global nature. Therefore, it is undeniable that the countries of LAC must continue to foster greater cooperation among themselves, while involving all relevant actors, as well as establishing a mechanism for monitoring, analysis, and impact assessment related to cybersecurity both nationally and regionally. More data in relation to cybersecurity would allow for the introduction of a culture of cyberrisk management that needs to be extended both in the public and private sectors. Countries must be prepared to adapt quickly to the dynamic environment around us and make decisions based on a constantly changing threat landscape. Our member states may manage these risks by understanding the impact on and the likelihood of cyberthreats to their citizens, organizations, and national critical infrastructure. Moving to the next level of maturity will require a comprehensive and sustainable cybersecurity policy, supported by the country’s political agenda, with allocation of  financial resources and qualified human capital to carry it out.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic will pass, but events that will require intensive use of digital technologies so that the world can carry on will continue happening. The challenge of protecting our digital space will, therefore, continue to grow. It is the hope of the IDB and the OAS that this edition of the report will help LAC countries to have a better understanding of their current state of cybersecurity capacity and be useful in the design of the policy initiatives that will lead them to increase their level of cyberresilience.
• The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) issued an opinion on “the European Commission’s action plan for a comprehensive Union policy on preventing money laundering and terrorism financing (C(2020)2800 final), published on 7 May 2020.” The EDPS asserted:
  • While  the  EDPS acknowledges the  importance  of  the  fight  against money  laundering  and terrorism financing as an objective of general interest, we call for the legislation to strike a balance between the interference with the fundamental rights of privacy and personal data protection and  the measures that  are  necessary  to  effectively  achieve  the  general  interest goals on anti-money  laundering  and  countering the  financing  of terrorism (AML/CFT) (the principle of proportionality).
  • The EDPS recommends that the Commission monitors the effective implementation of the existing  AML/CFT  framework while ensuring that the  GDPR  and  the  data  protection framework are respected and complied with. This is particularly relevant for the works on the interconnection of central bank account mechanisms and beneficial ownership registers that should be largely inspired by the principles of data minimisation, accuracy and privacy-by-design and by default.  

Further Reading

• “China already has your data. Trump’s TikTok and WeChat bans can’t stop that.” By Aynne Kokas – The Washington Post. This article persuasively makes the case that even if a ban on TikTok and WeChat were to work, and there are substantive questions as to how a ban would given how widely the former has been downloaded, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is almost certainly acquiring massive reams of data on Americans through a variety of apps, platforms, and games. For example, Tencent, owner of WeChat, has a 40% stake in Epic Games that has Fortnite, a massively popular multiplayer game (if you have never heard of it, ask one of the children in your family). Moreover, a recent change to PRC law mandates that companies operating in the PRC must share their data bases for cybersecurity reviews, which may be an opportunity aside from hacking and exfiltrating United States entities, to access data. In summation, if the Trump Administration is serious about stopping the flow of data from the U.S. to the PRC, these executive orders will do very little.
• “Big Tech Makes Inroads With the Biden Campaign” by David McCabe and Kenneth P. Vogel – The New York Times. Most likely long before former Vice President Joe Biden clinched the Democratic nomination, advisers volunteered to help plot out his policy positions, a process that intensified this year. Of course, this includes technology policy, and many of those volunteering for the campaign’s Innovation Policy Committee have worked or are working for large technology companies directly or as consultants or lobbyists. This piece details some of these people and their relationships and how the Biden campaign is managing possible conflicts of interest. Naturally, those on the left wing of the Democratic Party calling for tighter antitrust, competition, and privacy regulation are concerned that Biden might be pulled away from these positions despite his public statements arguing that the United States government needs to get tougher with some practices.
• “A Bible Burning, a Russian News Agency and a Story Too Good to Check Out” By Matthew Rosenberg and Julian E. Barnes – The New York Times. The Russian Federation seems to be using a new tactic with some success for sowing discord in the United States that is the information equivalent of throwing fuel onto a fire. In this case, a fake story manufactured by a Russian outlet was seized on by some prominent Republicans, in part, because it fits their preferred world view of protestors. In this instance, a Russian outlet created a fake story amplifying an actual event that went viral. We will likely see more of this, and it is not confined to fake stories intended to appeal to the right. The same is happening with content meant for the left wing in the United States.
• “Facebook cracks down on political content disguised as local news” by Sara Fischer – Axios. As part of its continuing effort to crack down on violations of its policies, Facebook will no longer allow groups with a political viewpoint to masquerade as news. The company and outside experts have identified a range of instances where groups propagating a viewpoint, as opposed to reporting, have used a Facebook exemption by pretending to be local news outlets.
• “QAnon groups have millions of members on Facebook, documents show” By Ari Sen and Brandy Zadrozny – NBC News. It appears as if some Facebooks are leaking the results of an internal investigation that identified more than 1 million users who are part of QAnon groups. Most likely these employees want the company to take a stronger stance on the conspiracy group QAnon like the company has with COVID-19 lies and misinformation.
• And, since Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) was named former Vice President Joe Biden’s (D-DE) vice presidential pick, this article has become even more relevant than when I highlighted it in late July: “New Emails Reveal Warm Relationship Between Kamala Harris And Big Tech” – HuffPost. Obtained via an Freedom of Information request, new email from Senator Kamala Harris’ (D-CA) tenure as her state’s attorney general suggest she was willing to overlook the role Facebook, Google, and others played and still play in one of her signature issues: revenge porn. This article makes the case Harris came down hard on a scammer running a revenge porn site but did not press the tech giants with any vigor to take down such material from their platforms. Consequently, the case is made if Harris is former Vice President Joe Biden’s vice presidential candidate, this would signal a go easy approach on large companies even though many Democrats have been calling to break up these companies and vigorously enforce antitrust laws. Harris has largely not engaged on tech issues during her tenure in the Senate. To be fair, many of these companies are headquartered in California and pump billions of dollars into the state’s economy annually, putting Harris in a tricky position politically. Of course, such pieces should be taken with a grain of salt since it may have been suggested or planted by one of Harris’ rivals for the vice president nomination or someone looking to settle a score.
• “Unwanted Truths: Inside Trump’s Battles With U.S. Intelligence Agencies” by Robert Draper – The New York Times. A deeply sourced article on the outright antipathy between President Donald Trump and Intelligence Community officials, particularly over the issue of how deeply Russia interfered in the election in 2016. A number of former officials have been fired or forced out because they refused to knuckle under to the White House’s desire to soften or massage conclusions of Russia’s past and current actions to undermine the 2020 election in order to favor Trump.
• “Huawei says it’s running out of chips for its smartphones because of US sanctions” By Kim Lyons – The Verge and “Huawei: Smartphone chips running out under US sanctions” by Joe McDonald – The Associated Press. United States (U.S.) sanctions have started biting the Chinese technology company Huawei, which announced it will likely run out of processor chips for its smartphones. U.S. sanctions bar any company from selling high technology items like processors to Huawei, and this capability is not independently available in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) at present.
• “Targeting WeChat, Trump Takes Aim at China’s Bridge to the World” By Paul Mozur and Raymond Zhong – The New York Times. This piece explains WeChat, the app, the Trump Administration is trying to ban in the United States (U.S.) without any warning. It is like a combination of Facebook, WhatsApp, news app, and payment platform and is used by more than 1.2 billion people.
• “This Tool Could Protect Your Photos From Facial Recognition” By Kashmir Hill – The New York Times. Researchers at the University of Chicago have found a method of subtly altering photos of people that appears to foil most facial recognition technologies. However, a number of experts interviewed said it is too late to stop companies like AI Clearview.
• “I Tried to Live Without the Tech Giants. It Was Impossible.” By Kashmir Hill – The New York Times. This New York Times reporter tried living without the products of large technology companies, which involved some fairly obvious challenges and some that were not so obvious. Of course, it was hard for her to skip Facebook, Instagram, and the like, but cutting out Google and Amazon proved hardest and basically impossible because of the latter’s cloud presence and the former’s web presence. The fact that some of the companies cannot be avoided if one wants to be online likely lends weight to those making the case these companies are anti-competitive.
• “To Head Off Regulators, Google Makes Certain Words Taboo” by Adrianne Jeffries – The Markup. Apparently, in what is a standard practice at large companies, employees at Google were coached to avoid using certain terms or phrases that antitrust regulators would take notice of such as: “market,” “barriers to entry,” and “network effects.” The Markup obtained a 16 August 2019 document titled “Five Rules of Thumb For Written Communications” that starts by asserting “[w]ords matter…[e]specially in antitrust laws” and goes on to advise Google’s employees:
  • We’re out to help users, not hurt competitors.
  • Our users should always be free to switch, and we don’t lock anyone in.
  • We’ve got lots of competitors, so don’t assume we control or dominate any market.
  • Don’t try and define a market or estimate our market share.
  • Assume every document you generate, including email, will be seen by regulators.
• “Facebook Fired An Employee Who Collected Evidence Of Right-Wing Pages Getting Preferential Treatment” By Craig Silverman and Ryan Mac – BuzzFeed News. A Facebook engineer was fired after adducing proof in an internal communications system that the social media platform is more willing to change false and negative ratings to claims made by conservative outlets and personalities than any other viewpoint. If this is true, it would be opposite to the narrative spun by the Trump Administration and many Republicans in Congress. Moreover, Facebook’s incentives would seem to align with giving conservatives more preferential treatment because many of these websites advertise on Facebook, the company probably does not want to get crosswise with the Administration, sensational posts and content drive engagement which increases user numbers that allows for higher ad rates, and it wants to appear fair and impartial.
• “How Pro-Trump Forces Work the Refs in Silicon Valley” By Ben Smith – The New York Times. This piece traces the nearly four decade old effort of Republicans to sway mainstream media and now Silicon Valley to its viewpoint.

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