It’s not clear who will end up where, but new Senate chairs will change focus and agenda of committees and debate over the next two years. With the victories of Senators-elect Rafael Warnock (D-GA) and Jon Ossoff (D-GA), control of the United States Senate will tip to the Democrats once Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (D) … Continue reading Preview of Senate Democratic Chairs
The end-of-the-year funding package for FY 2021 is stuffed with technology policy changes. At the tail end of the calendar year 2020, Congress and the White House finally agreed on FY 2021 appropriations and further COVID-19 relief funding and policies, much of which implicated or involved technology policy. As is often the practice, Congressional stakeholders … Continue reading FY 2021 Omnibus and COVID Stimulus Become Law
Further Reading “Social media superspreaders: Why Instagram, not Facebook, will be the real battleground for COVID-19 vaccine misinformation” By Isobel Asher Hamilton — Business Insider. According to one group, COVID-19 anti-vaccination lies and misinformation are proliferating on Instagram despite its parent company’s, Facebook, efforts to find and remove such content. There has been dramatic growth … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (10 December)
Further Reading “Facebook failed to put fact-check labels on 60% of the most viral posts containing Georgia election misinformation that its own fact-checkers had debunked, a new report says” By Tyler Sonnemaker — Business Insider. Despite its vows to improve its managing of untrue and false content, the platform is not consistently taking down such … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Development, and Coming Events (8 December)
Further Reading “Facebook steps up campaign to ban false information about coronavirus vaccines” By Elizabeth Dwoskin — The Washington Post. In its latest step to find and remove lies, misinformation, and disinformation, the social media giant is now committing to removing and blocking untrue material about COVID-19 vaccines, especially from the anti-vaccine community. Will the … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Development, and Coming Events (7 December)
A second committee gets its shot at social media platform CEOs and much of the hearing runs much like the one at the end of last month. It was with some reluctance that I watched the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing with Facebook and Twitter’s CEO given the other Senate hearing at which they appeared a … Continue reading “Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election” Hearing
Further Reading “Trump fires top DHS official who refuted his claims that the election was rigged” By Ellen Nakashima and Nick Miroff — The Washington Post. As rumored, President Donald Trump has decapitated the United States’ (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Director Christopher Krebs was fired via Twitter, after … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (18 November)
Further Reading “How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps” By Joseph Cox — Vice’s Motherboard. This article confirms the entirely foreseeable: the Department of Defense and its contractors are obtaining and using personal information from smartphones all over the world. Given this practice is common in United States’ (U.S.) law enforcement agencies, … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (17 November)
Further Reading “Trump’s refusal to begin the transition could damage cybersecurity” By Joseph Marks — The Washington Post. Former executive branch officials, some of whom served at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), are warning that the Trump Administration’s refusal to start the transition to the Biden Administration may harm the United States’ (U.S.) ability … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (16 November)
Further Reading “ICE, IRS Explored Using Hacking Tools, New Documents Show” By Joseph Cox — Vice. Federal agencies other than the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Intelligence Community (IC) appear to be interesting in utilizing some of the capabilities offered by the private sector to access devices or networks in the name of … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (11 November)
Michael Kans 