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
Further Reading “Why the Russian hack is so significant, and why it's close to a worst-case scenario” By Kevin Collier — NBC News. This article quotes experts who paint a very ugly picture for the United States (U.S.) in trying to recover from the Russian Federation’s hack. Firstly, the Russians are very good at what … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (11 January 2021)
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 “Russian Hackers Broke Into Federal Agencies, U.S. Officials Suspect” By David Sanger — The New York Times.; “Russian government hackers are behind a broad espionage campaign that has compromised U.S. agencies, including Treasury and Commerce” By Ellen Nakashima and Craig Timberg — The Washington Post; “Suspected Russian hackers spied on U.S. Treasury emails … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (14 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)
There are AI, 5G, and supply chain provisions in the national security policy bill the Armed Services Committee have agreed upon. So, it appears I failed to include all the technology goodies to be found in the final FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). And so, I will cover the provisions I missed yesterday … Continue reading Final NDAA Agreement, Part II
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)
Further Reading “How Misinformation ‘Superspreaders’ Seed False Election Theories” By Sheera Frenkel — The New York Times. A significant percentage of lies, misinformation, and disinformation about the legitimacy of the election have been disseminated by a small number of right-wing figures, which are then repeated, reposted, and retweeted. The Times relies on research of how … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (4 December)
The outgoing Trump Administration tells agencies to lightly regulate AI; Canada’s privacy regulator calls for strong safeguards and limits on use of AI, including legislative changes. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued guidance for federal agencies on how they are to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) not in use by the government. This … Continue reading American and Canadian Agencies Take Differing Approaches On Regulating AI
Further Reading “Confusion and conflict stir online as Trump claims victory, questions states’ efforts to count ballots” By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Drew Harwell — Washington Post. When the post-mortem on the 2020 Election is written, it is likely to be the case that foreign disinformation was not the primary threat. Rather, … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (5 November)
Michael Kans 