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Lawmakers ask Google to stop collecting location data before reversal of abortion rights
They're worried that user data could be used as a tool against people seeking abortions.
Facebook is ‘pausing’ work on Instagram Kids app amid growing scrutiny
Facebook has announced that it's "pausing" its Instagram Kids products in order to "work with parents, experts and policymakers.
Congress plans to investigate how social media giants are fighting hate
House lawmakers plan to unveil legislation to study the ways social media can be weaponized, The Washington Post reports. They want to better understand social media-fueled violence and to determine if tech giants are doing enough to effectively protect users from harmful content. Congress isn't just looking at what tech giants say they'll do to fight online hate and extremism. Lawmakers want to know if those efforts are effective or not.
Lawmakers want to block tech giants from offering digital currency
It's been one month since Facebook (and its partners) announced plans to launch Libra cryptocurrency. Already, US lawmakers are calling for Facebook to pause those plans. Now, some legislators want the company to stop altogether. According to Reuters, the Democratic majority of the House Financial Services Committee drafted legislation that would prevent big tech companies from functioning as financial institutions or issuing digital currencies.
US lawmakers tell Facebook to halt the launch of its Libra cryptocurrency
US lawmakers have asked Facebook to "immediately cease implementation plans" of its Libra cryptocurrency. Before it proceeds any further, the House Financial Services Committee, led by Democrat Maxine Waters, wants to examine risks around cyber security, global financial markets and national security concerns, it said in a letter to Facebook.
US lawmakers are concerned about deepfake technology
Three US Representatives have sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence asking for a report on deepfake technology, how it could be used to harm the US and any countermeasures that can be taken to detect and deter nefarious use of the technology. While deepfakes gained notoriety when Reddit users began swapping celebrity faces onto porn stars, the potential for the technology's use in misinformation campaigns has generated a fair amount of concern. "Forged videos, images or audio could be used to target individuals for blackmail or for other nefarious purposes," the lawmakers said in their letter.
House passes bill that would call for a single website tracking federal spending
The last time a proposed law captured our attention it was so widely loathed it was never even put to a vote, but today we bring you the kind of no-brainer legislation that seems to have strong support on both sides of the aisle. The US House of Representatives has passed the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA), a bill that calls for the creation of an independent board to log all federal spending on a single, centralized website. What's more, these expenses need to be recorded with identifiers and markup languages that make them more easily searchable. As Computerworld notes, the vote happens to come on the heels of a recent dust-up involving the US General Services Administration spending $823,000 on a conference in Vegas -- precisely the sort of excess this proposed website would be designed to expose. The next step, of course, is for the bill to win Senate approval, though for now it seems the legislation has garnered strong bi-partisan support: in a rare showing, all of the lawmakers who discussed the DATA Act on the House floor argued in favor of it.
iPad comes knocking on House of Representatives' door
It's oftentimes hard to gauge the proliferation of electronic devices into everyday life while looking at them from our little bubble of early adopter enthusiasm. A much better vantage point for these things can be provided from the arms of government, among the most change-resistant places on any planet, and American legislators are letting us know that tablets, not the children, are our future. Texas Representative Henry Cuellar recently took the House of Representatives floor with an iPad in tow, which broke with the chamber's etiquette if not its rules. He's not alone, however, in hoping that the House dispenses with its Omega Man-style prejudice against electronics and permits their widespread use by Representatives. If nothing else, distributing bills of law electronically should make a nice dent in the "multimillion" dollar budget currently set aside annually for printing. Let's make it happen, guys.
Lawmakers worried over digital TV transition
It's one thing to fret over the estimated $1.5 billion Congress has to set aside to pay for the "coupon program" to aid Americans in the analog-to-digital transition of 2009, but now lawmakers are "worried that too few of us know that the analog TVs we have been using for years could become big cathode-ray paperweights after February 18, 2009." Essentially, those in power feel that "too little is being done to get the message across," and that quite a few disgruntled individuals could be smacked with a reality check of gigantic proportions if no one tells them beforehand. According to a poll released by the Association for Public Television Stations earlier this year, some 61-percent of those surveyed had "no idea" the shutoff would even take place, so we'd expect a commercial blitz to give your fast-forward finger a workout in the coming months.
Michigan Dems deny iPod initiative, pledge to repay Apple junket
In the only politically responsible move when your party is the focus of national media attention because of a ridiculous budget proposal, Michigan state Democrats have denied that they ever planned to suggest funding an iPod for every student, and also pledged to repay Apple for that controversial "fact-finding trip" where lawmakers are suspected of hatching the supposed initiative. Representative Tim Melton spoke for the three jet setters when he claimed that this whole ordeal has been blown out of proportion, arguing that Dems were actually considering a wide-ranging $38 million technology package, and not just a DAP giveaway. So in the end -- other than bemused readers -- no one seems to have come out a winner here: Melton and his cronies will have to shell out $1,702 each for the Cupertino junket, Michigan kids statewide will have to return all of the iPod accessories they've been buying to prep for their freebies, and worst of all, Apple won't be able to realize its ultimate dream of locking an entire state's children into the iTunes ecosystem for life.[Via The Raw Feed, photo courtesy of Anti iPod]
Digital FAIR USE bill introduced to amend DMCA
Ah, the day we've all been waiting for has finally arrived -- well, sort of. Yeah, it is still a bill, but it's a refreshing start on a long overdue amendment. While content guardians (we're looking your way, MPAA / RIAA) have done their fair share of beating around the issue and insisting that DRM-laced content was the only way to go, consumers haven't exactly been thrilled about such limitations since day one. In yet another glorious case of red and blue coming together for the good of mankind, Rich Boucher (D-Va.) and John Dolittle (R-Calif.) introduced a breath of fresh air they call FAIR USE, or Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship. The idea, of course, is to simply "make it easier for digital media consumers to use the content they buy" by amending the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; according to the duo, the DMCA simply "goes too far by dramatically tilting the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public's right to fair use." Boucher further substantiates his case for the most down-to-earth politician of all time by suggesting that if the DMCA remains unadulterated, "individuals will be less willing to purchase digital media" due to the unacceptable restrictions that come along with it. We'd ask for an amen, but we don't want to set off any minor earthquakes.[Thanks, Kevin M.]
