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White House downplays talk of executive order targeting internet bias
Is President Trump looking at an executive order that would investigate internet companies over his accusations of political bias? Not officially... although the government isn't strictly denying the claims, either. After Bloomberg reported the existence of a draft order, deputy White House press secretary Lindsey Walters issued a statement that the document was "not the result of an official policymaking process." It's not saying the story is wrong, as such -- it is, however, downplaying the prospect of such an order becoming a reality.
Fundraiser to reunite immigrant families is largest in Facebook history
In the last six weeks, the Trump administration's strategy to separate children while criminally prosecuting parents for attempting to cross the southern US border illegally has led the government to take almost 2,000 youth from their families to camps and foster homes across the country. This has ignited a furor over the last week, and people have voted with their wallets. A Facebook fundraiser dedicated to reuniting these families is the largest in the social media platform's history and has raised $10.5 million to date since launching on June 16th.
Trump bans Venezuelan cryptocurrency in the US
Back in December, President Maduro of Venezuela tried something new to outmaneuver his country's economic disarray and sanctions imposed by the US and other nations: Invent a new cryptocurrency. The 'petro,' as it's called, would be supported by the country's natural resources -- specifically, that each token would be backed by a barrel of oil. Whether or not it was on track to help stabilize Venezuela, Trump just issued an executive order banning use of the currency within the United States.
President Trump signs order to promote broadband in rural areas
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that will make it easier for companies to install high-speed broadband networks in rural areas. The move is designed to tackle the economic challenges of integrating broadband infrastructure in these communities -- where 39 percent of people don't have access to broadband -- which the Obama administration highlighted two years ago.
Trump’s cybersecurity order delivers nothing but more surveillance
Remember that cybersecurity executive order we anticipated from the Trump administration, which seemed to quietly disappear in January? The already-delayed deadline for Trump's EO on "the cyber" and his promise to create a cyber-review team passed last month. Many were wondering if it would fade off into oblivion like a tyrant's hairline -- or show up suddenly to drop cyber-bombs on someone's vacant cyber-tarmac.
Trump signs executive order for sweeping review of US cybersecurity
Today, Trump finally signed an executive order for an extensive review of the US government's cybersecurity, which has been some months coming. He was originally set to sign an earlier version back in January, but postponed it for unknown reasons. A draft of the revised EO surfaced in late April, which was an improvement over earlier versions, cyber experts told Politico -- but today's order essentially maintains the cybersecurity path set by the last two administrations. What it concretely does is order reviews of the government's digital security and report back.
Federal judge temporarily suspends the revised travel ban
A federal judge in Hawaii has halted President Donald Trump's immigration ban targeting six majority-Muslim nations, just one day before the order was scheduled to take effect. The technology industry has been a leading voice of opposition to a proposed travel ban, and this morning 58 companies signed an amicus brief in support of Hawaii's lawsuit.
Trump to sign sweeping rollback of Obama-era climate change rules
Donald Trump is poised to sign an executive order that will dramatically reduce the role that climate change has in governmental decision-making. The order could impact everything from energy policy to appliance standards.
President Trump plans to order a new travel ban next week
President Donald Trump said he will sign an executive order next week that updates his contentious January 27th ban on travelers and refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries. Last week, a federal appeals court ruled to keep a stay on the president's travel ban, which has been openly opposed by leaders in the technology industry including Google and Facebook. The new executive order will address the legal pitfalls that have paused the first travel ban, Trump said at a press conference today. "The new order is going to be very much tailored to what I consider to be a very bad decision," he said. "But we can tailor the order to that decision and get just about everything, in some ways more, but we're tailoring it now to the decision."
Elon Musk accidentally tweets that Trump's ban is 'not right'
If you've been tweeting for a while, then your drafts folder is probably full of too-hot takes that you eventually thought better of and dialed back for public consumption. Of course, you're probably not a billionaire tech CEO with a position on a presidential advisory council like Elon Musk. That's why it's news when his drafts folder apparently let loose several tweets with more pointed criticism of Donald Trump's "Muslim immigration ban" (as Musk referred to it in the now-deleted tweets) than Musk's other public statements.
The legal arguments for and against reviving Trump's travel ban
San Francisco's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments this afternoon in the State of Washington v. Donald Trump, the lawsuit that led to the suspension of President Donald Trump's contentious immigration ban. Leading companies in the tech world, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook, have spoken out and taken legal action against the ban. Today, lawyers for the Trump administration argued to lift the injunction placed on Trump's executive order, while Washington's solicitor general fought to keep the suspension in place.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick leaves Trump's advisory council (updated)
After a week including widespread #DeleteUber protests against his company, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told employees today that he is no longer participating on President Donald Trump's economic advisory council. In a message obtained by the New York Times, Kalanick said: "Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that."
Devolver will highlight games from banned nations at GDC
At the end of the month, developers from around the world will congregate in San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC). Or rather, that was the plan. This year that's not going to happen: President Trump's executive order on immigration established a blanket ban on residents from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, which was initially interpreted as including those with permanent residency in the US or dual citizenship. While courts have slowly been ruling against the order, the situation is still in flux, and the Trump administration has indicated it will continue to pursue the order's underlying aims. The political situation has left several developers unable to attend GDC, unwilling to enter the US or unable to leave. Shahid Kamal Ahmad, current independent developer and PlayStation's former director for strategic content, said over the weekend that he was not going to the conference. He later clarified that "so long as any Muslim is banned from the US for no reason other than their religion," he would not attend.
Google gives $4 million to pro-immigrant causes
Google has revealed that it will donate up to $4 million to humanitarian causes in response to the president's latest executive order. The search engine will hand the cash to four bodies: the ACLU, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, International Rescue Committee and the UN Refugee Agency. According to TechCrunch, half of that cash is coming from the company itself, with the rest being donated by employees.
Apple, Microsoft and Uber help staff stranded by Trump ban (update: Airbnb)
President Trump's restrictions on immigration from Muslim-majority countries is affecting many, many more tech companies besides Google. Apple, Microsoft, Uber and others are rushing to accommodate employees who suddenly find themselves isolated by the new ban -- and in some cases, pressing for change at the highest levels. Apple, for instance, is both providing staff with support and "reaching out" to the White House to discuss the "negative effect" of the ban. Microsoft, meanwhile, says it's offering "legal advice and assistance" to workers. Uber, meanwhile, is discussing a very specific solution.
Google reacts to Trump immigration order by recalling staff
The President's latest executive order could spell bad news for the tech industry that's known for hiring overseas talents under a working visa. In fact, Google chief Sundar Pichai has just issued a memo to employees overseas, urging them to fly back to the US ASAP or risk not being able to get into the country at all. "It's painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues," he wrote in the memo. According to Bloomberg, the employees in question work in the US but are abroad either on business or for a vacation. A lot of them tried to get back into the country before the President signed on the dotted line, but not everyone made it back in time.
Trump signs executive order stripping non-citizens of privacy rights (updated)
With a stroke of his pen, the president just potentially invalidated a transcontinental data flow agreement between the US and EU which took years to negotiate.
President Obama calls for a plan to deal with extreme space weather
As President Barack Obama's administration enters its final stages, he's paying more attention to what's going on way, way above us than expected. Just days after the president outlined his vision for landing humans on Mars by the 2030s, he issued an executive order calling for a plan that would help the country -- and the systems that power it -- cope with seriously bad space weather.
US wants the world's fastest supercomputer by 2025
President Obama has signed an executive order demanding that the US build the world's fastest supercomputer by 2025. The National Strategic Computing Initiative has been implemented to get the country building an Exascale machine and not fall behind rival nations in the technological arms race. This supercomputer will be developed by arms of the federal government and then be harnessed to speed up research into a wide variety of topics. One example is that the hardware will be used to help NASA better understand turbulence for aircraft design, while another is to crunch the numbers for medical researchers.
Obama's executive order urges companies to share cyberthreat data
Attacks on the computers of large corporations were constantly in the headlines last year and now President Obama is taking steps that he says will help fight back. A month ago he announced a push for new legislation that would lay out ways for companies to share information about hacking activity so it can be investigated, while also protecting the privacy of consumers. Pushing that through Congress has been a failure since 2011, so he's following up with an executive order that mandates companies to do so. "There's only one way to defend America from these cyberthreats, and that is with government and [private] industry working together, sharing appropriate information," Obama said at today's White House cyber security summit at Stanford. The announcement comes just a few days after the President unveiled a new cyber warfare agency intended to "quickly assess and deter cyberthreats."