President Trump
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White House: Google’s work in China is not a security risk
Earlier this month, Facebook board member and billionaire investor Peter Thiel accused Google of working with China's government. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he and President Trump have no national security concerns about Alphabet Inc.'s work in China.
Trump’s ‘Social Media Summit’ was a celebration of conspiracy theorists
President Donald Trump kicked off his Thursday morning by doing what he does best: tweeting. Amid a sea of missives, which ranged from attacks on the "Fake News Media" to the Mueller Report, he said it would be "a big and exciting day at the White House for Social Media." It was all a lead-up to his administration's first "Social Media Summit," an event that was announced back in June and took place yesterday. Despite being billed as a summit about social media, though, the Trump administration didn't invite anyone from the two biggest players in the space: Facebook and Twitter. Instead, it brought together people who are under the impression that these tech giants are censoring conservative voices on the internet.
The White House may host a social media summit next month
The White House will reportedly host a social media summit next month. According to The New York Times, White House spokesman Judd Deere said the meeting will "bring together digital leaders for a robust conversation on the opportunities and challenges of today's online environment." The White House has not officially announced the summit or confirmed who will attend, but the event is reportedly scheduled for July 11th.
Huawei says US ban is 'in no one's interest'
Huawei issued a statement today objecting to the recent actions of the US government to effectively ban Chinese telecom firms from doing business within the country. "This decision is in no one's interest," the company said. "It will do significant economic harm to the American companies with which Huawei does business, affect tens of thousands of American jobs, and disrupt the current collaboration and mutual trust that exist on the global supply chain." Huawei also claimed it is committed to finding ways to remedy the current situation and wants to "mitigate the impacts of this incident."
Trump declares 'national emergency' to make way for Huawei ban (updated)
The US government now has some pretext for outright bans on doing business with Chinese telecom firms like Huawei and ZTE. President Trump has signed an executive order declaring a national emergency banning sales and use of telecom equipment that poses "unacceptable" risks to national security, including critical infrastructure and the online economy. "Foreign adversaries" are exploiting more and more security holes through communications tech, Trump argued, and there were "potentially catastrophic effects" if this behavior went unanswered.
Russia worked hard to recruit social media users to campaign for Trump
We already knew that the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which is essentially a farm of bots and trolls, exposed 126 million Americans on Facebook to Russian-backed propaganda during the 2016 US presidential election. But today's release of the redacted Mueller report has shed light on new details, including the great lengths the IRA went to in using social media to provoke social discord in the US. The report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, titled "The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election," highlights how the IRA created thousands of accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr to create posts in "support for the Trump Campaign and opposition to candidate [Hillary] Clinton."
California sues EPA, NHTSA over data used for car emissions rollback
California has sued the EPA and NHTSA in a bid to get the data used to justify the Trump administration's rollback of vehicle emission standards. State Attorney General Xavier Becerra has accused the agencies of "willfully withholding" the data after they didn't respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for the material used to justify keeping 2020 emissions standards until the 2026 model year instead of raising them under former President Obama's plan.
