The US Federal Communications Commission is now collecting data from US carriers that are using network gear from Huawei and ZTE. This follows the FCC’s decision in November of last year to bar the use of its $8.5 billion a year Universal Service Fund for purchasing equipment and services from the Chinese companies. The Senate …
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Georgetown Law and the father of Alison Parker, a journalist who was murdered on air in 2015, have filed a complaint against YouTube for failing to take down videos of the murder. The complaint, filed with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Thursday, alleges YouTube allows videos showing violent murder and conspiracy theories to spread online, which violates its own …
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Huawei is getting a 45-day reprieve from the US Commerce Department, which announced Thursday it’s extending a temporary general license allowing American companies to do business with it. The reprieve is half the period of its prior extensions — Huawei previously got 90-day reprieves in May, in August and in November. Huawei was blacklisted by the US in May when it was …
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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been asked to stop providing social media services to Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. In a letter published Friday, US Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton and Marsha Blackburn told Dorsey that allowing those leaders to hold Twitter accounts violates an executive order issued in June 2019 …
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Netflix has revealed which shows and movies it has removed after being asked by governments around the world. In its Environmental Social Governance 2019 report, published Friday, the streaming giant said just nine pieces of content have been taken down since it launched services over a decade ago as a result of government demands. Netflix only got two takedown demands …
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The European Parliament has voted to have one common charger for all mobile devices — which could mean the end of the line for Apple’s Lightning charger in the EU. The measure passed by a vote of 582 to 40, and it calls for new guidelines to be adopted by July 2020. The next step would be for the European …
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Facebook will create a cash fund of $550 million for its Illinois users who filed a lawsuit over its privacy practices, law firm Edelson PC said on Wednesday. The settlement came after Facebook was sued for collecting facial recognition data to use in tagging photos, which allegedly violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. Tagging someone in a photo on Facebook …
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Forcing Apple to change iPhones from Lightning to USB-C connectors would cause “an unprecedented volume of electronic waste,” the company said Thursday. The remark follows a European Commission call earlier this month for a common charger for all mobile phones, an effort to reduce waste and make life easier for consumers. Apple argues, however, that this would create even more waste, because …
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Apple published its biannual transparency report Friday, revealing how many requests were made worldwide by governments for user data. Between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2019, Apple said governments made 31,778 requests for devices — around 500 more than in the first half of 2018. Apple provided data including which customers are associated with which devices, as well as purchases, …
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Several groups promoting fake cancer treatments have been banned from Facebook. Two of the groups that have now been shut out had around 33,000 members, according to BuzzFeed News Tuesday, and were removed from the social media site under Facebook’s rules about violent and criminal behavior. The groups had promoted the use of black salve to fight skin cancer and …
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