Two critical vulnerabilities that affect modern computer processing chips are about to become a huge headache for governments worldwide. The vulnerabilities could allow hackers to pilfer sensitive data from virtually all modern computing devices, ranging from computers to smartphones to cloud infrastructure. Experts believe that they may be the most dangerous computer processor flaws to date.
[Commentary] The so-called social media revolution isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Sites like Twitter and Facebook exacerbate emotions like outrage and fear—and don’t help democracy flourish. Social media too easily bypasses the rational or at least reasonable parts of our minds, on which a democratic public sphere depends. It speaks instead to the emotional, reactive, quick-fix parts of us, that are satisfied by images and clicks that look pleasing, that feed our egos, and that make us think we are heroic.
Roughly 22 million people submitted comments during the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality regulatory proceedings. Though there was widespread fraud in the process (many dead people filed anti-net-neutrality comments), the vast majority of them favored the rules that protected the free and open internet. Jan 4, the FCC released its final rule repealing these protections: A grand total of zero consumer comments were cited.
Which Republicans could be likely targets in garnering support for a Congressional Review Act resolution that would undo the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality? Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a swing vote who has said she does not support FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s moves; Dean Heller of Nevada; Orrin Hatch of Utah; John McCain of Arizona; and Bob Corker of Tennessee.
Instead of expressly banning internet service providers from blocking content or throttling it, Chairman Ajit Pai’s Federal Communications Commission will instead rely on a “consensus” among the general public and—presumably ISPs themselves—that blocking or throttling content is bad.
Technology companies with unprecedented power to sway consumers and move markets have done the unthinkable: They’ve made trust-busting sound like a good idea again. The concentration of wealth and influence among tech giants has been building for years—90 percent of new online-ad dollars went to either Google or Facebook in 2016; Amazon is by far the largest online retailer, the third-largest streaming media company, and largest cloud-computing provider.
[Commentary] After comparing President Donald Trump's tweets with Fox's coverage every day since October, I can tell you that the Fox-Trump feedback loop is happening far more often than you think. There is no strategy to President Trump’s Twitter feed; he is not trying to distract the media. He is being distracted. He darts with quark-like speed from topic to topic in his tweets because that’s how cable news works.
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