While the Senate voted to bring back “net neutrality” protections, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) says he’s looking for another option. He’s considering supporting an alternative offered by Sen. John Thune (R-SD).
[Commentary] In a few days, the nations of the European Union take the first step to establish a New Digital World Order when the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect on May 25. For the first time, government has stepped in on a comprehensive basis to oversee the unregulated collection of personal information through the internet. Unfortunately, it is not the United States of America that is leading the world in protecting personal rights. Instead, the Old World is leading the New World.
Comcast confirmed that it is considering an offer for assets of 21 Century Fox that would top the amount Disney has already agreed to pay. Comcast said it is “in advanced stages” of preparing an offer and that any offer for Fox would be all-cash and at a premium to Disney’s $52.4 billion bid, which is based on stock. “While no final decision has been made, at this point the work to finance the all-cash offer and make the key regulatory filings is well advanced,” Comcast said.
On May 11, 2018, the FCC announced that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had approved, for a period of three years, the information collection associated with the Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order. However, on May 16, the U.S. Senate voted to reverse the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules.
A group of journalists protesting outside the offices of a New York City hedge fund recently shined a light on a little-known fact about the state of the local American newspaper: Behind the scenes, financial firms often hold all the cards. Investors like Alden Global Capital LLC and Fortress Investment Group LLC have acquired ownership stakes in newspapers that have struggled to adapt in an online world, from the Denver Post to the Providence Journal. Funds have brought their cost-cutting know-how to help restructure several newspaper chains in heavy debt after the 2008 financial crisis.
Police departments pay Amazon to use facial-recognition technology the company says can “identify persons of interest against a collection of millions of faces in real-time.” More than two dozen nonprofits wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to ask that he stop selling the technology to police, after the ACLU of Northern California revealed documents to shine light on the sales.
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