Where US presidential candidates stand on breaking up Big Tech
Here are the leading presidential candidates’ positions on Big Tech.
Here are the leading presidential candidates’ positions on Big Tech.
Diane Rinaldo, the acting head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the principal adviser to the White House on telecommunications and spectrum policy issues, is stepping down. Rinaldo has led the agency on an acting basis since May, when the prior head resigned. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the agency, said, “Diane has led NTIA to multiple successes on 5G, supply chain security, broadband and public safety communications.”
In 2016, the US Census Bureau faced a pivotal choice in its plan to digitize the nation’s once-a-decade population count: build a system for collecting and processing data in-house, or buy one from an outside contractor. The bureau chose Pegasystems Inc, reasoning that outsourcing would be cheaper and more effective. Three years later, the project faces serious reliability and security problems. And its projected cost has doubled to $167 million — about $40 million more than the bureau’s 2016 cost projection for building the site in-house.
An international "grand committee" of lawmakers called for a pause on online micro-targeted political ads with false or misleading information until the area is regulated. The committee, formed to investigate disinformation, gathered in Dublin to hear evidence from Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other experts about online harms, hate speech and electoral interference. The meeting was attended by lawmakers from Australia, Finland, Estonia, Georgia, Singapore, the UK and United States.
President Donald Trump said the United States plans to cooperate with “like-minded nations” to promote security in next-generation 5G networks. In a letter to delegates at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference in Egypt, President Trump said the United States intended “to deploy 5G services rapidly” and was “in opposition to those who would use 5G as a tool to expand control of their own citizens and to sow discord among nations.”
Apparently, Google has shut down a service it provided to wireless carriers globally that showed them weak spots in their network coverage because of Google’s concerns that sharing data from users of its Android phone system might attract the scrutiny of users and regulators. The withdrawal of the service has disappointed wireless carriers that used the data as part of their decision-making process on where to extend or upgrade their coverage.
Rep Michael McChaul (R-TX) introduced legislation to boost the presence of US firms in global industry standards bodies to combat China’s rising influence in next-generation 5G cellular network technology. The bill presses the Secretary of State to boost the “representation and leadership” of the US at international telecommunication organizations that create standards for the 5G cellular network.
A senior US official told the Commerce Department’s enforcement staff that Huawei should still be treated as blacklisted, days after President Donald Trump sowed confusion with a vow to ease a ban on sales to the firm. President Trump's surprise announcement to promise Chinese President Xi Jinping that he would allow US companies to sell products to Huawei spawned confusion among industry players and government officials struggling to understand what Huawei policy he had unveiled.
Google’s bet on balloons to deliver cell service soon faces a crucial test amid doubts about the viability of the technology by some potential customers. The company behind the effort, Loon, says its balloons will reach Kenya in the coming weeks for its first commercial trial. The test with Telkom Kenya, the nation’s No 3 carrier, will let mountain villagers buy 4G service at market-rate prices for an undefined period. Kenya’s aviation authority said its final approval would be signed in July.
© 1994-2024 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.