Wall Street Journal

Tens of millions of Indian women are finding themselves barred by fathers and husbands from taking advantage of technological leaps that benefit men.

In India, 114 million more men than women have cellphones. That represents more than half the total world-wide gap of around 200 million between men and women who possess phones, according to GSMA, an international cellphone-industry group. Tech evangelists often tout cellular phones and internet access as great levelers—tools that promote equality and ease social disparities. But in countries such as India, the new technology is exacerbating an already deep gender gap. The gulf is blocking women from increasingly crucial ways of communicating and learning, and making it harder for them to find work, upgrade their skills and assert political rights. In India, millions use smartphones to find jobs, bank, study, order train tickets, interact with the government and more. Offline options require freedom of movement not available for many women, and extra time and cost in traveling, standing in lines and filling out forms.

China has proposed strengthening its policies on internet safety for children, which could force technology companies to make substantial operational changes to meet the new requirements.

The draft rules would require online-game operators to lock out anyone under the age of 18 between midnight and 8 a.m. They would also call for an increased number of websites to post warnings about content deemed unsuitable for minors. Few companies will criticize Chinese policies openly. However, industry experts said that a strict implementation of the proposed rules could also force foreign companies to use Chinese censorship software that they can’t control and that could potentially serve as backdoors for Chinese surveillance. The proposed regulations posted online Sept. 30 are vague as to whether companies’ existing parental control systems would suffice or if they would have to use Beijing-approved software.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet regulator, said that it would support the development of web-filtering software to keep children safe online and would determine which products comply with its requirements.

Newly disclosed emails show top Obama administration officials were in close contact with Hillary Clinton’s nascent presidential campaign in early 2015 about the potential fallout from revelations that the former secretary of state used a private email server.

The previously unreported emails were obtained by the Republican National Committee as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records of Clinton’s time in office. The RNC provided to The Wall Street Journal only some of the emails, leaving it unclear what was in the remaining documents. The RNC said it released only emails relevant to the communication between the White House and State Department. Meredith McGehee, chief of policy, programs, and strategy at the nonpartisan advocacy group Issue One and an expert on ethics and campaign finance, said the email exchange would probably raise no legal concerns because federal law permits members of the White House staff to engage in some political activity.

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is still claiming that his 2015 internet takeover has encouraged innovation, investment and economic growth online. That’s not what the evidence shows. The US economy continues to create jobs, but there’s a big exception. Companies making computer and electronic products and in the telecommunications side of the information industry employed 29,000 fewer workers in August than they did a year earlier. Internet broadband networks have become a growth-free zone for investment and jobs. If this jewel of American technology and opportunity now becomes an innovation-free zone, consumers, investors and workers will have every right to blame Chairman Wheeler.

The internet fails to reach millions of women in the small towns and villages of India, so Google is trying to deliver it to them—by bicycle.

The company has built an army of thousands of female trainers and sent them to the far corners of the Subcontinent on two-wheelers, hoping to give rural Indian woman their first taste of the web. Each bike is equipped with a box containing internet-connected smartphones and tablets for women to train on. The idea is to give people who have never sent an email a better understanding of how being connected to the internet could improve their lives. Families that can afford to be online often chose not to be because they don’t see the value. Meanwhile, women are sometimes blocked by their families from new technology.

The European Union’s competition regulator is intent on forcing changes to Google’s business practices and levying significant fines for breaching the bloc’s antitrust rules.

For more than five years, the European Commission has been inspecting Google’s business operations on concerns the Silicon Valley company is abusing its dominance and shutting out rivals in various markets. The investigations have resulted in formal charges in several areas of Google’s practices, including over the company’s conduct with its comparison shopping service and its Android mobile operating system. The commission intends to establish that Google and Alphabet have “infringed” on EU antitrust rules, and it will seek to end these actions and fine the companies for the alleged infringements.

[Commentary] Citigroup projects that spending on political ads on Facebook could surpass spending on Google in 2016, reversing the historical pattern. This is no small accomplishment, considering how powerful search advertising remains, as a conduit for motivated donors and volunteers. This reflects both Facebook’s vast reach and the tools it offers advertisers to target ever-narrower segments of its users. For campaigns striving to get supporters to the polls, as well as change minds, this ability to “micro-target” is manna from heaven. As with conventional advertising, it is now happening with unprecedented scale and precision in politics.

Hackers used an army of hijacked security cameras and video recorders to launch several massive internet attacks last week, prompting fresh concern about the vulnerability of millions of “smart” devices in homes and businesses connected to the internet.

Facebook is teaming up with the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to pioneer a new way of collecting data, taking the first step on a path to what they hope will be broader, less expensive and more timely insights into the state of the global economy.

The three partners launched a new measure of business sentiment based on questioning companies that use their Facebook pages to connect with customers. Known as the Future of Business Survey, the report has been in testing since February and received responses to 15 queries from a total of 90,000 small and midsize firms across 22 countries. Its first public release shows that those businesses are more optimistic about their prospects than other companies surveyed by more traditional means.

Pay-TV providers could lose nearly $1 billion in revenue as 800,000 customers cut the cord over the next 12 months, according to a new study from the firm cg42. The study, which is based on an online survey of 1,119 US customers, estimates that pay-TV providers lose about $1,248 per cord-cutter annually. That’s because the average cord-cutter saves $104 a month—about 56 percent of their bill--from dropping cable TV. Some analysts say that if consumers ditch cable TV they could wind up paying even more for the combination of standalone high-speed Internet and streaming services. But the study found the opposite -- that going without pay TV service yields savings. That’s in part because people tend not to spend much more than $15 on streaming services even after cutting the cord.

A “cord-haver” spends about $187 a month on average prior to cutting the cord, including cable TV, phone, Internet access and streaming services. Meanwhile, a typical “cord-never” -- someone who never had a pay-TV connection -- spends about $71 on streaming services and home Internet combined, and the average cord-cutter spends $83. “The consumer is discovering they don’t need the mean, evil cable company to get the content that they want, and they can get it for a better deal,” said Steve Beck, managing partner at cg42. A $1 billion loss of revenue is small for the entire pay TV industry, but it is a warning sign. According to the survey, the vast majority of people who cut the cord or never had pay-TV in the first place don’t exactly thirst for traditional television, despite the draw of live sports. About 83 percent of cord-cutters surveyed said they can access “most or all” of the content they want to watch without a pay-TV subscription, and about 87 percent of cord-nevers said the same.