Reporting

Facebook has said it will take aggressive and exceptional measures to “restrict the circulation of content” on its platform if Nov’s presidential election descends into chaos or violent civic unrest. Nick Clegg, the company’s head of global affairs, said it had drawn up plans for how to handle a range of outcomes, including widespread civic unrest or “the political dilemmas” of having in-person votes counted more rapidly than mail-in ballots, which will play a larger role in this election due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trump Administration said it would challenge a federal court ruling Sept 20 that temporarily blocked its attempt to curb the use of Chinese messaging and e-commerce app WeChat in the US. WeChat's ban has had a lower profile than TikTok's, but the fate of the app, widely used by Chinese people around the world to stay in touch with family and friends, is at least as consequential. The ruling suggests that WeChat's fate in the US could be decided not only on grounds of national security and commercial regulations but also around freedom of speech principles.

Internet connectivity remains a weak link for the disaster-wracked US territory Puerto Rico, and some experts fear a new tranche of Federal Communications Commission subsidies set aside just for the island might not help the people most in need of a broadband connection. Puerto Rico is locked out of most federal funding available to US states to help expand internet service.

The Trump administration’s campaign to make Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok relocate to the US is the latest example of the global fracturing of the internet. Treating user data as a matter of national security is a notion that has dictated many of the policies Beijing has put in place to control the internet in its country for the past decade. China operates what is called the “Great Firewall,” limiting the services people in the country can use and the information they receive.

US officials are exploring concepts for a new 5G wireless network that would let Silicon Valley giants and other businesses tap valuable Pentagon airwaves, setting up a potential clash over how to deploy the next-generation technology. The Department of Defense issued a request for information that could open the door for investors to bid on contracts to build a domestic cellular network for both the military and for commercial operators.

Trian Fund Management LP, a hedge fund known for pushing big companies to make operational and other changes, has launched an activist campaign against Comcast in a bet that the cable-TV and entertainment giant’s stock is undervalued. Trian has accumulated about 20 million shares in Comcast, for a roughly $900 million stake or about 0.4% of the company. Comcast’s market value is about $200 billion. Executives at Trian -- which was founded by Nelson Peltz, Ed Garden, and Peter May -- recently began conversations with Comcast management.

In 2019, about a year after the California Consumer Privacy Act was passed—but before it had gone into effect— CA State Sen Bob Hertzberg, who by then was majority leader of the CA State Senate, pitched a new idea to CCPA brain-child Alastair Mactaggart. In a total reversal from his earlier stance, Hertzberg urged Mactaggart to bypass the legislative process. Instead, he should fund and draft a new ballot initiative to improve upon the CCPA. And this one wouldn’t be a bargaining chip. It would go all the way to a vote by the people of California.

The tech world will be holding its breath to see whether President Donald Trump can pull out a victory.

China's TikTok sought to tamp down domestic controversy over its deal with Oracle and Walmart, saying that there would be no technology transfer to Oracle, though the US company would be able to check its software for safety. The TikTok deal has been a vivid example of the Trump administration’s policy of reciprocity toward Chinese businesses. Supporters of the approach say it’s only fair to treat Chinese companies by the same standards to which US companies are held in China.

Farms could contribute billions more dollars to the US economy with the help of precision agriculture technology, but this can’t happen without more broadband, said experts during a National Telecommunications and Information Administration webinar. Titled “Smart Agriculture: Driving Innovation in Rural America,” the webinar featured, among other speakers, Megan Nelson, an economic analyst with the American Farm Bureau Federation.