Tag Archives: Politics & Government

Of course telecom companies are suing the FTC to block the new ‘click-to-cancel’ rule

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An industry group representing telecom providers like Comcast and Charter has sued the FTC to block the recently-ratified “click-to-cancel” rule, as reported by Reuters. The NCTA, formerly known as the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, filed the suit with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on the grounds that the rule oversteps the FTC’s authority.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau, which represents the online advertising industry, and the Electronic Security Association, which represents the home security industry, are also involved in the lawsuit. The groups call the FTC ruling “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.” There’s also language in the suit that suggests that jumping through annoying hoops to cancel a subscription is actually helpful to consumers, according to USA Today. So this little mom and pop trade organization is just looking out for us, the little guy. I’m practically glowing with appreciation.

For news junkies, the lawsuit’s venue may have raised some eyebrows. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is widely considered to be the nation’s most right-leaning appeals court, so it’s where giant corporations and political entities like to drop suits like this.

Judges from this court temporarily banned the White House, FBI and the Surgeon General from urging social media companies to take down posts filled with misinformation. The court also invalidated a ban on bump stocks, limited access to the abortion pill mifepristone and made it difficult to fund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB.)

Several of these decisions were reversed by the Supreme Court, so the 5th Circuit is actually markedly more conservative than even SCOTUS. To that end, 12 of the 17 judges on the court were appointed by Republican presidents, with six being appointed by former President Trump. The NCTA and its industry partners have been accused by consumer advocacy groups of “venue shopping” by selecting a federal appeals court that would likely look favorably on the suit.

“The big businesses that deploy deceptive subscription models to trap customers are trying to sue their way out of this regulation to lower costs for millions of consumers,” Liz Zelnick, director for the watchdog group Accountable.US said in a statement published by USA Today. “We’ve seen this movie before, with big industry players venue shopping in a corporate-friendly jurisdiction regardless of the impact on Americans.”

The FTC ratified the “click-to-cancel” rule on October 16 in a vote that went down along party lines. Simply put, this ruling requires providers to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up for one. It prohibits companies from misrepresenting their recurring services and memberships.

“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” said Chair Lina Khan. “The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/of-course-telecom-companies-are-suing-the-ftc-to-block-the-new-click-to-cancel-rule-153728158.html?src=rss

Oversight Board says Meta’s handling of a satirical image of Harris and Walz raises ‘serious concerns’

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Two weeks before the US presidential election, the Oversight Board says it has “serious concerns” about Meta’s content moderation systems in “electoral contexts,” and that the company risks the “excessive removal of political speech” when it over-enforces its rules. The admonishment came as the board weighed in on a case involving a satirical image of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Meta originally removed the post, shared on Facebook in August, that showed an edited version of a movie poster from Dumb and Dumber. The original 1994 movie poster shows the two main characters grabbing each other’s nipples through their shirts. In the altered version, the actors’ faces were replaced by Harris and Walz.

According to the Oversight Board, Meta cited its bullying and harassment rules, which includes a provision barring “derogatory sexualized photoshop or drawings.” The social network later restored the post after it drew attention from the Oversight Board, and the company acknowledged the satirical image didn’t break its rules because it didn’t depict sexual activity.

Despite Meta’s reversal, the board says the case suggests larger issues in how Meta handles posts dealing with election-related content. “This post is nothing more than a commonplace satirical image of prominent politicians and is instantly recognizable as such,” the board wrote. “Nonetheless, the company’s failure to recognize the nature of this post and treat it accordingly raises serious concerns about the systems and resources Meta has in place to effectively make content determinations in such electoral contexts.”

In response to the Oversight Board's take on the situation, a Meta spokesperson gave the following brief statement: "We mistakenly removed this post but restored it after the issue was brought to our attention."

It’s unusually direct criticism from the Oversight Board, which released its analysis of the case in a summary decision, which comes without the group’s typical laundry list of recommendations for the social media company. The board has previously pushed Meta to clarify its rules around satirical content.The latest case highlights another issue that many of the company’s users have also complained about: over-enforcing its rules.

“In this case, however, the Board highlights the overenforcement of Meta’s Bullying and Harassment policy with respect to satire and political speech in the form of a non-sexualized derogatory depiction of political figures,” the board wrote. “It also points to the dangers that overenforcing the Bullying and Harassment policy can have, especially in the context of an election, as it may lead to the excessive removal of political speech and undermine the ability to criticize government officials and political candidates, including in a sarcastic manner.”

Update, October 23 2024, 1:00PM ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from Meta.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/oversight-board-says-metas-handling-of-a-satirical-image-of-harris-and-walz-raises-serious-concerns-100046800.html?src=rss

DJI challenges its ‘Chinese military company’ Pentagon designation in court

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DJI has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Defense over its addition to the Pentagon list that designates it as a "Chinese military company." In its filing, shared by The Verge, the company said it's challenging the designation because it's "neither owned nor controlled by the Chinese military." It described itself as the "largest privately owned seller of consumer and commercial drones," mostly used by first responders, fire and police departments, businesses and hobbyists. 

The company claimed that because the Pentagon has officially proclaimed it as a national security threat, it has suffered "ongoing financial and reputational harm." It also said that it has lost business from both US and internal customers, which terminated contracts and refused to enter new ones, and it has been banned from signing contracts with multiple federal government agencies. 

DJI explained that it tried to engage with the Department of Defense for over 16 months and submitted a "comprehensive delisting petition" on July 27, 2023 to get the agency to remove its designation. However, the agency allegedly refused to engage in a meaningful way and to explain its reasoning behind adding the company to the list. On January 31, 2024, the DoD redesignated the company without notice, DJI wrote in its complaint. DJI alleged that the DoD only shared its full rationale for its designation after it informed the agency that it was going to "seek judicial relief."

The company claimed that the DoD's reasoning wasn't adequate to support its designation, that the agency confused people with common Chinese names and that it relied on "stale alleged facts and attenuated connections." DJI is now asking the court to declare the DoD's actions as unconstitutional, describing the Pentagon's designation and failure to remove it from the "Chinese military company" list a violation of the law and of its due-process rights. 

DJI has long been at the crosshairs of various US government agencies. The Department of Commerce added it to its entity list in 2020, which prevented US companies from supplying it with parts without a license. A year later, it was added to the Treasury department's "Chinese military-industrial complex companies" list for its alleged involvement in the surveillance of Uyghur Muslim people in China. And just a few days ago, DJI confirmed that its latest consumer drones are being held at the border by US customs, which cited the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The drone-maker denied that it has manufacturing facilities in Xinjiang, the region associated with forced Uyghur labor. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/dji-challenges-its-chinese-military-company-pentagon-designation-in-court-120036412.html?src=rss

The US Treasury is using AI (a vehicle for fraud) to detect fraud

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AI has been used to defraud people through everything from calling voters to faking celebrity giveaways. Now, the US Treasury Department claims machine learning AI has played a critical part in its enhanced fraud detection processes over the past year — if a broken clock can be right twice a day, maybe AI can do something good one time? 

In a new release, the Treasury states it prevented and recovered "fraud and improper payments" worth over $4 billion over the last fiscal year (October 2023 to September 2024). This number represents a tremendous increase from the previous year, which reached just $652.7 million. One-fourth of the $4 billion apparently comes from recovery by "expediting the identification of Treasury check fraud with machine learning AI." Again, does it feel a bit like making a deal with the devil? Yes. But, such is 2024. 

The $1 billion comes alongside $2.5 billion in prevention from "identifying and prioritizing high-risk transactions" and another $680 million toward additional prevention techniques. 

The Treasury plans to share the technology with other federal agencies, though some have already implemented their own. The IRS, for example, has taken steps to use AI to find tax evaders, automate services and conduct audits. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-us-treasury-is-using-ai-a-vehicle-for-fraud-to-detect-fraud-123845481.html?src=rss

DJI confirms that US customs is holding up its latest consumer drone

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Many of DJI's drones including its latest consumer products are being held up at the US border, the manufacturer said in a blog post today. It appears to be a customs matter and not related to proposed US legislation to ban DJI products (the Countering CCP Drones Act) currently in US Congress. However, the holdup means that sales of DJI's latest Air 3S drone will be delayed, the company told The Verge. 

"The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has cited the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), as the reason for the current holdups," the DJI ViewPoints team wrote. "This assertion made against DJI, however, is entirely unfounded and categorically false."

Calling the situation a "misunderstanding," DJI said it's sending documentation proving it complies with the UFLPA. It added that it has no manufacturing facilities in and doesn't source materials from Xinjiang, the region that's a red flag for the US in terms of Uyghur forced labor violations. It also noted that it's not a listed entity under UFLPA and that its supply "undergoes rigorous due diligence by respected US retailers." US Customs and Border Protection has yet to comment on the matter.

While the US House of Representatives did pass the a bill to block DJI's drones, the Senate removed that clause from the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. It was later re-introduced as an amendment, though, and could still make it into the final bill. If so, imports of new DJI drones could be blocked, but a ban wouldn't likely prohibit current owners from using them. DJI has a massive share of the worldwide drone market upwards of 70 percent as of 2021, according to Statista. including as much as 90 percent by public safety officials.   

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/dji-confirms-that-us-customs-is-holding-up-its-latest-consumer-drone-123007447.html?src=rss

SpaceX is suing the California Coastal Commission for not letting it launch more rockets

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Last week, the California Coastal Commission rejected a plan for SpaceX to launch up to 50 rockets this year at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. The company responded yesterday with a lawsuit, alleging that the state agency's denial was overreaching its authority and discriminating against its CEO.

The Commission's goal is to protect California's coasts and beaches, as well as the animals living in them. The agency has control over private companies' requests to use the state coastline, but it can't deny activities by federal departments. The denied launch request was actually made by the US Space Force on behalf of SpaceX, asking that the company be allowed to launch 50 of its Falcon 9 rockets, up from 36.

While the commissioners did raise concerns about SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's political screed and the spotty safety records at his companies during their review of the launch request, the assessment focused on the relationship between SpaceX and Space Force. The Space Force case is that "because it is a customer of — and reliant on — SpaceX’s launches and satellite network, SpaceX launches are a federal agency activity," the Commission review stated. "However, this does not align with how federal agency activities are defined in the Coastal Zone Management Act’s regulations or the manner in the Commission has historically implemented those regulations." The California Coastal Commission claimed that at least 80 percent of the SpaceX rockets contain payloads for Musk's Starlink company rather than payloads for government clients.

The SpaceX suit filed with the Central District of California court is seeking an order to designate the launches as federal activity, which would cut the Commission's oversight out of its future launch plans.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/spacex-is-suing-the-california-coastal-commission-for-not-letting-it-launch-more-rockets-204610537.html?src=rss

FTC ratifies ‘click-to-cancel’ rule, making it easier for consumers to end subscriptions

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The Federal Trade Commission has made it easier for consumers to cancel subscriptions. In a decision that went down along party lines, the agency voted to ratify a “click-to-cancel” rule that will require providers to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up for one. First proposed last year, the rulemaking prohibits companies from misrepresenting their recurring services and memberships, as well as failing to clearly disclose any material terms related to those offerings.

“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” said Chair Lina Khan. “The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”

After considering more than 16,000 comments on the matter, the FTC decided not to write the final rulemaking as originally proposed. Most notably, the agency scrapped a proposal that would have required companies to provide consumers with annual reminders for subscription renewals. It also won’t mandate a rule that would have forced sellers to obtain the consent of those seeking to cancel a subscription before telling them about potential modifications to their plan or reasons why they should continue paying for a service.

A separate statement issued by Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter (PDF link) provides insight into the decision. Essentially, the agency felt the FTC Act doesn’t give it the authority to require a renewal notice. I’ll note here that the dissenting opinion (PDF link), written by Republican Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, contends that the entire rulemaking is overly broad, and accuses the Democratic majority of attempting to push through the change before next month's election.

“Americans understand the importance and value of such a requirement; many have discovered that they or their parents had been paying for years or even decades for a service wholly unused, such as a dial-up internet service from the 1990s,” Slaughter writes in her statement. “… Of course, we are always mindful that our authority under the FTC Act to issue rules under section 18 has limits; sometimes, as here, those limits prevent us from codifying in a rule practices that we might, as a matter of policy, prefer to require explicitly.”

Slaughter points out that state and federal lawmakers do have the authority to mandate renewal notices, and notes some states, such as Virginia, have even recently gone down that path. “The comment record compiled in this rulemaking proceeding strongly supports the wisdom of federal and state legislators’ carefully considering adopting such a law,” Slaughter writes.

Provided there’s no legal challenge to the FTC’s decision, today’s rulemaking will go into effect 180 days after it is published in the Federal Register. When the agency moved to ban noncompete clauses earlier this year, a federal judge in Texas issued a nationwide injunction. That decision is still stuck in legal limbo. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/ftc-ratifies-click-to-cancel-rule-making-it-easier-for-consumers-to-end-subscriptions-160752238.html?src=rss

China calls allegations that it infiltrated US critical infrastructure a ‘political farce’

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China has denied allegations by the US government and Microsoft that a state-sponsored hacking group called the Volt Typhoon has infiltrated US critical infrastructure, according to Bloomberg. The country's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center called the claims a "political farce" orchestrated by US officials in a new report. It also reportedly cited more than 50 cybersecurity experts who agreed with the agency that there's no sufficient evidence linking Volt Typhoon to the Chinese government. 

Moreover, the Chinese agency said that it's the US that uses "cyber warfare forces" to penetrate networks and conduct intelligence gathering. It even accused the US of using a tool called "Marble" that can insert code strings in the Chinese and Russian languages to frame China and Russia for its activities.

Microsoft and the National Security Agency (NSA) first reported about Volt Typhoon back in May 2023. They said that the group installed surveillance malware in "critical" systems on the island of Guam and other parts of the US and has had access to those systems for at least the past five years. In February this year, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the NSA and the FBI issued an advisory warning critical infrastructure organizations that state-sponsored cyber actors from China "are seeking to pre-position themselves on IT networks for disruptive or destructive cyberattacks."

The US agencies said Volt Typhoon had infiltrated the US Department of Energy, US Environmental Protection Agency, as well as various government agencies in Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. Volt Typhoon doesn't act like other cyberattackers and espionage groups do. It hasn't used the malware it installed to attack any of its targets — at least not yet. The group is "pre-positioning" itself so that it can disrupt critical infrastructure functions when it wants to, which the US government believes is "in the event of potential geopolitical tensions and/or military conflicts" with the United States.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/china-calls-allegations-that-it-infiltrated-us-critical-infrastructure-a-political-farce-120023769.html?src=rss

Google strikes a deal with a nuclear startup to power its AI data centers

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Google is turning to nuclear energy to help power its AI drive. On Monday, the company said it will partner with the startup Kairos Power to build seven small nuclear reactors in the US. The deal targets adding 500 megawatts of nuclear power from the small modular reactors (SMRs) by the decade’s end. The first is expected to be up and running by 2030, with the remainder arriving through 2035.

It’s the first-ever corporate deal to buy nuclear power from SMRs. Small modular reactors are smaller than existing reactors. Their components are built inside a factory rather than on-site, which can help lower construction costs compared to full-scale plants.

Kairos will need the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to approve design and construction permits for the plans. The startup has already received approval for a demonstration reactor in Tennessee, with an online date targeted for 2027. The company already builds test units (without nuclear-fuel components) at a development facility in Albuquerque, NM, where it assesses components, systems and its supply chain.

The companies didn’t announce the financial details of the arrangement. Google says the deal’s structure will help to keep costs down and get the energy online sooner.

“By procuring electricity from multiple reactors — what experts call an ‘orderbook’ of reactors — we will help accelerate the repeated reactor deployments that are needed to lower costs and bring Kairos Power’s technology to market more quickly,” Michael Terrell, Google’s senior director for energy and climate, wrote in a blog post. “This is an important part of our approach to scale the benefits of advanced technologies to more people and communities, and builds on our previous efforts.”

The AI boom — and the enormous amount of data center power it requires — has led to several deals between Big Tech companies and the nuclear industry. In September, Microsoft forged an agreement with Constellation Energy to bring a unit of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania back online. In March, Amazon bought a nuclear-powered data center from Talen Energy.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-strikes-a-deal-with-a-nuclear-startup-to-power-its-ai-data-centers-201403750.html?src=rss

Kamala Harris’ Twitch account streamed Tim Waltz rally alongside live WoW gameplay

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In August, Kamala Harris' campaign launched a Twitch account in an effort to reach young people and some of the "hardest-to-reach voters" out there. It debuted with a stream of Harris' acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, which is perhaps what one could expect from an account owned by a presidential campaign. On the evening of October 9, though, the channel streamed live gameplay for the first time — along with a live feed of Vice Presidential nominee Tim Waltz's speech in Arizona. 

As Wired notes, Twitch creator Preheat kicked things off by playing World of Warcraft on the channet at 6:30PM ET. Preheat, who told Wired that they volunteered for the task because of Harris' platforms, also provided commentary about the game and encouraged viewers to vote. "GOP is the opposite of POG," they said at one point during the stream. A spokesperson told the publication that the campaign is hoping to reach young male votes that make up most of Twitch's userbase by streaming the rally alongside WoW gameplay. 

Harris isn't the first politician to use Twitch to reach voters. Joe Biden's administration streamed his inauguration on the website, while Donald Trump's camp had been streaming rallies and speeches on the platform since 2019. The former president's account was suspended following the January 6 US Capitol riot, but it was reinstated in July this year. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on Twitch, as well, and streamed herself a few times while playing Among Us. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/kamala-harris-twitch-account-streamed-tim-waltz-rally-alongside-live-wow-gameplay-021612716.html?src=rss