politics

While Huawei's smartphones are often publicized as the most immediate casualties of its tussle with the US government, they aren't the only business affected by it. Not only is Huawei involved in the equipment and technologies used to run many of the world's networks, it also has a voice in existing and upcoming industry standards when it comes to networks, AI, and even self-driving cars. Huawei's involvement in these standardization efforts has ironically put US companies in limbo which why the US Commerce Department is easing up on that restriction a bit to allow them to at least collaborate with the Chinese company on such matters.

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The US might be singling out Huawei in its spat with China but the world's second-biggest phone maker isn't the only one that is being affected by it. In light of the US Commerce Department's new trade rules, companies that export products or provide services to Huawei are now uncertain whether they will be able to keep the Chinese manufacturer as a lucrative customer. One of the biggest of those is semiconductor maker TSMC, though the Taiwan-based foundry seems not to be that worried even if it loses Huawei.

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Although controversial right from its infancy, Facebook got into deep trouble because of its involvement in the 2016 US elections. Most of that centered the spread of misinformation, some of which came from accounts that were traced to state-controlled actors and media. It has spent the past years trying to defend and rebuild its reputation and with another US election coming, it's taking a hard stance in making sure users know who might be behind certain media companies.

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If the US government is bent on bringing Huawei to its knees through trade laws, India's citizens are taking a different route to show their protest against China. A new app has landed on Google Play Store that singles out apps that originate from China as a response to a call for Indians to boycott software made by Chinese citizens. That call seems to have resounded strongly as the app gathered now over 5 million downloads in just two weeks.

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The COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to much of the world's businesses and operations and it has only been recently that some have finally been able to reboot a small portion of their lives and work. But then a single even caused waves across the US and even the world, forcing companies like Amazon and Apple to scale back or even close their shops as the number of protests and violent incidents rise in the wake of George Floyd's death.

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The Trump administration have released an executive order to hold Twitter and social media platforms responsible for posts found on their sites. The executive order gives more power to federal regulators to argue that social media companies are violating free speech rights when they censor posts or limit user privileges.

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The US government's trade ban on Huawei was meant to bring the company to its knees both as punishment for its alleged cybersecurity crimes as well as a bargaining chip in trade talks with China. For the past 12 months, however, Huawei has found some ways to get around some of those restrictions to maintain its business. Over the weekend, the US Commerce Department dealt what could be the most crippling blow to the company, and, unsurprisingly, Huawei has responded with accusations that the US is attempting to strengthen its technology industry by crushing everyone else's.

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Some, especially governments, live by a "tit for tat" philosophy so it's really no surprise that China wants to hit the US back. The latter has not only extended Huawei's fate as part of the government's entity list, the US Department of Commerce has also made moves to deprive the phone maker of much-needed access to semiconductors for its processors. Since negotiations seem to have broken down, China is now threatening to respond in kind and put US companies on its own upcoming "unreliable entity list".

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Given everything that has happened in the past four months, it almost feels like Huawei's battle with the US government was so long ago. In reality, however, it was exactly last year that US President Donald Trump invoked a new law that empowered his government to ban US companies from doing business with Huawei. Given present circumstances, it's not surprising that the US is extending that ban for yet another year, putting Huawei's business as well as its customers in limbo yet again.

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Elections are one of the oldest sociopolitical activities of humanity and, given its rather sensitive nature, has been slow to change over the centuries. Attempts to modernize elections and the systems around them have always been met with suspicion and scrutiny due to fears of data and security breaches. In Israel, those fears materialized in what may be the worst case the country has faced, and it isn't even due to the election system itself and only a third-party app for managing voters.

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This week artist Banksy revealed a new piece of art that is both tiny in scale and large in concept. In the past, Banksy became well-known due to his large-scale artworks in the streets - graffiti works of many sorts. If you only know Banksy from his early years in street art, it's a good time to take a look at his accomplishments of late. Most recent of these is a nativity scene called Scar of Bethlehem.

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Mobile apps have helped changed our modern lives, often for the better but sometimes also for the worse. That's especially true for those apps that, in exchange for entertainment or free services, gather unknowing users' data for less conscientious purposes. The US government has taken a particular interest in that phenomenon, especially when it's the data of US citizens that is in question. Lawmakers are now asking if Apple and Google, the two largest mobile platform makers, require app developers to disclose their ties to foreign countries, in particular to China.

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