politics

The news around the Huawei controversy may have wound down a bit after the company was granted a small reprieve and hope of an eventual exception but things are about to kick up again tomorrow when that initial grant of mercy ends. Huawei was initially granted a 90-day exception to purchase some, but not all, American products it needs to maintain its business, including Google's Android software, but that time will end August 19. Sources, however, claim that Huawei will be granted another temporary general license for yet another 90 days.

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If Huawei was hoping it is close to getting back into the US' good side, a new expose might put it back in trouble. The Chinese company has always been suspected of being a threat to the US' national security but, so far, it has been associated with China. This new report, however, claims that Huawei provided North Korea with equipment and technology, some of which have been sourced from the US, despite the US export ban on North Korea.

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You'd often think that politics and the tech industry exist in completely separate realms but the real world is hardly that neat. One informs the other and, like in Huawei's case, can even negatively impact one another. While still far from the mess that the Chinese company has found itself in, Samsung may also be feeling the effects of an ongoing feud between South Korea and Japan which is now reported to disrupt the production of the upcoming Galaxy Note 10.

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Cryptocurrencies have always been regarded with skepticism and suspicion ever since Bitcoin started hitting mainstream news. It has gained more momentum and support around the world but, unsurprisingly, governments are more cautious about officially acknowledging the technology. The latest to join those voices is none other than US president Donald Trump who, in a series of tweets, expressed his dislike of Bitcoin and its kin and also took the opportunity to bring up Facebook's new Libra "virtual currency".

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As the entity with the biggest influence on what we discover on the Internet, Google is seen both as custodian and also censor of the Wide Wild Web. The latter is an especially thorny subject when it comes to political topics, with the search giant accused of favoring either left or right wing agendas. One of the latest controversies involves images of former US President Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein that certain parties claim have been removed by Google from its search results. The truth, however, might be too simple to be believed.

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Twitter has something of a tricky situation on its hands. Sometimes, public figures - specifically, people in government - say things on Twitter that violate the company's rules, forcing Twitter to make a tough decision. Does it enforce its rules and remove the offending tweet, or does it leave the tweet published because it's in the public interest to do so?

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When the US imposed a trade ban on ZTE last year, it almost caused the Chinese company to go bankrupt. While Huawei may last longer than its compatriot, it might not take long before the company is also brought to its knees. Google has already been reported to stop licensing its proprietary Google Play components for future Huawei phones. Now silicon makers like Qualcomm and Intel are also temporarily cutting ties with China's biggest tech company and the world's second largest phone maker.

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There's no doubt that Elizabeth Warren raised a lot of eyebrows earlier this month when she revealed her plans to split up some of the US's biggest tech companies. The senator, in announcing her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, specifically named Google, Amazon, and Facebook as having too much power, and operating like a monopoly. But for some people in San Francisco, her proposals go a bit too far.

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Elizabeth Warren wants to break up big tech, with the US 2020 presidential hopeful outlining how she would dismantle behemoths like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. The controversial proposal argues that the biggest names in technology today have used merges and proprietary marketplaces to clamp down on competition, and that it's time for the government to weigh in.

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Sammy Hagar must be proud right now. California state senator John Moorlach, a Republican from Orange County, has introduced a bill in the state legislature that could bring autobahn-style unlimited lanes to California highways. The bill seeks to add lanes to north and southbound Interstate 5 and State Route 99 that would have no speed limits.

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Today a bit more clarification of recent events at Facebook puts COO Sheryl Sandberg back in the limelight. Not that she was ever out - Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and Facebook head of communications and policy Elliot Schrage have been at the center of recent controversy since well before Thanksgiving. Todays news has to do with George Soros and a speech he made at Davos in January of 2018.

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Today we've run through a set of facts revealed by Facebook in an article published by outgoing Facebook Head of Communications and Policy Elliot Schrage. This is just the most recent piece of work published after the New York Times article published on November 14th, 2018. This NYT article went by the name "Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook's Leaders Fought Through Crisis."

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