Advocacy groups in the United States and the European Union issued a statement on Wednesday rallying against Google's acquisition of Fitbit. The statement was signed by twenty advocacy groups from countries around the world, primarily in the USA and Europe. Google currently has a bid in place to acquire the fitness wearable company Fitbit - but the deal's not quite done just yet.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has dealt a new blow to Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, alleging that they are both national security threats. With an official proclamation established, the FCC says that its Universal Service Fund cannot be used to purchase or otherwise support any services or hardware from either company. The move follows years of US government concern over potential espionage and security issues related to hardware from Chinese companies.
Another major city in the United States, Boston, has banned the use of facial recognition technology for surveillance purposes, stating that not only does this tech trample 'on everyone’s rights to anonymity and privacy,' but it also enforces systemic racism and makes it easier for communities to target minorities. Boston joins five other regions in Massachusetts that have also banned their respective governments from using these systems.
Ride-hailing company Lyft has vowed an ambitious goal: it will transition to 100-percent electric vehicles by 2030. The commitment was announced on June 17, with Lyft explaining that it is collaborating with the Environmental Defense Fund on this effort. The news comes amid reports that transportation is driving greenhouse gas pollution in the US and is a big source of pollution elsewhere in the world.
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.
This week Facebook employees and leadership protested their CEO Mark Zuckerberg's inaction on messages from Trump. As Twitter marked inflammatory messages from Trump with fact-checking resources and/or warnings about their dangerous nature, Facebook did no such thing with similar/identical messages over the weekend. Zuckerberg reacted to Trump's messages with claims that "free expression" trumped all other matters.
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.
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.
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".
Huawei will, for one more year, have to deal with the effects of remaining on the US' Entity List, effectively barring it from access to US products and technologies. All throughout last year's drama, Huawei remained proud in affirming its independence and its capability to make its own products, especially its own mobile processor via HiSilicon's Kirin. The US Commerce Department, however, has now seeking to block even the latter which could eventually leave Huawei with no processors to use for its new phones in the near future.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, more commonly referred to as TSMC, has announced plans to bring another semiconductor facility to the United States. The company plans to build and operate a $12 billion factory in Arizona, where it will use its 5-nanometer technology to produce 20,000 semiconductor wafers per month. The company plans to start construction on the new facility next year.
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.