Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Internet companies to "take a principled stand" against countries that restrict online communications and free speech.
In a much-anticipated speech on Internet freedom Thursday morning, Clinton expressed support for Google's announcement last week that it would consider pulling out of China after detecting cyber attacks aiming to obtain the personal information of human rights activists.
"We look to Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough review of events that led Google to this announcement," she said. "I hope competitors and foreign countries will pay close attention to this trend."
Microsoft executives were on Capitol Hill Wednesday to publicize a new bill it is proposing to update privacy and security laws for one of Washington’s biggest buzzwords: cloud computing.
Although most people have never even heard of it, the government and consumers are increasingly using the technology on a daily basis. Cloud computing refers to storing documents, email and photos on remote servers run by Google or Microsoft, and people can access that data through the Internet. If you have a Gmail or Hotmail account, you’re a cloud computing customer.
But there are still big privacy and security concerns with the technology. The government is especially concerned with protecting sensitive or even classified information in a “cloud” that could be vulnerable to hackers.
Scott Brown’s majority-grabbing win of the Massachusetts Senate seat Tuesday night is another tribute to the power of the Web in elections.
Brown consistently received more than twice the amount of search interest as his Democratic opponent Martha Coakley, according to Google statistics. And he had more than three times the number of followers on Twitter, more than five times the number of fans on Facebook, and more than nine times as many views of his YouTube videos than Coakley.
It wasn’t an accident. Brown spent around 10 percent of its media budget on online advertising—a new record for a political campaign (although that number is just an initial estimate). Some of that money ($145,000, to be exact) paid for Google’s “network blast” tool to spread ads everywhere Massachusetts Internet users went online since last Thursday.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker will testify at a hearing Feb. 4 by the Senate Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights subcommittee.
Sen. Herb Kohl, chairman of the committee, announced the hearing today. He said it will examine the deal's consequences for broadcast TV, cable services and Internet programming, and its impact on consumer options for the services.
This is the first of several hearings lawmakers have pledged to hold to examine the proposed merger, which some say would give one company too much power in the creation and distribution of media content.
The FCC today ordered cable companies to share high-definition sports programming with competitors, closing what it calls a "loophole" in the law that allows providers like Comcast to have exclusive rights to certain sports events.
Satellite TV providers and other companies that now offer pay-TV services, like AT&T, have long complained that cable companies exploited the loophole to cut out competitors in some markets. For example, Comcast owns coverage of Philadelphia's major sports franchises through its regional sports network.
The FCC said that content should be made available to competing services. The cable companies will have the chance to rebut the satellite and phone companies' compliants, but they will be "presumed" to be in violation of FCC rules.
This means AT&T may soon have access to coverage of the San Diego Padres, which it says Cox has been withholding. Verizon could be able to show events at Madison Square Garden in high definition through its FiOS service. Those events are currently only available to Cablevision subscribers.
The White House has come out with an application for your iPhone.
It will stream live videos so we can all watch Obama's public events at the White House and frequent web chats with administration officials, according to the White House blog.
The app was released just in time for everyone to watch the State of the Union address next week. TechPresident has more details.
The White House is also working on creating a mobile site so it is easier to browse the site on all cell phones, even if you don't have the coveted iPhone.
Andrew Reinsdorf has been promoted to DirecTV's senior vice president of government affairs. He will now oversee the company's federal and state legislative lobbying efforts. He will also lead efforts for DirecTV's Political Action Committee.
Reinsdorf has been with the satellite company's Washington office for five years, working on legislative strategy. Before joining DirecTV, he worked at the National Association of Broadcasters, Nestle USA and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
He's currently the chair of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association.
Microsoft still hasn't committed to a position on net neutrality.
It was one of the only major technology companies not to submit comments to the FCC on the matter when they were due last week.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said he puts the company "in the middle of the spectrum" when it comes to whether it thinks new rules are needed to guide Internet traffic.
While it is not an Internet service provider, many of its products depend on networks--both wireless and earth-bound--to reach consumers.
"If we're going to have new regulations, we would want those regulations to work well for the entire industry," he said in an interview this morning. "We of course want those regulations to be thoughtful."
Smith said Microsoft would file comments with the FCC during the next and final filing period before the agency votes on the issue.
Several Scott Brown-for-president domain names have been snapped up as interest in the charismatic candidate spreads beyond his home state of Massachusetts.
The rights to scottbrown2012.com and scottbrown2016.com were acquired on
Tuesday, the day the Republican scored his stunning victory in the race for Sen. Edward Kennedy's (D-Mass) Senate seat. The domain name scottbrownforpresident.com was already taken, having been bought last
Friday.
Some conservatives are already talking about Brown
challenging President Barack Obama in 2012. Brown would be up for reelection
for his new Senate seat that year.
Job seekers who use the Internet are more likely to keep actively looking for jobs and less likely to drop out of the labor pool than those without Internet access, according to a new study released this morning by the Phoenix Center.
At a time when lawmakers are trying to ease unemployment, which now hovers over 10 percent, and increase Internet access, the study shows an explicit link between the two. The Phoenix Center is a non-profit that studies telecommunications and economics public policy.
The correlation between employment and internet access is even stronger among broadband users.
Scott Brown’s majority-grabbing win of the Massachusetts Senate seat Tuesday night is another tribute to the power of the Web in elections.
Andrew Reinsdorf has been promoted to DirecTV's senior vice president of government affairs. He will now oversee the company's federal and state legislative lobbying efforts. He will also lead efforts for DirecTV's Political Action Committee.
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