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NEWS FEED
Startup News Digest 5/17/19
Big Story. Trump administration moves against Chinese tech firms. President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting U.S. companies from purchasing or using telecoms equipment produced by a foreign adversary, an announcement that paves the way for a ban on Chinese-owned telecommunications firm Huawei.
Startup News Digest 5/10/19
The Big Story. FTC supports national data privacy framework. Members of the Federal Trade Commission pushed lawmakers on a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee to create a national data privacy framework that would regulate how tech companies handle and use consumer data.
Startup News Digest 5/03/19
The Big Story: Supreme Court debates hearing Google-Oracle case. The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the Trump administration for its opinion on whether it should hear the long-running Oracle v. Google copyright infringement case involving the Android operating system and access to software interfaces. The justices did not give the Justice Department a deadline to respond.
Startup News Digest 4/26/19
The Big Story: Censoring online content. Sri Lanka’s government blocked social media throughout the entire country to prevent the spread of extremist or misleading online content after a series of devastating bombings at churches and hotels on Easter Sunday killed over 250 people.
Startup News Digest 4/19/19
The Big Story: Europe moves to further regulate online platforms. European countries moved this week to further regulate social media platforms, while the EU Council officially approved a divisive new copyright directive.
Startup News Digest 4/12/19
The Big Story: Dealing with harmful online content. Dueling congressional committees this week held hearings on online hate speech and digital censorship as the United Kingdom released a sweeping plan to require social media companies to be more proactive in removing harmful content from their sites.
Startup News Digest 4/05/19
The Big Story: Net neutrality bill gaining momentum. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to advance the Save the Internet Act, legislation to reinstate the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality protections, which kept the Internet a level playing field for startups. A vote by the full House is expected next week.
Startup News Digest 3/29/19
The Big Story: Data privacy takes center stage. Engine Executive Director Evan Engstrom testified before the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection this week to discuss the impact privacy regulations have on startups. Evan stressed the need for lawmakers to craft a comprehensive national privacy framework that balances strong consumer protections with reasonable requirements for startups on bootstrap budgets.
Startup News Digest 3/22/19
The Big Story: More scrutiny on Internet platforms. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are renewing scrutiny of how Internet platforms moderate users’ content, adding to the criticism of a foundational law that protects Internet platforms of all sizes.
Startup News Digest 3/15/19
The Big Story: Proposed tech breakup bad for startups. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made waves this week when she called for the breakup of several big tech companies, alleging that they have “too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy.”
Startup News Digest 3/8/19
The Big Story: The new push for net neutrality. Democrats came out this week with legislation to restore the 2015 net neutrality rules that kept Internet service providers from blocking or slowing access to content online and from charging companies for better access to users.
Startup News Digest 3/1/19
The Big Story: High stakes for trade deals. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer testified to Congress this week to address several important trade issues impacting startups. On China, it looks unlikely that we will see a resolution to the trade war or a decrease in tariffs soon, although the Administration has started to make some progress with the Chinese on issues like intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers.
Startup News Digest: 2/22/19
The Big Story: Back-to-back privacy hearings. Lawmakers on both sides of the capitol will hold privacy hearings this week as Congress gets increasingly serious about putting federal privacy protections on the book.
Startup News Digest: 2/15/19
The Big Story: EU officials reach a deal on Article 13. European Union officials reached a deal on new copyright rules this week, including Article 13, a controversial proposal that would require Internet platforms to either obtain licenses from a given copyright holder or prevent the upload of any user-generated content that infringes on that rightsholder’s copyright.
Startup News Digest 2/8/19
The Big Story: White House tees up AI, 5G work. The White House will take steps in the coming weeks to boost the U.S.’s competitiveness in the fields of artificial intelligence and 5G, the next generation wireless network, according to reports out this week. Those specific tech policy areas are ones where policymakers have expressed concerns about losing out to other countries, including China.
Startup News Digest 2/1/19
The Big Story: The net neutrality week we've been waiting for. The next seven days will see a lot of action in the fight to restore net neutrality protections on two fronts in the coming days: at the court and on the Hill.
Startup News Digest 1/25/19
The Big Story: GDPR’s biggest hit yet. The French privacy watchdog has issued a $57 million fine against Google, the largest fine yet under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, the sweeping privacy rules that went into effect in the European Union last year.
Startup News Digest 1/18/19
The Big Story: AG nominee talks tech. Ongoing tech policy issues were a recurring topic during this week’s confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department, William Barr.
Startup News Digest 1/11/2019
California collecting input on privacy law. The process of implementing a new California privacy law kicked off in earnest this week as state Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office held its first public forum on the issue.
Startup News Digest 1/4/2019
New year, new Congress, same issues. The new year and the new Congress kicked off this week, but many of the policy debates that concerned startups in 2018 will continue on. As the Democrats take control of the House and the gavels of key committees, expect vigorous oversight of the Trump administration across the board, which is likely to impact several of the policy areas startups care most about, including trade, net neutrality at the Federal Communications Commission, and more.