Ali Breland

Sens Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) put pressure on IT company Super Micro, asking in a letter that it cooperate with law enforcement and explain more about the potential breach. Super Micro, Apple and Amazon have all refuted the Bloomberg report that detailed how the Chinese government was able to take advantage of vulnerabilities in Super Micro's supply chain, with the companies saying that their own investigations have not found evidence of a hack or of being compromised in the way described in the report.

Twitter outlined its efforts to help preserve election integrity during the upcoming 2018 midterms, including its removal of a new set of accounts and a ban on the distribution of hacked materials. “As platform manipulation tactics continue to evolve, we are updating and expanding our rules to better reflect how we identify fake accounts, and what types of inauthentic activity violate our guidelines,” Twitter wrote. The company said that it removed around 50 accounts misrepresenting themselves as members different state Republican parties in Aug.

Lawmakers and consumer advocates are pressing telecommunication companies to ensure that rural areas are not left behind in the race to adopt fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile broadband technology. Rural advocates from both parties, such as Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT), note that large areas of America still lack 4G or even 3G coverage. While most urban areas have access to high-speed internet and 4G mobile broadband, outside of the highways that cut across the country, huge swaths of America often lack any consistent broadband connection.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) slammed Google as part of his ongoing criticism of the company's alleged bias against conservatives, mentioning its work with China, its search results accidentally showing one of the ideologies of the California Republican Party as “Nazism”, and for work it did to mobilize the Latino vote. “It’s their own executive that they said they have a silent donation where they tried to help people to help Hillary,” he said, referencing a report by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that described an email sent by Google’s Multicultural Marketing department head.

Twitter said that it would begin requiring some organizations that purchase political ads on topics such as abortion, health-care reform and immigration to disclose more information about themselves to users, part of the tech giant’s attempt to thwart bad actors, including Russia, from spreading propaganda ahead of the 2018 election. The new policy targets promoted tweets that mention candidates or advocate on “legislative issues of national importance,” Twitter executives said. To purchase these ads, individuals and groups must verify their identities.

President Donald Trump escalated a brewing battle with various technology companies, issuing a warning to Facebook and Twitter after blasting Google earlier in the day. "Google and Twitter and Facebook, they’re really treading on very, very troubled territory," President Trump cautioned during an event at the White House. "If you look at what is going on with Twitter and if you look at what’s going on in Facebook, they better be careful because you can’t do that to people," he added. The president did not provide specifics to clarify his remarks.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey spoke with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) about the growing firestorm over alleged anti-conservative bias by tech companies. Dorsey thanked the high-ranking GOP Reps for a “productive conversation today about the importance of transparency including how algorithms work,” in a tweet. "It's an important issue in the tech industry and I look forward to continuing the conversation," he added. Dorsey spoke to the lawmakers over the phone.

Lawmakers in the House passed a bill aimed at bolstering skills training for technical jobs in various industries. The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act unanimously passed the House after passing the Senate on July 23. It is now headed to President Donald Trump’s desk. The bill, introduced by Reps GT Thompson (R-PA) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), increases federal funding for the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Program by up to $1.3 billion annually.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is fighting back against some of the negative claims that US government officials have been making about the company in recent months. In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, Huawei focused on recent moves by the agency to restrict rural carriers from purchasing telecommunications equipment made by Huawei and other Chinese companies. Huawei, with the help of telecommunications economist Allan Shampine, argued that by imposing new rules, the agency could hurt poor, rural communities.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter to Google expressing concerns over the company’s partnership with the Chinese phone maker Huawei. The group of senators and congressmen said that the partnership poses national security concerns, in step with previous efforts to keep Chinese tech firms, including ZTE and Huawei, from doing business in the US.