National Public Radio

Lobbyists, Campaign Cash And Think Tanks: How Silicon Valley Tackled Politics

In the early days, Silicon Valley and Washington largely ignored each other. But in 1998, the Justice Department accused Microsoft of building a software monopoly. A settlement was negotiated, and the tech companies got a lesson: They needed Washington lobbyists. Facebook opened its DC office when it was five years old — and already worth billions. It routinely hires lots of top-tier, veteran lobbyists, as does Google. The current lobbying environment is ideal. Many lawmakers still don't fully grasp the technology.

Facebook Previously Failed To Keep Privacy Promises, Ex-FTC Adviser Tim Wu Says

A Q&A with Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia University and coiner of the term "net neutrality."

A Needle In A Legal Haystack Could Sink A Major Supreme Court Privacy Case

Can a US technology company refuse to honor a court-ordered US search warrant seeking information that is stored at a facility outside the United States? Oral arguments in a pending case took place at the Supreme Court in February 2018, and they did not go well for Microsoft, the tech giant that is challenging a warrant for information stored at its facility in Ireland.