French President Emmanuel Macron's push for a law to battle "fake news" looks like a tough stand against Russia. Macron himself was the victim of a Russian disinformation campaign during last year's election season, and he earned praise for calling the Russian outlets RT and Sputnik "agencies of influence and propaganda" during his first meeting with Putin.
But while Macron has styled himself as a defender of Western democracy, his government has sought closer economic ties with Russia, despite EU and U.S. sanctions and Russia's continued support for the war in Ukraine.
France is already the biggest foreign investor in Russia, where French firms have 170,000 employees and send over $5 billion in exports. Macron seems set to double down on his pivot to Russia in May, when he is expected to launch a renewed economic agenda at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia's Davos.
Why it matters: Economic sanctions are only as strong as the EU block's weakest link, and Macron's overtures to Russia give other nations an excuse to follow suit. But he can't have it both ways: Being tough on Russia for its bad behavior means putting your money where your mouth is.
Alina Polyakova is the David M. Rubenstein Fellow for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution.
Internet Association — a group that represents major tech companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon and Snapchat in Washington, says it will help fight the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules.
What they're saying: "IA intends to act as an intervenor in judicial action against this order and, along with our member companies, will continue our push to restore strong, enforceable net neutrality protections through a legislative solution," said Michael Beckerman, the group's president.
Not happening yet: Advocacy groups, companies and state attorneys general are expected to be involved in litigation against the repeal — but lawsuits won't come until after the rollback is published by the FCC in the Federal Register. That is expected to happen in the coming weeks.
Go deeper: The FCC published the full text of the net neutrality repeal on Thursday..
Google's search engine may be banned in China, but it just invested in Chinese mobile game live-streaming company Chushou.
Why it matters: This is Google's latest attempt to be involved in a massive market where its search engine is disallowed. In 2015, it invested in artificial intelligence startup Mobvoi and, this past December, it opened an A.I. lab in Beijing.
After more than a day of silence, Apple confirmed Thursday that the Mac, iPhone and iPad are all affected by the recently disclosed massive chip vulnerability.
Why it matters: Although the vulnerabilities are at the hardware level, most of the mitigations are being done at the operating system level, putting the onus on companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google. Microsoft and Google have already released and detailed patches for Windows, Chrome OS and Android. (For more on the Meltdown and Spectre, check out our explainer here.)
