Three weeks after President Trump claimed to have been "totally vindicated" by Devin Nunes' memo, the White House is slamming the Democratic rebuttal memo as "politically driven" and incomplete.
Between the lines: Trump blocked a previous version of this memo, leading to the redacted version that was released today. Many of the White House's criticisms of this memo mirror what Democrats claimed about the last one — that it cherry picks certain bits of intelligence and doesn't actually prove anything.
In "The Case Against Google" — the cover story of tomorrow's N.Y. Times Magazine — Charles Duhigg (author of the bestselling "The Power of Habit") explores the antitrust case against Google, and whether the company's algorithmic alchemy stacks the deck against its competitors:
Facebook has shut down a demo of a virtual reality shooting game in its booth at the Conservative Political Action Conference out of "respect for the victims" of the Florida school shooting, BBC's Dave Lee reports.
Why it matters: Per Mashable, Facebook has been criticized "for its role in spreading conspiracy theories about the Parkland shooting." The demo was of the game Bullet Train, which "lets players use an imaginary gun to pretend shoot people in a train station," per Mashable.
Turo, a peer-to-peer car rental service, has filed a counter-suit in response to a lawsuit filed last month by the city of San Francisco over airport fees. The company says the lawsuit is the result of car rental company Enterprise's lobbying, and ignores local permit and tax laws.
Why you'll about this again: Transportation habits are fast changing and the legacy players aren't all taking it well. At the same time, the new generation of marketplaces and services that see themselves as "tech companies," haven't been shy about pushing for changes in regulations (or ignoring them altogether).
Ahead of Mobile World Congress, Google announced Friday it is bringing its augmented reality and Google Lens smart camera tools to more devices — and giving both new tricks.
Why it matters: Convincing developers to build for AR is, in part, a numbers game. Apple's ARKit is already supported on lots and lots of iPhones so getting Google's rival ARCore on more devices is important. Google Lens, meanwhile, is the evolution of the search box, using what the camera sees as the query.
The House is moving toward a floor vote on an anti-sex-trafficking package that has been a major headache for internet companies.
Our thought bubble: If it passes, the package will be the first concrete legislation to come out of a renewed "techlash" in Washington. This is the end result of a year when Facebook and Google were putting out so many fires — on Russia and tech addiction and extremist content — that they weren't able to keep this one at bay.
The Missouri GOP released a statement Friday responding to Governor Eric Greitens' indictment for "felony invasion of privacy," claiming that the prosecutor, Kim Gardner, was paid by George Soros, and that the allegation is "a political hit job."
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to clarify Kim Gardner is the prosecutor in this case.
President Trump blasted El Salvador and Mexico in a morning tweet by claiming that they allow deported MS-13 gang members to "come back in [to the United States]...like water." He also stated those gang members are being removed "by the thousands" — an assertion, per The Washington Post, that isn't backed up by hard numbers.
