Heidi King, the acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is set to step down on August 31, Automotive News reports.
Why it matters: King was nominated a year ago to become permanent administrator, but never confirmed by Congress. Sources tell Axios that her management style alienated some at the agency, which has been coping with management churn and been accused by consumer advocates of being too cozy with the auto industry.
Verizon is set to sell the social network Tumblr to Automattic Inc, the owner of online publishing tool Wordpress. A source familiar with the deal puts the price-tag "well below" $20 million, while another source puts it below $10 million.
The big picture: Tumblr, while unprofitable, hosts more than 450 million blogs and was once considered a major player in the social media space. The network was acquired by Yahoo for $1.1 billion in 2013, before moving under Verizon's umbrella through the carrier's acquisition of Yahoo in 2017. Verizon's desire to sell Tumblr had been previously known, but as of May, Pornhub had been the only bidder to show public interest.
The White House is proposing having the FCC monitor alleged censorship of political speech on social media platforms. Dan goes deeper with Axios tech policy reporter David McCabe.
The Trump administration's policy toward big tech moved in two opposite directions late last week, as the White House sought the big platforms' help in predicting mass shootings while it was also reportedly drafting plans to punish them for perceived bias.
Driving the news: Friday, the administration invoked the help of Google, Facebook and other companies to detect and deter mass shooters before they act.
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