Twitter was down for more than an hour on Thursday, preventing new messages from being sent and the service from loading. The company told Axios during the outage that it had "no evidence of a security breach or hack" and was investigating internal causes.
What they're saying: "We know people are having trouble Tweeting and using Twitter. We’re working to fix this issue as quickly as possible," Twitter said in an e-mail to Axios.
Twitter today is alight with conversations about a New York Post story on Hunter Biden. But you can't find a link to the story on Twitter, and you'll be temporarily blocked if you try to share it — due to concerns that the story is based on hacked, or possibly manipulated documents. Facebook has also put sharing limits on the story.
Axios Re:Cap talks with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) about Big Tech censorship, election disinformation, and why he plans to subpoena Jack Dorsey, but not Mark Zuckerberg.
The tantalizing prospect of 10G internet service — which would be 10 times faster than today's 1G networks — is starting to take shape, and soon city officials will need to set policy guidelines for this next generation of cable broadband.
Why it matters: For now, ubiquitous 1 gigabit internet is "really going to be needed to ensure that the U.S. is at the forefront of global economic growth and opportunity," says Angie Kronenberg of INCOMPAS, the internet and competitive networks trade association.
YouTube announced Thursday that it is expanding its hate and harassment policies to prohibit content that targets an individual or group with conspiracy theories, like QAnon, that have been used to justify real-world violence.
Why it matters: It is the latest tech giant to crack down on QAnon content, which has seen record online interest in 2020.
Google Cloud announced Thursday a five-year agreement with the Energy Department to provide the agency with access to a "broad range" of cloud technologies.
Why it matters: The Energy Department has a vast research arm and needs highly sophisticated and powerful computing. Google said the tech will enable a wide range of "use cases."
While regulators in the U.S. and Europe circle Facebook and scrutinize its every move, in much of the rest of the world its platform remains ill-defended against election tampering, human rights violations, autocratic misuse and other information disorders.
The big picture: The consequences of this void are huge yet hardly acknowledged by Western regulators, who are most concerned with the misinformation spreading in their own backyards.
In 2016, hacked emails and foreign meddling shaped the political fight, and social media took much of the blame. Afterwards, the platforms designed circuit breakers to avoid a repeat in 2020.
What's happening: Those breakers tripped Wednesday at both Facebook and Twitter to stop the spread of a New York Post story that reported allegations about Joe Biden's son Hunter, based on what the paper said were emails provided to it Sunday by Rudy Giuliani.
Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday took steps to limit the circulation of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden, deploying throttles that have been built in an effort to avoid repeating mistakes of 2016.
Why it matters: In the run-up to November's election, online platforms have designed circuit breakers to limit the spread of hacked emails and foreign meddling. In 2016, such material helped shape the political fight, and social media took much of the blame.
A company that makes internet-connected thermometers has shown success in predicting likely COVID-19 hot spots days or even weeks before case counts rise.
Why it matters: Even as the U.S. has ramped up coronavirus testing, too often we're still behind the pace of the virus. But connected, at-home diagnostics could give advance warning of when COVID-19 — or the next new virus — is about to strike.
Representatives of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance — the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand — plus Japan and India, have released a new statement again calling for expanding "lawful access" into commercial encryption.
Why it matters: It’s more international pressure on tech companies to put backdoors into their encrypted systems, even though experts, including the former FBI general counsel, agree these backdoors would likely be exploited by bad actors, including hostile foreign powers.
A U.S. military-led cyber strike aimed at hobbling the world’s largest botnet is the latest escalation of the Trump administration's increasingly aggressive cyber policy.
Why it matters: Going more on the offensive in cyberspace can mean more chances to preempt state-backed or criminal cyber operations before they can harm Americans. But it also raises concerns about America's cyber warriors overstepping their authority and trampling on people's privacy.
A growing number of tech companies say workers need not ever come back to the office if they don't want to. The move comes as pandemic-related closures have already kept many tech workers out of the office for months.
Why it matters: Technology's spread into every corner of the broader economy keeps boosting demand for workers with tech skills. That pushes employers to accommodate tech talent wherever they find it.
With the iPhone 12, unveiled Tuesday, Apple has made some big technology bets that should boost demand for 5G networks as well as help spur developers to create more advanced augmented reality applications. However, phone buyers will probably have to wait for a payoff.
Why it matters: Many tech advances start out as chicken-and-egg problems, with developers waiting for a market to emerge while consumers don't yet see the value in spending more. Apple has the rare ability to push past that block. Because of its size and comparatively focused product line, its support of new technologies like 5G and lidar can vault them into the mainstream.
Peer-to-peer car rental company Getaround said Wednesday that it raised $140 million in new funding.
Why it matters: This comes near the end of a roller-coaster year for Getaround, which saw bookings drop by 75% at the start of the pandemic, but since has seen revenue double from pre-pandemic levels.
China is already test-driving the future of finance while the rest of the world is stuck trying to get its learner's permit.
What's happening: Over the past two weeks Chinese authorities in cities like Shenzhen and Chengdu have given out the country's brand new digital renminbi currency and are urging even faster rollout of the token nationwide.
Governments around the world have seized on the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to expand digital surveillance and harvest more data on their citizens, according to a report out Wednesday from Freedom House, a democracy and human rights research group.
Why it matters: Privacy advocates have warned since early in the pandemic that the tech behind efforts to conduct contact tracing and enforce quarantines and other public safety protocols could be abused and made permanent, particularly in authoritarian countries like China.
The long-standing but now hotly contested law that keeps online platforms from being held liable for what users post should be narrowed, conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote Tuesday.
Why it matters: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is a growing target of bipartisan ire. Thomas, arguably the most conservative member of the Supreme Court, is laying down a marker as the likely confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett looks set to tip the high court further right.
