Weekly Roundup
Chinese sabotage, Meta's failed fact checking experiment, and investment plans
The biggest headline grabber last week was the oral arguments at the Supreme Court over the TikTok divestment bill. I wrote extensively on the arguments yesterday, which is why today’s Weekly Roundup is a day late and a bit short.
That said, plenty of emerging tech regulation stories flew under the radar last week.
China cut an underwater communications cable off the coast of Taiwan using a custom-made, patented device:
First, we saw the ‘anchor dragging’ operating by a Chinese vessel to cut an underwater communications cable off the northeastern coast of Taiwan. You can read a more detailed report on this issue here. Related to this, Newsweek has covered the discovery of Chinese technology patents related to the severing of underwater communications cables. In the report, a "dragging type submarine cable cutting device" is described as having been developed in 2020 by a team of engineers at Lishui University in Zhejiang province, which just happens to be located opposite Taiwan.
In other security news
U.S. adds Tencent and CATL to blacklist of companies working with China’s military.
Krebs on Security published a fascinating long-form piece on A Day in the Life of a Prolific Voice Phishing Crew.
Meta-morphosis
Meta continues to make moves to preemptively placate the new administration. They announced it would change its “fact-checking” methods to look more like X’s Community Notes. There were immediate concerns from advertisers who were worried that undesirable content would be run next to their ads. There was some lamenting that this would give rise to more misinformation, but overall, it seems most people viewed the fact-checking program as more or less a failure in the first place.
Here are some additional worthwhile reads on the fact-checking changes and other internet safety news:
UK confirms plans to criminalize the creation of sexually explicit deepfake content.
Microsoft accuses group of developing tool to abuse its AI service in new lawsuit.
Anyone looking for a detailed list of child safety legislation, reports, and court cases worldwide should read PrivacyX. I recommend everyone interested in privacy and online child safety subscribe to this newsletter.
Investiture
Last week, AI startup Anthropic announced they will build out a public sector sales team. Investment and government procurement can be a silent regulatory method. I previously wrote:
Regulation has many flavors. Alongside case law, legislation, and existing regulatory frameworks, government agencies can also flex their procurement power to shape industry. Because the government will require AI to adhere to internal governance policies, procurement policies can have legislative-type effects on how AI is developed and marketed to other sectors.
Anthropic is hardly alone in going after U.S. dollars.
“President-elect Donald Trump has announced that Hussain Sajwani, an Emirati billionaire businessman who founded the property development giant DAMAC Properties, will invest $20 billion in new data centers across the United States.” However, nothing about the deal has been formalized yet.
In other business news
Starlink is now cheaper than leading internet provider in some African countries.
Malaysia expects surge of Chinese investment, economy minister says. “Rafizi Ramli suggests semiconductor and tech sectors are seeking to avoid exposure to possible Trump tariffs.”
U.S. regulator plans to toughen customer protection on crypto accounts. “CFPB proposes to put digital wallets under same standard as bank accounts.”
Lastly
Drone Collision Grounds Firefighting Plane in Los Angeles
Flight restrictions are often imposed by the F.A.A. when wildfires break out, and the authorities have warned for years about the threat posed by drones to firefighting aircraft. In September, at least two drone incursions were reported as firefighters battled the Line fire in Southern California.
Drone sightings force the authorities to ground firefighting aircraft for a minimum of 15 minutes and for as much as 30 minutes while they confirm it is safe to fly again, Mr. Thomas said.
While this is a federal offense punishable by up to 12 months in prison, that alone doesn’t seem to be a successful deterrent. The ubiquity of drones will overrun any paper-based regulatory effort to stop them. The commercial market is simply too large to ban them or tax them out of existence, and the technology is fairly easy to come by.
The government is going to have to buy or invest in kinetic or electronic-based (think jammers) anti-drone technologies to deploy in situations like this or permanently around critical infrastructure. The development of this technology is a win-win. The military certainly needs it, but there is a commercial application as well—wouldn’t you want something you can install next to your ignored and rusting satellite dish to keep your pesky neighbors from spying on your backyard BBQ you didn’t invite them to?
