| DEMS HAMMER TWITTER, FACEBOOK OVER #RELEASETHEMEMO CAMPAIGNS: Two Democratic lawmakers slammed Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday, saying the social media giants' response to questions about recent alleged Russian manipulation of their platform were “incomplete.” Top House Intelligence Committee Democrat Adam Schiff (Calif.) and top Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) had previously sent the companies a letter requesting that they conduct a detailed investigation into social media promotion of the hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo, a campaign that pushed lawmakers to release a controversial House Intelligence memo on FBI surveillance. The hashtag was allegedly boosted by a Russian bot campaign. The companies gave their responses to Feinstein's and Schiff’s offices on Friday, but the two lawmakers said Wednesday that the answers provided by Facebook and Twitter “have raised more questions than they have answered.” In its response, Facebook deflected questions saying that it consistently monitors its platform for “bad actors trying to undermine our democracy,” but that it welcomed information from other companies like Twitter on the matter. Twitter said that it has “not identified any significant activity connected to Russia with respect to Tweets posting original content to this hashtag.” The California Democrats pressed the companies for more answers in a follow-up letter that they sent Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday. Schiff and Feinstein said that they were “no closer to understanding Russia’s continuing interference in our democratic affairs” following Twitter and Facebook’s responses, noting that the companies did not answer their questions about the volume of bot accounts that were involved in pushing #ReleaseTheMemo, how much these accounts posted and how many legitimate — rather than automated — accounts were tied to the campaign. Read more here. Please send your tips, comments and compliments to Ali Breland (abreland@thehill.com) and Harper Neidig (hneidig@thehill.com) and follow us on Twitter: @alibreland and @hneidig. We're also on Signal and WhatsApp. Email or DM us for our numbers. APPLE CONFIRMS GOVERNMENT PROBE: Apple said on Tuesday that it has been contacted by government agencies about the intentional slow down of older devices and that it is in the process of answering their questions. “We have received questions from some government agencies and we are responding to them,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The Hill, without specifying which agencies. “As we told our customers in December, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades,” the spokesperson noted. Bloomberg on Tuesday reported that Apple had been contacted by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of inquiries into whether Apple broke securities laws in revealing that it slows its phones down as they age to preserve deteriorating battery life. Read more here. TWITTER SAYS 1.4M USERS INTERACTED WITH RUSSIAN TROLL ACCOUNTS: Twitter says the number of users who may have interacted with Russian content intended to influence the election is now 1.4 million. The company provided the updated figure, more than double the 650,000 users the company notified initially, on Wednesday. The new figures include users who engaged with or followed Russian accounts, as well as people who don't receive Twitter emails and can't be notified that they were affected. As of Jan. 29, Twitter had notified around 650,000 people who had liked or retweeted content from Russian-linked accounts trying to influence the election. Read more here. HOUSE DEMS DEMAND ANSWERS FROM STRAVA: Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are demanding answers from Strava, the fitness app that analysts say may have inadvertently revealed the locations of covert military and intelligence bases. The lawmakers, led by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), on Wednesday asked for a briefing from the company following reports that analysts have been able to use its publicly available “heat map” to pinpoint the locations of U.S. military bases in the Middle East. "The increasing popularity of fitness trackers and other wearable technology has raised serious questions about the types of data they collect and share and the degree to which consumers control their own personal information," the members wrote in a letter to Strava. "The data these devices collect reveals users' precise locations, daily activities, and health information. Most consumer technology companies, however, are not required to set baseline privacy standards or ensure that users' information is secured." Read more here. UBER EXEC TO TESTIFY BEFORE SENATE ON 2016 DATA BREACH: A top Uber executive will testify before the Senate next week on the company’s 2016 data breach, which exposed the data of 57 million users. John Flynn, Uber’s chief information security officer, will appear before a Senate Commerce subcommittee on Tuesday. The hearing will focus on the breach and Uber’s reported payoff to the hacker responsible through its “bug bounty” program, which is meant to reward researchers for discovering vulnerabilities in the company’s infrastructures. "We have worked closely with the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Innovation, & Data Security and look forward to participating in their hearing," an Uber spokesman said in a statement. Read more here. LAWMAKERS WORRY DIGITAL CURRENCY HELPING HUMAN TRAFFICKERS: Lawmakers at a Tuesday hearing discussed ways to crack down on human traffickers who are using new financial tools to avoid detection. The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations heard from witnesses on the increasing use of cryptocurrencies and encrypted communications, including on smartphones, that make it harder for authorities to catch traffickers. “The lifeblood of human trafficking is the ability to transfer money,” said Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.). “While money has historically been transmitted using remittance services and funnel accounts, the use of prepaid cards and cryptocurrency create an unforeseen challenge for financial regulators.” Read more here. | 
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