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2018年4月2日 星期一

Overnight Tech: Latest in Trump's fight with Amazon | Trump defends Sinclair | Missouri AG subpoenas Facebook | Feds ask Supreme Court to dismiss case against Microsoft

 
 
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TRUMP GOES AFTER AMAZON, DEFENDS SINCLAIR: President Trump set the tone for the week in a series of Monday morning tweets. In one, he kept up his broadside against Amazon, criticizing the company's arrangement with the postal service.

"Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon," the president wrote. "THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country...not a level playing field!"

{mosads}The tweet follows a number of attacks on the online retail giant over the past week. Over the weekend, Trump accused The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, of acting as a "lobbyist" for Amazon. He's also complained that the company does not pay its fair share of taxes and is making it impossible for small businesses to survive.

The U.S. Postal Service does offer Amazon a discount on shipping due to the volume of packages it distributes, but the details of the contract are not public.

CBS News fact-checked Trump's claims and found that while "the postal service is struggling, it's not because of Amazon."

Still, Trump is not alone in his criticisms of Amazon. The company's dominance in online retail has hurt small businesses and shut out competitors, some critics argue.

But if the president is truly concerned about Amazon's growing power in the U.S., he's had plenty of opportunities to do something about it. The FTC, which has been operating with just two of its five seats filled throughout his administration, signed off on the company's acquisition of Whole Foods last year just two months after the deal was announced.

And the tax bill that Trump signed in December will give Amazon a $789 million windfall, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which also found that the company paid nothing in federal taxes last year.

 

On Monday, the president also defended Sinclair after the right-leaning news conglomerate came under widespread criticism for its "must run" programming. It appears to be the first time he's injected himself into the debate over Sinclair.

"So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke," he wrote in the tweet.

Sinclair is the country's largest holder of local television stations (among its assets are local NBC affiliates). It's also awaiting approval of a merger with Tribune Media, a deal that would expand its local television holdings to reach around 70 percent of the country's TV-viewing audience.

--Remember, Democrats in Congress are widely opposed to the deal and have criticized the Federal Communications Commission for what they see as favorable treatment of the broadcaster. In February, it was revealed that the agency's inspector general had opened an investigation into Chairman Ajit Pai's handling of Sinclair.

 

Please send your tips, comments and April Fool's Day survival tales 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.

 

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER HEADACHE FOR FACEBOOK: On Monday, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (R) announced that he has subpoenaed Facebook following the Cambridge Analytica data controversy.

Hawley told reporters that he wants information on what data Facebook has given to political groups and whether it's fully disclosing its data practices to users.

"I want to know, does Facebook truly disclose to its users the kind of data that it collects?" Hawley said at a press conference. "Does it disclose how it uses this information? Does it disclose how it shares this information?"

--Don't forget: In November, Hawley, who's challenging Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) for her seat, also hit Google with a subpoena in an antitrust investigation.

 

Zuckerberg continued his media blitz in an interview with Vox's Ezra Klein on Sunday night, firing back at Apple CEO Tim Cook and addressing the company's possible role in Myanmar's ethnic cleansing crisis.

 

Background reading on Facebook and Myanmar: Top U.N. officials in March said that the social media platform is contributing to ethnic cleansing in the country by helping the spread of hate speech.

Facebook's scramble in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica stories and the renewed scrutiny on data practices comes as the tech industry is readying itself for the GDPR, a sweeping new European data regulation that will go into effect in May. Check out Harper's story over the weekend on the preparations.

That's not all of Facebook's worries. The company is also distancing itself from a controversial internal memo that surfaced last week. Check out Ali's story on the new controversy.

 

DOJ ASKS SCOTUS TO DISMISS MICROSOFT CASE: The Justice Department on Friday asked the Supreme Court to throw out a case against Microsoft that would determine whether U.S. law enforcement can search and seize overseas data.

More from our colleague Lydia Wheeler:

"In a 16-page motion filed Friday, Solicitor General Noel Francisco said the spending bill resolved the question before the court; namely, whether a service provider responding to a probable-cause based warrant issued under the Stored Communications Act has to produce information within its 'possession, custody, or control,' regardless of whether its stored inside or outside of the United States. "

  

TECH WOES, TRADE WARS PROMPT STOCK PLUNGE: As Sylvan Lane reports, the back-and-forth between the Trump administration and China over tariffs combined with tech giants' troubles caused heavy losses in the market on Monday. From Sylvan:

"The Dow Jones industrial average lost 459 points Monday, a 1.9 percent loss, after falling by more than 700 points during trading. The S&P 500 index and Nasdaq lost 2.2 and 2.7 percent each, falling into correction range, a 10-percent drop from their 52-week highs."

 

QUESTIONS FOR GRINDR ON HIV DATA: Concerns over mass data collection are spreading to other technology companies. Grindr, a gay dating and hook-up app, has reportedly provided its users' HIV statuses to two outside companies.

Apptimize and Localytics, both data-optimization firms, have received certain information that some Grindr users choose to include in their profiles, including their HIV status and "last tested date."

Context: Mass data collection and sharing between companies is not new, but now there are new concerns from the public stemming from Facebook's mishandling of data from 50 million users that ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica.

 

LONGREAD OF THE DAY: Mark Zuckerberg's trash is a very secretive affair. That's what The Outline wrote in a deep (not dumpster) dive into one writer's attempt to get his hands on the Facebook CEO's trash. It apparently isn't easy to do.

 

ON TAP:

Federal Communications Bar Association Wireline Committee discussion on the transfer of universal service funding to the U.S. Treasury at 12:15 p.m.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

The Ringer: A take on the larger implications of Silicon Valley's "memo culture"

Reuters: All eyes are on Amazon's new grocery store, but in China Walmart has its own high-tech store in the works.

Engadget: Tesla has finally release details about its autopilot mode crash in March and federal investigator say it's not enough.

Op-ed: Facebook is not to blame; we are

 
 
 
 
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