Michael Callahan, an executive president and general council at Yahoo has apologized to lawmakers for offering faulty information about the company working with a Chinese government request for user information about a journalist who was later jailed.
Congress Mulls Fines For Cooperation With China
Have a seat; your hypocrisy detectors are about to blow. First the good news: The House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs passed the Global Online Freedom Act, which would penalize companies like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and Cisco for aiding countries like China spy on political dissidents.
eBay Presses Congress For Internet Tax Ban
Brian Bieron, eBay’s senior director of federal government relations testified before the House Small Business Committee and said that small businesses would be negatively impacted if a permanent ban on Internet access taxes were not implemented.
Congress Adds Bloggers To Press Protections
The US Government is recognizing the citizen blogosphere’s function in the operation of the press by introducing new legislation to offer bloggers the same protections as traditional journalists.
Can’t Fix Stupid, But Congress Will Try
First let’s echo Ron White when he says, “you can’t fix stupid.” Now that we agree on that, let’s also doubt that imposing stiffer penalties on those stupid enough to post video evidence on YouTube of themselves committing a crime won’t really act as a deterrent. Because, again, you can’t fix stupid.
HP Ripped By Congress Over Spying
CEO Mark Hurd, ex-board chairman Patricia Dunn, and former general counsel Ann Baskins were among the Hewlett-Packard employees who were lambasted by Congress for their roles in a spying scandal that has brought criticism and law enforcement scrutiny to the company.
AOL Renews Privacy Concerns In Congress
AOL’s shocking searcher log release has reignited the debate in Congress over whether to restrict Internet companies’ use and storage of user data. Though a bill aimed at protecting user privacy has been effectively tabled since February, the fallout from AOL’s data dump may bring it back into light.
Congress On DOPA Over MySpace
China’s standard practice of blocking access to certain websites appears to have inspired some members of the US Congress. Social networking sites like MySpace.com are the target of proposed legislation that would block access to them in schools and libraries.
Congress Considers Net Neutrality Fines
Just when Net neutrality seemed a lost cause in Congress, lawmakers began to consider shifting regulatory power to the Federal Communications Commissions in the form of case-by-case fines of up to $500,000. The FCC could levy fines if telecoms are judged to be violating Net neutrality principles.
Congress: NSA Requests? Yahoo: No Comment
During the Congressional smackdown on search engine companies over their business practices in China, one Congressman raised the issue of surveillance with Yahoo.