Until recently, Hong Kong has had an open and free internet, unlike mainland China. Some fear the law has the ability to make individuals and companies remove content. As The Washington Post explains it “targets vaguely defined crimes including subversion of state power, collusion with foreign powers, secession and terrorism.”

After the law was passed, TikTok pulled out of Hong Kong, and Naver pulled its data centers. While Facebook and Twitter stopped reviewing data requests from Hong Kong authorities, it’s not yet clear if they’ll take a more permanent stance like Google.

Anduril’s hardware almost looks like it belongs in orbit, rather than sitting amid desert scrub. On the ground, two wide solar panels collect energy to keep the surveillance tower running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And at the top of a lengthy mast sit a cluster of cameras, sensors and antennae designed to spot animals, vehicles and people as they traverse potentially rugged landscapes. Of course, that hardware is only part of the solution — Anduril’s Lattice AI collects the data from those myriad sensors, identifies the objects in motion, and feeds relevant information to its customers in government and law enforcement.

It’s worth noting, however, that Anduril’s AI has limits. Despite a bevy of sophisticated sensors, these towers can’t be used for fine-grained personal data collection.

“We know at a distance whether it’s a person, it’s a cow, it’s a vehicle, it’s an aircraft, it’s a ship,” said Richard Steckman, Anduril’s Chief Revenue Officer, to the Post. “We don’t know anything below that level, but for border security, especially in rural locations, that’s enough to make a decision.”

While industry observers were surprised to see Palmer Luckey shift gears from consumer virtual reality to defense technology, what might have been more surprising was the speed at which the former Oculus chief found success in his new venture. He started Anduril Industries in 2017, mere months after being forced out of Facebook due to backlash from a $10,000 donation he made to a pro-Trump political group. Just over a year later, Anduril was on the ground on a ranch in Texas, testing a cluster of four Lattice-powered surveillance towers. During that ten-week people, Wired reported that the AI had helped customs agents apprehend 55 people who had crossed the border illegally. It wasn’t long before U.S. Customs and Border Protection procured an additional 56 towers.

Now, just three years since launch, Anduril landed a government deal estimated the Post pegs at hundreds of millions of dollars. The startup didn’t just get cash to grow from the federal government, either. The Trump administration’s announcement comes on the heels of another major milestone for the startup: It just closed a $200 million Series C funding round, based largely on its promise of becoming a full-blown defense contractor. With today’s announcement, Luckey and Anduril have made good on that promise.

Despite early successes in the field, though, it doesn’t appear that the Trump administration’s embrace of “virtual wall” technology has diminished its zeal for traditional, physical barriers. The president’s border wall has grown by about 50 miles since the end of February, while much of the country grapples with upticks in COVID-19 infections and questions over re-opening.

American officials have stepped their scrutiny of China over the years. Team Telecom has asked the FCC to revoke China Telecom’s license, and it’s no secret that the US has clamped down on equipment makers like Huawei and ZTE. However, this panel could help foster an even more aggressive stance.

It’s not certain this approach will prove beneficial. It might reassure people worried that China might use its telecoms to surveil the US, but it could also prompt retaliation that hurts American telecoms’ Chinese business and the ability to intercept Chinese data. Still, it’s unlikely the Senate panel will back down — the US sees Chinese surveillance as a major threat, and it’s willing to make sacrifices in response.

The 2014 lawsuit followed months of unsuccessful negotiations for greater transparency in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks revealing much about US surveillance activities, including online. Twitter, along with other internet giants, had argued that providing more details would help users understand government activity and protect freedom of expression. The government’s argument appears to revolve around concerns that exact numbers would reveal specific activity, such as investigation into particular terrorist cells. True or not, it’s clear the row over transparency isn’t over even with this ruling.

Transparency is a key guiding principle in Twitter’s mission to serve the public conversation. Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of why we exist, and we strive at all times to help those who use our service and the general public understand how governments, including in the United States, interact with our company. We believe it is vital that the public see the demands we receive, and how we work to strike a balance between respecting local law, supporting people’s ability to Tweet, and protecting people from harm.
 
“To that end, in 2014 we brought a lawsuit against the U.S. government, challenging its efforts to restrain what Twitter can and cannot say to the public about law enforcement requests for information about those who use Twitter. While we are disappointed with the Court’s decision, we will continue to fight for transparency. We encourage those who use our service and the public to review our biannual Transparency Report to learn more about our efforts.

The launch is an important milestone for Space Force — the sixth branch of the military formed as a Trump administration directive. Until now, the agency has mostly just laid out plans, asked for funding, released a Star Trek-esque logo and inspired a Netflix comedy series starring Steve Carell.

The AEHF-6 satellite will provide “vastly improved global, survivable, protected communications capabilities for strategic command and tactical warfighters operating on ground, sea and air platforms,” Lockheed Martin wrote on its website. It will circle about 22,000 miles above the Earth, and it will serve international partners including Canada, the Netherlands and the UK, Space.com reports.

The rocket and satellite will launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and live stream will begin today at 2:37PM ET.

In a statement, Schumer said, “These videos sure do make you chuckle; they’re creative. But China might be laughing at these TSA postings for very different reasons, and that should concern us and it’s why I am urging the TSA to find a different platform, and cease its use of TikTok now.” On Sunday, the TSA said that a “small number of TSA employees have previously used TikTok on their personal devices to create videos for use in TSA’s social media outreach, but that practice has since been discontinued.”

The move follows similar decisions by other government organizations concerned about security threats associated with the app. Back in October 2019, senators began questioning the use of the app in government capacities, stating that “TikTok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore.”

Since then, the US Army, Marines, Navy, and subsequently the Air Force and Coast Guard have all confirmed hard line restrictions on the app. TikTok’s parent company ByteDance hasn’t commented on any of these decisions individually, but maintains that “TikTok is committed to being a trusted and responsible corporate citizen in the US, which includes working with Congress and all relevant regulatory agencies.”

The changes could impact companies like Apple and TikTok. Per Chinese law, Apple began storing Chinese users’ iCloud accounts in a Chinese data center last year. Apple says it still controls encryption keys, but Hawley sees this as a national security threat. And like other senators, Hawley fears TikTok’s owner ByteDance could be pressured to cooperate with intelligence work by the Chinese Communist Party. TikTok has denied those accusations.

According to a one-page summary released by Hawley’s office, “China and countries that similarly threaten America’s national security are taking steps to vacuum up our sensitive data.” Supposedly, this act would prevent that. But it could also cause serious problems for tech companies that are legally obligated to store data in China. It might force them to leave China altogether.

Hawley has previously proposed making user data “portable” across social networks and restricting social network features deemed addictive. He has asked the FTC to investigate how social networks curate content, pushed for an investigation into Amazon’s handling of child privacy and introduced legislation to ban loot boxes in gaming. The National Security and Personal Data Protection Act isn’t Hawley’s first tech-focussed bill, but like the others, its survival is up in the air.

“The Temporary General License extension will allow carriers to continue to service customers in some of the most remote areas of the United States who would otherwise be left in the dark,” explains Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in a press release. This is the third extension granted by the administration.

Along with national security concerns, the trade war between the US and China hasn’t done Huawei any favors. However, The New York Times reported last week that the administration is considering “product specific” exemptions that would allow companies to sell certain Huawei’s products like its smartphones. These exemptions are meant for consumers to be able to buy the company’s gadgets, though, meaning they likely wouldn’t solve the issues related to the TGL.

In May, the FCC rejected China Mobile’s application to become a telecom provider in the US, citing “substantial and serious” law enforcement and security risks. In their letter, the Senators reportedly warn that China Telecom and China Unicom could pose similar threats and could reroute communications traveling on their networks through China. When the FCC denied China Mobile’s application, it said it was reviewing existing approvals. In a statement provided to Reuters, FCC spokesperson said Chairman Ajit Pai “has made it clear that the Commission is reviewing other Chinese communications companies such as China Telecom and China Unicom.”

While the FCC may already be investigating the two telecoms, the letter shows that Congress is willing to apply pressure to Chinese technology firms, even as the Trump administration lifts some restrictions on companies like Huawei.

Speaking at an OECD conference in Paris on Thursday, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said Libra would put the sovereignty of governments at risk. “All these concerns around Libra are serious,” he said, according to a translation by CNBC. “So I want to say this with a lot of clarity: In these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of Libra on European soil.”

Le Maire — an outspoken opponent of the cryptocurrency — did not expand on his comment, but it seems likely that he intends to block Libra in its current form should it launch anywhere in Europe, rather than in France alone. Facebook has repeatedly said that it will wait until it has regulatory approval from all quarters before rolling out Libra, but that could take a long time — and if opponents are citing the sovereignty of currency and national security concerns as reasons to block the project, Facebook will be facing some very significant challenges indeed.