Neowin News Feed for: Congress

Here is how much US tech firms spent on lobbying the US government in 2024

Hamid Ganji — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 17:58:02 +0000

Tech firms in the United States spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year on lobbying efforts to protect their interests. Here is how much. Read more...

TikTok's troubles continue, CEO to testify before Congress over data privacy concerns

Anushe Fawaz — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 18:16:01 +0000

TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew, has been called by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in March to testify over the company's relation with the Chinese Communist Party, data security privacy, and more. Read more...

Congress denies U.S. Army's request to buy more HoloLens headsets from Microsoft

Usama Jawad — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 06:24:01 +0000

The U.S. government has denied the Army's request to purchase almost 7,000 HoloLens headsets for $400 million following some poor on-field test results including nausea and headaches for soldiers. Read more...

Jack Dorsey is reportedly stepping down from his position as Twitter CEO [Update]

Karthik Mudaliar — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 15:22:01 +0000

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will be stepping down from his executive position from Twitter and continuing his position as CEO of digital payments company Square according to a report. Read more...

NYU Ad Observatory will testify against Facebook in U.S. Congress hearing today

Usama Jawad — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 05:56:02 +0000

Supported by Mozilla, the NYU Ad Observatory will testify in Congress today, emphasizing the need for better laws for researchers. Its study on political ads was banned by Facebook over a month ago. Read more...

Microsoft is suspending PAC donations for officials who objected to election certification

Usama Jawad — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 08:30:01 +0000

Microsoft has announced some changes to its PAC, a major one being suspending donations to Congress members who voted against election certification for the "duration of the 2022 election cycle". Read more...

Tech CEOs' antitrust hearing gets rescheduled for Wednesday

Paul Hill — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 05:06:01 +0000

The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google will attend a virtual meeting of the House Judiciary on Wednesday at noon local time. The meeting was rescheduled from Monday, July 27. Read more...

U.S. Congressional hearing to question Big Tech CEOs faces delay

Usman Khan Lodhi — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 15:30:01 +0000

The hearing was due to question the companies' dominance in their fields and determine whether they had unfairly disadvantaged their competition. All four executives are expected to appear virtually. Read more...

Internet giants urge legislators to protect browsing data from warrantless access

Jay Bonggolto — Sat, 23 May 2020 03:50:01 +0000

A group of technology firms and groups have called on the House of Representatives to pass a legislative amendment that would prevent the government from obtaining web browsing data without a warrant. Read more...

Sundar Pichai's speech to Congress released ahead of event, denies political bias

Paul Hill — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 01:56:01 +0000

Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, is due to go before Congress on Tuesday. The speech that he is set to deliver has already been published so you'll be able to read it in advance of the event itself. Read more...

U.S. lawmakers hit out at Google over ties to Huawei

Paul Hill — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 16:48:01 +0000

U.S. lawmakers have written to the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai. They expressed their concerns over the Google-Huawei partnership because of links they said Huawei has to the Chinese Communist Party. Read more...

Here's how you can watch Mark Zuckerberg testify in front of Congress

Paul Hill — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 16:24:01 +0000

Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify on issues that have been plaguing Facebook for the past year. There will be two different sittings on Tuesday and Wednesday. Read on to learn how to watch them. Read more...

The countdown has begun for the end of net neutrality

John Keefer — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 15:50:01 +0000

The FCC's decision to kill net neutrality in December has finally appeared in the Federal Register today, meaning that the ruling will go into effect in 60 days, unless Congress does something. Read more...

Congress wants to know why the disclosure of Meltdown and Spectre was bungled

Usama Jawad — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 14:56:01 +0000

In a series of open letters, the United States Congress has questioned the bungling of the embargo for Meltdown and Spectre by various tech firms, including Microsoft, Intel, Apple, and Google. Read more...

Mozilla files suit against the FCC over net neutrality

Paul Hill — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 04:40:01 +0000

Mozilla has filed a petition with a federal court in Washington, D.C. over a recent decision to overturn the 2015 Open Internet Order. Mozilla is urging people to contact their representatives too. Read more...

Why you shouldn't get excited about Senate net neutrality votes

John Keefer — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 00:43:37 +0000

Stories are appearing all over about the Senate being one vote away from bringing the resolution to overturn the net neutrality repeal to a full membership vote. That is not even half the battle. Read more...

AT&T vs. Huawei: First, the phone deal is nixed, next could be 5G plans

John Keefer — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 18:54:02 +0000

Politicians continue to pressure AT&T to distance itself from the Chinese tech company over national security concerns. The latest move is to get the wireless carrier to nix collaboration on 5G. Read more...

Apple faces even more governmental scrutiny over iPhone throttling

Muhammad Jarir Kanji — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 17:52:01 +0000

The Cupertino-based tech giant is coming under increasing scrutiny as four more U.S. lawmakers have now sent letters to the company seeking more information on its admitting to slowing older phones. Read more...

Senate resolution that could overturn FCC's net neutrality repeal to get a vote

John Keefer — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 21:18:01 +0000

The FCC's repeal of net neutrality is still more than 60 days away, which has given Senators seeking to overturn the ruling time to gather enough co-sponsors on a bill to force a full Senate vote. Read more...

GOP's net neutrality bill opens option for "fast lane" plans

John Keefer — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 00:48:01 +0000

The loss of net neutrality has Congress scrambling for a bill to take the onus off the FCC and make regulation of ISPs a law. But the first bill introduced does little to offer consumers protection. Read more...

Congress opens doors to tech CEOs for net neutrality hearing

David J Delgado — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 18:10:01 +0000

The debate on net neutrality heats up as Congress sends an invite to a multitude of tech CEOs. They are expected to testify on the matter as well as Title II classifications enacted by Obama in 2015. Read more...

Congresswoman's aide steals nude images from her iPhone, posts them on Facebook

Mina Esapa — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 23:28:01 +0000

Two former aides to a congresswoman are being charged with cyberstalking and obstruction of justice for having allegedly stolen nude images from her iPhone and posting them online. Read more...

US House of Representatives votes to scrap FCC privacy rules

Florin Bodnarescu — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 10:10:01 +0000

The US House of Representatives agreed to repeal the FCC's broadband privacy rules with a 215 to 205 vote on Tuesday. For this bill to now become official, it only needs the President's signature. Read more...

Activists launch "Tech Support Hotline" for Congressmen clueless about cyber attacks

Jett Goldsmith — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 20:22:01 +0000

Activists from Fight for the Future have launched a new tech support hotline for non-technology-savvy members of Congress who are clueless about last week's DDoS attacks. Read more...

Supreme Court of the US allows the FBI to hack millions of devices with just one warrant

Vlad Dudau — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 06:28:01 +0000

The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of changes to some of the rules governing how the government can hack into devices. The new rules allow judges to give warrants outside of their jurisdictions. Read more...

Major tech industry coalitions write open letter to US congress over encryption bill

Chris Dupres — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 09:56:01 +0000

Four major technology coalitions, representing the biggest companies in the business, have written an open letter to the Select Committee on Intelligence regarding the current push to end encryption. Read more...

Satya Nadella to meet with Congressional Republicans on immigration, privacy reform

Vlad Dudau — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 12:18:01 +0000

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, is meeting with a number of republicans in Congress to discuss major issues of the day and Microsoft's position on them, such as immigration and privacy reform. Read more...

Lobbying group representing Microsoft and Google backs CISPA

Max Slater-Robins — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 09:14:59 +0000

TechNet, a lobbying firm representing Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and more, have sent a letter to Congress in support of the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Read more...

FTC could be knocking at Google's door over antitrust allegations

Paul Ferson — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 19:10:58 +0000

After more than a year of investigation, it seems that the FTC feels Google has been exploiting its position at the top of the market to ensure that rival services do not get a chance to oppose. Read more...

ZTE caught selling equipment to Iran, Congress wants sales ban

Brad Sams — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 16:27:26 +0000

ZTE, a Chinese phone vendor, has been caught selling CISCO gear to Iran which goes against sanctions placed upon Iran and was planning to cover up the operation. Congress now wants to ban ZTE products Read more...

ZTE and Huawei should be kept out of US, says Congress

John Callaham — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 07:53:59 +0000

The U.S. House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee will release a report today that claims that products made by Chinese-based ZTE and Huawei should be kept out of the US for security reasons. Read more...

Congress wants answers about Homeland Security domain name seizures

Tyler Holman — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:50:05 +0000

A bipartisan coalition of US Representatives is demanding answers about the lack of transparency regarding dubious copyright claims and the possibly illegal seizure of several domain names. Read more...

Executive order could be used to issue Cybersecurity Bill

Paul Ferson — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:38:31 +0000

After the Republican party managed to reject the Cybersecurity Bill in Congress, indications have suggested Obama could issue an executive order for the bill, completely cutting Congress out. Read more...

US House of Representatives passes CISPA

Tyler Holman — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:27:09 +0000

CISPA, the bill hailed as 'the new SOPA,' passed through Congress by a healthy margin, despite cries from privacy advocates, and the Obama administration's threats to veto the bill. Read more...

CISPA: another privacy nightmare?

Tyler Holman — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:32:49 +0000

A new piece of legislation is causing an uproar among privacy advocates regarding the bill, which encourages ISPs to share information regarding cybersecurity threats and piracy with the government. Read more...

Congressmen propose violence warning labels on video games

Nathan Tsui — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:17:00 +0000

Two United States Congressmen proposed a bill on Monday that would require most video games to carry a warning label, similar to those found on cigarettes, but cautioning about violent content. Read more...

Google to discuss new privacy policy, you are not invited

Brad Sams — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:48:01 +0000

Google has been called to Congress to talk about its new privacy policy but dont think about trying to attend as this meeting will be held behind closed doors. Read more...

SOPA opposition in Congress grows to 122 members

Nathan Tsui — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 02:52:21 +0000

Opposition to SOPA and PIPA continues to grow in the House of Representatives, while the Senate has more supporters of the bills than opponents as of Thursday evening. Read more...

Lawmakers in US House of Representatives amongst pirates

Denis Wong — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:51:26 +0000

Some of the proponents behind the Stop Online Piracy Act aren't practicing what they're preaching, as IP ranges coming from the US House of Representatives were traced to illegal downloads. Read more...

SOPA author releases an interesting list of supporters

Michael Stanclift — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:50:31 +0000

SOPA author Lamar Smith has released a list of his supporters. While they're mostly media companies, law firms and publishing companies, there are a few interesting exceptions. Read more...