On Friday, August 31, the California state legislature passed a net neutrality bill, which now awaits Governor Brown’s signature to become law. If enacted, the bill would become the fourth state law protecting net neutrality, but would provide more comprehensive protection than the net neutrality laws passed in other states. California’s bill prohibits Internet Service …
In October 2015, under the Obama Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), proposed the Clean Power Plan (“CPP”). The CPP was promoted as an important and historic step in combating climate change by reducing carbon emissions from power plants. The CPP was designed to follow Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, which provides that …
In 2010, Google shut down its Chinese search engine after a cyberattack from within the country targeted Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google had initially decided to offer a censored search engine in China because it believed that it was better to offer a limited, regulated search engine than it was to deprive …
The Standing Rock protests concerning the Dakota Access Pipeline have brought recent awareness to the numerous complexities involved with constructing infrastructure that spans over a thousand miles in length. The clash with the Native tribes in the surrounding area over sacred ancestral land and concern for potential pollution of their primary water supply, as well …
Everyone does business with strangers. The last time you bought a burrito or watched a movie, you probably gave money to a stranger. Did you stop and think about how trusting you are to hand hard cash to someone you’ve never met? How do you know they will actually deliver the product or service you …
In London, Google is fighting a businessman in court as to whether individuals have the right to erase old convictions from online search results. Commentators believe that this is one of the first cases to test whether a person has a “right to be forgotten.” This will be the final step in a three-year legal …
In its latest attempts at coping with growing pains, the parent company of Snapchat, Snap Inc., has laid off about 100 employees. This follows the company’s decision to cut about 120 engineers earlier in March, and another 22 employees in January from the content department. Snap went public last year to much fanfare but has …
Years of stewing privacy concerns have erupted in response to Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal. Cambridge Analytica obtained information collected from more than 50 million Facebook profiles without users’ permission. In 2014, information gathered on Facebook was used to create around 30 million psychographic profiles. Surprisingly, the only “problem” according to Facebook’s rules was that Cambridge …
In the past few months President Trump has announced a number of new import tariffs: in January, it was tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels, and just recently, this March, it is tariffs on imported aluminum and steel. Aside from the tariffs on imported washing machines, this raft of import tariffs portend a …
Recently cryptocurrency has been a topic of much discussion across numerous fields. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating certain cryptocurrency offerings. Meanwhile Uber’s co-founder Garrett Camp wants to create his own global cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is even being discussed in the tax field. Two states, Arizona and Georgia, have proposed bills that …
