Overnight Tech: Senate Intel wants Facebook to testify | Apple’s Tim Cook calls DACA ‘biggest issue of our time’ | Amazon algorithm suggested bomb-making items | Dems want new rules for online political ads

BURR EXPECTS FACEBOOK TO TESTIFY: The Senate Intelligence Committee is expecting Facebook executives to testify at a public hearing as part of the panel’s investigation into Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the committee’s chairman, told reporters on Tuesday that representatives from the social media giant will likely testify in the fall.

“We’re in agreement on a Facebook public hearing,” Burr said. “It’s just a question of when and potentially the scope.”

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Facebook declined to comment on whether it would send representatives to testify if invited.

Burr also said that Twitter and other companies may also be asked to testify.

Twitter says that it plans to share its analysis of potential pro-Kremlin activity on its site during the election with investigators.

Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate panel, reportedly said that he and Burr have agreed on the testimony.

Meanwhile, Warner confirmed that Twitter has been scheduled for a private briefing with the committee soon.

Read more here.

 

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AMAZON LOOKING INTO REPORT THAT IT SUGGESTED BOMB-MAKING MATERIALS: Amazon said it will review its website after a British news report found that the company’s algorithms have been recommending combinations of items that can be used to make bombs.

An investigation by the United Kingdom’s Channel 4 News found that the website listed components of fire bombs as being “frequently bought together” with other bomb-making ingredients, including ball bearings, which can be used as shrapnel in improvised explosives.

“All products sold on Amazon must adhere to our selling guidelines and we only sell products that comply with UK laws,” an Amazon spokesman said on Wednesday.

Read more here.

 

TIM COOK: DACA IS ‘BIGGEST ISSUE OF OUR TIME’: Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday urged for government action to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, calling their plight the “biggest issue of our time.”

“These people, if you haven’t met them — at Apple we have many people who came to the U.S. when they were two years old,” Cook said at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum. “They didn’t exactly make a decision to come.”

Some of these immigrants were shielded from deportation under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which the Trump administration announced earlier this year it was planning to phase out.

Read more here.

 

FACEBOOK COO VOWS CHANGES TO AD TARGETING PRACTICES: Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg announced new steps her company is taking in response to the discovery that advertisers could target individuals who expressed interest in racist and bigoted categories.

Previously, advertisers could direct their ads toward anti-Semitic individuals who listed “how to burn Jews” and other bigoted terms in their Facebook profiles, ProPublica revealed.

Facebook’s ad tool would prompt ad buyers to select terms like  “Jew hater,” “How to burn jews,” or, “History of ‘why jews ruin the world.’ ” The prompts were created by users typing in various racist and bigoted phrases in their education and profession fields on Facebook.

Read more here.

 

DEMS WANT FEC TO CRACK DOWN ON FACEBOOK POLITICAL ADS: Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday asked the Federal Election Commission to establish new guidelines for online advertising platforms that would prevent foreign spending to influence U.S. elections.

The move comes after Facebook provided information to Congress and special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s election interference, about Russian ad purchases during the 2016 campaign.

“The recent revelations that foreign nationals with suspected ties to the Russian government sought to influence the 2016 election through social media advertisements are deeply concerning and demand a response,” twenty House and Senate Democrats wrote in the letter.

“We are fast approaching the 2018 election cycle. As such, it is imperative the Federal Election Commission begin this effort in earnest.”

Read more here.

 

SINCLAIR CRITICS WANT DEMS TO PUT A HOLD ON PAI’S CONFIRMATION: Opponents of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed acquisition of Tribune Media are calling on Senate Democrats to put a hold on the reconfirmation of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai.

A coalition of groups consisting of Allied Progress, Credo Action, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and Latino Victory is urging Democrats to block a vote on Pai’s reconfirmation until Congress holds a hearing on the Sinclair-Tribune deal.

Karl Frisch, the executive director of Allied Progress, told reporters on a call Wednesday that Pai and Congressional Republicans are abdicating their responsibility of providing oversight of the $3.9 billion deal.

Read more here.

 

AT&T CEO: TAX REFORM FAILURE WOULD BE ‘BAD INDICTMENT’ FOR GOP: AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said Wednesday it would be a “bad indictment” of Republicans’ effectiveness if they can’t enact tax reform while controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House

“I absolutely believe, and I think you’re beginning to understand, that the people in the Senate and Congress believe that if they don’t get tax reform done, it may be political survival for them,” Stephenson said at an event hosted by the Business Roundtable.

Stephenson added that “if you’re a Republican, you better have it done before the primary season begins.”

Read more here.

 

ON TAP:

The Atlantic Council will hold an event on cybersecurity at 4:00 p.m.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Majority would join class-action suit against Equifax if hit by breach, poll says

Groups blast DOJ proposal for foreign access to data stored in US

Errant Equifax tweet sends breach victims to site flagged for phishing

Researchers see rise in ‘alt-right’ voices influencing German elections

Axios: Canada’s ‘reverse brain drain’ in the age of Trump

Bloomberg: US tech giants in EU crosshairs as tax clampdown takes shape