Hillicon Valley: Ballots go out in Amazon union battle in Alabama | Hackers breach, attempt to poison Florida city’s water supply | Facebook to remove posts with false claims about vaccines
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Welcome! Follow our cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), for more coverage.
VOTING STARTS NOW: Amazon workers in Bessemer, Ala., are being sent their ballots Monday in one of the most important union elections of the last decade.
The roughly 5,800 plant workers will now have seven weeks to cast their ballots for National Labor Relations Board certification.
“The importance of this vote transcends this one facility,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which would represent the warehouse if a majority of votes cast go its way.
The workers in support of the union are organizing for better wages, less arduous schedules and adequate coronavirus protections.
Amazon has maintained that the union does not represent the majority of its workers’ views and touted its starting wage and health benefits.
THIS IS FINE, EVERYTHING IS FINE: Officials announced Monday that a hacker had breached and attempted to poison the water supply for the city of Oldsmar, Fla. late last week.
The unsuccessful attempt involved the hacker accessing the city’s water treatment facility and increasing the level of sodium hydroxide, an ingredient used in both liquid drain cleaners and to control water acidity, from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million.
Pinellas County, Fla. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told reporters that his office is working with the FBI and other state and federal partners to investigate the incident, with the individuals behind the hack not yet identified.
Oldsmar is located just outside Tampa, which hosted the Super Bowl over the weekend. Officials said Monday there was no evidence any other water treatment plants in the area had been attacked or breached.
Read more about the incident here.
TACKLING VACCINE MISINFO: About two months after Facebook said it would remove coronavirus vaccine misinformation, the company said Monday it would update its policy to remove posts spreading false information about “vaccines in general.”
The social media giant already prohibited false vaccine claims in paid ads, but the new policy will be applied to unpaid posts on the platform and accounts that repeatedly share the debunked claims may be removed from the site, according to the updated blog post.
The update comes after its Oversight Board recommended Facebook update guidance around health-related misinformation, calling the platform’s existing rule “inappropriately vague.”
ROLLING IN THE BITCOIN: Tesla has purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and plans on accepting the cryptocurrency as payment soon, the Associated Press reports.
The AP reported on Monday that Tesla CEO Elon Musk disclosed the company’s investment in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying its purchases of “alternative reserve assets” may grow.
The value of Bitcoin rose to a new all-time high of $43,863, the AP reports, with shares of Tesla also rising by about 2 percent following the news. Tesla is currently valued at around $820 billion.
CASE DISMISSED: The Biden administration formally dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit challenging California’s net neutrality statute on Monday, according to a court filing.
The state legislation bars internet service providers from slowing down website speeds, blocking access to certain websites and charging for large websites.
The law is still being challenged in the same court in a case brought by telecommunications industry trade groups. A hearing on a motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for later this month.
TWITTER WEIGHS FEES: Twitter is considering adding subscription fees for some of its features, revenue product lead Bruce Falck said Monday.
“You will see us continue to research and experiment with ways to further diversify our revenue beyond ads in 2021 and beyond,” Falck said in a statement. “These may include subscriptions and other approaches that will give people and businesses of all sizes on Twitter access to unique features and enhanced opportunities for content creation, discovery, and engagement.”
Twitter did not share any further details on its plans, but Bloomberg reported the social media company is considering plans to add features for users to pay people they follow for exclusive content.
PRESSURE IN MY PARLERS: House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to Parler on Monday asking for details about the controversial social media platform’s financing and ties to Russia amid backlash to its role in January’s insurrection.
“Since the attacks, numerous Parler users have been arrested and charged for their roles, with the Department of Justice citing in several instances the threats that individuals made through Parler in the days leading up to and following the attack,” Maloney wrote.
Parler was temporarily taken down after being pulled from both the Apple and Google app stores and being dropped by Amazon’s web hosting service. The platform is now back online, albeit without functionally, with the help of a Russian technology firm.
HAPPY 25TH: Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) reintroduced the National Broadband Plan for the Future Act on Sunday, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the 1996 Telecommunications Act which transformed broadband deployment.
The legislation calls for the Federal Communications Commission to update the national broadband plan in a way that addresses concerns about internet access highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking at the INCOMPAS Policy Summit on Monday, Markey stressed the importance of the bipartisan effort two decades ago as lawmakers crafted the bill. He said he is hopeful there is bipartisan support in Congress to update national broadband plans.
“I’ve always believed that essentially telecommunications policy is bipartisan — should be bipartisan. You have to work hard to make it ideological,” Markey said.
“My hope is that we’ll be able to really move forward in a way that reflects the ultimate need for bipartisanship,” he added.
Lighter click: Facts only
An op-ed to chew on: Ready for takeoff: Three simple guidelines for flying after vaccination
NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
New California law would give wronged workers a way out of NDAs (Protocol / Emily Birnbaum)
YouTube and Facebook allowed another COVID-19 conspiracy theory video to go viral (Media Matters for America / Alex Kaplan)
How Black Rifle Coffee Company Made Itself One of the Right’s Biggest Brands (MotherJones / Ali Breland)
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