Free Republic

While China has said it would sit out sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, many of the country's tech firms have begun backing away from doing business in Russia. That’s according to a Friday (May 6) report by the Wall Street Journal, which said the Chinese government has called for businesses to resist pressure from the U.S. and other countries. Nevertheless, sources close to the matter told the Journal that several major Chinese companies are quietly cutting back on shipments to Russia, where they’ve dominated the market in a number of products. These companies include computer maker Lenovo...

The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed new visa restrictions on employees of Chinese state-controlled tech firms, including tech giant Huawei, which the United States accuses of serving as a spy tool for the communist regime. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the restrictions would impact employees of Chinese technology firms that "provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights abuses globally." The measure will prevent certain employees of the company from traveling to the United States. "Telecommunications companies around the world should consider themselves on notice: If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human...

Legislation announced on Thursday aimed at curbing the spread of online child sexual abuse imagery would take the extraordinary step of removing legal protections for tech companies that fail to police the illegal content. A separate, international initiative that was also announced takes a softer approach, getting the industry to voluntarily embrace standards for combating the material. The two measures come as tech companies continue to detect an explosion of abusive content on their platforms, and amid complaints that neither Congress nor the companies have been aggressive enough in stopping its spread. An investigation last year by The New York...

California's high-tech firms make the world's most popular smartphones, social networks and search engines, but there's one asset they're struggling to build: trust. The vast majority of Californians surveyed in a statewide poll are worried about the data collected by Internet and smartphone companies, and most said they distrust even firms known for their ardent fans and tens of millions of daily users. Many of those surveyed in the latest USC Dornsife/Times poll also said they were wary of firms collecting personal information without their knowledge and concerned that personal data could become public or be harvested to sell them...

The Obama administration may not be lending arms to dissidents in the Middle East, but it is offering aid in another critical way: helping them surf the Web anonymously as they seek to overthrow their governments. Federal agencies - such as the State Department, the Defense Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors - have been funding a handful of technology firms that allow people to get online without being tracked or to visit news or social media sites that governments have blocked. Many of these little-known organizations - such as the Tor Project and UltraReach- are unabashedly supportive of...