Engadget : Business, Technology

Donald Trump has named current commissioner Andrew Ferguson as the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair, the president-elect posted on Truth Social. Ferguson has previously decried what he called censorship by big tech and worked as an antitrust enforcer for the FTC and Department of Justice. 

Engadget : Politics

A new report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) secretly obtained the phone call and text message records of 43 congressional staffers, two members of Congress in 2017 and 2018 and members of the news media. DOJ prosecutors obtained call and text logs from telecommunications companies and third-party providers including Apple through subpoenas, search warrants and court orders.

Engadget

TikTok is beginning its last-ditch legal challenge to avoid a ban in the United States. The company filed an emergency injunction in federal court Monday, asking for a delay in the law that would ban the app from taking effect so it could have time to mount a Supreme Court challenge.

Engadget : Business, Politics, Technology

Three judges shot down ByteDance’s petition to overturn a law that could ban TikTok in the US. On Friday, The New York Times reported that the judges upheld the new law, which requires the company to sell the app to a non-Chinese company by January 19 or face a ban.

Engadget : Business, Crypto, Politics

Donald Trump has picked a crypto bull to advise him on AI and cryptocurrency policy. On Thursday evening, the president-elect took to Truth Social to share that he was appointing former PayPal COO David Sacks to serve as his “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” Trump said Sacks would also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology.

Engadget : Business, Economy

As of today, Chinese gallium, germanium and antimony are no longer being exported to the US. Germanium and gallium exports had already ceased in October, and antimony exports have dropped by 97 percent since September. This official declaration comes a day after the US announced it would further tighten technological exports to China, particularly referring to computer chips.

Engadget : Politics, Technology

AI-generated content played a much smaller role in global election misinformation than what many officials and researchers had feared, according to a new analysis from Meta.

Engadget

One of the world’s most notorious hackers could finally be in custody. Bleeping Computer reports that ransomware affiliate Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev also known as Wazawaka, Uhodiransomwar, m1x and Boriselcin has been arrested.