CfA's July 24, 2020 Newsletter

Our Latest Work:

• Google Flights Show Decade-Long Pursuit of China: This week, CfA and Tech Transparency Project (TTP) released a report detailing how Google flight patterns may point to a desire to expand its operations across greater China, despite its public withdrawal from the country in 2010 over censorship concerns. 
  • TTP found that planes owned by Google and its top executives have made at least 26 trips to or from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau since 2010. (Report)

• Apple Faces Multi-state Consumer Protection Probe: On Thursday, Axios reported on a FOIA document acquired by TTP, which revealed a previously unknown, multi-state investigation into Apple for potentially deceiving consumers.  (Read the Document)
  • The release of the document was also covered by CNBC, Politico, Reuters, and others.

• Petition: Investigate Facebook for Profiting Off Voter Suppression
  • Campaign for Accountability has joined a coalition of advocacy groups in asking the Federal Trade Commission, House Judiciary Committee, & House Energy and Commerce Committee to investigate Facebook -- and stop the company from profiting off of vote-suppressing ads.

What We're Reading:

• Facebook ignored racial bias research, employees say: "Researchers said the company ignored their work and then stopped them from pursuing topics related to bias altogether." (NBC News, July 23)
• New Estimates Show Worldwide Decrease in Unintended Pregnancies: "Worldwide, since 1990, as access to contraceptives has increased, the rate of unintended pregnancy has fallen. In 2015–2019, there were 121 million unintended pregnancies annually, corresponding to a global rate of 64 per 1,000 women aged 15–49. This is a decline from 79 per 1,000 women in 1990–1994." (Guttmacher Institute, July 23)
• Facebook spends big on lobbying as key hearing nears: "Facebook is on pace to spend more on lobbying in 2020 than it ever has in a single year. This follows two consecutive record-setting years for the company that saw it spend $12.6 million and $16.7 million on lobbying, respectively. The social media giant currently deploys 65 lobbyists." (OpenSecrets News, July 22)

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