Glenn Greenwald on the Growing Surveillance State

Staff / Truthdig Aug 20, 2011 Days after two British men were sentenced to four years in prison for using Facebook to incite disorder that never materialized, Glenn Greenwald writes fluently and concisely about the efforts of governments to maintain power and order by controlling the flow of information and communication online. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

FCC Rules for Super Wi-Fi

Staff / Truthdig Sep 25, 2010 It's a bird? It's a plane? No, it's super Wi-Fi! The FCC has finally approved a proposal to open the unused space between broadcast television channels -- dubbed “white space” -- for high-speed wireless broadband or, in more campy terms, super Wi-Fi. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

FCC Tries to Find a (Third) Way

Staff / Truthdig Jun 18, 2010 The FCC has reignited the battle for net neutrality after it requested public comment on three different plans for broadband Internet regulation. The new plans were introduced after a court ruling knocked down FCC measures to oversee Internet service providers. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

FCC Sets Ambitious Goals for America’s Networked Future

Staff / Truthdig Mar 16, 2010 Congress asked the FCC to develop a national broadband plan, and the agency is running with it. Among the FCC's just announced long-term goals: for every American to have access to affordable broadband, for at least 100 million Americans to have access to 100-mbps download speeds and for the U.S. to have the broadest and fastest wireless networks in the world. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Friends In High-Tech Places

Staff / Truthdig Mar 4, 2009 The FCC has incredible power over the health of our democracy, from how we get our information to the technology we use to freely express ourselves -- and the billions of dollars made in between -- yet we tend to know little about the people who wield that power. The latest technocrat nominated to take charge of the commission is Julius Genachowski, an old school chum of the president. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

U.S., Russian Satellites Collide, Go Boom

Staff / Truthdig Feb 12, 2009 It's getting crowded in space. A U.S. telecommunications satellite and a defunct Russian satellite smacked into each other in orbit over Siberia on Tuesday. According to NASA, no one was to blame for the unprecedented collision: "We don't have an air traffic controller in space." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Homeland Security Report: LAX Vulnerable to Attack

Staff / Truthdig Nov 14, 2008 With nearly 62 million passengers having traveled through its terminals last year, Los Angeles International Airport is the world's fifth-busiest. Thanks to lax security practices, it's also embarrassingly vulnerable to cyber attack, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Can You Hear Me Now? Telecoms Paid to Give Team McCain More Bars

Staff / Truthdig Oct 16, 2008 It's hard to get cell reception in an out-of-the-way place like Sedona, Ariz., but it helps if you sit on the Senate committee that oversees the telecommunications industry. The Washington Post has learned that AT&T and Verizon, both of which have lobbying ties to the McCain campaign, provided cell towers for the McCains' ranch at no charge to the couple. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

McCain Acceptance Speech Interrupted, Made Hilarious

Staff / Truthdig Sep 5, 2008 There are three great moments in this short video of McCain's acceptance speech. First, a Code Pink demonstrator interrupts McCain's speech and gets dragged out to chants of "U.S.A.!" Then, McCain fumbles and makes an antiquated tech-related joke about static. Finally, McCain delivers his speech in front of a blue screen. Stephen Colbert, eat your heart out. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Hedges, Klein Join The Nation, ACLU in FISA Lawsuit

Staff / Truthdig Jul 11, 2008 Following Thursday's announcement that Congress had passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, there were some who weren't willing to take the news sitting down. In fact, Congress' capitulation sparked a legal response from the ACLU and The Nation magazine and two of its key contributors -- Chris Hedges and Naomi Klein -- in the form of a lawsuit. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Bush’s Christmas in July: Senate Passes FISA

Staff / Truthdig Jul 10, 2008 You know a legislative compromise is one-sided when the AP headline announcing its passage reads "Senate Bows to Bush." Democratic advocates of the new FISA bill, passed by the Senate on Wednesday, are still trying to explain what they got in exchange for rolling back a few civil liberties and burying some of the president's abuses. When they figure it out, someone, somewhere, will surely be listening. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

House Lets Telecoms Off the Hook

Staff / Truthdig Jun 21, 2008 If there was one word that summed up the political tenor of the Bush II presidency, it definitely wouldn't be accountability. On Friday, this was once again made clear as the House of Representatives passed a bill granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that allowed their networks to be used by the government to eavesdrop on Americans following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )