Big tech companies tend to make a lot of enemies — but there are none more powerful than the US government. Apple, Google, Amazon, and Meta are regularly called in front of Congress to fend off monopoly accusations — and lawmakers bring up bills to rein in the companies just as often. The Federal Trade Commission has taken a particularly central role, leading a lawsuit to sever Facebook and Instagram while blocking new acquisitions for Oculus and the company’s virtual reality wing. Like it or not, these regulatory fights will play a huge role in deciding the future of tech — and neither side is playing nice.
The $34.5 billion deal to combine two of the biggest US cable providers can now go ahead after appeasing Brendan Carr by pledging to drop DEI policies.
[Federal Communications Commission]
Every time there’s a major event, it seems like some people head to Polymarket to make a quick buck at just the right time. It happened with the Super Bowl, with Nicolás Maduro, and now with Iran. In total, over $529 million was traded related to the timing of the strikes, but according to Bloomberg:
Six accounts on Polymarket made around $1 million in profit by betting on the US to strike Iran by Feb. 28, according to analytics firm Bubblemaps SA. The accounts were all freshly created in February and had only ever placed bets on when US strikes might occur. Some of their shares were purchased, in some cases at roughly a dime apiece, hours before the first explosions were reported in Tehran.
On Friday, Donald Trump announced a ban on the federal government’s use of Claude. Though he had to walk back his demand that agencies “IMMEDIATELY CEASE” using it, instead saying there would be a six-month phaseout. Part of that might be because planning for Saturday’s strikes against Iran was underway and relied on Claude for intelligence assessments and target identification. According to the Wall Street Journal:
Within hours of declaring that the federal government will end its use of artificial-intelligence tools made by tech company Anthropic, President Trump launched a major air attack in Iran with the help of those very same tools.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also said there were “many indications” the Ayatollah was dead, according to The New York Times. Later in the evening, the Iranian government confirmed Khamenei’s death. Trump’s post went on to claim that Iranian security forces “no longer want to fight,” though there has been no evidence suggest that yet.
Updated March 1st: Added confirmation from the Iranian government.
[New York Times]
The band didn’t mince any words in the statement after a choral version of the song was used in a video claiming that “Thousands of American families have been torn apart because of criminal illegal alien violence,” saying:
We demand that the amateurs in control of the ICE social media account take it down. It ain’t funny, this song means a lot to us and other people, and you don’t get to appropriate it without a fight.
Also, go fuck yourselves… Radiohead
Dean Ball, who worked as a senior AI policy advisor, said on X that designating Anthropic as a “supply chain risk” or threatening to invoke the Defense Production Act could have a chilling effect on the entire industry. Alan Rozenshtein, a former DOJ official specializing in technology law, told Politico this could be the first step toward partial nationalization of the AI industry.
Early on Saturday, the US and Israel launched a joint military strike on Iran. President Trump said in a video on Truth Social the goal is to “annihilate” the country’s military. He then directly addressed the Iranian people, saying that the country “will be yours to take.” The Iranian government launched retaliatory strikes on Israel and American bases in the area, including in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait.
You can get all the latest updates from The New York Times, NPR, BBC, and Reuters.
In what appears to be preparations to fully blacklist Anthropic for not budging on their acceptable use policies, the Defense Department has begun reaching out to contractors to assess their exposure to the AI company’s products. Boeing and Lockheed Martin, two of the biggest companies in the defense space, have reportedly been contacted.
The president shouted out the work of his “movie star” wife Melania, whose support of the Take It Down Act last year — a bill requiring social platforms to remove content reported as nonconsensual intimate imagery (including AI deepfakes) — helped usher it into law.
The president applauded Michael and Susan Dell for their $6.25 billion contribution that the White House says will help fund tax-advantaged savings accounts for children. The contribution is set to fund an extra $250 in the first 25 million accounts for children in ZIP codes with median incomes under $150,000.
The South Carolina Republican said he’s bringing along Ellison, son of Trump ally and billionaire Larry Ellison, as his guest to the address. Paramount is in the midst of its persistent attempt to buy Warner Bros. Discovery over Netflix — a deal Trump said he’d be involved in before backtracking.
[X (formerly Twitter)]
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office dished out a £14.47 million (about $19.5 million) penalty for Reddit’s previous lack of robust age verification and failure to assess risks to children before January 2025. That’s just a smidge higher than the £247,590 (about $335,000) fine Imgur was hit with for similar reasons earlier this month.
It’s more than just a $200 million military contract at stake.
They’ve been applied using powers under the Trade Act of 1974, circumventing both Congress and the recent Supreme Court ruling that Trump’s previous tariffs were illegal. The president had threatened a higher 15 percent rate, but so far Customs and Border Protection has only announced 10 percent tariffs, which will last 150 days.
[the Guardian]
Thought RAMageddon was bad? Wait until Silicon Valley loses access to 90 percent of the world’s chip supply. The New York Times reminds us that’s a possibility, with production concentrated in Taiwan, ever at risk of a Chinese blockade. The industry is now investing in US production, but has been putting this off for years.
[The New York Times]
The Netflix boss is apparently not too worried about Trump’s meddling in his company’s attempt to purchase Warner Bros. He told BBC Today that Netflix’s offer left Hollywood with five major studios instead of four, and Trump, “likes to do a lot of things on social media.”
However, on Monday afternoon, Bloomberg reported Paramount Skydance has submitted another competing offer, improving on its previous $30 per share bid.
Bloomberg and Deadline are both reporting that the DOJ has officially begun looking into whether the combination of Netflix and Warner would create a monopoly and hurt competition. Netflix, Warner Bros., and the DOJ have not publicly confirmed the investigation, but Deadline obtained a copy of the Civil Investigative Demand, which reads:
“This civil investigative demand is issued pursuant to the Antitrust Civil Process Act …in the course of an antitrust investigation to determine whether there is, has been, or may be a violation of the antitrust laws by conduct, activities, or proposed action of the following nature: the proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. by Netflix Inc, that may substantially lessen competition, or tend to create a monopoly in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, or Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
Invasive government and corporate surveillance isn’t inevitable — but Congress needs to act.
After being handed a rare defeat by the Supreme Court, President Trump announced that he would replace his tariffs and trade deals with a global 10 percent tariff on imports. Less than 24 hours later, he’s already raising that to 15 percent. As we said, the fight is far from over.
