Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of technology and politics.
The eye in the sky
A mysterious program that allowed the federal government to obtain warrantless access to hundreds of millions of flight records and let authorities track people’s movement is being shut down, according to new reporting from 404 Media. The outlet obtained a letter addressed to members of Congress from the Airlines Reporting Corporation — a data firm owned by a consortium of major airline companies — saying the Travel Intelligence Program, or TIP, “is no longer aligned with ARC’s core goals of serving the travel industry.”
The report notes that this decision was reached after the outlet and U.S. lawmakers sounded the alarm on the program.
Read more at 404 Media.
Social media companies sue Virginia
A trade group including some of the most powerful social media companies in the world — such as Meta and X — is suing to thwart a Virginia law that, starting in January, will require apps to enforce a one-hour limit for users younger than 16 unless they receive parental permission.
Read more at The Verge.
Bilked bitcoin
A British hacker who breached former President Barack Obama’s Twitter account in 2020 was ordered to pay back more than $5 million worth of bitcoin he acquired during the scheme.
Read more at The Block.
Paramount plays hard to get
House Democrats are accusing Paramount Skydance of stonewalling their investigation into accusations of bribery surrounding the company’s Trump administration-approved merger. I wrote about their efforts to uncover more info.
Read more at MS NOW.
Churchgoers turn to AI
A new report details the growing number of churches turning to artificial intelligence — including chatbots that issue responses as though they’re God or the devil — to reach members. What could go wrong?
Read more at Axios.
PBS nets a partial victory
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting reversed course on some of the cuts it had made to the Public Broadcasting Service — better known as PBS — at the White House’s urging. As NPR reports:
The arrangement resolves litigation filed by NPR accusing the corporation of illegally yielding to Trump’s demands that the network be financially punished for its news coverage. The argument, part of a broader lawsuit by NPR and several stations against the Trump administration, focused on CPB funding for NPR’s operation of a satellite distribution system for local public radio stations. NPR announced Monday it would waive all fees for the stations associated with the satellite service for two years.
Read more at NPR.
Roblox announces new safety measures
Facing lawsuits and public outcry over allegations of child predation on its platform, gaming giant Roblox announced that it will introduce restrictions to prevent children from communicating with older teens and adults.
Read more at The Guardian.
News you can use
After the House Oversight Committee’s release of thousands of emails obtained from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, Zeteo and various other outlets launched searchable databases to allow users to more easily navigate the tranche of documents.
Read more at Zeteo.
Peach State deepfakes
Rep. Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate, faced backlash over his campaign’s recent use of an artificial intelligence-generated video depicting Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., delivering fabricated remarks about his vote regarding the government shutdown.
Read more at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
