By Ishaan Bhattacharya
Welcome to the latest edition of the Giannini Politics Update. Today, the topics of discussion are Facebook’s undignified decision to share the data of over 2 billion users with some of the world’s biggest tech firms and the recent government shutdown. The federal government declared a partial government shutdown in December of 2018 due to President Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in taxpayer money to proceed with construction of the southern border wall. This decision impacts the lives of 800,000 federal workers many of whom will not receive paychecks. Despite his numerous claims of Mexico paying for it, Donald Trump’s wall still remains without funding. Controversy over what stands in the way of a resolution, a divided Congress, has been expressed a multitude of times. Negotiations between congressional leaders and the White House are at a virtual impasse, despite multiple tense meetings. This sparks possibility of an economic recession, because of the shutdown’s effects on the economy. According to a recent report by the New York Times, Facebook has exposed more users’ data than previously thought. In a deal that caused them to gain more users, Facebook shared data with over 150 companies from Amazon to Netflix. This abrupt report on Facebook’s state of public trust changes everything because of the fact that Facebook previously admitted to having shared the data of less users than what has been discovered. Participants in the deal were able to add new features to their products while effectively avoiding Facebook's usual privacy rules. Although many of the partnerships ended years ago, the perks of this deal were an interference with users’ privacy, such as the ability to read their private messages. This information was revealed a short time after data firm Cambridge Analytica obtained the data of over 87 million users without their awareness. This discovery was soon followed by 30 million users’ email addresses and phone numbers. This sudden revelation brings up a questionable future for Facebook. By Ishaan Bhattacharya
Welcome back to the Giannini Politics Update. Today we will be discussing U.S. President Donald Trump's recent trade deal with President Xi Jinping of China.. The U.S. and China have been locked in a trade war for the past year, and communique in the words of Trump a new “incredible” trade deal between the two nations may benefit the U.S. economy. Trump turned to Twitter to report the effects of the deal, one of which is to “reduce and remove” tariffs on U.S. automobiles. At a meeting in Buenos Aires, Mr. Trump agreed not to boost tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% on 1 January. The U.S. also claims that China agreed to purchase a substantial amount of several U.S. goods varying from agricultural to industrial products to reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries. The news of the trade deal is predicted to spark beneficial results for both countries involved with the deal. On the contrary, a cyberattack on the Marriott Hotel chain that contained data of roughly half a million guests was recently reported and traced to Chinese hackers. Politicians such as Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State agreed with the blame facing China. The hackers are reportedly working for the Ministry of State Security, China’s civilian spy agency. This does not show definite resolution of the bumpy relationship between the U.S. and China. |
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October 2022
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