The Biden administration recommended on Friday that Alphabet’s Google and Facebook parent company Meta obtain permission to use the submarine cable system to handle the growing Internet traffic in Asia. The government urges the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to grant these companies permission to send and receive data on the existing 8,000-mile Pacific fiber optic cable network. The submarine optical cable system connects the United States, Taiwan, the Philippines and Hong Kong.
Submarine cables transmit almost all Internet data traffic. Meta seeks a license to use the Philippines to the United States, while Google requires a license to connect to Taiwan.
The two companies pledged to protect the privacy and security of American data, especially intelligence operations against China. Google and Meta’s plan abandoned the previous proposal to use a network cable to connect to Hong Kong, which is controlled by Beijing. Several U.S. government agencies have recommended blocking the plan in 2020.
The US Department of Justice stated that in view of China’s “continuous efforts to obtain sensitive personal data of millions of Americans,” it needs to reach a national security agreement with Google and Meta.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington and Google did not immediately comment. Google said in 2020 that it needs data connections to handle the growing traffic between its data centers in Taiwan and the United States.
A Meta spokesperson said, “The wired system increases the capacity of the Internet between the United States and the Philippines” to “help people stay in touch and share content.” It said that the cable is safe and the data is protected by advanced encryption.
According to the agreement, Google and Meta must conduct an annual assessment of the risk of sensitive data, and they must be able to limit or stop data traffic on the cable within 24 hours. About 300 submarine cables form the backbone of the Internet and carry 99% of the world’s data traffic.
Complete News Source : Gadgets360
