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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Trump administration forces Facebook and Google to drop Hong Kong cable [arstechnica.com]

Google and Facebook have withdrawn plans [datacenterknowledge.com] to build an undersea cable between the United States and Hong Kong after the Trump administration raised national security concerns about the proposal. On Thursday, the companies submitted a revised plan that bypasses Hong Kong but includes links to Taiwan and the Philippines that were part of the original proposal.

One of the original project's partners, Hong Kong company Pacific Light Data Communication, has been dropped.

Federal law requires a license [fcc.gov] from the Federal Communications Commission to build an undersea cable connecting the United States with a foreign country. When Google and Facebook submitted their application for an undersea cable connecting the US to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines, a committee of federal agencies led by the Justice Department recommended against [justice.gov] approving the connection to Hong Kong, citing the "current national security environment."

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