The big tech hearing proved Congress isn't messing around

PLUS: NASA's Perseverance launch, Netflix's too real fake-news film, and family secrets in the age of 23andMe. View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions  07.30.20   BACKCHANNEL There's No Such Thing as Family Secrets in the Age of 23andMe BY CAITLIN HARRINGTON DNA tests are cheap and ubiquitous. For some donor-conceived people, they can unearth long-buried truths about their ancestry—and lead to unorthodox reunions.   CMS MESS Hackers Broke Into Real News Sites to Plant Fake Stories BY ANDY GREENBERG A disinfo operation broke into the content management systems of Eastern European media outlets in a campaign to spread misinformation about NATO.   ARE WE THERE YET? NASA Just Launched Its New Perseverance Rover to Mars BY DANIEL OBERHAUS The new rover is its biggest, most autonomous yet and may lead us to the first signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.   ANTITRUST The Big Tech Hearing Proved Congress Isn't Messing Around BY GILAD EDELMAN Partisan antics aside, lawmakers on the antitrust subcommittee dished out some serious, probing questions to the CEOs of Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple.   PARTNER CONTENT FROM THE PLUG Black Technologists Create New Gathering Spaces for Support Amid Pandemic Two college friends are using Hopin, a platform designed for interactive online events, to create new virtual spaces to network and learn during the pandemic.   MOVIES Netflix's Fake-News Thriller The Hater Is Way Too Real BY EMMA GREY ELLIS The Polish crime flick represents a shift in how filmmakers imagine the role of the internet in the stories they tell.   PUBLIC HEALTH Covid-19 Data in the US Is an 'Information Catastrophe' BY MARYN MCKENNA An order to reroute CDC hospitalization figures raises accuracy concerns. But that's just one of the problems with how the country collects health data.   HYPE VS. REALITY AI Is All the Rage. So Why Aren't More Businesses Using It? BY WILL KNIGHT A big study by the US Census Bureau finds that only about 9 percent of firms employ tools like machine learning or voice recognition—for now.   OPINION Don't Be Fooled by Big Tech's Anti-China Sideshow BY JUSTIN SHERMAN During Wednesday's antitrust hearing, tech CEOs leaned into the same pernicious argument to distract from the fact that US tech companies do bad things too.     This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or Manage your newsletter subscriptions