US President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday recommended Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc parent Meta Platforms Inc receive permission to use an undersea cable system to handle growing Internet traffic with Asia.
The administration urged the US Federal Communications Commission to grant licenses for the companies to send and receive data on the existing 12,875km Pacific Light Cable Network. The undersea fiber-optic cable system connects Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and the US.
Undersea cables transmit nearly all the world’s Internet data traffic. Meta sought permission to use the Philippines-to-US portion, while Google has asked for permission to connect to Taiwan.
The companies are committed to protecting the privacy and security of US data, particularly against Chinese intelligence operations.
The plan by Google and Meta abandoned a previous proposal to use the network’s cable to Hong Kong, which is controlled by Beijing. Multiple US government agencies recommended blocking the plan last year.
The US Department of Justice said the national security agreements with Google and Meta were needed given China’s “sustained efforts to acquire the sensitive personal data of millions of US persons.”
Google last year said it needed the data connections to handle growing traffic between its data centers in Taiwan and the US.
A Meta spokesperson said the “cable system increases Internet capacity” between the US and Philippines “to help people stay connected and share content.”
The cables use advanced encryption to secure data, it said.
Under the agreements, Google and Meta must conduct annual assessments of risk to sensitive data, and be able to stop data traffic on the cables within 24 hours.
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