This is exactly the kind of issue we track at the Tech Integrity Project (not to be confused with the Tech Transparency Project and their great work), where I'm Policy Director. We work to hold Big Tech accountable when they put profits over U.S. national security. Follow along:

Bigger picture: Sanctions are one of America's most powerful foreign policy tools. But in a world of crypto, VPNs with hidden Chinese ownership, and constant company rebranding, enforcement is struggling to keep up. The app stores are just one symptom.

In 2019, the Department of Treasury caught Apple making payments to a sanctioned Slovenian drug-linked company. Apple settled and promised to fix its screening for name variations. Six years later we still see the same problem. That could mean tougher scrutiny ahead.

How do sanctioned entities slip through? The developers altered the names of the companies, added a corporate suffix, made slight spelling changes. One trick? List a clean developer name on the app, then bury the actual sanctioned entity behind it in the privacy policy.

The numbers: 52 problematic apps on Apple, 18 on Google. Many were removed after the Tech Transparency Project and Washington Post started asking questions.

The reporting comes from Joseph Menn at the Washington Post, drawing on research from @TTP_updates. Read the full piece. It's absolutely worth your time.

Apple and other big tech companies say they keep their app stores safe. But a new investigation in the @washingtonpost found dozens of apps developed by U.S.-sanctioned entities. These include Russian banks financing the Ukraine war, a Chinese company linked to Uyghur detention

Wrote about social media and the decline in book reading. Standard thought goes something like ‘ppl read less books bc they’re always on social media.’ Is this actually true? https://t.co/FQTm5dfvdq

🚨Breaking: US and UK universities collaborated with Chinese state + military-linked AI labs that are embedded in or linked to China's surveillance and security system. The 20+ institutions include MIT, Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkeley, and Oxford. This report is based on tens of

Pomegranate molasses is the ingredient I've found that works in all my Middle Eastern/Aegean cooking and wine pairings. Stewed all day, it brightens up everything.

Indeed.

Yesterday, @AlexandBooks_ and @itscoachgoodman hosted an incredible author's dinner full of ideas, conversation, and good times. What was unusual was that two Cains -- Susan Cain, bestselling author of "Quiet," and me -- happened to be in attendance (no relation). Then, as our

Yesterday @itscoachgoodman and I hosted two incredible author meetups in NYC. We had an author who sold 4+ million books, an author who spent 2 weeks in North Korea and was kicked out of China, an author who's book will likely be made into a TV series, and many more amazing

Robotics are the next stage after machine learning. This meeting in Shenzhen is a risky gesture -- at any moment UBTech could be placed on the US government entity list (meaning sanctions). It's a possibility given the way this has unfolded so far. To start the year, Microsoft

Microsoft has already been relocating staff from the PRC. Geopolitics just too hot right now. Now it's a mixed message.

Wow. This comes just after @Microsoft was caught allowing "digital escorts" based in China to gain access to sensitive US defense systems, prompting action from the Pentagon. Now Microsoft execs are openly promoting their work with their AI lab that trained the technologists

Wired's gift list. https://t.co/7a5M3ydQgr The book is available for order at

Four years on @WIRED's 25 Best Tech Books to Gift list. Samsung Rising continues to find new readers. Thanks to everyone who's shared it. Happy holidays!

Informative talk from Bill Joy, legend of tech, Sun cofounder. For those of you don't remember Sun, it was the computing giant of the end of the last century, like OpenAI today.

Thanksgiving tip from a somm: this 45-year-old red wine from Lebanon held up beautifully. Like the best of the Bordeaux blends, where the winemaker studied. Aromas of plum and black pepper. Pair with tender meats.