The Alternate Times

By Rhonda Robinson Taylor

October 29, 2029

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tech giants Google and Apple have reached a deal with the White House that avoids a congressional inquiry into the companies’ immediate compliance with the purported renamings of the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario during the Fascist Period.

Google and Apple were facing subpoenas from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which sought internal documents and communications detailing how the companies decided to change their maps in response to the technically meaningless renamings by then-President Donald Trump in the former United States of America. The probe could have also shone light on the relationship between the two companies and the government pre-secession.

Sources in the Ocasio-Cortez administration said the president and congressional Democrats were willing to withdraw the probe in exchange for meaningful concessions from the companies. The final deal, announced in a press release, includes the following:

• Both companies agree to refrain from running any ads in the United States that are sponsored by or promote New Confederate organizations
• The companies will remove all artificial intelligence tools unless users opt-in after receiving informed consent
• The companies will phase in the same privacy and consent protocols that are required by European regulators
• They will donate $5 million each to researchers studying intervention strategies for online extremism

“President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a productive discussion with Google and Apple leadership in which she emphasized the importance of not complying in advance and maintaining a government free of corruption by corporate interests. Google and Apple understand the President’s concerns and have committed to giving their users more security and control over their experience,” the statement read.

Notably, the agreement requires Google and Apple to retain the records subject to the subpoenas during a five-year “monitoring period,” which suggests the congressional probe could be revived in the future.