Here Come the Reinforcements ⇥ bloomberg.com

Dina Bass, Bloomberg:

Microsoft Corp. will file an amicus brief next week to support Apple Inc. in its fight with the U.S. government over unlocking a terrorist’s iPhone, President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said at a congressional hearing Thursday to discuss the need for new legislation to govern privacy.

Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. plan to file a separate industry brief according to people familiar with the matter, and Twitter Inc. said it expects to join a friend of the court brief as well.

Olga Kharif, also Bloomberg:

Verizon Communications Inc., the largest U.S. wireless-service provider, sided with Apple Inc. in a dispute with the U.S. government and said it supports encryption of mobile phones to protect customer privacy over the needs for law enforcement access to user information.

It’s a little disappointing that it’s taken a week for other companies to throw their weight behind Apple, but they’ve done so nevertheless. Between this support and Apple’s totally awesome motion to vacate, I’m hesitantly optimistic.