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December 2016

Alternative perspectives on technology policy in the Trump administration

Come Jan 20, President-elect Donald Trump will have the opportunity to continue or suspend many of the technology-focused initiatives begun by President Barack Obama. These programs included expanding broadband access, training workers for jobs in STEM fields, and building supercomputers, among others. Brookings experts Stuart N. Brotman, Robin Lewis, Nicol Turner-Lee, and Niam Yaraghi weigh in on what direction technology policy will take in the Trump administration, and how it might react to future technology change.

Expanding Broadband Access: The incoming administration has expressed its intent to lead its policy priorities with an aggressive infrastructure plan. Referring to the infrastructure goals as a “golden opportunity for accelerated economic growth,” the new leadership plans to rejuvenate the domestic economy by spurring more targeted private investments and creating and recovering jobs. Under what will seemingly be a pro-business, nonregulated market, the threat of broadband “overbuild” looms, bringing new meaning to the cliche “if you build it, will they come.” Whereas technology overbuilds have often led to increased competition in certain markets and lowered consumer prices, an oversaturated broadband market can also create network redundancies, faster depreciation of assets, and decreased consumer demand. Managing supply and demand of broadband services should be at the core of the new administration’s efforts. With unbridled supply, the marketplace will be ripe for competitive offerings and differentiated services, including free or unlimited data plans. Smart digital inclusion plans and programs with clear goals and outcomes should be prioritized to narrow the gap among those who haven’t adopted broadband into their daily lives. Increased investments in digital literacy training, especially within community anchor institutions (e.g., libraries and schools) can cultivate more interest and use. In sum, the new administration’s efforts to expand and maximize infrastructure must equally address the demand for these and other emerging services so that when it’s built, they will indeed come.

What could happen to Yahoo if Verizon backs away from its $4.8 billion deal

As rumors swirl about Verizon's plans for acquiring Yahoo, business analysts say the former search giant could see choppier waters ahead if Verizon backs out of the deal, as some observers have suggested it should do. The initial hack could have been written off as a one-time event, analysts say, but the bigger breach will be impossible to ignore. For Verizon, the stakes have risen.

Although it has not raised fresh warning flags over the new disclosure, the telecom firm must balance Yahoo's initial estimated value against the possibility of discovering even more hackings down the road. "It’s like buying a ticking time bomb,"said Jeff Kagan, an independent industry analyst. "You never know when it’s going to blow again, and could keep blowing up time after time." Security experts have criticized Yahoo's use of outdated security technologies to defend user data, and the company's top security official resigned in protest in 2015 when he was cut out of a major decision to allow the federal government to scan customer emails. Backing out of the deal, Kagan said, probably would cause Yahoo's value to decline. But Verizon is more likely to seek a discount than to walk away, according to a mergers and acquisitions lawyer familiar with the transaction who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters of corporate strategy.

How pollsters could use social media data to improve election forecasts

[Commentary] Donald Trump’s Nov 8 victory surprised almost everyone. But if pollsters had looked at Twitter, they might have recognized that the race was close — or so we learned in our recent research. Even when polls were showing a big lead for Hillary Clinton, real-time analysis of social media was showing it getting tighter — even if you subtract the propaganda bots used by Trump staff, estimated to make up about 20 to 30 percent of the total volume of pro-Trump social media traffic.

Public opinion has profoundly changed. And the way to measure it must change as well. Social media information offers useful signals about public sentiment. Catching them is the challenge for those who study and predict politics.

[Andrea Ceron is assistant professor of political science at the University of Milan and co-founder of VOICES from the Blogs. Luigi Curini is associate professor of political science at the University of Milan. Stefano M. Iacus is professor of statistics at the University of Milan.]

How to curb online harassment? Technology, law and advocacy can help.

[Commentary] A combination of legislation, technology, law and advocacy can improve online life. We need laws that acknowledge harassment by proxy and that attribute actions of the incited mob to the original upstream offender.

Rep Katherine M. Clark (D-MA) is in the vanguard, introducing legislation stopping some of the most formidable online acts. One bill criminalizes the malicious publication of private information, another prevents blackmailed demands for sexual acts, and a third punishes people who falsely report emergencies causing SWAT teams to be dispatched. Other important proposed legislation penned by Rep Clark is focused on the infrastructure of law enforcement – one requiring the Justice Department to publish statistics related to cybercrimes and funding, another providing funding to hire and train law enforcement officers to investigate cybercrimes and to procure advanced computer forensic tools. Meanwhile, Rep Jackie Speier (D-CA) introduced the Intimate Privacy Protect Act in 2016, to criminalize non-consensual pornography, with co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.

[Carrie Goldberg is an attorney in Brooklyn at CA Goldberg, PLLC and a board member at the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative.]

16 striking findings from 2016

Every year, we publish a collection of facts about the important events, issues and trends we documented in our wide-ranging research over the past 12 months. In 2016, Pew Research Center examined an array of topics in America – from immigration to the growing divide between Republicans and Democrats – as well as many from around the globe. Here are 16 of our most striking findings.

13) Americans’ pathways to news are changing, and mobile news is on the rise. Almost four-in-ten Americans (38%) often get news online today, behind only television (57%); radio (25%) and print newspapers (20%) trail both. Within the digital realm, mobile news consumption is rising rapidly: The proportion of Americans who ever get news on a mobile device has gone up from 54% in 2013 to 72% today. And among people who get news on both mobile and desktop, 56% prefer mobile.

14) Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform among Americans. Today, about eight-in-ten online Americans (79%) use Facebook, more than double the share that uses Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or LinkedIn. About three-quarters (76%) of Americans who use Facebook now report that they visit the site on a daily basis – up from 70% in 2015.

Foreign firewalls have no standing — open internet makes for a free world

[Commentary] For a significant segment of the globe, tyrannical governments determine what is permitted on communication networks. This is the world of Big Brother. Fearful dictators control the Internet with sophisticated firewalls. In breaking down artificial communication barriers, the will of the people becomes an antidote to tyrannical authority. It is a rival of arbitrary power. Perhaps Jean Jacque Rousseau said it best when he noted, “A little bit of agitation gives motivation to the soul, and what really makes the species prosper is not peace so much as freedom.”

[Herbert London is the president of the London Center for Policy Research.]

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