1. Monthly archive
  2. January 2017

January 2017

Trump’s Order on Regulations Doesn’t Affect Independent Agencies Like FCC and FTC

A new executive order that requires executive agencies to find at least two existing regulations to rescind for every new rule does not extend to independent agencies, according to the White House. “All independent agencies are not covered by the EO,” said Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman. “Trump independent agencies that are headed by [Republican] commissioners or [Republican] appointees will want to comply,” said Amit Narang, a regulatory expert for the consumer group Public Citizen. That group includes the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer described the order as the most significant regulatory rollback effort since former President Ronald Reagan established the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in 1981.

In Trump’s Early Days, News Media Finds Competing Narratives

During his first 11 days in office, President Donald Trump has provided news outlets with plenty of material, at all hours of the morning and night. But his maelstrom of activity — the bold executive orders, the fiery Twitter posts, the brazen speeches — has also exposed, and perhaps exacerbated, ideological differences. For those devouring news about the administration, the choice of narratives has become starker, with brighter lines drawn around the content. For the readers and viewers, it’s follow the narrative of your choice, and be wary of the great chasm between. Over the weekend, as protesters descended on airports across the country in response to President Trump’s immigration ban, fissures began to emerge even among right-wing news organizations. On Jan 30, the divide only widened. And not everyone behaved predictably.

Trump’s FCC May Let ISPs Sell Your Private Data Without Your Consent

If you like your online privacy rights, can you keep them? Under President Donald Trump, the chances are grim. Federal regulations protecting consumers from broadband industry privacy abuses will soon be eliminated if the nation’s largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and their Republican allies on Capitol Hill have their way.

The US broadband privacy safeguards, which were approved last year by the Federal Communications Commission, require ISPs like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon to obtain “opt-in” consent before they “monetize” sensitive consumer data, including online browsing activity, mobile app data, and emails and online chats. As President Trump and GOP lawmakers move swiftly to remove regulations across large swaths of the economy, the nation’s biggest ISPs are working overtime to ensure that the FCC’s privacy policy is part of the regulatory rollback. The broadband industry is pursuing a dual-track strategy by pressuring the FCC to halt the privacy policy, while simultaneously lobbying Congress to rescind the rules outright. Under the recently-approved FCC policy, consumers must affirmatively give their ISP opt-in permission to use private information for marketing purposes. The big ISPs, not surprisingly, want the right to monetize such data by default, with the burden falling on the user to opt-out.

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