1. Monthly archive
  2. January 2017

January 2017

What Silicon Valley can expect under Trump

Since the election, President Trump has named only a handful of appointments to serve his administration, making it difficult to grok what a Trump presidency means for many of the complex issues that are dear to Silicon Valley — like immigration, network neutrality, self-driving cars and surveillance. Here’s what we know:

Merger-friendly appointments: AT&T’s $85 billion bid for Time Warner is currently under review by the Justice Department. And despite what Trump said on the campaign trail against the proposed merger, the individuals Trump picked to oversee the DOJ transition have a history helping large, private companies get their way with US regulatory agencies.
Skilled worker visas: One thing Trump has been clear on is his determination to tighten US borders. But when it comes to H1B visas — the program for foreign nationals working in highly skilled jobs like computer science and engineering — Trump has been less direct.
Industry-friendly regulations for self-driving cars and the gig economy: Trump announced in December that he will nominate Elaine Chao, former chief of the Department of Labor under the Bush administration, to head the Department of Transportation. Though she has little experience with self-driving cars, at a confirmation hearing earlier this month Chao hinted that she’s in favor of a light regulatory agenda that won’t get in the way of continued tech development in the nascent industry.
More digital surveillance: Trump is coming into power at a time when the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, is stepping down. Whoever Trump picks to fill the position will likely echo the new president’s philosophy on surveillance, which many privacy advocates see as particularly onerous.
Network neutrality faces extinction: Trump’s reported pick for the FCC Chairmanship, Commissioner Ajit Pai, is expected to roll back the 2015 network neutrality rules, which were created to keep internet providers like Comcast and Verizon from charging websites like Netflix and Facebook an extra fee to reach internet users at faster speeds.

Dear media: The Trump White House has total contempt for you. Time to react accordingly.

[Commentary] Here is one thing we learned about the new Trump White House: It views the institutional role that the news media is supposed to play in our democracy with nothing but total, unbridled contempt. We may be looking at an unprecedented set of new challenges for the media in covering the new president. What remains to be seen is how it will respond.

The New York Times reports this morning that journalists are deeply alarmed by statements made by Trump’s top advisers over the weekend, in which they faulted the media for reporting accurately on his inaugural crowd size. But I fear these journalists are understating the problem. This isn’t simply a matter of signaling bad relations. Rather, what President Trump and his advisers are doing is explicitly stating their contempt for the press’ institutional role as a credo, as an actionable doctrine that will govern not just how they treat the press, but how they treat factual reality itself.

FTC's Ohlhausen: Agency Should Focus on Real Harms

Republican Federal Trade Commission member Maureen Ohlhausen, who is reportedly President Donald Trump's choice as interim FTC chair, said she has not met with the President but says the FTC should focus its energies on real harms, rather than speculative harms. She also says she has taken a page out of Trump's Art of the Deal for how to proceed. She was speaking at the State of the Net annual conference, though she did not confirm her status as acting chair. Current FTC chair Edith Ramirez is leaving Feb 10, which will leave only two commissioners, Ohlausen and Democrat Terrell McSweeny. Ohlhausen said that part of focusing on real harms is through case selection, as well as not sending the wrong signals to the market about companies that did not get it "quite right" while trying to innovate. If you make a privacy promise, keep it, and take "reasonable steps" to protect privacy, she said.

Sprint buys a Third of Jay Z's Tidal Streaming Serivce

Tidal, the struggling streaming-music service controlled by Jay Z, has sold a one-third stake in its company to Sprint. As part of the deal, Jay Z and the group of artist owners who helped introduce Tidal, including Beyoncé, Madonna, Kanye West and Alicia Keys, will continue to run the service, and Marcelo Claure, the chief executive of Sprint, will join Tidal’s board. “Sprint shares our view of revolutionizing the creative industry to allow artists to connect directly with their fans and reach their fullest, shared potential,” Jay Z said. “Marcelo understood our goal right away, and together we are excited to bring Sprint’s 45 million customers an unmatched entertainment experience.” Tidal’s new partnership will give Sprint customers who subscribe to the streaming service additional content that is only available to them. Sprint, which has 45 million customers, is controlled by SoftBank of Japan.

© 1994-2024 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.