June 2018

Court Says New York-Charter Suit Not Preempted by FCC Transparency Rules

The New York State Supreme Court's appellate division has cleared the way for the state to continue pursuing a lawsuit against Charter Communications over broadband speed claims. The appellate court ruled that the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order's transparency rules did not give the commission the power to preempt the state's lawsuit and said the state's claims are actionable.

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for July 2018 Open Meeting

[Press release] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the July Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, July 12, 2018:

The Tech Side of Trump’s Plan to Reorganize Government

Under a new reorganization plan from the Trump administration, federal agencies would have less than four years to digitize all their paper processes. The White House released its overarching plan to reorganize the federal government, and, as with most of the administration’s management plans, it emphasizes technology’s role in the future of government. The plan calls for digitizing all of the federal government’s recordkeeping by Dec. 31, 2022, at which time the National Archives and Records Administration would stop accepting paper records from agencies.

Facebook expands its fact-checking tools but says its work ‘will never be finished’

Facebook announced an expansion of several initiatives to combat the spread of misinformation on the social network used by more than 2 billion people. Facebook acknowledged that fake news reports and doctored content have increasingly become image-based in some countries, making it harder for readers to discern whether a photo or video related to a news event is authentic. The company said it has expanded its fact-checking of traditional links posted on Facebook to photos and videos.

Obama cybersecurity czar: Russian hackers likely scanned election systems in all 50 states

Russian hackers likely scanned the election systems of all 50 states for vulnerabilities in 2016 — not just the 21 states confirmed as targets by homeland security officials in 2017, said Michael Daniel, the cybersecurity czar for former President Barack Obama, to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Daniel said that the federal government should invest more money in cybersecurity for state election systems.