Ali Breland

The White House pushed back on legislative efforts to reverse President Donald Trump’s deal with China that eases penalties on Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE, helping to revive the company. White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley defended the administration's agreement to impose lessened penalties on the company, maintaining that the punishment was "massive" and "historic." “This will ensure ZTE pays for its violations and gives our government complete oversight of their future activity without undue harm to American suppliers and their workers," Gidley said.

Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign manager, is calling for a single, privatized 5G mobile network across the country, arguing the current system is outdated. Parscale’s position contrasts with a reported proposal floated by the White House earlier in 2018 that included a plan to nationalize 5G networks in an attempt to guard against China. "It is time for America to have a single 5G network for all carriers. The days of dropped calls, slow speeds, and no service need to end.

Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-VA) said he is concerned that companies like Huawei and ZTE, which government officials believe are a threat to national security, might have been able to get user data from Facebook after it was revealed the company had data-sharing partnerships with roughly 60 device makers. “Does our personal info reside on a server in China? I think Facebook owes us that answer,” Ranking Member Warner said.

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said that Facebook “should be prepared to come before Congress" and answer questions about its data collection practices. “It’s deeply concerning that Facebook continues to withhold critical details about the information it has and shares with others.

House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member David Cicilline (D-RI) hammered Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, following a report that the company is sharing large amounts of its users’ data with other companies. “Sure looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress about whether users have ‘complete control’ over who sees our data on Facebook," Rep Cicilline tweeted. “This needs to be investigated and the people responsible need to be held accountable,” he continued.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) went after Google for displaying “Nazism” as one of the ideologies of the California Republican Party. A search on the site for “California Republican Party” apparently returned with a sidebar result listing Nazism as an ideology alongside “conservativism” and “market liberalism.” Majority Leader McCarthy noted the sidebar in a tweet at the company.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin encouraged the Department of Justice to review major technology companies like Google over concerns related to the potential harm they pose to market competition. “These issues deserve to be reviewed carefully,” Sec Mnuchin said.  “These are issues the Justice Department needs to look at seriously, not for any one company, but as these technology companies have a greater and greater impact on the economy,” he continued.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey met with several Sens to discuss issues such as data privacy and network neutrality. "Pleasure to meet with @Twitter’s @jack today," Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) tweeted. Sen Markey also wrote that Sens Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Maria Cantwell (D-WW) attended the meeting with Dorsey as well. Dorsey also met with top Republican lawmakers including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD).

Democrats are increasing looking to make their support for net neutrality regulations a campaign issue in the midterm elections. On Capitol Hill, the Senate is expected to vote on a measure to restore the Obama-era rules repealed by the GOP-controlled Federal Communications Commission. Even if they fail they think the public fight will crystalize their image as the party battling to support an open internet. 

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that building a 5G mobile broadband network is a chief concern for the Trump administration. “I think the pitch that Sprint and T-Mobile are making is an interesting one, that their merger would propel Verizon and AT&T into more active pursuit of 5G,” Sec Ross said. “Whoever pursues it, whoever does it, we’re very much in support of 5G. We need it. We need it for defense purposes, we need it for commercial purposes,” he continued.