Ali Breland

AT&T and Time Warner are extending the termination date of their merger to April 22, 2018 now that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing to block their deal.  Despite the DOJ’s move to stop the merger, both companies are hopeful they’ll still be able to complete the $85 billion deal if they beat the agency’s lawsuit. “AT&T intends to vigorously contest the DOJ’s allegations and is confident that the Court will reject the DOJ’s challenge to the merger,” the company wrote in its SEC filing.

Two top House Judiciary Committee Democratic Reps are pushing the panel to hold a hearing examining the White House’s role in the “troubling pattern of potential political interference by President Trump” in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) review of AT&T’s merger with Time Warner. DOJ sources recently said that antitrust officials had rejected an offer from AT&T to divest from CNN in order to win approval for the $85 billion deal. AT&T officials flatly denied that the offer was ever on the table — or would be. Ranking Member John Conyers Jr.

Facebook says that it supports the government’s push to further regulate election ads on digital platforms, but qualifies that it wants flexible rules.The company explained in comments it sent to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that new regulations should give “advertisers flexibility to meet their disclaimer obligations in innovative ways that take full advantage of the technological advance.” The firm explained that by “technological advances,” it means instead of firm rules requiring specific text to show up on political ads on its platform, Facebook would instead like to see a pro

Democratic Reps are pushing the Federal Elections Commission to take more aggressive action in curbing foreign influence in US elections.  Eighteen members of Congress led by Democracy Reform Task Force Chair Rep John Sarbanes (D-MD) urged the FEC in a letter on Nov 9 to treat political advertisements on social media platforms in the same way that it treats TV or radio ads. Rep Sarbanes and company argued that with such measures in place, foreign manipulation of social media platforms during the 2016 U.S.

Members of Congress are pushing Sinclair on the possible effects of its pending merger with Tribune Media, including whether the media company would continue to push controversial "must-run segments." In a letter to the company, 49 members of Congress, led by Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-CA), underscored the scale of the deal and pressed Sinclair to explain how its $4 billion merger would benefit Americans.

Fight for the Future says the Federal Communications Commission is hiding something in regard to the cyberattacks that brought the agency's website down. “The public wants to know what the FCC is hiding,” said Fight for the Future’s Evan Greer. “They’ve been lying to us for weeks about net neutrality. It’s very difficult to accept their claims about [distributed denial of service] attacks when they have provided zero evidence to support them.” Groups like Fight For the Future and Color of Change, as well as Sens Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), called on the FCC to release proof of the attacks.

House Oversight Subcommittee on Information Technology Ranking Member Robin Kelly (D-IL) is introducing a new bill aimed at bridging the digital divide by requiring all future government websites to be mobile friendly. The bill is aimed at making government policy more accessible to lower-income individuals, particularly in inner cities that can’t afford broadband access on their computers and often access the web through their mobile phones.

“In 2017, it’s unreasonable that one in ten Americans cannot effectively connect with their government because they only use mobile devices,” Rep Kelly said. “Deep urban and remote rural communities are the most affected by our government’s failure to provide mobile-accessible websites. Without broadband coverage, these Americans are tied to the mobile-only Internet.”

Democratic lawmakers say they’re not interested in cutting a network neutrality deal with Republicans, arguing that their counterparts across the aisle aren’t offering enough concessions. Even as the net neutrality battle focuses on Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal to curb the rules, observers say bipartisan legislation is necessary to establish a firm set of rules that can’t simply be overturned the next time FCC leadership changes parties.

Democratic Reps and Sens say Republicans need to yield more ground, particularly regarding FCC jurisdiction over broadband providers. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) has a draft of net neutrality legislation in the works, but said that it would be “impractical” to move forward with it unless Democrats get on board. A net neutrality bill would need 60 votes in the Senate, meaning that at least some Democrats would have to sign onto a Republican bill. None have indicated interest in doing so thus far.

Sen Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said the way that Federal Communications Chairman Ajit Pai introduced his plan to roll back network neutrality may have skirted the law.

“He sounded more like a political person taking a political position than someone who was going to really inquiry into the best path forward,” said Sen Schatz. “I think it is legally consequential.” Sen Schatz said the FCC chairman may have violated a “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” (NPRM) statute by appearing to take a clear position on a proposal that hasn't even been considered. The statute states that the FCC must first consider public comment before taking a specific position on a policy. “They are supposed to receive public comment. They are supposed to establish a public record,” Sen Schatz said. “You would never have anybody in judiciary announcing their position, declaring that they will ‘win in the end,’ that ‘this is a fight and they intend to win it.’"

“It’s for others in the litigation space to figure out whether there’s something there or not. But the fact that he is announcing the outcome in advance seems contrary to the statute.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) unveiled his committee’s agenda on technology and innovation. Under his "blueprint," Chairman Goodlatte hopes to see his committee tackle top tech issues, including changes to surveillance and encryption laws, and on high-skilled immigration.

On immigration, he told reporters the committee was working to “find a balanced solution to increase the high-skilled talent pool to promote job growth through visa and green card reforms,” while also “protecting job opportunities for similarly qualified Americans.” He also focused much of his remarks on surveillance issues, including proposed reforms to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a controversial provision authorizing US intelligence to surveil noncitizens. Chairman Goodlatte also said he hopes to hold a committee hearing in about how the US accesses communications data in other countries.