John Bowden

President Donald Trump said Congress should "get involved" in a battle against "discriminatory" practices by Twitter that the President has alleged unfairly target conservatives. 'The best thing ever to happen to Twitter is Donald Trump,'" President Trump tweeted, quoting a guest on the Fox Business Network. "So true, but they don’t treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people. Different names—over 100 M.

A CA-based First Amendment group is suing the Justice Department in federal court over the agency's seizure of phone and email records from Ali Watkins, a reporter at The New York Times. In a lawsuit filed Sept 19 in US District Court for the Northern District of California, First Amendment Coalition (FAC) alleged that the Justice Department had violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by withholding documents related to the seizure of Watkins's email and phone records. Watkins, at the time, covered national security for the Times.

President Donald Trump blasted efforts from social media companies to "censor" controversial messages and clamp down on "fake news," urging tech companies to allow Americans to figure out the truth for themselves. The president's message comes amid efforts by major social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to examine Russian election interference efforts on their sites, as well as moves from some companies to ban right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from displaying his content on their platforms.

The Trump administration said it is going ahead with actions to crack down on Chinese trade practices by June 30. The White House says President Trump is planning further export controls against China to counter Chinese intellectual property theft, including tariffs on Chinese tech exports believed to contain stolen American intellectual property.

A former Trump campaign member who later joined the White House communications team is joining Sinclair Broadcasting Group as the network has weathered controversy in recent months over its pro-Trump leanings. Kaelan Dorr, who worked for the Trump campaign as a deputy communications adviser and later joined the White House as Director of Congressional Communications, will join the right-leaning network where he tweeted he will work alongside Boris Epshtyn as an executive political producer for the show.

"Why doesn’t the Fake News Media state that the Trump Administration’s Anti-Trust Division has been, and is, opposed to the AT&T purchase of Time Warner in a currently ongoing Trial. Such a disgrace in reporting!" President Trump tweeted on May 11.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act on two occasions, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) informed the Trump administration.  Appearing in her official capacity, Conway endorsed and advocated against political candidates, the watchdog said, referring its findings to President Donald Trump "for appropriate disciplinary action."

President Donald Trump warned about the influence of violence in movies while discussing school safety and mass shootings, suggesting it could be a contributing factor to recent mass shootings.  "We have to look at the internet, because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed, and we have to do something about maybe what they're seeing and how they're seeing it. And also video games," President Trump said. "I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts.

President Donald Trump declared that "about 30 percent" of journalists are good people. Breaking from his prepared remarks at the FBI's National Academy graduation ceremony, President Trump joked that many Americans were watching at home through the cameras of the "fake news" media. "As I look out on the audience today I see many young, bright faces," President Trump said. "To them and to many other young Americans watching at home, of which there are many — you see the fake news back there," he added, pointing to the line of news cameras.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said that supporters of net neutrality provisions that were repealed have been proven wrong, as internet users wake up still able to send emails and use Twitter after the regulations were struck down. Chairman Pai said that net neutrality supporters such as ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel were wrong to grandstand about the end of "the internet as we know it." "He's getting everything wrong about it," Pai said of Kimmel. "The free and open internet we had prior to 2015 is the one we're going to have going forward.