Lauren Frayer

[Commentary] Today, the biggest threat to artistic freedom in the United States comes not from the heavy hand of government censorship, but instead from individuals, unhappy with the way they are portrayed — or believe they are being portrayed– on the big and small screen. They file lawsuits against studios, writers, and directors — seeking large sums of money and even court orders barring distribution of a motion picture or television program. Though rarely successful, these lawsuits threaten to chill free speech, by discouraging creators from tackling sensitive real-life subjects and diverting energy and resources from the creative process.

To combat such suits, lawmakers in about 30 states, including California, have enacted laws that give those targeted by lawsuits attacking free speech an effective way to fight back. These laws, known as “anti-SLAPP statutes” (SLAPP = “strategic lawsuit against public participation”), give those sued for exercise of their First Amendment rights on public issues a quiver full of legal arrows that help get these meritless lawsuits dismissed relatively quickly and cheaply. The use of anti-SLAPP statues by media companies is not “dirty” — and it’s not a “secret.” Anti-SLAPP statutes are vital to protecting the First Amendment rights of writers, directors, and the studios that employ them. We at the Motion Picture Association of America are proud of our long history of fighting for filmmakers’ free speech rights. We will continue advocating for strong anti-SLAPP laws that ensure those rights protect us all.

[Ben Sheffner is Vice President, Legal Affairs at the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc.]

[Commentary] In the end, what kind of change did Edward J. Snowden bring about? In the realm of privacy protection, not much—at least so far. For all the talk on Capitol Hill in the summer of 2013—immediately after the Snowden leaks—about a reassessment of the balance between security and privacy rights, no significant legal changes to the authorities of the National Security Agency or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court have passed Congress since the Snowden leaks...

In the end, Snowden’s legacy will be mixed. He wanted to be known for the changes he would bring about in altering the government’s monitoring of American citizens. That seems unlikely. But he opened the world’s eyes to a new world of surveillance and cyberwarfare. There, what he revealed cannot be stuffed back into a black box—and will change the way we view American power over the next decade.

[David E. Sanger is chief Washington correspondent of The New York Times.]

WikiLeaks released thousands of documents that it said described sophisticated software tools used by the Central Intelligence Agency to break into smartphones, computers and even Internet-connected televisions. If the documents are authentic, as appeared likely at first review, the release would be the latest coup for the anti-secrecy organization and a serious blow to the CIA, which maintains its own hacking capabilities to be used for espionage.

The initial release, which WikiLeaks said was only the first part of the document collection, included 7,818 web pages with 943 attachments, the group said. The entire archive of CIA material consists of several hundred million lines of computer code, it said. Among other disclosures that, if confirmed, would rock the technology world, the WikiLeaks release said that the CIA and allied intelligence services had managed to bypass encryption on popular phone and messaging services such as Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram. According to the statement from WikiLeaks, government hackers can penetrate Android phones and collect “audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.”

President Donald Trump lashed out at the media over Twitter on March 7, calling reports of infighting among his aides “fake news.” The president wrote, "Don't let the FAKE NEWS tell you that there is big infighting in the Trump Admin. We are getting along great, and getting major things done!" President Trump is also said to have gone on a tirade over the weekend, blaming his staff for attorney general Jeff Sessions decision to recuse himself from campaign-related investigations.

Mozilla is announcing the National Science Foundation-sponsored Wireless Innovation for a Networked Society (WINS) Challenges: two US-based competitions with $1 million in prize money each. The goal: support creative, open-source ideas for making the Internet more accessible, decentralized and resilient. The challenges seek prototypes and designs that either a) provide connectivity during disasters or b) connect the unconnected. The program will begin accepting submissions in June 2017 through our soon-to-launch website, and will culminate in fall 2018. These challenges are open to a range of participants: individuals, teams, nonprofits and for-profits. Applicants might be academics researching wireless networking; technology activists catalyzing local infrastructure projects; entrepreneurs and innovators developing practical solutions for people who need (better) access; makers aiming to have an impact locally; or students and educators exploring networks and community activism.

Rep Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said Americans may have to choose between purchasing a new iPhone or paying for health insurance. “You know what, Americans have choices. And they’ve got to make a choice,” the House Oversight Committee chairman said, one day after the House GOP unveiled its plan to replace ObamaCare. “And so maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest in their own healthcare.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced two new staff appointments to the Office of the Chairman. Nathan Leamer is now serving as the Chairman’s Policy Advisor, and Carlos Minnix is serving as a Staff Assistant.

Nathan Leamer, Policy Advisor: For the past two years, Leamer served as the Outreach Manager and a Senior Fellow at the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank at which he managed the institute’s government relations and wrote extensively on emerging technology, innovation policy, and public safety. Leamer has also worked at Generation Opportunity, a millennial advocacy organization. Prior to these roles, he served as a legislative aide for Rep Justin Amash (R-MI) as well as a legislative assistant in the Michigan House of Representatives. Leamer received his undergraduate degree from Calvin College.
Carlos Minnix, Staff Assistant: Minnix joins the Chairman’s Office from the Enforcement Bureau’s Spectrum Enforcement Division, where he was a Staff Assistant. Minnix had served in that Division since 2007.

A Q&A with Christopher Ali, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. Ali spoke with Poynter over e-mail about why we should care about regulation, what local means these days and what we can learn from his other research.

In the interview, Ali says, "A couple of things need to change if we are really serious about local media in the 21st century. First and foremost, we need to have a more inclusive conversation on the issue of local media. Right now, the conversation, if it takes place at all, seems confined to the major industry players like Comcast or the National Association of Broadcasters. Public and community media organizations are certainly left out, as are indigenous and ethnolinguistic media organizations (like Telemundo or Univision). We need to broaden who is given a seat at the table and who is considered a policy actor. Second, we need to think long and hard about what it means to be local in the digital age and the communication technologies that provide local media. Third, we need to reconsider how we fund and support local media, especially local news. Lastly, in terms of policy, I strongly believe that we need a unified and comprehensive local media policy framework going forward."

A coalition of 171 public interest groups sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission and Senate leaders urging them not to dismantle the net neutrality rules from 2015.

The ACLU, the Benton Foundation, Free Press, MoveOn.org, and Public Knowledge were among the groups signing on to the letter favoring the regulations, which prohibit internet service providers from discriminating against traffic to certain sites. “Protecting net neutrality is crucial to ensuring that the internet remains a central driver of economic growth and opportunity, job creation, education, free expression, and civic organizing for everyone,” the letter reads. The message was addressed to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL). “In order to promote continued economic, social, and political growth and innovation, it is imperative that the internet remain open and accessible to all people in the future,” the groups wrote.

Asians in Silicon Valley, whether CEOs or undocumented workers, will be impacted by the new policies. In Silicon Valley, where 60 percent of foreign-born individuals hail from India, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other Asian countries, the outcry against President Doanld Trump's anti-immigration stance has been especially high-profile. And the latest immigration rules, rolled out in the last few days, have many communities on edge.

On March 3, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services agency announced that it would suspend the H-1B visa program, one of the main routes to employment for immigrants sponsored by tech companies. Then Trump signed a new executive order on March 6 banning entry from six countries: Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. These new rules will weaken the Asian community in the US, and its powerful contribution to the technology industry in the US. Throughout 2015, Asians made up 27 percent of the workforce at Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, LinkedIn, and Yahoo (though they were underrepresented in managerial and executive-level positions). In recent years, they've also made gains in the C suite with Google's Indian-born CEO, Sundar Pichai, and Microsoft's Indian-born CEO, Satya Nadella.