Tony Romm

A collection of Silicon Valley executives, engineers and activists are quietly plotting a progressive counterattack against President Donald Trump, a sign of the industry's growing anger at his election victory and actions on immigration.

Through a new organization tentatively called Win the Future, or WTF, the likes of LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga founder Mark Pincus are teaming up with former Sierra Club President Adam Werbach to connect political organizers and shore up progressive candidates and causes ahead of the 2018 midterm and 2020 presidential elections. Their early efforts will include building a platform to connect activists and, potentially, a website similar to the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to fund progressive initiatives. The new organization points to a desire by the liberal tech industry to channel its outrage into a broader, more organized resistance.

Apparently, President Donald Trump will tap Ajit Pai as his pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission in the new administration, elevating the sitting GOP commissioner to the top spot overseeing the nation's communications industry. The announcement could come as soon as the afternoon of Jan 20, apparently.

Pai, a Barack Obama nominee who has served as the senior FCC Republican for more than three years, could take the new role immediately and wouldn't require approval by the Senate because he was already confirmed to serve at the agency. Pai was widely assumed to be taking the agency’s gavel at least temporarily as an acting chairman at the beginning of Trump’s tenure. But President Trump’s decision to make him a more permanent chairman affords the Kansas-bred Republican a bigger mandate to make his mark on the agency and its rules.

The US government quietly began requesting that select foreign visitors provide their Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts upon arriving in the country, a move designed to spot potential terrorist threats that drew months of opposition from tech giants and privacy hawks alike.

Foreign travelers arriving in the United States on the visa waiver program have been presented with an “optional” request to “enter information associated with your online presence.” The prompt includes a drop-down menu that lists platforms including Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, as well as a space for users to input their account names on those sites. The new policy comes as Washington tries to improve its ability to spot and deny entry to individuals who have ties to terrorist groups like the Islamic State.

Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and her progressive allies are pushing Hillary Clinton to curb the market power of tech giants like Apple, Amazon and Google - putting the Democratic nominee in a bind over how hard to police an industry that's showered her with money and support in 2016. If she wins in November, Clinton would have to fill a raft of positions at the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, the government's twin cops on the competition beat.

The tech industry - which has largely avoided major showdowns with Washington's antitrust regulators during the Obama Administration - could easily face new scrutiny if Clinton bows to the Sen Warren wing and appoints people with a tougher eye for enforcement." Another name being circulated for a Clinton antitrust position is Daniel Weitzner, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who served in key roles at the Commerce Department and the White House during Obama's presidency. There's also chatter about whether Sharis Pozen, now the vice president for competition at GE, could return to government. During her tenure as acting assistant attorney general at DOJ, she oversaw the agency's landmark effort to block AT&T's proposed purchase of T-Mobile - and she also brought DOJ's successful case against Apple for the way it priced its ebooks. Two Federal Communications Commission aides - Gigi Sohn , an adviser to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Travis LeBlanc, the agency's enforcement chief - are also seen as contenders for an FTC commissioner post.

Donald Trump's presidential transition team is turning to a crusader against regulation as it seeks to craft a strategy on issues like network neutrality and the future of the Federal Communications Commission, according to three sources familiar with the effort. The newly tapped aide, Jeffrey Eisenach, is a known commodity in Washington tech and telecom circles.

Dating back to his time as leader of the now-defunct Progress and Freedom Foundation, he's argued vigorously in favor of the FCC taking a hands-off approach to digital issues. While there in the 1990s, he also called for robust penalties against Microsoft during the US government's antitrust investigation of the software giant. In 2012 Eisenach arrived as a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and, in that role, he’s been an outspoken antagonist of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and his policies. In his research and advocacy, often backed by tech and telecom interests, he's slammed the Obama administration's efforts on net neutrality, broadband investment and more. It also marks a shift for Eisenach, who earlier this election cycle had criticized Trump. In March, he tweeted that he wouldn’t “apologize for pulling out all stops to defeat Trump,” citing the stakes in the election. But that tweet, and others critical of the GOP candidate, have since been deleted from his timeline. He's also been the source of controversy: The New York Times in August needled Eisenach for his research and writing on issues like net neutrality, some of which has been funded by companies like Verizon and other telecom interests that oppose the FCC's rules.

In an effort to address the spotty access to broadband in many rural regions, Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Jared Huffman (D-CA) introduced the Public Lands Telecommunications Act.

It authorizes agencies with jurisdiction over public-land management, like the National Parks Service, to collaborate with surrounding communities to build a more comprehensive telecommunications infrastructure. “This approach to improved connectivity has something for everyone: visitors could see improved interpretive services and public safety, land management agencies could practice more efficient land management, and neighboring rural and remote communities will benefit from improved broadband access,” Rep Huffman said.

Amazon rarely shies away from a fight, whether it’s battling publishers to conquer the e-book market or warding off investors who want the company to deliver bigger profits. But Amazon increasingly is shipping those hardball tactics to Washington, where it is fighting agencies and wooing regulators more than ever before.

The company has boosted its political machine, hiring a crop of new lobbyists and writing bigger checks to members of Congress. It recently retained a powerhouse firm in Washington (DC) to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration on delivery drones and has flexed its muscle to win a key government technology contract. CEO Jeff Bezos, meanwhile, raised his Beltway profile through his personal purchase of The Washington Post in 2013.

A blistering battle over network neutrality has the Federal Communications Commission hearing an earful -- and from more than just the usual torrent of lobbyists and lawyers who swarm the chairman’s eighth-floor office.

“Eliminating net neutrality is wrong for America,” warned Carolyn from Kennewick, Washington, one of roughly 69,000 people to write the agency so far about its proposed open Internet rules. “Do not change the Internet,” pleaded David from San Antonio. “In fairness to all users,” added Debie from Gaston, Oregon, “do not allow these gluttonous Internet providers any more corrupting power.”

Even beyond the Beltway, critics have pilloried the country’s top telecommunications regulator as it weighs new rules to ensure that all Web traffic is treated equally. The debate over net neutrality has always been controversial and complicated -- for consumers, companies and courts alike.

But Chairman Tom Wheeler’s new blueprint has triggered a reaction far more intense than what might typically greet the early stages of an FCC proceeding. Many commenters -- and members of Congress -- bemoan publicly that they have more questions than answers. They fear Chairman Wheeler’s approach might create a Web in which companies or consumers have to pay for faster access to the movies and other content they desire, though the chairman has assured otherwise. Adding to the trouble, intense lobbying from all sides of the fight only has imbued the issue with a new alarmism.

It’s Comcast vs. Sen Al Franken -- Round Two.

The Minnesota Democrat, who pilloried the telecommunications giant and its plans to purchase Time Warner Cable at a congressional hearing, continued his attack a day later -- stressing in an interview that the $45.2 billion megadeal threatens competition and could spike consumers’ cable rates.

Asked during the interview what he’d do with Comcast’s merger, the senator added, “The first thing I would do is not let the largest cable TV company buy the second-largest cable TV company.”

Sen Franken also repeated his criticism that Comcast hadn’t kept some of the promises it made to federal regulators during the company’s 2011 purchase of NBCUniversal. Specifically, Sen Franken said that Comcast hadn’t done enough to market its standalone broadband service to consumers. And he charged that Comcast had tried to shaft programmers like Bloomberg, which competes with Comcast’s own business offering, CNBC.

There’s little that tends to unite a leading liberal like Sen Dick Durbin (D-IL) and a conservative firebrand like Ted Cruz (R-TX). But when the two senators join their colleagues for a hearing on Comcast’s $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, many of them will have something in common -- they’ve each collected Comcast cash.

The cable giant historically has been a major Beltway player, and it’s sure to strengthen its political offense in order to sell the new, controversial megadeal. Yet even before announcing its plans for Time Warner Cable, Comcast had donated to almost every member of Congress who has a hand in regulating it. In fact, money from Comcast’s political action committee has flowed to all but three members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Checks have landed in the campaign coffers of Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), who oversee the chamber’s antitrust panel. Meanwhile, the cable giant has donated in some way to 32 of the 39 members of the House Judiciary Committee, which is planning a hearing of its own. And Comcast has canvassed the two congressional panels that chiefly regulate cable, broadband and other telecom issues, donating to practically every lawmaker there -- including Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). Comcast stresses its donations are a function of its business. “Comcast is a very sophisticated political player.

They know that the money they give to both Republicans and Democrats buys them access -- everybody admits that in Washington today,” said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation. “So they have covered their bases by giving to nearly every single member of the committees that do oversight.”