The Hill

President Donald Trump is ordering the top US intelligence official to come up with a new policy for responding to requests from officials to “unmask” Americans in intelligence reports.

Sinclair Broadcast Group likely will face demands to sell TV stations in at least 10 cities to satisfy regulators who are wrapping up a review of the company’s plan to buy Tribune Media Co. -- a $3.9 billion deal that would create a national broadcasting giant.  Apparently, Federal Communications Commission staff members in a recent discussion focused on completing the review by a self-imposed deadline of Jan. 17.  The deal would create a coast-to-coast string of stations exceeding current ownership limits and Sinclair has acknowledged that it might have to sell some of the stations.

Senate Commerce Committee Chiarman John Thune (R-SD) will convene a hearing titled “Terrorism and Social Media: #IsBigTechDoingEnough?” at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 17, 2018. The hearing will examine the steps social media platforms are taking to combat the spread of extremist propaganda over the Internet.  Representatives from major technology firms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will testify. 

The Senate Intelligence Committee is still waiting on Twitter to answer questions in the committee’s Russia investigation, Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) said.  “I’m disappointed. I’ve been disappointed throughout this” by Twitter Inc.’s failure to be more cooperative Vice Chairman Warner said. “The other companies met the deadline." Facebook and Alphabet's Google have delivered answers to detailed questions Senators posed after a public hearing with the three technology giants in 2017 on disclosures that Russians had exploited their networks.

Democratic senators rejoiced on Jan 9 that they had secured enough votes to force the Senate to debate whether to restore the US government’s recently repealed network neutrality rules. But their celebrations could prove short-lived on Capitol Hill, where Republicans control both chambers of Congress — and can easily scuttle any attempt to revive regulations that required internet providers to treat all web traffic equally.  In speech after speech, though, Democratic Sens mostly sidestepped those issues.