Hill, The

Fox News anchor Heather Nauert has been hired by the State Department to be its spokesperson. Nauert, 47, has been a news anchor on “Fox & Friends” since 2012 and has been with Fox News and local New York Fox affiliate Fox 5 for most of the past 20 years, save for a two-year stint at ABC News from 2005-2007. “The Department of State is pleased to welcome Heather Nauert as the new State Department spokesperson,” a State Department announcement said. “Nauert comes to the department with more than 15 years of experience as an anchor and correspondent covering both foreign and domestic news and events, including the 9/11 terror attacks, the war in Iraq, and the genocide in Darfur, Sudan."

[Commentary] Google plans to introduce an ad-blocking feature in the mobile and desktop versions of its popular Chrome browser. Consider Google’s hypocrisy.

The company supported network neutrality, or the idea that Internet service providers should be prohibited from blocking content on the Internet. Google is now seeking to engage in exactly that activity, which it had claimed was among the worst sins possible. Maybe they rationalize that since Google’s heart is in the right place and their words on net neutrality are the correct ones, they can trust that Google would never discriminate against another edge provider or garage start-up by blocking or throttling their free and open choice of ad model. They reason that Google would never be like a big, bad Internet service provider.

This brings us to the second problem that is particular to Google, when it comes to ad blocking without accountability and legitimacy measures that ensure, and independently confirm, Google is are not being anti-competitive. It is more than ironic that Google has demonized ISPs for having the potential to block Internet traffic under the “principle” of net neutrality, and demonized copyright interests’ efforts to shut down notorious piracy websites as “censorship.”

[Scott Cleland is president of Precursor LLC and chairman of NetCompetition]

Major internet service providers spent more than $11 million on lobbying amid fights over privacy rules and a coming showdown over net neutrality. Three of the largest telecom companies — AT&T, Verizon and Comcast — collectively spent a total of $11.2 million during the first three months of the year, according to disclosure forms filed to Congress on Thursday.

Of the three telecom giants, AT&T spent the most during the period, dishing out $4.6 million on lobbying. Its first-quarter spending was the sixth highest among all entities that filed disclosures. Comcast and Verizon spent $3.7 million and $2.9 million respectively. The sum total isn’t especially high for the companies for a three-month period, as they spent slightly more during the first quarter of 2016. The companies all lobbied on a wide variety of issues, and the filings do not break down how much was spent on each topic.

AT&T was among the largest contributors to President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, accounting for more than $2 million of the record-breaking $106.7 million haul. The telecommunication behemoth gave $2 million in cash contributions as well as an $82,483 in-kind donation for “mobile equipment/software.” Though the contribution exceeds those of AT&T’s rivals, it still falls short of the $3 million it gave for President Obama’s 2013 inauguration.

Verizon, Charter Communications and Comcast contributed a combined $600,000 to the Trump inaugural committee. And tech companies that showed little support for Trump during the campaign also gave hundreds of thousands to the committee. Google gave $285,000, and Microsoft made a $250,000 cash donation along with a $250,000 in-kind contribution in the form of equipment.

A coalition of consumer advocacy groups is calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to oppose requiring foreign nationals to provide their social media passwords to enter the US.

In February, DHS Secretary John Kelly floated the idea of forcing citizens of certain countries to hand over their passwords as part of “enhanced vetting measures” supported by the Trump Administration. The groups, which include the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Daily Kos and Center for Media Justice are trying to solicit signatures for a letter to Kelly protesting collecting foreign nationals' passwords. Evan Greer, campaign director at Fight for the Future, another member organization of the coalition, argued that Kelly’s initiative wouldn’t get the results he wanted. "Asking people to hand over the passwords to their accounts will make all of us less safe, not more safe,” Greer said.

Three members of the Arkansas delegation, Sens Tom Cotton (R-AR), John Boozman (R-AR) and Rep French Hill (R-AR), are asking Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to soften his proposal to deregulate the business data services market.

The lawmakers wrote a letter to Chairman Pai asking that he implement a “reasonable transition period” in the proposed rule so that small businesses can prepare for any price hikes that may result. “A transition period would create a window where all market participants could plan for price increases or the purchase of internet protocol (IP)-enabled equipment, shop for alternative service arrangements, and even solicit build-out proposals from potential market entrants,” the lawmakers wrote. “A reasonable transition would also enable service providers to adapt and remain viable in more markets than will occur in the event of a flash cut to new policies.”

Former Gov Mike Huckabee (R-AR) vented frustration about his Comcast service in a series of tweets April 17, with the former Republican presidential hopeful saying that he would prefer to have President Obama back in office than continue to deal with the company. Huckabee blasted the cable company to his more than 600,000 followers. "How bad is @comcast service? I'd rather have Obama back as President than have Comcast,” he tweeted.

Google is paying a $7.8 million fine and agreeing to open up its Android mobile operating system to competitors' search engines in Russia. The settlement ends a two-year fight with Russian antitrust regulators.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) in 2015 found Google was violating competition laws by including its own search tool on the operating system. Google would preload its own apps, including the search engine, on phones running Android. Russian users didn't have the option of changing to a different search engine on those phones. Now, under the terms of the settlement, the Android operating system will no longer exclusively have Google apps preinstalled in Russia, and users will be able to pick their default search engines, according to the FAS. The $7.8 million fine is roughly 9 percent of Google's 2014 revenue in Russia. The decision will give an opportunity for the Russian search engine Yandex NV to increase its own market share in mobile search. Yandex had originally brought the complaint against Google.

President Donald Trump spent the Monday after Easter slamming a favorite target: the media. Every story written by “the fake media” is “badly slanted,” President Trump tweeted. “The Fake Media (not Real Media) has gotten even worse since the election. Every story is badly slanted. We have to hold them to the truth!” the president wrote on Twitter.

President Trump earlier in the morning hit the media over how it had covered a recent House special election in Kansas, where Republican Rob Estes defeated Democrat James Thompson by 7 percentage points. The previous incumbent, now-CIA Director Mike Pompeo, had won his most recent race in the conservative-leaning district by more than 30 points. But President Trump said the media had given the race too much attention when it appeared it was close and not enough after Estes pulled out the win. "The recent Kansas election (Congress) was a really big media event, until the Republicans won. Now they play the same game with Georgia-BAD!" Trump tweeted.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is just getting started. Here are five regulations or policies he's working to roll back.

1. Net neutrality: When the FCC adopted its landmark net neutrality rules in 2015, requiring internet providers to treat all web traffic equally, then-Commissioner Pai issued a 67-page statement blasting the order as regulatory overreach that would stifle the internet economy.
2. Business data service: On April 20, the FCC will vote on more deregulation of the market.
3. Lifeline: Chairman Pai was quick to take on the FCC's Lifeline program, which provides broadband subsidies to low-income households.
4. Media ownership limits: FCC commissioners will also be voting on a proposal to undo an Obama-era change to media ownership rules, which made it harder for major TV broadcasters to buy up local stations. Broadcasters are currently limited to serving 39 percent of the country’s households. In August of 2016, the FCC voted to do away with the "UHF discount "— which let broadcasting companies count just half of the audiences of certain channels they owned toward the 39 percent limit. Chairman Pai is now proposing to bring it back, and the proposal is expected to pass.
5. Set-top box reform: Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed reforming the set-top box market, allowing consumers to buy them from third parties and breaking what critics call a cable company monopoly. One of Pai’s first actions as chairman was to withdraw the proposal, prompting an angry response from his predecessor.