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Here are five regulatory fights the tech world will be watching closely in 2017.
1) Apple's record tax penalty in Europe: In August, the European Union’s Commission on Competition handed a record judgment against Apple, ordering the company to pay over $13 billion in back taxes to Ireland.
2) The fight over encryption
3) AT&T-Time Warner merger: AT&T's plans to merge with Time Warner will be under heavy scrutiny.
4) Google's antitrust fight: Google has its own fight with the European Commission.
5) Amazon's EU tax case: Amazon is also awaiting a key tax ruling form the European Union. The decision was expected in 2016 but will be coming in the new year.

Here are 5 looming fights for the Federal Communications Commission in President-elect Donald Trump's first year:
1. Network Neutrality: The fate of the agency's net neutrality rules will be the FCC's biggest fight of the year.
2. Set-top cable boxes: The FCC's lone, remaining Democratic commissioner, Mignon Clyburn, supports FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's set-top proposal. But its unclear how much of a fight Clyburn can put up.
3. Broadband privacy: Chairman Wheeler's new privacy rules for broadband providers were another high-profile item from his tenure. It's unclear, though, if the FCC's Republican Commissioners would agree to scale them back. Internet companies and consumer groups, though, are likely to keep up pressure for the rules.
4. AT&T-Time Warner merger: The Justice Department will be looking into the proposed deal, but its unclear yet if the FCC will take up its own review.
5. Business data services: Chairman Wheeler also hoped to pass a major reform of the market for so-called special access deals, but dropped those plans after Trump's victory.

Tech trade groups penned a letter to US regulators warning against a European Union copyright proposal. “The Commission’s Proposal on copyright in the Digital Single Market risks undermining trans-Atlantic commerce and internet openness,” the groups wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and US Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman. The letter's signatories included the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Consumer Technology Association (CTA), Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and the Internet Association (IA) — groups that represent a number of major tech companies such as Google parent Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook.

At issue is an EU measure that would require internet companies to create content filtering software to detect copyright material. But the tech groups say the proposal breaks from established international standards and wrongly put liability for copyright violations on internet companies instead of those who actually publish copyrighted material on their platforms. The letter argues that the content filters are expensive to maintain, citing the $60 million YouTube has reportedly spent on the technology.

[Commentary] For a significant segment of the globe, tyrannical governments determine what is permitted on communication networks. This is the world of Big Brother. Fearful dictators control the Internet with sophisticated firewalls. In breaking down artificial communication barriers, the will of the people becomes an antidote to tyrannical authority. It is a rival of arbitrary power. Perhaps Jean Jacque Rousseau said it best when he noted, “A little bit of agitation gives motivation to the soul, and what really makes the species prosper is not peace so much as freedom.”

[Herbert London is the president of the London Center for Policy Research.]

President-elect Donald Trump confirmed that he met with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim recently. Trump and Slim met for a private dinner Dec 17 at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's resort in Florida.

The two feuded throughout the presidential campaign. Trump had accused Slim of launching a media smear campaign against him through his ties to The New York Times and other companies. Slim denied Trump's accusations. He was also a vocal critic of Trump's promises to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border that Trump vowed Mexico would pay for. The two are now looking to open a friendly line of communication.

SoftBank will invest $1 billion in One Web, a broadband access company based in Arlington (VA), as part of a pledge to President-elect Donald Trump to invest $50 billion in American companies.

“Earlier this month I met with President-Elect Trump and shared my commitment to investing and creating jobs in the U.S. This is the first step in that commitment,” the Japanese tech giant’s CEO, Masayoshi Son, said. President-elect Trump announced after meeting with Son earlier this month that SoftBank would invest $50 billion in U.S. businesses and create 50,000 new jobs domestically. The president-elect said Son made the pledge as a direct result of his presidential election victory.

[Commentary] President-elect Donald Trump may learn that the technology firms, who at first glance have little to do with the industrial economy, will in fact play a central role in transforming and reviving the physical economy in places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. For it is information technology that will power the Internet of Things, connected cars, smart infrastructure, additive 3D manufacturing, and revolutions in health care, energy, and education.

Silicon Valley might come to appreciate an administration that doesn’t strangle public financing markets with rules and costs that discourage initial public offerings (IPOs), or for that matter block other innovations in biotech, fintech, transportation, and health. Trump, in turn, might learn about the complexity and necessity of integrated global supply-chains, the importance of cross-border data flows, the positive-sum virtues of free and open trade, and the heroic achievements of immigrant technologists and entrepreneurs, who create far more jobs than they could ever take.

[Bret Swanson is president of the technology research firm Entropy Economics LLC and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications, and Technology Policy.]

Outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler and Sen Ron Johnson (R-WI) traded barbs Dec 15 in the wake of Chairman Wheeler’s announcement that he would step down. During the last FCC open meeting of 2016, Chairman Wheeler said he had made clear his intentions to depart from the agency after the Obama administration ends. “This is in keeping with the commitments I have made since March that I would cooperate with the new administration to ensure a smooth transition,” he said. Chairman Wheeler, a Democrat, said Senate Republicans ignored his offer to step down in exchange for the reconfirmation of FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, also a Democrat. And he particularly singled out Sen Johnson, saying the senator made it “pretty clear” that he wanted to create a 2-1 GOP majority in the FCC. Sen Johnson disputed Chairman Wheeler's words.

[Commentary] Computer science is one of the fastest-growing industries in America, and yet computer science education does not receive the same treatment as foreign language or math and is largely absent from the national K-12 curriculum. This precludes many US citizens from considering the field as a viable career path and has led to a shortage of US-born workers. By providing for the voluntary nationwide adoption of K-12 computer science curriculum, the incoming administration can ensure the employment of the next generation of American innovators. It is a potent way for President-elect Trump to deliver on his promise of greater jobs and better wages for the American people.

[Paula Stern is former chairwoman of the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and founder and chairwoman of The Stern Group Inc]

Facebook is rolling out new features to combat fake news on its platform, including flagging disputed stories, following a wave of criticism at the social media giant. The new tools include a streamlined reporting process to identify fake news, flagging those stories, improved sharing analytics and steps to tackle spammers. The changes were introduced by Facebook vice president of product management Adam Mosseri. “We believe in giving people a voice and that we cannot become arbiters of truth ourselves, so we're approaching this problem carefully,” Mosseri wrote. “We've focused our efforts on the worst of the worst, on the clear hoaxes spread by spammers for their own gain, and on engaging both our community and third party organizations." Under the changes, users will now have an option to report news stories they believe are fake by checking a box.