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President-elect Trump taps another net neutrality critic for FCC transition
President-elect Donald Trump is tapping another critic of network neutrality to help with the transition at the Federal Communications Commission. The Trump transition team announced that Roslyn Layton will join the FCC landing team. Layton will work alongside Jeffrey Eisenach and Mark Jamison.
Layton, like her two colleagues, has served as a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank. The three are all critics of the agency's controversial net neutrality rules. “The FCC's recent actions and the White House's intervention is inconsistent with a stable, evidence-based regulatory approach,” Layton wrote about net neutrality in a 2015 op-ed cowritten with Jamison. Layton went on to say that the FCC should focus on other matters. “The situation distracts the FCC from its mission-critical responsibilities, such as the upcoming incentive auction to get more spectrum in the marketplace and meet consumers’ increasing demand for wireless technologies.”
Trump FCC can't repeal rules quickly, but can enforce how it wants
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission under President-elect Donald Trump is likely to take a hard look at network neutrality and the reclassification of broadband as a Title II common carrier service. Repealing a regulation so recently blessed by the Court of Appeals may, however, be a lengthy and difficult process. The Internet Service Provider (ISP) privacy regulations pursuant to the Title II reclassification may be more readily overturned because no court has yet ruled on them. But that would still take some time.
In the interim, the new FCC should adopt a more rational enforcement policy. One early candidate should be the treatment of "pay-for-privacy" or "financial incentive" plans. These are broadband service plans that offer discounts to subscribers who permit their ISP to collect and use their data. The new FCC privacy regulations suggest an enforcement policy that will actively discourage these plans, notwithstanding FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's claim that, "The bottom line is that it's your data. How it's used and shared should be your choice." Left unsaid was that he prefers some choices to others.
[Thomas M. Lenard is senior fellow and president emeritus of the Technology Policy Institute.]
Internet Archive putting database in Canada to keep it from President-elect Trump
The Internet Archive, a nonprofit that saves copies of old web pages, is creating a backup of its database in Canada, in response to the election of Donald Trump. “On November 9th in America, we woke up to a new administration promising radical change,” the organization wrote. “It was a firm reminder that institutions like ours, built for the long-term, need to design for change.”
The Internet Archive is responsible for services like the Wayback Machine, a tool that allows users to access cached versions of websites long after they are pulled from the Internet, and Open Library, which offers free access to millions of e-books. The move will cost millions, according to the Internet Archive, which is soliciting donations. In their post, the Internet Archive justified its decision to backup its data in Canada, claiming that Trump could threaten an open Internet. “For us, it means keeping our cultural materials safe, private and perpetually accessible. It means preparing for a Web that may face greater restrictions.”
'Fake news' isn't the problem — mainstream news with an agenda is
[Commentary] Talk to people on the anti-“Mainstream media” side of the culture war, Donald Trump supporters or not, and they will tell you that The New York Times or The Washington Post are no more reliable than Breitbart or the conspiracy-theory site Infowars.
Comparing the mainstream media in the United States to the state-controlled Russian media that routinely traffic in outright hoaxes and blatant propaganda is factually wrong and unfair. But the media must do a better job and invite a greater diversity of viewpoints. Otherwise, its ability to counter fake news will continue to erode, with dangerous consequences for us all.
[Cathy Young is a contributing editor for Reason magazine and a columnist for Newsday.]
Breitbart slams President-elect Trump for backing off Clinton's e-mails
President-elect Donald Trump's plan not to pursue an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server is not being received well at Breitbart News. "Broken Promise: Trump ‘Doesn’t Wish to Pursue’ Clinton Email Charges," reads the lead story headline on Breitbart.com. Breitbart openly supported Donald Trump during the campaign, with almost all stories and editorial being favorable to the Republican nominee. Its former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, served as CEO of Trump's campaign and was recently named as a senior advisor in his White House.
Google, ACLU call to delay government hacking rule
A coalition of 26 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Google, signed a letter asking lawmakers to delay a measure that would expand the government’s hacking authority. The letter asks Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), plus House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to further review proposed changes to Rule 41 and delay its implementation until July 1, 2017. The Department of Justice’s alterations to the rule would allow law enforcement to use a single warrant to hack multiple devices beyond the jurisdiction that the warrant was issued in.
President-elect Trump taps economists, investors for transition team
President-elect Donald Trump designated a dozen transition officials, campaign supporters, scholars and former administration officials to bridge the gap at key federal finance and business agencies. President-elect Trump’s transition team announced 12 men and women from various sectors and industries — including several early campaign supporters — to serve on “landing teams.” The teams will help Trump staff his new administration, though members of the teams won’t necessarily be nominated or hired. Jeffrey Eisenach, director of the fiscally conservative American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications, and Technology Policy, and Mark Jamison, director of the University of Florida’s Public Utilities Research Center, will lead the Federal Communications Commission team.
President-elect Trump to meet with news executives
President-elect Donald Trump will meet with anchors and executives from the country's five biggest television networks Nov 21 at Trump Tower. The top five networks from a ratings perspective are NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox News and CNN. MSNBC, the cable news arm of NBC News, will also attend. The meeting was arranged by Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, who also served as Trump's campaign manager for the final few months of the White House race. The conversation has been deemed off the record.
President Barack Obama held similar meetings with television executives and anchors in 2008 before and after the election, including one two months before his victory with then-Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes and 21st Century Fox Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch.
FEC questions President-elect Trump donations worth $1.3 Million
The Federal Election Commission may have found more than a thousand mistakes in the latest financial filing by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, according to a new report. The FEC determined that Trump’s campaign accepted about 1,100 donations — totaling approximately $1.3 million — that may be in violation of various campaign finance laws. The commission sent Timothy Jost, the campaign's treasurer, a letter seeking clarification of Oct's financial filings.
The FEC’s message focused on two main concerns: whether Trump’s campaign accepted contributions from organizations not properly registered with the commission and whether donors giving to the Republican’s campaign exceeded legal donation limits. “If any apparently prohibited contribution in question was incompletely or incorrectly disclosed, you should amend your original report with clarifying information,” it states. "In addition, please clarify whether the contribution(s) received from the referenced organization(s) is permissible. If any apparently excessive contribution in question was incompletely or incorrectly disclosed, you must amend your original report with the clarifying information.”
President Obama rails against fake news
President Barack Obama denounced the the spread of fake news online, suggesting it’s helped undermine the US political process. “If we are not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not ... if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems," President Obama said during a news conference in Germany.
The president’s comments amplify reports that viral fake news influenced the 2016 presidential election, adding to pressure on social media sites like Facebook to address the criticism that they didn’t do enough to address the issue. President Obama argued that phenomenon can have an affect on voter attitudes toward candidates, particularly “in an age where there is so much active misinformation, and it’s packaged very well, and it looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or turn on your television.” “If everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won’t know what to protect,” President Obama said. “We won’t know what to fight for."