What's on the agenda for policymakers.
Agenda
5G Security Factoring into House Defense Bill Talks, CTIA Balks
House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) confirmed that anxiety over Chinese telecom giants’ wireless advances could creep into House lawmakers’ must-pass defense policy legislation. “There might be a couple things on 5G that we include,” said Chairman Smith.
AOC Weighs in on Tech and Antitrust
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the progressive firebrand whose rebukes of the tech sector drew headlines on the 2018 campaign trail, supports the outlines of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) sweeping proposal to break up tech firms like Amazon and Facebook. “The idea itself is something that I am supportive of because taking an antitrust approach I believe is absolutely relevant and it’s appropriate to take,” said Rep Ocasio-Cortez. Amazon’s role as “both the marketplace, producer, seller … creates an antitrust issue,” she said. Rep.
Oversight of the Federal Trade Commission
Next Up for House Democrats
As the House Commerce Commerce settles in after the latest recess, Telecommunication Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) has been talking up Democrats’ near-term tech and telecom policy plans. He and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) both reaffirmed their plans to soon bring in Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission commissioners before their respective subpanels for separate hearings (the telecom panel was eyeing May 15 for an FCC oversight hearing).
The Department of Justice will hold a public workshop on May 2 and 3, 2019 to explore industry dynamics in media advertising and the implications for antitrust enforcement and policy, including merger enforcement. The workshop will cover the different types of television and online advertising, and it will highlight, among other developments in the industry, the role of online and mobile advertising networks.
White House has signaled it may seek permanent renewal of controversial surveillance power
Apparently, the Trump administration has signaled in recent weeks that it may seek the permanent renewal of a surveillance law that has, among other things, enabled the National Security Agency to gather and analyze Americans’ phone records as part of terrorism investigations. The White House was prepared to issue a public statement calling on Congress to reauthorize in full Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which in the past has been the focus of heated debate over the acceptable bounds of government surveillance.
This spring, five New York City graduate programs ran a course in partnership aimed at addressing the key challenges of our information ecosystem. How does the information ecosystem contribute to the health of representative democracies such as the United States? How do we move towards communities that are equipped with the knowledge and deliberation mechanisms required to address the challenges that face us? How does the relationship between technology platforms, media, governments and citizens determine which voices get heard?
New Zealand. Pittsburgh. Charlottesville. The threat from online extremism is growing and in the wake of these and other attacks, the public outcry over far-right extremist recruitment and messaging online has reached a tipping point. As communities of hate and far-right ideologues become ever more savvy at mobilizing via social media, the calls for mitigating hateful content on the social networks will grow ever more intense. Yet these discussions should be based on data and insight rather than fear and intuition.
After 20 years of corporations failing to self-regulate on privacy, strong federal privacy legislation may finally be in sight. As privacy scandals continue to ravage the front page, and states continue to pass privacy legislation in the absence of federal action, Congress is under more and more pressure to pass privacy protections. Thus far, the conversation has focused disproportionately on transparency and preempting state laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act.
In this webinar, we will take a look at USAC's first funding wave of funding year 2019. Who received funding? What types of applications were funded? What was NOT in the funding wave?