Government & Communications

President Donald Trump is not "fit to serve as president," American voters say 56 - 42 percent, and voters disapprove 57 - 36 percent of the job he is doing as president, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released Sept 27. The anti-Twitter sentiment remains high as voters say 69 - 26 percent that Trump should stop tweeting. No party, gender, education, age or racial group wants to follow the Tweeter-in- Chief. Voters say 51 - 27 percent they are embarrassed to have Trump as president.

"There is no upside. With an approval rating rating frozen in the mid-thirties, his character and judgement questioned, President Donald Trump must confront the harsh fact that the majority of American voters feel he is simply unfit to serve in the highest office in the land," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

President Donald Trump charged that Facebook has “always” been opposed to him, suggesting it is part of a network of “collusion” along with national newspapers and cable news networks that have covered his White House critically. President Trump did not elaborate much on his comments, but his accusations — as always, communicated by tweet — come at a time when Facebook is the target of scrutiny by congressional and federal investigators, who are probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The President tweeted, "Facebook was always anti-Trump.The Networks were always anti-Trump hence,Fake News, @nytimes(apologized) & @WaPo were anti-Trump. Collusion?..But the people were Pro-Trump! Virtually no President has accomplished what we have accomplished in the first 9 months-and economy roaring."

Seven-in-ten U.S. adults say it is at least somewhat likely that their own phone calls and emails are being monitored by the government, including 37% who believe that this type of surveillance is “very likely,” according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in February. Just 13% of the public say it is “not at all likely” that the government is monitoring their communications. These views are prevalent across a number of different demographic groups, but there are some differences based on age, gender and education.

The Department of Homeland Security has moved to collect social media information on all immigrants, including permanent residents and naturalized citizens. A new rule published in the Federal Register the week of Sept 18 calls to include "social media handles and aliases, associated identifiable information and search results" in the department's immigrant files. The new rule could also affect US citizens who communicate with immigrants on social media by making their conversations the subject of government surveillance.

Homeland Security's inspector general published a report earlier in 2016 concluding that DHS pilot programs for using social media to screen immigration applicants "lack criteria for measuring performance to ensure they meet their objectives." "Although the pilots include some objectives, such as determining the effectiveness of an automated search tool and assessing data collection and dissemination procedures, it is not clear DHS is measuring and evaluating the pilots’ results to determine how well they are performing against set criteria," the report reads.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes to eliminate rules requiring certain broadcast and cable entities to keep paper copies of FCC rules. More than forty years ago, the FCC adopted rules requiring low power TV, TV and FM translator, TV and FM booster stations, cable television relay station (CARS) licensees, and certain cable operators to maintain paper copies of FCC rules. These rules were intended to ensure that such entities could access and stay familiar with the rules governing their operations. Because the rules are now readily accessible online, many parties believe that the paper copy requirements are outdated and unnecessarily burdensome. While regulated entities still would be required to be familiar with the rules governing their services, elimination of the paper copy requirements would give them flexibility to determine how to fulfill that obligation.

News that at least six current or former senior members of the Trump administration have used private e-mail accounts as they conduct official business has prompted the White House to clarify its policy. "All White House personnel have been instructed to use official e-mail to conduct all government-related work," press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "They are further instructed that if they receive work-related communication on personal accounts, they should be forwarded to official e-mail accounts." Private e-mail use by public officials was a hot topic in the 2016 presidential race — and one that then-candidate Donald Trump used to accuse rival Hillary Clinton of breaking federal laws after she used private e-mail to handle official business as secretary of state.

These are boom times for the anti-Trump industrial complex. Fundraising is through the roof for lefty organizations that hadn’t been relevant since the Clinton era; the grass roots have never been greener for new activist groups; and political hacks may be sexier than ever. A clique of former Obama speechwriters with a sideline in #Resistance podcasting is selling out 6,000-person concert halls; Rob Reiner, the director of “Spinal Tap,” has teamed up with James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence, to found the Committee to Investigate Russia; and liberal activists recently surpassed the Guinness world record for the most people on, yes, a conference call.

When President Donald Trump decided, out of the blue, to attack the National Football League over its players’ protests during the national anthem, the resulting controversy followed a well-worn formula. What was different, however, was the enormous backlash that his comments created — far larger than any of those previous incidents combined.

President Trump attacked an enormously popular sport whose fans prefer it to be a politics-free arena, while once again touching on the raw nerve of race. In so doing, the president proved anew that divisive provocations can mean something completely different when they come not from a private citizen, but the man whose very job description is to lead the country. “Most presidents believe that a big part of their job is to keep the country together,” said Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, who noted that even Richard M. Nixon spoke of bringing the nation together during his 1969 inauguration. “There is very little sign that Donald Trump has much of an idea that unifying this country has much to do with being president. He just hasn’t shown it.”

Technology doesn’t always cooperate with us when we want it to. And sometimes governments don’t want to cooperate with it, either. At the United Nation’s High-Level Event on Innovation and Technology various snafus reinforced a key point that recurred at various conferences during UNGA week: That all the talk of using technology to fight poverty, hunger, and gender inequality is useless if we can’t get over the most basic hurdle—universal access to the internet, which less than half the world currently has. Only then can we attempt to use our digital savvy to tackle the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), the UN’s ambitious framework for solving global problems by 2030.

In order to achieve any of this, however, technology leaders in the private sector and government leaders in the public sector are going to have to learn how to get along. Traditionally positioned as opponents at opposite ends of the ring—the private sector wanting to make a profit, the public sector wanting to make a difference—UNGA treated both as equals and encouraged them to shake hands instead of throw punches. True, lasting, global change isn’t the responsibility of either party alone, but to move forward, they’re going to have to find some middle ground on the following issues.

Twitter is defending its decision not to suspend President Donald Trump over a tweet about North Korea that seems to violate its prohibition on threats of violence.

"Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N.," President Trump tweeted. "If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer!" Twitter did not remove the tweet. North Korea interpreted the tweet as a "clear declaration of war." Responding to questions from users on why it had not removed the tweet and suspended the president's account, Twitter said "'newsworthiness' and whether a tweet is of public interest" plays a role in its decision making. Twitter said this is an internal policy.

Its public terms of service state: "You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism." Twitter acknowledged it needs to do a better job of making its rules transparent to the public. "We'll soon update our public-facing rules to reflect it," Twitter said.