Following the Trump administration's directives to eliminate regulations, the FTC said several initiatives are underway to simplify processes and enhance transparency. "We are focusing our resources where they will do the most good for the public and eliminating wasteful, legacy regulations and processes that have outlived their usefulness," said acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen in a Monday news release. New groups within the Bureau of Competition and Bureau of Consumer Protection are trying to "streamline demands for information in investigations" from companies and individuals as a way to cut "unnecessary costs," said the FTC. It said both bureaus are also closing older investigations, if appropriate. The Consumer Protection Bureau also is trying to distill "key lessons" from closed data security investigations to help provide guidance and transparency (see 1702020020), the agency said. And that bureau is collaborating with the Bureau of Economics to integrate its expertise earlier in investigations to improve decision making on the impact to consumers from enforcement actions, the release said. The agency said Ohlhausen created a new capability to help her office collect and review ideas on streamlining processes and improving operational efficiencies.

DOJ's Antitrust Division will probably rule this summer that Google "is a 90+% search monopoly that has anticompetitively abused its monopoly position in search," wrote Scott Cleland, chairman of ISP-backed NetCompetition, in a Thursday blog post. The action likely will come in June or July after EU authorities conclude the first of three antitrust cases against the company (see 1604200001 and 1607140001), he said. DOJ will "impose a traditional monopoly nondiscrimination principle remedy that Google treat its shopping comparison competitors as it treats itself," Cleland said. Justice will usurp FTC as the lead antitrust enforcer against Google based on a half-dozen reasons: DOJ has a "very tough" record with Google vs. the FTC's "weak" one; it has criminal and international coordination jurisdiction over cartel enforcement; Makan Delrahim, President Donald Trump's DOJ's antitrust chief nominee, has "institutional trust, clout, and authority" (see 1703280020); and FTC Section 5 authority "has proven to be more liability than institutional advantage." Google didn't comment while DOJ declined to comment.

Hikvision joined the HDBase T Alliance, the group said in a Wednesday announcement. Hikvision, based in Hangzhou, China, is a leading global supplier of video surveillance products and solutions, the alliance said. The HDBase T standard supports the transmission of Ultra HD video and audio, Ethernet, controls, USB and up to 100 watts of power over a single cable at distances greater than 300 feet.

The Telecommunications Industry Association expressed regrets on a proposed order from the FCC ending a 2013 proceeding, which could have relaxed rules on cellphone discussions on commercial flights (see 1704100066). “We believe the FCC should reconsider its decision to keep this regulation, which serves as a barrier to consumer choice and innovation,” TIA said in a news release. “There is no technical or safety reason why in-flight mobile data and voice applications should not be allowed to operate on board aircraft. The industry’s longstanding position is to avoid the prioritization of one technology over another.” TIA noted airlines are already permitted to provide Wi-Fi: “TIA believes the FCC should encourage competition and innovation by allowing them to provide access through additional network technologies.” But the Association of Flight Attendants, a labor union, hailed the move. "The traveling public and crew members do not want voice calls on planes,” the group said. “It would jeopardize safety, security, increase conflict and exponentially raise the annoyance level of everyone in the cabin. Now the DOT [Department of Transportation] should follow the FCC's lead and ban voice calls inflight. That's the only sensible, safe and secure course of action."

Retired Boeing Chairman Jim McNerney, IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty and IHS Markit Vice Chairman Dan Yergin were among the executives who met with President Donald Trump and some Cabinet members Tuesday at the White House's Strategic and Policy Forum, the White House emailed us. It said the meetings were to discuss the strategic priorities for various Cabinet secretaries and their agencies. Also among those taking part were White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Steve Bannon, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, it said.

Facebook and Google, dogged by claims that news hoaxes were posted unchecked over the last year (see 1703200052), acted again recently to verify the legitimacy of news shown on their sites. Google said Friday a "Fact Check" label being tested since October is now globally available in all languages. When a user does a search "that returns an authoritative result containing fact checks for one or more public claims," they will see that information on the results page, wrote Google Research Scientist Cong Yu and Jigsaw Product Manager Justin Kosslyn in a blog post. "The snippet will display information on the claim, who made the claim, and the fact check of that particular claim." For instance, the result may say the claim may be fact checked by PolitiFact or Snopes.com. The information won't be available for every search result, they wrote, and, in some cases, different publishers checking the same claim may reach different conclusions. "It’s still helpful for people to understand the degree of consensus around a particular claim and have clear information on which sources agree," they said. Adam Mosseri, Facebook vice president-News Feed, said Thursday in a blog post that a new educational tool developed with First Draft (see 1701040025) is aimed at improving people's news literacy and helping spot fake news. When users click on the tool, located at the top of the News Feed feature, they will see information and resources in the Facebook Help Center, "including tips on how to spot false news, such as checking the URL of the site, investigating the source and looking for other reports on the topic." The tool will be available for a few days to people in 14 countries, he said. Facebook has gotten a majority of the scrutiny and criticism on fake news and has taken measures to counter the spread (see 1701310068, 1612150035 and 1611210002).

Twitter launched a pared down mobile web version that minimizes data usage, takes up less than 1 megabyte on a device, loads faster on slower connections and is "resilient on unreliable mobile networks," wrote Product Manager Patrick Traughber in a Thursday blog post. With "Twitter Lite," he said, the site will be accessible globally to millions more people who may operate on slower networks or lack storage on their devices. He said the new version still provides key features such as a user's timeline, tweets, direct messages, trends, profiles, media uploads and notifications. Traughber said a "data saver mode" will further reduce the amount of data used.

Cox Enterprises announced its Cox Media Technology (Comet) advertising services platform Wednesday, saying in a news release it includes real-time inventory quality checks and machine learning that simulates the performance of an impression in a live-market scenario. Comet also uses data from various Cox companies, it said.

BSA|The Software Alliance launched a research organization to help policymakers and the public better understand the impact of software, the association said in a Tuesday news release. BSA said Software.org: BSA Foundation will issue reports with governments and others on emerging technology including artificial intelligence, blockchain and IoT, and issue a study on software's U.S. economic impact. "The foundation aims to bridge that gap -- to connect the dots between software and society so that we can continue to grow the economy and positively impact people’s lives,” said Chris Hopfensperger, the foundation's executive director. The organization's board includes representatives from Adobe, Autodesk, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, Siemens and Workday.

CenturyLink will give federal, state and local agencies access to EagleForce Associates’ "advanced and predictive analytics technology" to facilitate monitoring of prescription drug use, including an "opioid abuse crisis," the telco announced Tuesday. It said CenturyLink will work with agencies "to apply EagleForce's real-time neural computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence methodologies to verification procedures that help doctors, pharmacists and drug manufacturers more accurately identify the improper use and administration" of prescription drugs.