House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., emphasized what he views as a stark difference in telecom policymaking that will occur depending on whether President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins the November election. A Biden White House and Democratic-controlled Congress “will work to connect all Americans” and plans to “make a historic investment in our broadband infrastructure,” Doyle, a Biden supporter (see 1912130043), said Tuesday at Incompas' event. Biden and the Democrats will also address broadband affordability, “will restore” now-rescinded 2015 FCC net neutrality rules and will “work to combat the flood” of online misinformation, he said. If Trump wins, “I don’t see us addressing any of these issues. I see our government continuing to work to appease the whims of a narcissistic individual. I see the digital divide continuing to grow,” Doyle said. He and House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., cited the continued need for Congress to include broadband funding in the next COVID-19 aid bill (see 2009150068). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai defended the commission’s approval of Ligado’s L-band plan and predicted the upcoming C-band auction will be “massive” (see 2009150069).
Senate Republicans introduced legislation Tuesday to clarify Communications Decency Act Section 230, altering liability protections for tech companies. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced the Online Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity Act. The legislation would replace “otherwise objectionable” with concrete terms for defining content moderation liability such as content promoting terrorism, unlawful content and content promoting self-harm. It would condition content moderation liability on an “objective reasonableness standard” when companies restrict access to content.
The White House issued cybersecurity principles that are to be the foundation for the government's approach to cyber protection of space systems, per a space policy directive. Friday's SPD urges development and operation of space systems and their infrastructure "using risk-based, cybersecurity-informed engineering"; development or use of cybersecurity plans that include capabilities to protect against such threats as unauthorized access and communications jamming and spoofing; use of best practices and norms in cybersecurity rules and regulations; collaboration among space system owners and operators in developing best practices and mitigations; and "appropriate risk trades" when space system operators implement cybersecurity requirements. The SPD tells agencies to work with the commercial space industry and nongovernment space operators on defining best practices, creating norms and promoting improved cybersecurity behaviors.
President Donald Trump's administration “is committed to bold, decisive action" against China that protects U.S. national and economic security interests, said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross during a Wednesday Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security virtual event. He cited BIS' additional export restrictions on Huawei (see 2008170043) and Trump’s Aug. 6 executive order banning U.S. transactions with the parent companies of TikTok and WeChat. TikTok parent ByteDance is suing the administration to block the EO (see 2008240047). The new restrictions on Huawei “directly impact” the company’s “ability to work through third parties to harness advanced U.S. technology to meet the Communist Party’s objectives, and they will level the playing field by ensuring that both U.S. and foreign companies must receive the Commerce Department license to sell covered products to Huawei, Ross said. He said the TikTok/WeChat ban is necessary because the app’s parent companies “are in China, and these mobile apps collect personal and proprietary information that constitutes possible threats to our national security, foreign policy and economy.” Some experts predict Trump’s re-election campaign will use the Huawei restrictions to depict him as tough on China (see 2008270051). Former National Security Adviser John Bolton, in The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, said Trump tried to use Huawei as leverage in the U.S.-China trade talks.
Communications Decency Act Section 230 should be modified to even the playing field between tech companies and other third-party content providers, AT&T blogged Monday. The company will comment to the FCC Wednesday (see 2008120050), arguing “online platforms should be more accountable for, and more transparent about, the decisions they control,” wrote Executive Vice President-Regulatory and State External Affairs Joan Marsh. Congress didn’t have any way of predicting tech companies would use Section 230 as a shield from frivolous lawsuits and “every day responsibilities,” she wrote: Platform content decisions are “shrouded in obscurity, away from public view, in a world where black-box algorithms and non-negotiable terms pick winners and losers.”
President Donald Trump touched briefly on telecom policy during his Thursday speech accepting the Republican Party’s nomination for a second term, as expected (see 2008270051). Trump promised if he’s reelected in November the U.S. “will win the race to 5G, and build the world's best cyber and missile defense.” The Trump campaign Friday again listed 5G development as a second-term agenda item in connection with building a “National High-Speed Wireless Internet Network,” which Trump didn’t speak about Thursday. Officials compared the language, first released Aug. 23 (see 2008240056), to an earlier Rivada Networks proposal for the U.S. government to make spectrum being reserved for 5G available to carriers at wholesale. The Trump campaign spoke in 2019 in favor of the 5G wholesale concept but later walked back the comment amid perceptions that was a form of nationalization (see 1903040058). Trump “will be sharing additional details about his plans through policy-focused speeches on the campaign trail” in the coming weeks, the campaign said. A National Security Council official proposed in 2018 the U.S. build a national 5G network, drawing opposition from across the political spectrum (see 1801290034). Other Republican National Convention speakers, including Trump’s youngest daughter, Tiffany, criticized social media and other tech companies.
President Donald Trump’s social media executive order violates platforms’ First Amendment protections “to curate and fact-check content and ensure that accurate information ... is not undermined by misinformation on their platforms,” advocates argued in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Thursday (see 2008040059). Common Cause, Rock the Vote, Voto Latino, Free Press and MapLight filed the lawsuit. “Users have rights to receive accurate information without this kind of government interference,” Common Cause Special Adviser Michael Copps said. DOJ didn’t comment.
The U.S. will spend more than $1 billion to establish 12 artificial intelligence and quantum information science (QIS) research institutes, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced Wednesday (see 1911200040). The investment will create seven National Science Foundation AI Research Institutes and five Energy Department QIS Research Centers over five years. The University of Oklahoma; University of Texas at Austin; University of Colorado Boulder; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of California, Davis and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will host the AI Research Institutes. DOE’s Argonne, Brookhaven, Fermi, Oak Ridge and Lawrence Berkeley National laboratories will help establish the QIS Research Centers. “Emerging technologies like AI and QIS will lead to transformative benefits for the American people in healthcare, communications, manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, security, and beyond,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Liddell in a joint statement.
DOJ asked the Supreme Court to review the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision that President Donald Trump violated the First Amendment in 2017 when he blocked users from his Twitter account (see 2003230060). DOJ’s petition for a writ of certiorari was filed Aug. 20 to docket 20-197. The court acknowledged receipt Monday.
President Donald Trump wants to “Win the Race to 5G” and create a “National High-Speed Wireless Internet Network” during a potential second term, his re-election campaign said Sunday. The proposal is among 50 points the campaign briefly outlined as being on Trump’s agenda. Others included building “the World’s Greatest Infrastructure System” and a “Great Cybersecurity Defense System.” Some lawmakers and advocates believe Capitol Hill’s inability to agree on an additional COVID-19 aid bill that includes broadband funding presents an opening for the issue to become a focus during the presidential and congressional campaigns this fall (see 2008210001).