Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman endorsed the FCC draft set-top box plan, according to a copy of his remarks at the Searle Center antitrust conference Friday. “We have been pleased to see FCC Chairman [Tom] Wheeler actively listen to the many stakeholders involved to improve the proposal, and believe that he is charting out a responsible way to address their meaningful concerns while being responsive to Congress's explicit directive to ensure a healthy set-top marketplace,” Furman said. Others have slammed even the revised proposal, from what they've heard about the draft (see 1609150045). TiVo Monday backed it (see 1609190048).
Comments are due Oct. 11 on plans to devise a national broadband research agenda, said a notice from NTIA and the National Science Foundation to be published in Friday's Federal Register. Responding to a recommendation of the Obama administration's Broadband Opportunity Council (see 1509210053), the agencies seek input to inform the development of the broadband research agenda in collaboration with the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program and other BOC agencies, the notice said. "This Agenda will reflect the most significant opportunities for data collection, analysis, and research to keep pace with, and take advantage of, the massive digital changes that permeate our economy and society."
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Executive Director Melanne Verveer is hosting a fundraiser for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Friday in Hong Kong, said an invitation posted by a Sunlight Foundation initiative. She was chief of staff for First Lady Hillary Clinton in the 1990s and ambassador-at-large leading the State Department’s Office on Global Women's Issues during Clinton’s time as secretary of state. Her husband, Phil, is senior counselor to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Both are seen as especially close to the Clintons going back decades and with possible implications for a future FCC under Clinton (see 1607110047).
U.S. District Judge James Cacheris sentenced Romanian national Marcel Lazar to 52 months in prison Thursday for hacking the personal email or social media accounts of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, friends and family of Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and almost 100 other American citizens, DOJ said. Lazar, better known as Guccifer, pleaded guilty in May to one count each of aggravated identity theft and unauthorized access to a protected computer, Justice said in a news release. Lazar revealed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s controversial use of a private email account during her time a secretary of state via his hacking of Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal’s email account. Lazar also leaked photos of George W. Bush’s paintings and publicly released his victims’ personal information, DOJ said. Lazar was sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Several tech companies signed the White House equal pay pledge on Women’s Equality Day. Tech signatories to the pledge announced Friday included Akamai, Apple, Dropbox, Facebook, IBM, Intel, LinkedIn, MailChimp, Microsoft and MuleSoft. About 50 companies signed the pledge since its launch a year ago.
Hitch Radio CEO Ayinde Alakoye criticized GOP nominee Donald Trump for having an undefined tech and telecom agenda. “While Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton released a comprehensive technology policy platform in June that should excite software developers, Mr. Trump doesn’t pay much attention to our industry’s concerns and is, frankly, on the wrong side of many of the most important issues facing tech today,” Alakoye said in a blog post for TechCrunch dated Sunday. Hitch Radio created an instant messaging app for radio. “Over the course of his candidacy, Mr. Trump has questioned basic data security and privacy principles, called for the boycott of a trusted American innovator and wondered about the virtues of the internet," wrote Alakoye. "If elected president, Mr. Trump’s views on technology could wall off the industry, stifle job and economic growth and cede the United States’ long-held position as the world’s innovation hub.” He questioned the encryption stance of Trump and argued that any “serious candidate running for president must develop an articulate and inclusive policy agenda to ensure the technology industry broadly, and its developers specifically, can continue to innovate, grow and make our world a better place.” Telecom policy observers have been unclear about Trump’s view on telecom issues, relying on limited statements and a handful of tweets on this policy area.
Wired magazine endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Thursday, an atypical practice for the publication. Clinton “has ideas that clear away stumbling blocks for entrepreneurs and strivers,” Editor-in-Chief Scott Dadich wrote in the endorsement. “Clinton favors net neutrality -- giving every packet of data on the Internet the same priority, regardless of whether they originate from a media corporation or from you and me.” Despite listing many positions he favors, he slammed her encryption stance: “Her specific position on encryption is tough to pin down, but she seems to favor encryption weak enough for law enforcement to penetrate. That violates basic privacy.” He lauded Clinton’s policy understanding as that of a “technician” and said the magazine’s endorsement is “one shared by an overwhelming number of tech leaders.”
Less Government President Seton Motley bashed the broadband deployment plan that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been touting (see 1608110054). “Mrs. Clinton is making broadband promises that would be impossible to keep under the best of circumstances -- conditions government is utterly incapable of setting,” Motley said in a Tuesday column for conservative news website Townhall. “And using the exact same throw-government-money-at-it model that has already failed too many times to even count. How very DC of her.”
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made a rare mention of the internet, speaking Monday on foreign policy at Youngstown State University in Ohio. “We cannot allow the internet to be used as a recruiting tool and for other purposes by our enemies,” Trump said, referring to the Islamic State group. “We must shut down their access to this form of communication and we must do it immediately.” Trump cited ideas about shutting down parts of the internet during the GOP primary season. The idea demonstrates “both poor judgment and ignorance about how technology works,” several tech industry and ex-FCC officials said last month (see 1607140086). Cyberwarfare will be “essential in dismantling Islamic terrorism” and a Trump administration would “aggressively pursue” a strategy internationally of “expanded intelligence sharing and cyberwarfare to disrupt and disable [the Islamic State] propaganda and recruiting,” Trump said Monday.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton campaigned on her broadband deployment plans again Thursday, speaking on the economy in Warren, Michigan. She said she wants to work with both parties starting on Day One of her administration on advancing an infrastructure investment package, a big-ticket item she floated last year that has increasingly dominated her speeches and campaign remarks in recent weeks. “I happen to think we should be ambitious,” Clinton said. “While we’re at it, let’s connect every household in America to broadband by the year 2020. It’s astonishing to me how many places in America -- not way, way far away from cities but in cities and near cities -- that don’t have access to broadband. And that disadvantages kids who are asked to do homework using the internet. Five million of them live in households without access to the internet. You talk about an achievement gap -- it starts right there.”