Apple, AT&T, Cox Enterprises, Dell, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard, Intel and Microsoft are among the 81 companies that signed the White House’s American Business Act on Climate Pledge and support an agreement being reached to reduce carbon emissions and achieve a sustainable future at the U.N. Climate Change Conference beginning next month in Paris, a White House fact sheet said Monday.
Former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., called cyberwarfare the U.S.'s “greatest day-to-day threat,” during Tuesday night's Democratic presidential primary debate in response to a question about national security threats against the U.S. Webb noted the cyberthreat against the country as an example of strains in the U.S.-China relationship, noting recent incidents attributed to China like the Office of Personnel Management data breach. China doesn't “have the right to conduct cyberwarfare against tens of millions of American citizens,” Webb said. “In a Webb administration, we will do something about that.” Webb was the only candidate among those participating in the Democratic debate to mention cyberthreats as a top U.S. national security concern, while multiple candidates for the Republican nomination have called out China for its cyber tactics. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is also a candidate for the Democratic nod, and other Democratic contenders also debated NSA surveillance powers. “I'd shut down what exists right now … that virtually every telephone call in this country ends up in a file at the NSA,” Sanders said. “That is unacceptable.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended her earlier support for the Patriot Act but noted that she began opposing warrantless surveillance tactics after President George W. Bush's administration “began to chip away” at privacy and civil liberties protections. Both Clinton and Sanders said they believed former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks about NSA surveillance violated U.S. law but disagreed about how federal law enforcement should handle prosecuting Snowden.
Advocacy groups and tech companies have partnered to create a petition on WhiteHouse.gov encouraging the Obama administration to affirm its support publicly for strong encryption and to reject any law, policy or mandate that undermines an individual’s security. “Weakening encryption weakens the entire Internet,” it says. The American Civil Liberties Union, Computer & Communications Industry Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Open Technology Institute, Tech Freedom and Twitter are among those backing the petition. At our deadline, more than 6,516 individuals had signed the petition in its first two days. For the White House to respond, 100,000 signatures are needed. The group is hoping to make this the most popular WhiteHouse.gov petition and is asking for at least 370,000 signatures.
China and the U.S. reached a “common understanding” that neither nation will “conduct or knowingly support cybertheft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information for commercial advantage,” President Barack Obama said Friday during a news conference. Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Washington for a state visit, told reporters that China and the U.S. will “step up crime cases, investigation assistance and information sharing” on cyber issues. China has been under fire for engaging in cyberespionage against the U.S. but has denied engaging in attacks like the recent Office of Personnel Management data breach. Obama said during the news conference that he has raised the U.S.'s “very serious concerns” about cyberespionage and “indicated that it has to stop.” China and the U.S. will “explore the formulation of appropriate state behavior norms of cyberspace,” Xi said. There’s "a difference between an agreement on paper and having the Chinese government, including the People’s Liberation Army, actually stop conducting and supporting cyber attacks on U.S. companies," said Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in a statement. Senate Intelligence "will be paying very close attention to how faithfully this agreement is implemented." The Information Technology Industry Council praised the China-U.S. agreement. The agreement “finally starts a sustained dialogue where there was very little communication," ITI President Dean Garfield said in a statement. "It illustrates a spirit of cooperation on a sensitive issue, which is a positive signal to technology companies.”
President Barack Obama signed the E-Warranty Act (S-1359) into law Thursday. “To remain competitive in the era of the Internet of Things, we must be able to streamline and modernize redundant regulations,” said Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., the bill's author, in a statement Friday. “The E-Warranty Act is a bipartisan success because it brings common-sense solutions to outdated rules.” She had introduced the legislation with Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla. “Consumers and businesses will now have the ability to take advantage of new and improving online technologies to help with their commerce,” Nelson said in a statement Friday.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, lauded the White House’s Broadband Opportunity Council's Monday report (see 1509210053). It "should serve as a roadmap to how we can better deploy broadband across the country by investing in our digital infrastructure, modernizing federal programs that support broadband, and reducing overly burdensome regulations that stand in the way of broadband growth,” said King, who had supplied his own recommendations to the council earlier this year alongside other senators'. “Expanding access to broadband will jumpstart economic growth and help close the digital divide that stymies opportunities for too many people, particularly those who live in rural states like Maine.” There is “much work left to be done,” demonstrated by the report, King added. The National Hispanic Media Coalition also praised the report.
Free market tech advocacy group Lincoln Labs approves of the direction of Jeb Bush’s regulatory proposals, which would include rolling back the FCC net neutrality order if elected president (see 1509220058). Bush is seeking the GOP presidential nomination and is a former Florida governor. “We believe that if we can reduce the number of out-of-date and harmful rules, we can unleash this country's entrepreneurial spirit and kick start economic growth,” said Lincoln Labs Chief Technology Officer Chris Abrams in a statement Wednesday. “Each candidate should weigh in regarding their ideas for reducing the regulatory burdens faced by entrepreneurs, including reforms to the broken patent and copyright systems." Lincoln Labs highlighted Bush’s broader desires for regulatory overhaul, including limited deference to agencies on rulemaking and congressional approval of major regulations.
Friday’s "Presidential Series" breakfast featuring Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) (see 1509210059) was canceled in the wake of Walker's withdrawal from the Republican presidential race, Sarah Jones, spokeswoman for the Northern Virginia Technology Council, emailed us Tuesday. Her group was to have co-sponsored the event with CEA.
Jeb Bush promised to roll back the FCC net neutrality order if elected president. Bush, a Republican and former Florida governor who is a known opponent to net neutrality, released a series of proposals on his campaign website this week and included net neutrality in his section titled “regulatory reform.” Bush argued that regulations are “choking” the U.S. economy. “Last we will repeal or reform the most onerous Obama rules and regulations,” starting with net neutrality among other issues, the campaign website said. “Together, we will role [sic] back the surging tide of regulations that have overtaken us the last 6 and a half years.” Bush elaborates on net neutrality in another section on his desired regulatory overhaul: “The [FCC]’s Net Neutrality rule classifies all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as ‘public utilities,’ subjecting them to antiquated ‘common carrier’ regulation,” the Bush campaign said. “Rather than enhancing consumer welfare, these rules prohibit one group of companies (ISPs) from charging another group of companies (content companies) the full cost for using their services. Small broadband operators -- like KWISP (475 customers in rural Illinois) and Wisper ISP (8,000 customers near St. Louis, Mo) -- have declared under penalty of perjury that the Net Neutrality rule has caused them to cut back on investments to upgrade and expand their networks.” “Unfortunately, Governor Bush is siding with the phone and cable lobby against the public,” Free Press President Craig Aaron said in a statement. “His opposition to Net Neutrality is misguided, and he gets the facts wrong. In reality, the rules are working. Broadband providers and Internet content companies alike are investing, and consumers can rest easy knowing that their rights to connect and communicate are protected.” Bush has received donations from significant industry players in the telecom space so far this year, including NAB CEO Gordon Smith, then-DirecTV CEO Michael White and Richard Wiley, the former FCC chairman heading Wiley Rein’s communications practice (see 1507210050).
The recommendations on deployment from the White House’s Broadband Opportunity Council, released Monday (see 1509210053), send “a clear and vital message: access to broadband means access to opportunity,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement Tuesday. “The FCC remains committed to working with government and private-sector partners to harness the power of broadband to grow our economy and improve the lives of American people.” TechFreedom lashed out at parts of the report. The document “stops short of saying what should be uncontroversial: Federal money shouldn’t fund government-owned broadband networks before the Dig Once approach has been tried,” President Berin Szoka said Tuesday. “Letting private providers bid to lease Dig Once conduits and deploy their own networks gives private companies an opportunity to upgrade their networks -- or deploy new ones, as Google Fiber has started doing. If no private providers come forward, state and local governments can still deploy their own networks in that conduit. But at least they won’t have wasted taxpayer dollars building networks that private capital would have paid for.” PCIA lauded elements of the report, such as its focus on creation of “an online inventory of data on Federal assets, and maintain the points of contact tasked with overseeing broadband build-out.”