Tech Policy Leaders

Tom Wheeler: Gutenberg, Google, Darwin & Beyond (Ep. 177)

Tom Wheeler joined Joe Miller to discuss Mr. Wheeler's new book 'From Gutenberg to Google: The History of Our Future'.

Bio

Chairman Tom Wheeler is a visiting fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings. Wheeler is a businessman, author, and was Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) from 2013 to 2017.

For over four decades, Wheeler has been involved with new telecommunications networks and services. At the FCC he led the efforts that resulted in the adoption of Net Neutrality, privacy protections for consumers, and increased cybersecurity, among other policies. His chairmanship has been described as, "The most productive Commission in the history of the agency." During the Obama-Biden Transition of 2008/09 Mr. Wheeler led activities overseeing the agencies of government dealing with science, technology, space and the arts.

As an entrepreneur, he started or helped start multiple companies offering innovative cable, wireless and video communications services. He is the only person to be selected to both the Cable Television Hall of Fame and the Wireless Hall of Fame, a fact President Obama joked made him "the Bo Jackson of telecom."

Prior to being appointed Chairman of the FCC by President Obama, Wheeler was Managing Director at Core Capital Partners, a venture capital firm investing in early stage Internet Protocol (IP)-based companies. He is CEO of the Shiloh Group, a strategy development and private investment company specializing in telecommunications services. He co-founded SmartBrief, the Internet's largest curated information service for vertical markets.

From 1976 to 1984 Wheeler was associated with the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) where he was President and CEO from 1979 to 1984. Following NCTA Wheeler was CEO of several high-tech companies, including the first company to offer high-speed delivery to home computers and the first digital video satellite service. From 1992 to 2004 Wheeler served as President and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA).

Mr. Wheeler wrote Take Command: Leadership Lessons from the Civil War (Doubleday, 2000), and Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War (HarperCollins, 2006). His commentaries on current events have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and numerous other leading publications.

Mr. Wheeler served on President Obama's Intelligence Advisory Board prior to being named to the FCC. Presidents Clinton and Bush each appointed him a Trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is the former Chairman and President of the National Archives Foundation, and a former board member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

He is a proud graduate of The Ohio State University and the recipient of its Alumni Medal. He resides in Washington, D.C.

Resources

Brookings Governance Studies

From Gutenberg to Google: The History of Our Future by Tom Wheeler (Brookings, 2019)

Time to Fix It: Developing Rules for Internet Capitalism (Harvard: Kennedy, 2018)

The Root of the Matter: Data & Duty: Rules of the New Digital Economy Should Look to Old Common Law Traditions (Harvard: Kennedy, 2018)

The Supreme Court and House Democrats Breathe New Life into Net Neutrality (Brookings, 2018)

Who Makes the Rules in the new gilded age? (Brookings, 2018)

News Roundup Elizabeth Warren proposes breaking up big tech

Senator Elizabeth Warren announced her proposal last week to reign in tech firms like Google, Amazon, and Facebook. The plan calls for potentially breaking up some mergers as well as new legislation. Senator Warren wants to break up Doubleclick and Google, Facebook and its subsidiaries Instagram and Whats App, and the Amazon/Whole Foods merger.

Politico reported Monday that Facebook removed ads that Elizabeth Warren placed on the social network which criticized Facebook and called for its breakup. Facebook backtracked after its attempt to silence Warren backfired.

Democrats announce net neutrality bill

Nancy Pelosi, on behalf of Democrats, introduced a new net neutrality bill last week. The bill is two pages long and would simply reinstate the 2015 Open Internet rules. The bill's likely to pass the House where Ds hold the majority, but it faces a more uncertain future in the Senate and getting it over the presidents desk.

Trump details plan for government-owned 5G

Trump's reelection campaign is proposing a plan that would give the government control of the nation's 5G airwaves, allowing it to lease them out to carriers on a wholesale basis. Most carriers think the plan's unworkable. But the plan is seen as an attempt to attract rural voters with spotty internet service.

Huawei sues the U.S.

Chinese device manufacturer Huawei, which the U.S. government has accused of spying and violating sanctions against Iran, has now sued the U.S. government for banning the company from doing business in the U.S. The company filed in a U.S. District Court in Plano, Texas, where the company has its U.S. headquarters.

TMobile spent $195k at Trump hotel

TMobile's expenditures at Trump's DC hotel rose sharply after the company reported that it would be seeking to acquire Sprint. Since April of last year, when the merger was announced, TMobile has spent $195,000 at the hotel. But before the merger announcement, the company said that only two employees had stayed there. The FCC paused its review of the merger last week. This is the third time the FCC has paused the 180-day shot clock, which is now on day 122. The merger review has been going on for 8 months. It's not clear why it was paused this time. But the hotel expenditures may have had something to do with it—especially since the White House actually approved the deal.

A 'Greenbook' for bigots

Finally, The Hill reported on Monday on a new app that launched which gives users a listing of MAGA-friendly establishments—places where they're least likely to be made fun of or harassed for wearing their red MAGA hats, or that let them carry legally-concealed weapons … check it out it's called 63Red—great way to figure out where not to go other than Cracker Barrel.

Events

House E&C Committee, Comms & Tech SubComm

Hearing on Legislating to Safeguard the Free and Open Internet

Tues., 3/12, 11:00AM

Rayburn 2322

House E&C Committee, Comms & Tech SubComm

The Impact of Broadband Investments in Rural America

Tues., 3/12, 2:30PM

Hart, Rm. 216

ACT

Voters to Policymakers: Bridging the Digital Divide Inlcudes Unlicensed Spetrum

Thurs., 3/14, 9:30AM

Dirksen, Rm. 562

Federal Communications Commission Monthly Meeting

Friday, 3/15, 12:30-2:30

445 12th St., NW

Washington, D.C.

Jevan Hutson: How Racism in Online Dating Affects Economic Opportunities (Ep. 176)

Jevan Hutson joined Joe Miller to talk about how racism in online dating affects economic opportunities.

Bio

Jevan Hutson (@jevanhutson) is a Gregoire Fellow at the University of Washington School of Law, where he researches technology policy, social computing, surveillance and privacy, and data ethics, and is an editor for the Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts.

Jevan currently works for the Technology & Liberty Project of the ACLU of Washington, where he advocates for algorithmic accountability in government and restrictions on government use facial recognition technologies. He previously worked for Nintendo of America, Miller Nash Graham & Dunn, and Boeing. Jevan holds an MPS in Information Science and a BA in History of Art & Visual Studies from Cornell University, where he was a Research Assistant in the Social Computing Lab and Social Media Lab.

Resources

What Dating Apps are doing to Fight Bias by Jevan Hutson (Axios, 2019)

Debiasing Desire: Addressing Bias and Discrimination on Intimate Platforms by Jevan Hutson, Jessie G. Taft, et al. (University of Washington School of Law, 2018)

Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions that Shape Social Media by Tarleton Gillespie

News Roundup US took down Russian troll factory during 2018 election

Several U.S. officials said last week that they blocked the Internet Research Agency's internet access as the Russian troll factory attempted to interfere with last year's midterms. The Washington Post reports the operation was the first of its kind after the president and Congress bolstered cybercommand last year. Donald Trump approved the operation.

YouTube disables comments on videos featuring minors

YouTube has disabled comments on videos that include minors under age 18. The move comes after pedophiles were lurking in comment sections directing users on where to access suggestive images of children.

FTC wins fraud case against company that hired fake Amazon reviewers

The Federal Trade Commission has won a case against Cure Encapsulations for paying a third party to write Amazon reviews of a supplement called garcinia cambogia. The drug is known to cause acute liver failure. It's the first-evern case of its kind. Among other reviews, fake reviewers wrote that the supplement "literally stops fat from forming" rated it an average 4.3 out of 5 stars. Cure Encapulastions is now liable to pay a $12.8 million fine.

FTC fines TikTok

The Federal Trade Commission has fined China-based social media company TikTok $5.7 million because before it merged with Musical.ly, Musical.ly illegally collected the names, emails, pictures and location data of kids under 13. The U.S. hasn't fined TikTok for anything that happened after the merger. TikTok has over 1 billion downloads – 100 million here in the U.S. – and is seen by many experts as legit Facebook rival.

California AG Becerra looks to expand privacy

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is looking to improve his state's privacy law that's set to take effect next year by allowing private individuals to sue companies for damages. The current bill as written allows individuals to take legal action only after giving companies 30 days to correct violations.

Nevada Sen. Cortez Masto takes on racial ad targeting

Catherine Cortez Masto -- the Democratic Senator from Nevada -- is taking on racial ad targeting in a new bill that prohibits companies like Facebook from targeting on the basis of race. Propublica found back in 2016 that Facebook allows advertisers to exclude racial groups from certain campaigns—a practice which continued at least until the end of 2017.

Twitter suspends Jacob Wohl

Twitter suspended far-right activist Jacob Wohl for allegedly attempting to influence the 2020 presidential election by creating fake accounts purporting to support divisive candidates like Howard Schultz. Previously, USA Today had quoted Wohl as saying that he was planning to create "enormous left-wing online properties". Wohl says it was just an "intellectual exercise".

New FTC monopoly task force

The Federal Trade Commission has established a new task force designed to look specifically at tech sector monopolies. The task force will boast 17 staff attorneys and be based in the competition bureau.

Airline seatback monitors have cameras

Some passengers on a Singapore Airlines flight shared a viral video showing the seatback video monitors in front of them had cameras in side them. Another passenger shared a picture of a similar camera he found on an American airlines flight. United and Delta followed up saying their screens also contain cameras. All four airlines say the manufacturer ships that screens that way for potential future uses, but that currently the cameras are disabled. Currently. One of the manufacturers—Panasonic—told BuzzFeed that it would never activate the cameras without consent from the airline.

New York governor Cuomo wants Amazon back

So as you know, Amazon backed out of plans to build out one of its new headquarters locations in Long Island City. And now, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is like [new edition clip] [PAUSE] Love is HARD! [PAUSE] Representatives from some 70 powerful New York organizations took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to publish an open letter to Amazon Founder & CEO Jeff Bezos. Signatories included National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial and the NAACP's New York State Conference and Astoria Chapter and the Presidents of the Queensbridge Houses and Astoria Houses Tenants Associations—corporate signatories included Ken Chenault and others. The State University of New York's Chancellor also signed the letter, as did the Chancellor Designee of the City University of New York and the President of LaGuardia Community College. Several unions also signed. In the letter, the signatories characterized the public debate that followed the announcement as "strident". It's pretty hard to pass up an opportunity to add your name to a full-page letter in the New York Times. Whether anyone has carefully evaluated the upsides of the deal for every day New Yorkers isn't clear. No word yet from Amazon.

Events of Note

House Energy & Commerce Hearing "Inclusion in Tech: How Diversity Benefits all Americans" Wed., 3/6 2019 @ 10:30am 2322 Rayburn

Federal Communications Commission "Symposium on Media Diversity" Thurs., 3/7 2019 @ 9AM-5:30PM 445 12th St., SW

Renée DiResta: How to Fight the Imminent Disinformation Blitzkrieg (Ep. 175)

Renée DiResta joined Joe Miller to discuss the ongoing threat of state-sponsored misinformation campaigns on social media designed to destabilize the U.S. government.

Bio

Renée DiResta (@noUpside) is the Director of Research at New Knowledge and a Mozilla Fellow in Media, Misinformation, and Trust. She investigates the spread of malign narratives across social networks, and assists policymakers in understanding and responding to the problem. She has advised Congress, the State Department, and other academic, civic, and business organizations, and has studied disinformation and computational propaganda in the context of pseudoscience conspiracies, terrorism, and state-sponsored information warfare.

Renée regularly writes and speaks about the role that tech platforms and curatorial algorithms play in the proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories. She is an Ideas contributor at Wired. Her tech industry writing, analysis, talks, and data visualizations have been featured or covered by numerous media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fast Company, Politico, TechCrunch, Wired, Slate, Forbes, Buzzfeed, The Economist, Journal of Commerce, and more. She is a 2019 Truman National Security Project security fellow and a Council on Foreign Relations term member.

Renée is the author of The Hardware Startup: Building your Product, Business, and Brand, published by O'Reilly Media.

Previously, Renée was part of the founding team and ran marketing and business development at Haven, the transportation management technology platform that's transforming trade logistics for commodity, CPG, and food shippers. Before that, Renée was a Principal at seed-stage venture capital fund O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV), where she invested in early technology startups with a focus on hardware, manufacturing, and logistics companies. She spent seven years on Wall Street as an equity derivatives trader and market maker at Jane Street, a top quantitative proprietary trading firm in New York City.

Renée has degrees in Computer Science and Political Science from the Honors College at SUNY Stony Brook. She is a 2017 Presidential Leadership Scholar, a Staff Associate at the Columbia University Data Science Institute, a Harvard Berkman-Klein Center affiliate, and is a Founding Advisor to the Center for Humane Technology. She is passionate about STEM education and childhood immunization advocacy, and is one of the co-founders of parent advocacy organization Vaccinate California. For fun, she explores data sets and loves cooking and crafting. Renée and her husband, Justin Hileman, are the parents of two feisty little people.

Resources

RenéeDiResta.com

New Knowledge

What We Now Know About Russian Disinformation by Renée DiResta (N.Y. Times, 12/17/18)

The Digital Maginot Line by Renée DiResta (RibbonFarm, 11/28/18)

She Warned of 'Peer-to-Peer Misinformation.' Congress Listened. By Sheera Frenkel (N.Y. Times, 11/12/2017)

The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium by Martin Gurri

The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook by Niall Ferguson

News Roundup Facebook

• A new British Parliament report is calling for new regulations against Facebook. Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee concluded an 18-month investigation against the social media giant finding it routinely breaks privacy and competition laws. The Committee report is non-binding but it could pave the way for additional regulations.
• Back here in the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission issued a complaint against Facebook saying the company reveals sensitive health data in groups. And the FTC is currently in the process of negotiation a multibillion dollar fine with the company.
• Also, several groups including Common Sense filed an FTC complaint against Facebook for violating children's privacy laws and pushing kids to make in-app purchases.
• And the Verge posted an exposé yesterday on Facebook's treatment of its contractors working for Cognizant. Apparently content screeners paid less than $29,000 a year are the first line of defense in preventing harmful content from being posted to the site. The reviewers are routinely exposed to death, sexual abuse, and other types of content that exacts an extreme mental health toll on these workers. Facebook claims its working to alleviate some of these working conditions.

Google

• YouTube is facing an advertiser boycott after a YouTuber published a report detailing how comments and recommendations on normal products, like bikinis, ultimately nudge users to access inappropriate videos of children. The video aren't necessarily pornographic per se, but users post comments within the videos that included time stamps that show children in compromising poses and positions. Nestle, Disney and Fortnight are among several advertisers that have pulled or restricted ads from YouTube because their ads appeared alongside the inappropriate content. YouTube reiterated its zero-tolerance policy for such content and deleted millions of the comments in question that directed viewers to the material in question.
• In other YouTube news, the platform announced that going forward it will prevent anti-vaxxer channels from hosting ads. YouTube cited its policy against dangerous and harmful content.
• And YouTube's parent company Alphabet's Google unit announced that it will end its policy of forced arbitration regarding worker disputes.

Microsoft defends military contract

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella defended a $479 million military contract with the US Army to supply the company's augmented reality systems called HoloLens. More than 100 Microsoft employees signed a letter protesting the contract and asking Microsoft to back out. But Nadella said the company won't withhold technology from what he deems to be "democratic governments" such as the United States.

Bipartisan group of Senators ask DoE and Homeland to block Huawei

A Bipartisan group of Senators wrote a letter to the Departments of Energy and Homeland Security yesterday urging them to block Huawei technology from accessing U.S. electrical systems and infrastructure. Several weeks ago, Congress blocked Huawei from accessing the nation's telecommunication's infrastructure as security officials believe the China-based company is working on behalf of the Chinese government to spy on the U.S.

Mignon Clyburn: The Social Justice Dynamics of Tech Policy

Mignon Clyburn joined Joe Miller to discuss how the complex social justice dynamics of tech policy affect alliances in Washington.

Bio

Mignon Clyburn (@mignonclyburn) is a former FCC Commissioner and President and CEO of MLC Strategies. Mignon served at the FCC from 2009-2018, with a stint as Acting FCC Chairwoman—the first FCC Chairwoman—in 2013.

While at the FCC, Commissioner Clyburn was committed to closing the digital divide. Specifically, she was an advocate for Lifeline Modernization, which assists low income consumers defray the cost of broadband service, championed diversity in media ownership, initiated Inmate Calling Services reforms, emphasized diversity and inclusion in STEM opportunities, and fought to preserve a free and open internet.

Prior to the FCC, she spent 11 years as a member of the sixth district on the Public Service Commission (PSC) of South Carolina. Prior to the PSC, Clyburn was the publisher and general manager of her family-founded newspaper for 14 years, the Coastal Times, a Charleston-based weekly newspaper that focused primarily on issues affecting the African American community.

News Roundup Groups urge Congress to consider civil rights in privacy legislation

In an open letter, 43 groups including the NAACP, National Urban League, OTI, Human Rights Campaign, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, National Hispanic Media Coalition and others, urged members of Congress last week to consider civil rights as they develop new privacy legislation. The letter points to set of principles the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights released back in 2014 focusing on the era of big data which Congress still hasn't acted on.

FTC and Facebook negotiate multibillion dollar fine

The Federal Trade Commission and Facebook are reportedly negotiating a multibillion fine the company would have to pay for violating a 2011 privacy consent decree. It would be the largest FTC fine against a technology company, exceeding the $22.5 million fine against Google back in 2012.

Apple, Amazon & Google push to protect Dreamers

Leaders from Apple, Amazon and Google joined a letter under the auspices of the Coalition for the American Dream, a cohort of more than 100 tech leaders from across the ideological spectrum organized to shed light on the economic effects of not enacting legislation to protect DREAMERS. The letter urges leaders in the House and Senate to pass legislation saying that without it, the U.S. economy stands to lose some $350 billion in GDP, with the Treasury standing to lose some $90 billion in tax revenue.

Pai warns carriers about robocalls

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai warned telecom companies that if they don't adopt a self-regulatory framework to address robocalls this year, the FCC would have to step in. The warning is a follow-up to Pai's call back in November telling carriers to develop an agreed-upon way to combat "spoofing", which allows robocallers to appear to be calling from a more trusted number.

Amazon Cancels NYC Plans

As you've no doubt already heard, Amazon has canceled plans to build a second headquarters in Long Island City in Queens. The move has ignited a debate about the future of the Democratic party as more traditional, neoliberal Democrats appeared to be more in favor of the development plan, while local communities within Democratic strongholds in New York who would've been impacted by the deal wrote their members, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, urging them to push back against the expansion.

Bio

Betsy Cooper (@BetsOnTech) is the founding Director of the Aspen Tech Policy Hub. A cybersecurity expert, Ms. Cooper joined Aspen's Cybersecurity & Technology Program after serving as the Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity at the University of California, Berkeley.

Previously, she served at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as an attorney advisor to the Deputy General Counsel and as a policy counselor in the Office of Policy. She has worked for over a decade in homeland security consulting, managing projects for Atlantic Philanthropies in Dublin, the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit in London, and the World Bank, and other organizations.

In addition, Ms. Cooper has clerked for Berkeley Law professor and Judge William Fletcher on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (where she currently is a nonresident affiliate), as well as a Yale Public Interest Fellowship. Ms. Cooper has written more than twenty manuscripts and articles on U.S. and European homeland security policy. She is also a Senior Advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group.

Ms. Cooper earned a J.D. from Yale University, a D.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University, an M.Sc. in Forced Migration from Oxford University, and a B.A. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. She speaks advanced French. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Resources

Aspen Tech Policy Hub

Aspen Tech Policy Hub Fellowship Application

News Roundup Coates tells Senate committee that Russia and China are working together to undermine the 2020 election

In his annual threat assessment report, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates told the Senate intelligence committee that Russia and China will try and interfere with the 2020 presidential election. The report lists social media threats as second on a list of several threats to U.S. national security.

DC Circuit Appeals panel hears net neutrality oral arguments

A three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments from the government and consumer advocates last week as consumer advocates' lawsuit against the FCC for repealing the 2015 open internet rules presses on. Two of the judges—Particia Millett and Robert Wilkins—both Obama appointees—seemed to side with the consumer advocates as the FCC struggled to persuade the court that the agency had the authority to reclassify broadband as an information service.

Report: FamilyTreeDNA works with the FBI

BuzzFeed reported that popular home DNA testing company Family Tree DNA is working with the FBI, allowing agents to access its database to investigate violent crimes. Privacy advocates object to the partnership. But others say that as more people sign up for genetic tests, the data has become increasingly valuable to solve cold cases, with the arrest last year of the suspected Golden State Killer being a prime example.

Feds charge second Chinese Apple car worker with data theft

The feds have charged a second Apple engineer with stealing company trade secrets with a plan to bring them back to China. Another Apple employee spotted Jizhong Chen taking snapshots of his workspace with a wide angle lens even though he was working under an NDA. Apparently Chen had some 2,000 files on his hard drive, including manuals and schematics. He says he was going to China to see family. But the feds allege he was actually planning to bring the files back to a Chinese car manufacturer he'd applied for a job with. It's the second Apple employee charged with stealing trade secrets from the company's self-driving car unit.

Apple reports Group FaceTime bug

Apple reported a bug with Group FaceTime that allowed callers to hear the people they were calling before they answered. The company took down Group Facetime when it learned of the bug, apologized, and announced that it would release a fix for the problem this week.

Facebook hires three leading privacy critics from Access Now, EFF, and OTI

The Information reports that Facebook has hired three leading privacy critics from Access Now, EFF, and OTI as the company tries to deal with the onslaught of backlash around its privacy woes. Robyn Greene, Nathan White, and Nate Cardozo have been critical of Facebook and all joined the company within the last month.

Mignon Clyburn to advise TMobile/Sprint

TMobile and Sprint have tapped former FCC Chair and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to help advise them on their $26 billion merger. Clyburn said in a statement that she will be advising the two companies as a continuation of her work to ensure vulnerable populations have affordable access to 5G.

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Alicia Mazzara: Mapping How a Housing Vouchers Loophole Furthers Segregation (Ep. 171)

Landlords across the U.S. are refusing to rent to prospective tenants with housing vouchers. As a result, demand for voucher-eligible housing units in low-income areas greatly exceeds supply. But in high income areas, the opposite is true.

Bio

Alicia Mazzara is a Research Analyst in the Housing Division at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. She works on issues related to federal low-income housing policy.

Prior to joining the Center in 2015, Mazzara was a Policy Advisor in Third Way's Economic Program where her research centered on income inequality, labor market dynamics, and workforce development. She has also spent time working in the federal government and as a Research Associate at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Mazzara has a Bachelor's Degree in political science and international relations from Carleton College and a Master of Public Policy from George Washington University.

Resources

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Interactive Map: Where Voucher Households Live in the 50 Largest Metropolitan Areas by Alicia Mazzara, Brian Knudsen, and Nick Kasprak (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2019).

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

News Roundup AOC and Pingree call out tech firms for sponsoring event featuring climate-change deniers

Democratic Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Chellie Pingree called out Google, Facebook, and Microsoft last week for sponsoring an event put on by the CO2 Coalition, an organization that opposes policies that are designed to address climate change. Through company spokespeople, all three companies sought to distance themselves from the views expressed at the event by saying they support organizations across the political spectrum and highlighting their substantial investments to address climate change. After those companies released statements, Ocasio-Cortez and Pingree pushed back even further saying the climate-change crisis is too great for the companies to permit themselves to undermine their leadership by associating with propagandistic organizations like the CO2 Coalition.

U.S. Charges Huawei

The Department of Justice has indicted several affiliates, subsidiaries and executives of Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei. The company is accused of stealing intellectual property from T-Mobile and violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. U.S. officials say Huawei's alleged theft of intellectual property from T-Mobile gave the Chinese government backdoor access to technology from a U.S.-based telecommunications company thereby endangering U.S. national security interests. The U.S. is also in the process of extraditing Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wengzhou from Vancouver in order to face charges that she worked to circumvent U.S. trade sanctions against Iran.

Big Tech Increased Lobbying in 2018

Google, Facebook and Amazon increased their lobbying spending in 2018 over the previous year during increased scrutiny from Congress regarding how the companies use personal data. Google's lobbying expenditures jumped from $18 to 21 million. Amazon spent $14.2 million, up from $12.8 million in 2017. Facebook spent $13 million—a million-and—half more than the previous year. All three companies concentrated a fair share of that spending in the fourth quarter.

Netflix joins MPAA

Netflix has joined the Motion Picture Association of America which, since 1922, has been the trade association for the six major film studios. The announcement came the same day Netflix received its first-ever Best Picture nomination for 'Roma'.

Advocacy groups call on FTC to breakup Facebook

Several advocacy groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Color of Change, are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to break up Facebook, according to a Wall Street Journal report on a draft letter it obtained. In addition to Facebook, Facebook also owns Instagram and WhatsApp. Many advocates and civil rights groups, including the NAACP, have taken aim at Facebook following the Cambridge Analytica debacle for how the company traffics in its users' data. It's not clear what authority the FTC would have to break up Facebook. However, the agency is assessing whether Facebook violated the terms of a consent decree the company signed back in 2011 when it allowed Cambridge Analytica to access the data of some 87 million Facebook users when Cambridge Analytica allegedly handled most of the analytics that went into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.

US Labor Department sues Oracle for discrimination

The U.S. Labor Department filed a federal complaint against Oracle last week claiming the company owes some $400 million in lost wages to women and people of color. The Labor Department says only 11 of 500 people hired into technical jobs over a four-year period were African American or Hispanic and that 5,000 women and 11,000 Asian employees were also underpaid by as much as 20% compared to their white male counterparts.

MIT report says Amazon's facial recognition technology is biased

A new MIT study says that Amazon's facial recognition technology is biased against women and people of color. The study found that Amazon's Rekognition classified a disproportionate number of women as men.

Mignon Clyburn appointed to new Artificial Intelligence advisory group

The Secretaries of Defense and Commerce and top Republicans and Democrats in Congress appointed former FCC Chairman and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to serve on the newly-created National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which will advise the U.S. government on national security and competition issues related to artificial intelligence. Former Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt will Chair the Commission and Clyburn will serve with Oracle CEO Safra Catz and executives from Google and Microsoft among others. The Commission was created by the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act and has a $10 million budget through 2020.

Bio

Lauren Rhue is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Analytics at the Wake Forest School of Business where she's also an Exxon-Wayne Calloway Rising Faculty Fellow. Her research uses empirical and econometric methods to explore the economic and social implications of technology. Dr. Rhue is also interested in investigating the economic implications of technology platforms for traditionally disadvantaged populations. She earned her Bachelor's in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford and her Ph.D. in Information Systems from NYU's Stern School of Business.

Resources

Wake Forest University School of Business

Racial Influence on Automated Perceptions of Emotions by Lauren Rhue (Wake Forest University School of Business, 2018)

Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World by Bruce Schneier

H. Claire Brown: How an FDA Algorithm is Killing Bodegas (Ep. 169)

The New Food Economy's Claire Brown joined Joe Miller to discuss how an FDA algorithm is killing bodegas by flagging otherwise legal transactions as fraud.

Bio

H. Claire Brown (@hclaire_brown) is a staff writer for The New Food Economy focusing on food policy and the environment. Her reporting has won awards from the Newswomen's Club of New York and the New York Press Club. She is based in Brooklyn.

Resources

New Food Economy

How an Algorithm kicks small businesses out of the food stamp program on dubious fraud charges by Claire Brown

Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger by Rebecca Traister

News Roundup Federal officials worry about shutdown's effect on cyber security

Federal security officials are worried about the short and long-term harm to the nation's cybersecurity during the shutdown. They're worried about losing furloughed talent and about criminals and foreign actors taking advantage of the shutdown to launch cyberattacks.

Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly issued a strong rebuke against Trump for the shutdown saying it's immoral and unnecessary. She noted that when she served as the ranking member of the IT subcommittee in the last session of Congress, the subcommittee repeatedly discussed the federal government's inability to attract top IT and tech talent. She said the shutdown makes federal IT jobs seem even less attractive than they were before.

Motherboard paid $300 to a bounty hunter to access customer location info from carriers

Remember in 2017 when the Republican-controlled Congress repealed the Obama-FCC's privacy rules that would have required carriers to obtain opt-in consent from customers before sharing their data? Well, Motherboard's Joseph Cox reported last week that he paid just 300 bucks to a bounty hunter to identify the location of a phone. This is exactly the kind of harm the privacy rules were designed to prevent. The Motherboard investigation found that all the bounty hunter had to do was purchase the location data that ultimately came from T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint and voilá – here's your phone … or the phone of that person you're stalking …

So House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone demanded an emergency briefing from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai … Pai declined, citing the shutdown --- claiming that the issue wasn't a "threat to the safety of human life or property."

AG nominee Barr to recuse himself from AT&T/Time Warner merger appeal

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar announced last week that Trump's attorney general nominee William Barr assured her in a private meeting that he would recuse himself from the AT&T/Time Warner Merger. The Justice Department is appealing a lower court's decision to approve the $85 billion merger of the two companies. Barr's Senate confirmation hearing takes place today, Tuesday, January 15.

Google shareholder sues for $90 million Andy Rubin payout

Google shareholder James Martin filed a lawsuit against the company last week for its $90 million payout to former executive Andy Rubin after he left the company amidst sexual harassment allegations. The complaint alleges a "multi-year scheme to cover up sexual harassment and discrimination at Alphabet" and claims the board, including Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, breached their fiduciary duties as board members and as executives who set the internal tone that enabled extramarital affairs at the company.

Thune/Wicker switch roles on the Senate Commerce Committee

South Dakota Republican John Thune has stepped down as Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and now heads up the Communications Subcommittee. Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker now Chairs the full committee.

Trump administration proposes to allow drones to fly at night

The Federal Aviation Administration issued proposed rules Monday that would allow small commercial drones to fly over cities at night. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao says she's keenly aware of the safety concerns.

H. Claire Brown: How an FDA Algorithm is Killing Bodegas (Ep. 169)

The New Food Economy's Claire Brown joined Joe Miller to discuss how an FDA algorithm is killing bodegas by flagging otherwise legal transactions as fraud.

Bio

H. Claire Brown (@hclaire_brown) is a staff writer for The New Food Economy focusing on food policy and the environment. Her reporting has won awards from the Newswomen's Club of New York and the New York Press Club. She is based in Brooklyn.

Resources

New Food Economy

How an Algorithm kicks small businesses out of the food stamp program on dubious fraud charges by Claire Brown

Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger by Rebecca Traister

News Roundup Federal officials worry about shutdown's effect on cyber security

Federal security officials are worried about the short and long-term harm to the nation's cybersecurity during the shutdown. They're worried about losing furloughed talent and about criminals and foreign actors taking advantage of the shutdown to launch cyberattacks.

Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly issued a strong rebuke against Trump for the shutdown saying it's immoral and unnecessary. She noted that when she served as the ranking member of the IT subcommittee in the last session of Congress, the subcommittee repeatedly discussed the federal government's inability to attract top IT and tech talent. She said the shutdown makes federal IT jobs seem even less attractive than they were before.

Motherboard paid $300 to a bounty hunter to access customer location info from carriers

Remember in 2017 when the Republican-controlled Congress repealed the Obama-FCC's privacy rules that would have required carriers to obtain opt-in consent from customers before sharing their data? Well, Motherboard's Joseph Cox reported last week that he paid just 300 bucks to a bounty hunter to identify the location of a phone. This is exactly the kind of harm the privacy rules were designed to prevent. The Motherboard investigation found that all the bounty hunter had to do was purchase the location data that ultimately came from T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint and voilá – here's your phone … or the phone of that person you're stalking …

So House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone demanded an emergency briefing from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai … Pai declined, citing the shutdown --- claiming that the issue wasn't a "threat to the safety of human life or property."

AG nominee Barr to recuse himself from AT&T/Time Warner merger appeal

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar announced last week that Trump's attorney general nominee William Barr assured her in a private meeting that he would recuse himself from the AT&T/Time Warner Merger. The Justice Department is appealing a lower court's decision to approve the $85 billion merger of the two companies. Barr's Senate confirmation hearing takes place today, Tuesday, January 15.

Google shareholder sues for $90 million Andy Rubin payout

Google shareholder James Martin filed a lawsuit against the company last week for its $90 million payout to former executive Andy Rubin after he left the company amidst sexual harassment allegations. The complaint alleges a "multi-year scheme to cover up sexual harassment and discrimination at Alphabet" and claims the board, including Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, breached their fiduciary duties as board members and as executives who set the internal tone that enabled extramarital affairs at the company.

Thune/Wicker switch roles on the Senate Commerce Committee

South Dakota Republican John Thune has stepped down as Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and now heads up the Communications Subcommittee. Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker now Chairs the full committee.

Trump administration proposes to allow drones to fly at night

The Federal Aviation Administration issued proposed rules Monday that would allow small commercial drones to fly over cities at night. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao says she's keenly aware of the safety concerns.

Bio

Kimberly Tignor (@Kim_Tignor) is the Public Policy Director for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Ms. Tignor manages a portfolio that includes education, voting rights, employment discrimination, fair housing, affirmative action, criminal justice, and immigration. In addition, she manages the Judicial Diversity Program of the Lawyers' Committee.

Ms. Tignor has spent her career immersed in the most pressing of legal issues surrounding underprivileged persons and advancing the causes of equality and social justice. She is particularly well-versed in working across multicultural issues and topics of key interest to people of color. Her impressive legal experience spans from directing policy at the National Bar Association, the nation's oldest and largest national network of African American legal professionals, to coordinating state and national level pipeline and advocacy efforts for Presidential judicial nominees at the VENG Group, the leading government affairs firm consulting group representing Presidential nominees to the federal judiciary. During her time with the Georgetown Law Juvenile Justice Clinic, Ms. Tignor studied the impact of laws on adolescents and advocated for a higher quality of rehabilitation services within the justice system.

Ms. Tignor Chairs the National Bar Association Judicial Evaluations Committee and is an active member of the organization's Civil Rights Law and Legislative Affairs Sections. In her local community, she is a board member of the DC Ward 4 Democrats, a member of the Potomac (VA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, and the DC Lawyers for Youth. Ms. Tignor has been a guest speaker for numerous panels including C-Span's After Words, the American Bar Association Commission of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the profession, and the Washington Bar Association. Ms. Tignor was recently recognized by On Being a Lawyer of Color as one of the country's top lawyers under the age of 40.

Kimberly Tignor is a proud Washington DC native. She received her JD from Georgetown University, and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Information Technology from the College of William and Mary.

Resources

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Creative Control

News Roundup Outgoing Congress fails to reinstate net neutrality

The House of Representatives failed to vote on a Senate-passed resolution that would have reinstated the 2015 open internet rules the FCC repealed after Trump took office. A lawsuit from consumer advocates and state attorneys general is still pending in the DC Circuit, with oral arguments set for next month. The FCC says the lawsuits are moot since they've already repealed the rules.

Apple lowers revenue forecast

Apple lowered its revenue forecast last week citing uncertainty about tensions with China. Apple CEO Tim Cook revised the company's first quarter forecast down by some $9 billion. The report sent stocks down early last week. But the market was up 700 points at the end of the week after reports of strong unemployment numbers.

FCC back up to 5 commissioners

The FCC is back up to 5 commissioners after the Senate confirmed Democrat Jeffrey Starks and re-confirmed Republican Brendan Carr.

Airbnb blocks New York City host identity lawsuit

Airbnb has won a legal victory in a federal lawsuit it brought against the City of New York for a law requiring the homesharing company to disclose the names and addresses of hosts to the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement. The court issued a preliminary injunction against the new law which was supposed to go into effect in February.

Warner/Rubio propose new White House cyber office

Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio proposed bi-partisan legislation last week that seeks to establish a new White House office of Critical Technology and Security. The new office would be tasked with dealing with increasing cyberthreats from China.

Marriott: Hackers accessed 5 million passport numbers

Marriott reported last week that its November data breach allowed hackers to access some 5 million unencrypted passport numbers. Over twenty million total passport numbers were swiped, including encrypted ones. Marriott also claims that 117 million fewer guests were affected by the breach. It now says 383 million guests had their data breached—that's down from the 500 million it claimed back in November.