Government & Communications

Surveillance systems that track the locations of cellphone users and spy on their calls, texts and data streams are being turned against Americans as they roam the country and the world, security experts and US officials say.  Federal officials acknowledged the privacy risk to Americans in a previously undisclosed letter from the Department of Homeland Security to Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR), saying they had received reports that "nefarious actors may have exploited" global cellular networks "to target the communications of American citizens." The letter, dated May 22, described surveillance syste

A minimum of 21 journalists worldwide were imprisoned on charges connected to "fake news" in 2017, according to a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists.  The report cites the recent implementation of measures in countries such as Brazil, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Russia aimed at targeting the rise of fake news. Arrests blamed on fake news reportedly more than doubled from 2016.

President Donald Trump promoted new, unconfirmed accusations to suit his political narrative: that a “criminal deep state” element within Obama’s government planted a spy deep inside his presidential campaign to help his rival, Hillary Clinton, win — a scheme he branded “Spygate.” It was the latest indication that a president who has for decades trafficked in conspiracy theories has brought them from the fringes of public discourse to the Oval Office. Now that he is president, Trump’s baseless stories of secret plots by powerful interests appear to be having a distinct effect.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has held briefings less frequently than her two predecessors, her briefings have been shorter, and she has been more likely to fill up time with guests who can’t speak to what the White House is doing. Between January 2016 and Jan. 20, 2017, President Barack Obama's press secretary Josh Earnest spent 11,800 minutes briefing the media, with his deputies adding another 906 minutes. Since late last July, about 10 months, Sanders has spent 2,800 minutes briefing the media, only about four more hours than Sean Spicer spent during his tenure in the White House.

Sens Roger Wicker (R-MS), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced the “Mobile Accuracy and Precision Broadband Act” (MAP Broadband Act) (S 2955). If enacted, the bill would help improve the accuracy of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mobile broadband coverage map and ensure that federal resources are targeted to unserved communities that do not have access to reliable mobile broadband service. The legislation would address problems with the FCC’s Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) presumptive eligibility maps.

In June 2013, halfway through the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) negotiations, a National Security Agency contractor named Edward Snowden leaked documents on America’s global surveillance. The documents showed that the National Security Agency had backdoor deals with major Silicon Valley companies, allowing them to use consumer data as the basis of their counterintelligence operations.

The Federal Communication Commission wants more than $200 to release e-mails related to Chairman Ajit Pai’s novelty, oversized coffee mug under the Freedom of Information Act.  The mug gained mild notoriety after Chairman Pai was photographed with the drinking vessel. But when Taylor Amarel, a frequent FOIA-filer who secured the release of Chairman Pai’s calendar earlier in 2018, requested all of Chairman Pai’s executive assistant’s e-mails that included terms such as "reeses", "mug", or "Reese's,” the FCC pushed back.

[Analysis] The ruling that President Trump violated the constitutional rights of Americans when he blocked some of his Twitter followers after they criticized him politically raises many more questions about the extent of those First Amendment obligations. President Trump cannot legally block his Twitter followers for political reasons, the judge ruled, because that would amount to “viewpoint discrimination” by a government official in a public forum. 

The 13 Democratic Reps on the House Communications Subcommittee accused Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai of trying to evade congressional oversight of his agency. The Reps sent a letter to Chairman Pai calling him out for failing to respond to oversight letters or fully answering questions during congressional testimony. “While we appreciate your continued willingness to testify before our Committee, we are concerned that you have been unable to give complete responses to verbal questions, questions for the record or oversight letters from our members,” the Reps wrote.

In a victory for court access advocates, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit will start live -streaming oral arguments beginning with the 2018-2019 term. That is according to Chief Judge Merrick Garland, who said May 23 that the court had voted to live -stream all arguments, except those dealing with classified or sealed matters. The D.C. circuit has primary jurisdiction over government agency decision challenges, including the FCC's.