Government & Communications

President Donald Trump accused tech companies, including Facebook, Twitter and Google, of promoting "the Radical Left Democrats." "Facebook, Google and Twitter, not to mention the Corrupt Media, are sooo on the side of the Radical Left Democrats. But fear not, we will win anyway, just like we did before! #MAGA," the president wrote online.

Stung by obscene and pointed criticism, Rep Devin Nunes (R-CA) has sued Twitter and three users for defamation, claiming the users smeared him and the platform allowed it to happen because of a political agenda. The complaint, which was filed in Henrico County Circuit Court in Virginia, seeks $250 million in damages.

The Federal Communications Commission is asking a judge to reject The New York Times Company's request for information about comments submitted to the agency in its 2017 net neutrality proceeding. The agency argues that the data sought by the Times -- including IP addresses associated with comments -- would compromise commenters' privacy. The FCC also says it can't provide the information sought by the news company without undertaking new research.

For Fiscal Year 2020, the Federal Communications Commission is requesting the budget and personnel amounts that are summarized in the bullets below:

On March 17, President Donald Trump defended two of Fox's right-wing opinion shows and criticized three of the network's news anchors. Most notably of all, he used Twitter to send a long message to Fox executives, urging them to "stay true to the people that got you there."  "Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro. The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well.

On Feb 12, 2019 Sen Kevin Cramer (R-ND) introduced The Office of Rural Broadband Act in the Senate (S 454), which would establish an Office of Rural Broadband in the Federal Communications Commission. Sen Cramer’s Office of Rural Broadband Act is the latest effort to coordinate rural broadband planning and policy. As I recently wrote for the New York Times, this Office of Rural Broadband is best placed inside the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the US Dept of Agriculture, rather than the Federal Communications Commission, as S.454 proposes.

Attorney General William Barr has asserted the state secrets privilege for the first known time since he was sworn in in Feb, using the controversial legal tool in a lawsuit brought by the social media company Twitter over its bid to publish a more complete account of government surveillance requests.

President Donald Trump threatened “Saturday Night Live” and other late-night shows with a federal investigation for poking fun of him. He said, “It’s truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of ‘the other side.’ Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows." “Should Federal Election Commission and/or [Federal Communications Commission] look into this?” he added.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen Kamala Harris (D-CA) is introducing the Digital Service Act of 2019 on March 14 that would give state and local governments access to a pool of $15 million a year in grant funding, which they could use to set up tech teams and overhaul the often outdated tools and websites their constituents use every day. The bill is modeled after the United States Digital Service, an elite team of geeks inside the White House working on ways to make federal government technology less clunky and confusing—and maybe even good.

He prefers Sharpies over email. His aides cart around cardboard boxes of work papers — not laptops — for him to sift through on Air Force One. On pressing technology matters, he prefers a nonscientific approach. In short, President Donald Trump often operates on the theory that older is better. “It doesn’t put the best face forward for the United States to have a president talking that way,” Darrell West, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution, said in an interview. “It makes us look like we’re not a scientifically literate country.”