Alina Selyukh

Officials from 14 states' top legal offices and the Justice Department have begun a coordinated conversation about ways to keep tabs — and potentially rein in — the fast-growing tech giants. The gathering had been designed to focus on social media platforms and the ways in which they moderate content online, following complaints from President Donald Trump and other top Republican lawmakers that Silicon Valley companies deliberately seek to silence conservative users and views online.

A Q&A with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai.

He wants the government to focus on correcting actual anti-competitive behavior that Internet providers might demonstrate, rather than regulating against hypothetical harms. "Preemptive regulation is appropriate when there's a major market failure — when the Internet is broken," he says. Chairman Pai argues that his predecessor, Tom Wheeler, unnecessarily inserted the government into the Internet economy, stifling its innovation and growth.

For decades Freedom House has been ranking the world on free speech, political and civil rights. In recent years, this nongovernmental organization has extended its research into the state of the Internet. And for the sixth consecutive year, it has found Internet freedom on a decline. In 2013, it was a rise in surveillance. In 2014, governments shifted more from behind-the-scenes control to overt repression and arrests. In 2015, it was more of the same, plus a push against encryption. Over the past year, the pressure fell increasingly on social media and messaging tools, often to quash protests or dissent, according to the latest Freedom on the Net report, which covers the period from June 2015 through May 2016. "In a new development, the most routinely targeted tools this year were instant messaging and calling platforms, with restrictions often imposed during times of protests or due to national security concerns," the report says, presenting two particular features that attract crackdowns:

1) Encryption on some of the apps, for instance Telegram, helps protect users' chats from surveillance;
2) The apps, which are free or cheap, challenge profits of traditional phone and other telecom companies that may be friendly with governments.

The top question on many consumers' minds: What does this merger mean for me? Pros: 1) The promise of new kind of content and 2) Potential competitor to cable. Cons: 1) Potential risk of exclusivity or self-dealing and 2) Consolidation and risk of higher prices.

Cox Communications is not interested in merging with wireless carrier T-Mobile US or rival cable providers, Cox President Pat Esser said, dispelling rumors recently swirling about the private company.

Asked whether Cox, the third-largest US cable and broadband company, was considering a merger with one of its smaller cable rivals, such as Charter Communications or perennial takeover target Cablevision Systems, Esser said family-owned Cox was not looking to become a publicly traded company.

Dish Network said it plans to take part in the Federal Communications Commission's large sale of low-frequency airwaves planned for mid-2015. Dish's Chairman Charlie Ergen and other executives met with the FCC's Chairman Tom Wheeler, four commissioners and numerous wireless officials, giving the most explicit pledge so far by the satellite TV provider to "meaningfully participate" in the so-called "incentive" auction."

The incentive auction offers opportunities for competitive providers and new entrants to bid on and win much-needed lowband spectrum, which will facilitate the deployment of mobile broadband services," wrote Dish Senior Vice President Jeffrey Blum.

Fledging cooperation between the United States and China on fighting cybercrime has ground to a halt since the recent US indictment of Chinese military officials on hacking charges, a senior US security official said. At the same time, there has been no decline in Chinese hackers' efforts to break into US networks, the official said. US and Chinese officials had started working together to combat certain types of online crime, including money laundering, child pornography and drug trafficking, the US official said. But that cooperation has stopped.

After weeks of public outcry, Netflix brought its concerns about Internet neutrality directly to US regulators in meetings with Federal Communications Commission staff, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Netflix recently agreed to pay such fees to Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications to ensure smooth delivery of its videos, but it argues they weaken the principle of net neutrality, which says all Internet traffic should be treated equally.

Netflix's representatives brought that message to the FCC commissioners' offices in meeting with advisers over the course of several days, the sources said, as the agency prepares to rewrite so-called Open Internet rules that regulate net neutrality by setting limits to how Internet providers treat web traffic crossing their networks.

Verizon Communications has urged the Federal Communications not to restrict how much it can buy in the 2015 auction of wireless spectrum, saying such a limit would subsidize the smallest national carriers and their foreign owners.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler recently proposed rules for the complex sale of valuable airwaves scheduled for mid-2015. The rules would reserve part of the spectrum in each market for wireless carriers that do not already have dominant blocks of low-frequency airwaves there. That would benefit the No. 3 and No. 4 carriers, Sprint and T-Mobile US, by limiting the two biggest carriers, Verizon and AT&T, which dominate the highly valued low-band spectrum.

The sale is considered one of the most complex undertakings by the FCC. It would first involve TV stations' giving up airwaves they exclusively use and the FCC then auctioning them off to wireless carriers. Congress has mandated that the FCC raise enough money to pay broadcasters for their lost spectrum and fund a new $7 billion public safety network.

A planned merger of Sprint and T-Mobile US could prompt US regulators to rewrite rules they are now weighing for a 2015 auction of airwaves, according to sources familiar with the proposed plan.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has proposed restrictions on how much the biggest carriers, Verizon Communications and AT&T, could bid in the major auction of television spectrum scheduled for mid-2015. However, as in many other proceedings, the FCC's rules would be based on the "current market structure." Any changes or proposed changes in that structure that could undermine the goals of the auction would prompt a review and potential edits, said sources briefed on the proposed rules. That means if SoftBank Corp, Sprint's parent company, moves ahead with its goal of merging the No. 3 wireless carrier with No. 4 provider T-Mobile, the FCC could eliminate the reserve set off for smaller competitors, sources said.