Lobbying

Facebook is quietly helping to set up a new pro-tech advocacy group to battle Washington

Facebook is working behind the scenes to help launch a new political advocacy group that would combat US lawmakers and regulators trying to rein in the tech industry, escalating Silicon Valley’s war with Washington at a moment when government officials are threatening to break up large companies. The organization is called American Edge, and it aims through a barrage of advertising and other political spending to convince policymakers that Silicon Valley is essential to the US economy and the future of free speech, apparently.

AT&T, Verizon part of new 31-member Open RAN Policy Coalition

A new coalition, backed by a wide range of players in the mobile ecosystem --, including U.S. operators AT&T and Verizon -- has formed to advocate for government policy that helps drive open radio access network (RAN) adoption to fund research and development of open and interoperable 5G networks. Executive director for the 31-member Open RAN Policy Coalition, launched today, is former Acting Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Diane Rinaldo.

Once Bankrupt, Tiny Broadband Company Ligado Thrives in the Trump Era

Ligado Networks LLC overcame powerful opposition to its proposed broadband network with some help from inside-the-Beltway figures close to President Donald Trump’s White House. The Reston (VA)-based company prevailed with a costly persuasion campaign overseen by a blue-chip roster of lobbyists and board members.

What tech wants from Washington amid coronavirus

As the markets crash and foreshadow a potential economic downturn, some people in the tech industry are also asking what Washington can do for them — particularly as Congress weighs stimulus packages to protect future structure of the American economy. Here's what to watch when it comes to the tech industry and the coronavirus recovery effort.

Ben Scott seeks to rewrite anti-tech lobbying rulebook

From an office in London's diamond district, Ben Scott has his eyes set on Big Tech.

Rep Cicilline, Sen Klobuchar and Others Express Serious Concerns over Reports that DOJ Official Urged Dish Executive to Lobby Sens to Influence FCC Regulatory Process

House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) and Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) sent a letter with members of their respective subcommittees, expressing serious concerns over the Justice Department’s handling of the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger.

NTCA's Shirley Bloomfield on Helping rural areas get connected

Amid the mad dash to develop fifth-generation (5G) wireless technologies, Shirley Bloomfield likes to remind people that vast swaths of America have other hurdles to clear first. “As everybody gets super excited about 5G ... we just tell them in rural America we’re still waiting for 1G in some areas,” said the CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association.

ITTA—The Voice of America's Broadband Providers Will Shut Down Jan 31

ITTA-The Voice of America's Broadband Providers "will be shutting its doors effective January 31, 2020 after over a one-quarter century representing wireline communications service providers in Washington." ITTA cited "financial constraints in the wireline service provider sector" for shutting its doors, saying those financial challenges had been "insurmountable." Broadband providers still have a voice via ACA Connects, which represents smaller and midsized providers, NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, NTCCA-The Rural Broadband Association, USTelecom, CTIA and others. 

States will be the battlegrounds for 2020 tech policy fights

The tech industry's most consequential policy fights in 2020 will play out in the states, not Washington (DC). Momentum on a range of tech issues, from governing online privacy to regulating the gig economy, has stalled in DC as impeachment and election campaigns consume attention. State leaders and legislators are stepping in to fill the void. For example, California and Vermont are facing litigation over their attempts to impose their own net neutrality regulations after the Federal Communications Commission repealed the Obama-era open-internet rules. New York Gov.

SpaceX Is Lobbying Against Amazon’s Internet-Beaming Satellites

When Amazon confirmed it was planning to launch 3,236 broadband internet-beaming satellites into low-Earth orbit, much of the media reported it as if it were a done deal—the latest, inevitable step in the corporation’s quest to conquer commerce, the cloud, and beyond. Amazon officials said the massive satellite constellation, called Project Kuiper, would one day provide low-latency, high-speed broadband to tens of millions of underserved people around the world, no doubt also connecting them to the wide world of Amazon offerings.

A Q&A with NYT Tech Policy Reporter David McCabe on Big Tech's Presence in DC

A Q&A with New York Times tech policy reporter David McCabe. 

When asked, "How is Silicon Valley having an impact on Washington (DC)?", McCabe said, "Washington has become intertwined with the Valley in lots of different ways. Every major tech company has ramped up its presence here. Small armies of lobbyists work Capitol Hill and a vast swath of the administration to fight attempts to regulate the industry or to shape the rules when they become inevitable."

California's 'Nonprofit Alliance' becomes an ally of Big Telecom

The weaponization of nonprofit advocacy and service organizations has been ongoing in Sacramento (CA) (and Washington) for years, although it seems to have risen recently to new levels of duplicity and complexity. If you were hanging around Sacramento this legislative year, for example, you couldn’t help but run into The Nonprofit Alliance, a newly constituted advocacy group which claimed to be the voice of nonprofits.

Facebook, Google Fund Nonprofits Shaping Federal Privacy Debate

Few companies have more riding on proposed privacy legislation than Google and Facebook.

Sen Kyrsten Sinema, the Only Anti-Net Neutrality Democrat, Linked to Super PAC Run by a Comcast Lobbyist

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) is the only Senate Democrat not co-sponsoring the Save the Internet Act, a bill to restore net neutrality rules that were enacted by the Federal Communications Commission during the Obama administration and reversed in 2017 by President Trump’s FCC Chair, former Verizon attorney Ajit Pai. Instead, Sen Sinema has formed a working group with Sen.

Comcast Is Lobbying Against Encryption That Could Prevent it From Learning Your Browsing History

Comcast is lobbying lawmakers against plans to encrypt web traffic that would make it harder for internet service providers (ISPs) to determine your browsing history. The plan, which Google intends to implement soon, would enforce the encryption of DNS data made using Chrome, meaning the sites you visit. Privacy activists have praised Google's move. But ISPs are pushing back as part of a wider lobbying effort against encrypted DNS, according to a lobbying presentation.

Putting corporate America’s new ‘stakeholder’ principles to work in regulatory policy

Too often, the corporate response to regulation has not been “what’s best for all stakeholders,” but “what’s best for the CFO (Chief Financial Officer).” The lobbying refrain sounds like this: “because regulation could hurt profits, it will hurt our ability to invest and innovate and therefore hurt the public interest.” You hear this from Big Pharma’s television ads. Broadband networks used the argument to kill net neutrality.

Net Neutrality debate was riddled with millions of fake comments in the most prolific known instance of political impersonation in US history

A fierce battle over the regulation of the internet was riddled with millions of fake comments in the most prolific known instance of political impersonation in US history.

‘Unconstitutional, unlawful and unsupported’: How Facebook initially tried to fight a multibillion-dollar US fine

Facebook initially mounted an aggressive legal offensive against federal regulators who sought to fine the tech giant billions of dollars for privacy abuses, arguing in newly revealed documents that the company did not harm consumers or profit from mishandling users’ data — and that it would have prevailed in court if it had come to that.

California adopted the country’s first major consumer privacy law. Now, Silicon Valley is trying to rewrite it.

Adopted in 2018, the California Consumer Privacy Act grants Web users the right to see the personal information that companies collect about them and stop it from being sold. The law applies only to CA residents, but its backers hope it might someday spur regulators around the country to follow suit — and force the tech giants to change their practices nationwide. But powerful business organizations — representing retailers, marketers and tech giants — have responded by seeking sweeping revisions to the law before it goes into effect.

Netroots groups call for 2020 candidates to pledge to restore net neutrality

A broad coalition of some of the largest network neutrality advocacy groups is launching an activism site and pledge, which asks all 2020 presidential candidates to support strong net neutrality and reject telecom donations. “It’s not enough for candidates to simply say they support net neutrality,” said Mark Stanley, director of communications for Demand Progress.  “We’re looking for specific commitments from candidates to appoint commissioners who will restore the Title II-based net neutrality protections repealed by the [Federal Communications Commission], and who will close dangerous lo

Internal Divides Cloud Tech Industry's Antitrust Defense

In July, the head of the Information Technology Industry Council published a warning against overly broad antitrust investigations that ‘could jeopardize American companies' leadership’ — a message that came amid rising regulatory heat on the group's members Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. But it soon became clear that some in the Information Technology Industry Council didn't want to risk being seen as defending the four embattled tech giants.

The Phony Patriots of Silicon Valley

Not long ago, many leading technologists considered themselves too lofty and idealistic to concern themselves with the petty affairs of government. But that was before privacy scandals, antitrust investigations, congressional hearings, Chinese tariffs, presidential tweets and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Now, as they try to fend off regulation and avoid being broken up, some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley are tripping over their Allbirds in a race to cozy up to the United States government.

Here’s What Foreign Interference Will Look Like in the 2020 Election

The incentives for foreign countries to meddle are much greater than in 2016, and the tactics could look dramatically different.

The Netflix Lobbying Machine: Inside the Effort to Sway Policy Worldwide

Netflix has been evolving its public policy strategies in recent months to align itself more with Hollywood and less with Silicon Valley, a shift driven by the streamer's maturation into a full-fledged film and TV studio, by its international expansion and by the intense scrutiny Washington is now applying to the tech companies.