June 2017

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is asking Democratic Reps to cosponsor her new internet privacy bill, intended to replace Federal Communications Commission privacy protections that Republicans killed earlier in 2017. Chairman Blackburn’s office sent an e-mail June 6 to all House Democrats asking them to sign on to the new bill, and arguing that it would strengthen existing privacy protections. “Rep Blackburn is a former co-chair of the bi-partisan Congressional Privacy Working group,” the e-mail reads. “Moreover, she has not been accepting additional Republican co-sponsors while in the midst of taking stakeholder meetings and beginning outreach to Democrats.”

Chairman Blackburn’s new bill, called the Browser Act, would subject service providers and web services alike to the same rules, requiring both to get customers’ explicit consent before handing over “sensitive” information, such as financial and health data, browsing history, geo-location tracking, to third parties.

Reality Winner is accused of serving as a journalistic source for a leading American news outlet about a matter of critical public importance. For this act, she has been charged with violating the Espionage Act—a World War I era law meant for spies—which explicitly forbids the jury from hearing why the defendant acted, and bars them from deciding whether the outcome was to the public's benefit. This often-condemned law provides no space to distinguish the extraordinary disclosure of inappropriately classified information in the public interest—whistleblowing—from the malicious disclosure of secrets to foreign governments by those motivated by a specific intent to harm to their countrymen.

The prosecution of any journalistic source without due consideration by the jury as to the harm or benefit of the journalistic activity is a fundamental threat to the free press. As long as a law like this remains on the books in a country that values fair trials, it must be resisted. No matter one's opinions on the propriety of the charges against her, we should all agree Winner should be released on bail pending trial. Even if you take all the government allegations as true, it's clear she is neither a threat to public safety nor a flight risk. To hold a citizen incommunicado and indefinitely while awaiting trial for the alleged crime of serving as a journalistic source should outrage us all.

Apparently, the leader of the US government’s leading patent agency, Michelle Lee, has unexpectedly resigned from her post. Lee, a former lawyer for Google, took over the US Patent and Trademark Office during the Obama Administration, and many in the tech industry — which publicly supported her work — believed that President Donald Trump would renominate her to the critical government post. But Lee instead informed the Commerce Department that she would be stepping down from the position.

It is unclear if Lee is leaving government entirely or headed to another position. Still, it could amount to a major blow for the tech industry. In April, a series of companies and their lobbying organizations — including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Samsung and others — publicly defended Lee’s tenure and asked President Trump to renominate her for the agency.