Left-leaning political activists accused Facebook of suppressing free speech when the social media giant removed an event listing that it said was part of a new disinformation campaign with ties to Russia.Facebook said it had to act quickly to disclose that inauthentic operators were behind an upcoming event in Washington (DC) to counter a white supremacist rally inspired by Charlottesville. “Resisters,” the page that first created the event, was among the 32 pages and accounts Facebook removed. However, activists who had worked with Resisters said the counter protest they planned against a far-right rally was legitimate - and that Facebook was harming their ability to combat the rise of white supremacy. The event, called “No Unite the Right 2 DC,” and promoted by Resisters along with other left-leaning groups, was collateral damage in Facebook’s battle against disinformation, they said.

The White House did not condemn a group of people who heckled a CNN reporter at President Trump's rally in Tampa (FL). "While we support freedom of the press, we also support freedom of speech. Those things go hand in hand," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said when asked whether President Trump supports that behavior. She criticized the media for reporting on classified information, but in doing so cited an example that has been widely debunked. 

“The president does think that the media holds a responsibility — we fully support a free press but there also comes a high level of responsibility with that,” Sanders said. “The media routinely reports on classified information and government secrets that put lives in danger and risk valuable national security tools,” she added. She highlighted a report in the late 1990’s that disclosed U.S. officials were able to listen in on Osama bin Laden’s satellite phone. She blamed the press for alerting bin Laden to the tactic, saying he stopped using the phone and “the country lost valuable intelligence” as a result. However, as multiple reporters quickly noted on Twitter, the report Sanders referred to has been deemed an “urban myth.”

Small internet service providers (ISPs) expect a helping hand from the Federal Communications Commission August 2, a move that could spur competition and perhaps lower prices. But the FCC is also considering a more sweeping proposal that would hurt upstarts to the benefit of industry giants like AT&T. Both issues revolve around how much access upstarts should have to facilities and equipment owned by their bigger rivals. The vote is about arcane rules for moving wires on utility poles. The bigger issue, which the FCC might not resolve until 2019, is about access to telecom companies’ switching stations.

Some 39 percent of rural Americans lack access to broadband Internet. Rural communities tend to be less profitable for broadband service providers, since a smaller number of customers spread over a larger geographical area prevents economies of scale that are achievable in a densely populated region. And years of lobbying by large Internet service providers have led to a web of state laws that block competitors and shelter incumbents. In many cases, large incumbent internet providers are shaping state policies to choke off competitors, said Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “Most state legislatures, on broadband issues, will only hear from incumbent providers,” he noted.

When entrenched providers in rural locations fend off new rivals, they don't need to upgrade old infrastructure that can be slower and less reliable, said Debra Socia, the executive director of Next Century Cities, a group that works with local governments to improve and expand Web access. “State legislators are writing rules that make it nearly impossible for local communities to build their own broadband,” she added. “That’s a model for ensuring extended profit off of an investment.”

President Donald Trump will nominate Kelvin Droegemeier of Oklahoma, to be Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Droegemeier currently serves as Vice President for Research and Regents’ Professor of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma and as Oklahoma Cabinet Secretary of Science and Technology. He co-founded and directed the National Science Foundation’s Science and Technology Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms and the NSF Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere.  Dr. Droegemeier served two six-year terms (four years as Vice Chairman) on the National Science Board, under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He earned his B.S. in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma and M.S. and Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Droegemeier is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science.