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Google, Microsoft, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and other digital heavyweights increasingly are borrowing a favorite technique from the world of politics: secret money.

These top tech executives and their companies are embracing stealth, not-for-profit campaigns that can advertise and advance their pet causes — from tax and immigration reform to new online privacy laws — without ever disclosing a single donation. The groups are known by their tax designation, 501(c)(4), and until recently, they've been the domain of entrenched players such as Karl Rove and the Koch brothers. But interest on Capitol Hill in regulating the burgeoning tech sector has convinced Silicon Valley's power brokers they too must adopt a form of political advocacy that once would have been anathema to the Washington-wary industry.

The most prominent new example is FWD.us, the Zuckerberg-helmed collection of tech luminaries pumping millions of dollars into local television markets with ads promoting immigration reform to oil drilling. It joins a list of groups — from a Microsoft-backed immigration effort, to a Google-supported privacy campaign — that are also playing the D.C. secret-money game. If anything, the evolution highlights something of an irony: Even as Zuckerberg and other tech titans proselytize openness, many have closed off any public access to the full extent of their influence operations.

First Lady Michelle Obama announced a partnership between the military and IT companies to help veterans more easily find jobs in the tech sector.

About 161,000 service members would gain the necessary certifications for 12 high-demand technology professions with the new program, according to the White House. In addition to announcing the IT Training and Certification Partnership, the event was also designed to explore other areas where the hiring process can be eased for veterans. With more than 1 million veterans expected to flood the marketplace in the next year, Mrs Obama noted it was one of the "most pressing issues we face."

IAC/Interactive Corp. chairman and founder Barry Diller defended his investment in Aereo by arguing consumers have a "right" to the service and that the company is not simply exploiting a "legal loophole" in the law.

Diller also contended that recent threats made by executives at News Corp. and other broadcasters to move networks from broadcast to cable was really an effort to spur Congressional action. "I think what they are doing is making a lot of noise in the hopes they will get relief from Congress," he told Bloomberg TV. "That is actually what they are going. I do not think they see Aereo as a 'threat' but what they are nervous about is the shifting ground underneath them. As it becomes more and more difficult to justify ever increasing cable fees, satellite fees, as programmers and operators want more and more money and there are more and more programs, as that closed circle becomes ever more pricey there are going to be chinks in that armor if the technology which now allows it, will allow it. My attitude has been to jump into something that looks difficult and is against what people think will succeed and plant my little food. Sometimes it gets kicked." Diller described Aereo as a service for people who don't want to pay $150 a month for a multichannel service and who can live without ESPN. "If those are true for you as a consumer, being able to watch all free broadcast, all the events all of the local television for $8 a month is an alternative."

In this Second Report and Order, the Federal Communications Commission implements section 718 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (Act), which was added by section 104 of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA) to ensure that people with disabilities have access to emerging and innovative advanced communications technologies. Section 718 requires mobile phone manufacturers and mobile service providers that include or arrange for the inclusion of an Internet browser on mobile phones to ensure that the functions of the included browser are accessible to and usable by individuals who are blind or have a visual impairment, unless doing so is not achievable.

Specifically, the FCC took the following actions:

• Affirm that Internet browsers used for advanced communications services (ACS), that are installed or included by ACS equipment manufacturers or provided by ACS service providers, are software subject to section 716 of the Act.
• Find that sections 716 and 718 have overlapping requirements with respect to ensuring the accessibility of Internet browsers.
• Adopt implementing regulations for section 718 that are consistent with the Commission’s Part 14 rules implementing section 716.
• Decline to adopt requirements or safe harbors with respect to accessibility application programming interfaces (APIs).
• Retain section 14.31 of the Commission’s rules with respect to recordkeeping requirements applicable to manufacturers and service providers subject to section 718.