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A coalition of tech entrepreneurs and investors called for a “safeguarding of civil liberties”, ahead of a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.

In the letter, startup founders, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists say civil liberties are “inextricably linked with our global competitiveness and success.” Citing “recent incidents of harassment in diverse communities that could lead to a brain drain of much needed talent,” the business leaders pledged to “protect people from the erosion of their civil liberties;” to “refuse to contribute skills or platforms to any effort that infringes on civil liberties by any government agency;” and to “accept a responsibility to partner with communities where the effects of rapidly changing technologies have hurt all Americans.” The letter -- signed by the leaders of Shift, Comfy, HelloVote, Willpower Labs, Kiva and The Westly Group, among others -- argues that preservation of such liberties is essential for the advancement of American business. Top officials from major tech organizations such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Tesla are expected to attend the tech meeting with the president-elect at Trump Tower in New York. Jobs will likely be the focal point of the conversation.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) has made himself into an indispensable player in debates over the future of technology policy and its ripple effects around the economy.

His education on technology issues began when he unexpectedly became the committee’s ranking member after then-Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) left the Senate to become the head of the conservative Heritage Foundation. When he became chairman in 2014, Thune said in a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute that lawmakers should work to free up government-owned spectrum — the invisible frequencies that carry signals to mobile devices — for private use. Chairman Thune released a bill to carry through that pledge, though it did not make it out of Congress. He’s found bipartisan ground on a bill to reauthorize the Federal Communications Commission, which would give Congress another chance to weigh in on the goings-on at the agency. That bill, however, also failed to make it through Congress. “He knows the facts, he knows the background, he knows where the policy challenges are and he knows what needs to be done,” said Andy Halataei, senior vice president for government affairs at the Information Technology Industry Council. “And I think the other thing that gives us confidence is the way he conducts the debate is that it’s usually pretty open, transparent, it’s pretty thoughtful and it lends itself to a bipartisan result.” Even some who disagree with Thune sing his praises.

[Commentary] The unexpected presidential election of a very successful builder and value creator determined to spur economic and employment growth, coupled with a reelected Republican-controlled Congress, has already created significant growth opportunity by signaling a completely new business and investment environment for industry regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. This change in business outlook is as different as night and day.

As a result, these forward-looking companies are already putting into motion new investments in infrastructure and growth opportunities that will create jobs. First, for the next four years starting Jan. 20, the FCC will shift from being extremely regulatory and openly hostile to private investment in infrastructure and proprietary content creation, to being highly deregulatory and supportive of private investment, and value and job creation. Second, Republican FCC commissioners were vehemently opposed to the FCC’s creation of an un-bounded Title II “Standard for Future Conduct” that has empowered FCC enforcement staff to unilaterally make up new rules of the game as they go along and play “gotcha-enforcement” after-the-fact. Third, in the months ahead, a comprehensive tax reform package is expected to pass into law that will lower America’s corporate tax rates from 35 percent to roughly 15 percent. This is one of the most pro-growth, pro-investment, pro-employment, policies any new government could enact. Finally, concerning merger review, the Republican FCC commissioners, and Republicans in general, believe that the FCC has abused its unbounded and unpredictable public interest test in the FCC’s redundant merger review process; and that the FCC was wrong in administratively whipsawing established antitrust precedent in high-fixed cost industries like communications from three market competitors required, to four – after the fact.

[Cleland is president of Precursor LLC, a consultancy for Fortune 500 companies, and chairman of NetCompetition, a pro-competition e-forum supported by broadband interests]

[Commentary] Elections have consequences. And nowhere are the consequences more monumental than in the telecommunication, media and technology (TMT) sector, where the erstwhile status quo stands to be upended soon. Hazarding an early guess on the "Trump doctrine," we should expect a more benign, pro-business approach to communications regulation as it affects TMT.

Under Trump, size will not matter: Big corporations are not seen as inherently bad or suspect, despite candidate Trump's shoot-from-the-hip reactions to questions on mergers during the campaign.

Communications Act rewrite and FCC jurisdiction: The Communications Act of 1996 is the statutory beacon for federal policy in the media and communications space. As its title suggests, however, the Act is 20 years old, and is in desperate need of revision, if not reform altogether.

Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): The Obama Federal Communications Commission adopted one of the most controversial anti-business rulings in decades, as it reinterpreted the TCPA. Seen by many companies as a boon for class action litigants, the TCPA imposed costly restrictions on the ability of businesses to communicate with their customers with auto dialer technology. Both Republican FCC Commissioners — Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly — have been opposed to the FCC's interpretation of the TCPA and have delineated its detrimental effect on business. In a Trump Administration, their view will prevail, and the current TCPA ruling is likely be reversed.

[Adonis Hoffman is chairman of Business in the Public Interest and adjunct professor at Georgetown University]

[Commentary] The trouble is that no one really sees it as their job to save American democracy — not politicians, not owners of social media platforms, not advocates of conservative and liberal causes, and maybe not even citizens themselves. Instead, in the course of selfishly or zealously pursuing our interests, we all do our bit to chip away at the great gift of democracy. Eventually, unless we start taking better care of democracy, it’s going to stop taking care of us.

American democracy is a marvelous edifice for governing in which we all pursue our own interests. But its health and persistence depends upon restraint and ethical commitments to preserving democracy. That’s why each of us needs to make it part of our job to save American democracy.

[Archon Fung is the Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.]

Retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) urged the media to double their efforts as power changes hands in Washington during what may be his last press conference on Capitol Hill.

"Right now your work is more important than ever," Minority Leader Reid said, acknowledging that he may not address them again as Democratic leader. Referring to the proliferation of fake news stories that Democrats felt played a role in tipping the presidential election to Donald Trump, Minority Leader Reid said: "You have an extremely difficult responsibility now, and it’s more important than ever." “Taking tough questions from journalists is part of the job and I wish you all the very best, recognizing your burden at this stage of America is extremely heavy, and I wish you the very best in doing what you can to help our great country,” he said.

The public editor of The New York Times says she should have been more restrained in criticizing some of newspaper's reporters' tweets during a recent interview. "In retrospect, I should have held back more, not knowing what the context was for the tweets. I think that's a fair criticism," Liz Spayd said. "But I stand by my view that journalists should be careful, sometimes more careful than they are, with what they say on social media," she maintained. "That includes how it can be interpreted."

On Dec 2's "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Carlson asked Spayd about tweets by Times journalists including Eric Lipton, Peter Baker and Michael Barbaro that appear to be more opinion than straight news reporting. Carlson slammed the Tweets during his interview with Spayd, claiming the reporters were anti-Donald Trump and didn't care to hide their feelings about the president-elect. "We tried to keep this guy from getting elected, but did anyways," Carlson said in characterizing the tweets. "Yes, I think that's outrageous. I think that that should not be. They shouldn't be tweeted," Spayd responded. Progressive journalists and professors took to Twitter to complain about Spayd's comments.

Republicans have elected Rep Greg Walden (R-OR) the next Chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep Walden defeated Reps John Shimkus (R-IL) and Joe Barton (R-TX), the former committee chairman, in the race for the gavel. Current Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), is stepping down from the position due to term limits. Support for Rep Walden's elevation to chairman surged after two successful terms as head of the House GOP's campaign arm, a tenure that endeared him to both leadership and the House GOP Steering Committee members who elected him on Dec 1.

A nine-term lawmaker, Rep Walden has experience on both the Energy panel and within the industries over which it has jurisdiction. He previously owned radio stations in Oregon and has chaired the panel’s technology and telecom subcommittee. He has also worked on healthcare issues in rural Oregon.

[Commentary] Two days after the election, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced an aggressive agenda for the FCC's Nov 17 open meeting to push through some of his remaining high-priority items, including, among other things, mandating a massive rate reduction for Business Data Services without any economic justification for the naked benefit of select constituencies. As to be expected after a major election where the other party takes control, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD), shortly thereafter wrote a letter to the FCC behooving Chairman Wheeler to refrain from acting on "complex, partisan, or otherwise controversial items" during the Presidential transition.

Telecom policy is a serious business and — as Chairman Wheeler's tenure as chairman amply demonstrates — the public interest is ill-suited by partisan leadership. Instead, President-elect Donald Trump should appoint somebody to lead the FCC who truly understands the economics of the business, respects the law and, most importantly, is committed to uphold every American's basic right to due process. If not, then just when you think the next chairman can't be any worse than the last — they will be.

[Lawrence J. Spiwak is the president of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies]

The House passed an annual intelligence policy authorization bill Nov 30 that includes a provision to increase scrutiny of Russia's attempts to exert covert influence around the world, after the country was accused of meddling in 2016's US presidential election. Tucked into the 93-page unclassified portion of the legislation, approved by a vote of 390-30, is a measure establishing an interagency committee to counter Russian meddling in foreign countries that's often taken the form of media manipulation and spreading disinformation.

Another provision of the bill limits the travel of Russian diplomatic personnel in the US to a maximum of 25 miles from their official posts unless the FBI certifies to Congress that it didn't find evidence of wrongdoing by those individuals. In 2016, independent researchers also found that a Russian propaganda campaign created and spread fake news meant to boost Trump over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Some stories promoting misinformation came from state-funded Russian information services or were spread on social media by Russian sites.