Reuters

A coalition of trade groups representing companies including Alphabet, Facebook, and Amazon, urged a US appeals court to reinstate landmark “network neutrality” rules adopted in 2015 to guarantee an open internet. In a legal filing, the Internet Association, Entertainment Software Association, Computer & Communications Industry Association, and Writers Guild of America West urged the reversal of the Federal Communications Commission's decision under Chairman Ajit Pai to overturn the rules in December.

In a joint statement, United Nations Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression David Kaye and Edison Lanza, who holds the same post at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said President Donald Trump's verbal attacks on the media run the risk of triggering real violence against journalists -- and violate the basic norms of press freedom. “These attacks run counter to the country’s obligations to respect press freedom and international human rights law,” they said.  The freedom of expression experts said Trump’s attacks on the press were designed to raise doubts about verifiable facts,

President Donald Trump has not contacted the Federal Communications Commission about its lack of approval for Sinclair's deal to buy Tribune, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said. “No one in the White House has contacted us to express a view about the merger,” Chairman Pai said. A Trump tweet on the issue raised the question of whether he had involved himself in the decisionmaking progress of an independent regulator. “I will simply say what I said to Congress, which is, I stand by our decision. We looked at the facts and applied the law as we do in any transaction,” Chairman Pai said.

Congress is sending President Donald Trump legislation that would force technology companies to disclose if they allowed countries like China and Russia to examine the inner workings of software sold to the US military. The legislation, part of the Pentagon’s spending bill, was drafted after an investigation found software makers allowed a Russian defense agency to hunt for vulnerabilities in software used by some agencies of the US government, including the Pentagon and intelligence services. Security experts said allowing Russian authorities to probe the internal workings of software, kno

Facebook officials said the company is using a range of techniques including artificial intelligence to counter Russian operatives or others who use deceptive tactics and false information to manipulate public opinion. The officials told reporters in a telephone briefing they expected to find such efforts on the social network ahead of the US mid-term elections in November, but declined to disclose whether they have already uncovered any such operations.