Washington Post
All Americans should be able to use the Internet. How do we get there?
It's easy to say all Americans should be able to use the Internet in the 21st century, which is probably why several leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination have done just that. It’s much harder to say how to get there. Almost everyone, even on both sides of the aisle in Congress, seems able to agree on the need to fix the maps first. That’s because the Federal Communications Commission relies on coverage reports from industry, and carriers have incentive to exaggerate their reach.
This is the moment all of Trump’s anti-media rhetoric has been working toward
Don’t believe your eyes and ears. Believe only me. That has been President Trump’s message to the public for the past two years, pounded in without a break: The press is the enemy. The news is fake. President Donald Trump has done his best to prepare the ground for a moment like Aug 21. In a divided, disbelieving nation, will this really turn out to be the epic moment it looks like? Or will Trump’s intense, years-long campaign to undermine the media — and truth itself — pay off now, in the clutch?
TikTok’s fate was shaped by a ‘knockdown, drag-out’ Oval Office brawl
As leaders in Silicon Valley, China and Washington raced to seal the fate of one of the world’s fastest-growing social media companies, a shouting match broke out in the Oval Office between two of President Trump’s top advisers. In front of President Donald Trump, trade adviser Peter Navarro, and other aides, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin began arguing that the Chinese-owned video-sharing service TikTok should be sold to a US company.
Fareed Zakaria: When it comes to the Internet, President Trump prefers the Chinese model (Washington Post)
Submitted by benton on Fri, 08/07/2020 - 06:41
Trump’s flagrant assault on the First Amendment is disguised as a defense of it
President Donald Trump has sent a message to the Federal Communications Commission: Cross me for misusing my powers in this way, and you’ll be punished, too. The president wants Mike O’Rielly, his fellow FCC commissioners, and appointees across agencies to know what happens when they dare to put the rule of law first, just as the president wants Twitter, and Facebook, and all influential companies on the Internet or off to know how carefully they must tread with him in charge.
Facebook’s fact-checkers have ruled claims in Trump ads are false — but no one is telling Facebook’s users (Washington Post)
Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Wed, 08/05/2020 - 14:10Analysis: Privacy advocates battle each other over whether California's Proposition 24 better protects consumers (Washington Post)
Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Tue, 08/04/2020 - 15:06For TikTok stars, Trump’s banning of the app would be devastating: It’s ‘given me my entire life’ (Washington Post)
Submitted by benton on Tue, 08/04/2020 - 06:32Congressional fight over funding for digital learning could leave behind as many as 15 million kids
As the coronavirus pandemic keeps many schools at least partially online, educators are scrambling to ensure both students and teachers can connect to the Internet. But so far the two parties can't agree on how to make that happen, potentially leaving more than 15 million children without a way to learn this fall.