The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.
This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.
If you haven’t read this, go read it.
Donald Trump, the billionaire and leading Republican candidate for President of the United States, says he wants Apple, the biggest technology company in the world by market valuation, to make its computers and other products in America. It made for a good sound bite, but it betrayed a deep ignorance of how the tech economy actually works and the role of American workers in it.
Perfect.
There’s a lot to like about Stephen Colbert’s new show, but this interview this Vice President Joe Biden takes the cake so far.
Jacob Kastrenakes:
The FCC’s new order establishes a standard that requires internet providers to take no actions that unreasonably interfere with or disadvantage consumers or the companies whose sites and apps they’re trying to access. At most, internet providers may slow down service only for the purpose of “reasonable network management” — not a business purpose.
A huge day.
Steve Lohr:
The plan calls for high-speed Internet service to be reclassified as a telecommunications service, instead of an information service, under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. But the chairman, Tom Wheeler, is taking what is called a light-touch approach, adopting a handful of its crucial provisions and tossing out others.
The provisions in the proposed open Internet order, the F.C.C. said, will give the commission strong legal authority to ensure that no content is blocked and that the Internet is not divided into pay-to-play fast lanes for Internet and media companies that can afford it and slow lanes for everyone else. Those prohibitions are hallmarks of the net neutrality concept.
Huge news in the fight for net neutrality from The New York Times:
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission this week is widely expected to propose regulating Internet service like a public utility, a move certain to unleash another round of intense debate and lobbying about how to ensure so-called net neutrality, or an open Internet.
It is expected that the proposal will reclassify high-speed Internet service as a telecommunications service, instead of an information service, under Title II of the Communications Act, according to industry analysts, lobbyists and former F.C.C. staff members.
If you don’t get goosebumps watching Bill Gates discuss the next decade and a half of world-changing improvements his foundation is planning, you aren’t hooked up right.
The White House:
For the first time, the White House is making the full text of the speech available to citizens around the country online. On Medium, you can follow along with the speech as you watch in real time, view charts and infographics on key areas, tweet favorite lines, and leave notes. By making the text available to the public in advance, the White House is continuing efforts to reach a wide online audience and give people a range of ways to consume the speech.
I like it.
In May of this year, my brother, brother-in-law and several close friends got on a plane and flew to South Sudan to document the ravages of the war that has been smoldering there since 1989.
For the uninitiated, Sudan and South Sudan are ground zero for some of the worst humanitarian situations in the world. For 25 years, the government of Sudan has committed mass murder on a horrific scale supported international terrorist organizations with complete impunity. Omar al-Bashir and his government has been systematically bombing and starving entire people groups to death.
He’s a monster, and he has to be stopped.
The International Criminal Court has an arrest warrant out for al-Bashir, but he is still at large, still murdering his countrymen and fellow human beings.
The fall-out of all of this is a new generation of “Lost Boys,” children driven from their homes, often after seeing their parents murdered.
These children are the future of Sudan and South Sudan, but they are living in refugee camps, without hope of an education.
My brother’s non-profit is trying to change that. His non-profit’s latest film tells the story of Jargi Joseph, a 19-year old who had to flee his home when the al-Bashir’s jet fighters started bombing his village. He is now in South Sudan, carrying the weight of a new generation of children without homes and parents.
With this film, Operation Broken Silence is launching Project Endure, a coordinated effort to put these kids — and their teachers — back in the classroom. It’s a targeted program designed to bring change directly to the children Jargi Joseph cares for.
It was an honor to help plan and produce this film, let alone narrate it, but the need to educate and care for Sudan’s 25,000 orphans is the world’s responsibility. We should shoulder it together.
MG Siegler:
Coming out in favor of net neutrality is pretty much the easiest high ground one can grab. The President knows that his Republican counterparts will largely take the unpopular position defending the business interests of the telco companies under the guise of free market weasel-speak.
The only slight friction for the President here is that his strong stance puts Tom Wheeler, the FCC chairman that he appointed, in a tough spot. It’s a lose-lose for Wheeler. If he supports the President’s position, he’s a White House stooge. If he opposes it, he’s the fall guy. And it sure looks like he’s getting ready to oppose it…
But the President had to know this as well. I mean, he appointed a former telco lobbyist to the position of FCC chairman. People were outraged about this for about five minutes. Now we see why this was such a dumbfoundingly bad idea. I don’t care how much money Wheeler raised for the President, it’s a bad idea to appoint the most biased person possible to such a position of power.
Brian Fung and Nancy Scola, for The Washington Post:
Huddled in an FCC conference room Monday with officials from major Web companies, including Google, Yahoo and Etsy, agency Chairman Tom Wheeler said he has preferred a more nuanced solution. That approach would deliver some of what Obama wants but also would address the concerns of the companies that provide Internet access to millions of Americans, such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable and AT&T.
“What you want is what everyone wants: an open Internet that doesn’t affect your business,” a visibly frustrated Wheeler said at the meeting, according to four people who attended. “What I’ve got to figure out is how to split the baby.”
Well, shit.