US Internet Firms Ask Trump To Support Encryption, Ease Regulations (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: U.S. internet companies including Facebook Inc and Amazon Inc have sent President-elect Donald Trump a detailed list of their policy priorities, which includes promoting strong encryption, immigration reform and maintaining liability protections from content that users share on their platforms. The letter sent on Monday by the Internet Association, a trade group whose 40 members also include Alphabet's Google, Uber and Twitter, represents an early effort to repair the relationship between the technology sector and Trump, who was almost universally disliked and at times denounced in Silicon Valley during the presidential campaign. Some of the policy goals stated in the letter may align with Trump's priorities, including easing regulation on the sharing economy, lowering taxes on profits made from intellectual property and applying pressure on Europe to not erect too many barriers that restrict U.S. internet companies from growing in that market. Other goals are likely to clash with Trump, who offered numerous broadsides against the tech sector during his campaign. They include supporting strong encryption in products against efforts by law enforcement agencies to mandate access to data for criminal investigations, upholding recent reforms to U.S. government surveillance programs that ended the bulk collection of call data by the National Security Agency, and maintaining net neutrality rules that require internet service providers to treat web traffic equally. The association seeks immigration reform to support more high-skilled workers staying in the United States. While urging support for trade agreements, the letter does not mention the Trans Pacific Partnership, which Trump has repeatedly assailed with claims it was poorly negotiated and would take jobs away from U.S. workers. The technology sector supported the deal, but members of Congress have conceded since the election it is not going to be enacted.

Comments

Oh NOW they want to talk to him

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad these companies and so many other people dismissed him as a joke, mocked him and his supporters relentlessly for the past year. The arrogance of these people is astounding.

I hope by "Immigration reform" they aren't hoping for an expanded H1B program. I think he made it perfectly clear that was not going to fly anymore. You know...by having the former Disney employees present on his campaign trail.

Re:Oh NOW they want to talk to him

[Rei]

He also railed against Goldman Sachs, and now has an ex Goldman Sachs banker-turned-media magnate as his chief strategist, and a Goldman Sachs-banker-turned-filmmaker is the leading contender for his treasury secretary.

He ran on "draining the swamp", and now his transition team is dominated by the swamp itself, a bunch of scandal-wrapped establishment and wannabe-establishment figures. Of course even that seems to oscillate as they bounce each other around. One day Chris Christie is leading the transition, the next day he's not even part of it. Now Pence is running it, while also fighting a legal battle in Indiana to (facepalm) prevent the public from seeing his emails.

He ran on an immediate full repeal of Obamacare, now he says he's going to evaluate it and try to keep some of its most important provisions, like the ban on discrimination for preexisting conditions, and keeping children on their parents' policies. Which I can't even begin to imagine the outcome of, because if he does that, then he has to make something functionally equivalent to the mandate - otherwise, healthy people who don't get insurance through their employer go without insurance until they get something serious, wherein they can just sign right up despite the "preexisting condition", and hence almost everyone on a non-corporate insurance policy is being treated for something expensive, and thus the rates become astronomical.

He ran on building a wall, huge, thick, unbroken, and explicitly never just a fence... now it's going to be a mix of walls, fences, and possibly not even that in places. At least that's the stated policy plan as of today, who knows what it will be tomorrow.

I have no clue what sort of policies this guy is actually going to pursue, and neither does anyone else here. He's changed so much over the years, and often day to day. Like most people except for the hardest-core partisans on each side, I'm hoping for the best and fearing the worst. I'm not even sure he really knows what to do next in many cases. The fact that nobody in his campaign even knew that you have to replace the White House staff when you take office blows my mind. Were they paying that little attention when Obama, or any other president for that matter, took office?

Again: I hope for the best but fear the worst.

Re:Oh NOW they want to talk to him

[jandersen]

He also railed against Goldman Sachs, and now has an ex Goldman Sachs banker-turned-media magnate as his chief strategist, and a Goldman Sachs-banker-turned-filmmaker is the leading contender for his treasury secretary.

"Media magnate" - not to mention that he has a reputation for being a racist and white-supremacist etc etc. Sad to think that I, only a few days ago, spoke in favour of giving Trump a chance to show us what he really is like; I guess that is what he is now doing, and it doesn't look pretty. Keep it up like this, and even the most pessimistic expectations will be more than fulfilled.

Translated

[Anonymous Coward]

We fucking hate you. We loath your existence. We used our influence to actively campaign against you by manipulating the information the public sees and hears.

Now, here's our list of demands.

Now go away or we shall taunt you a second time-a.

Arrogant, self-entitled pieces of shit.

Re:That's going to go well

[Spy Handler]

The association seeks immigration reform to support more high-skilled workers staying in the United States.

Google and Facebook want more H1B visas, not a big surprise.

What's surprising is that they have the gall to ask Trump to give it to them, after donating millions to Clinton. Weren't Eric Schmidt and Sheryl Sandberg basically a part of the Clinton campaign?

Re:Luckily for them, this is Trump

[gtall]

Trump? A negotiator? I guess that answers why no U.S. bank would lend to his alleged companies any longer. And the word in the business world was that if you deal with Trump, get your money up front first...but expect a lawsuit later. The only people stupid enough to "negotiate" with Trump lately were a bunch of clueless foreigners who didn't know him for what he really is, i.e., Sargent Bilko's mentor.

Mr Reneger

[Anonymous Coward]

He agrees a deal then reneges on the deal. He's done that time and time again with all of his suppliers. Anyone who voted for this con man thinks he won't do that to them? Why do they think they're special to him?

Look at the way he's trying to get out of the Paris CO2 agreements by reneging on it.

His promises are worthless.

Re: I know they hate him but...

[Mashiki]

I suspect a large percentage of anti-trump protesters (not the majority, but a large percentage) are un/under-employed college graduates that, seven years into Obama's America still find themselves saddled with massive student debt and the person they thought would free them of that debt lost, at the hands of countless republican taxpayers that didn't want to pay for someone else's college education.

It's hard for them to get a job when they have a double major in women's studies(or gender studies) and a minor in the contemporary works of JK Rowling. After all, paying $60k/year for that and expecting to get a job at anything other than the very bottom of the job pool was their own fault for not thinking. The fault of universities for helping to foster an education bubble, and schools/educational leaders/etc for saying "trades are worthless, you should go get a college/university education in anything." Which is where those people would actually be working and likely making good money doing it. Instead of clearing $0.83/hr above minimum wage.

Re:Luckily for them, this is Trump

[EmeraldBot]

I suppose it's a typical leftist mindset that people should be able to break contracts and essentially steal money from the other party by not fulfilling their obligations while pocketing the money. Apparently Trump doesn't agree with that. Good on him.

What the hell does being a left minded person have to do with fulfilling a contact? Especially when Trump was quite happy with the work until it came time to pay up???