Wired magazine endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Thursday, an atypical practice for the publication. Clinton “has ideas that clear away stumbling blocks for entrepreneurs and strivers,” Editor-in-Chief Scott Dadich wrote in the endorsement. “Clinton favors net neutrality -- giving every packet of data on the Internet the same priority, regardless of whether they originate from a media corporation or from you and me.” Despite listing many positions he favors, he slammed her encryption stance: “Her specific position on encryption is tough to pin down, but she seems to favor encryption weak enough for law enforcement to penetrate. That violates basic privacy.” He lauded Clinton’s policy understanding as that of a “technician” and said the magazine’s endorsement is “one shared by an overwhelming number of tech leaders.”

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump “will issue a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations” upon taking office, he said Monday in Detroit. Regulatory overhaul was a major feature of his speech on the economy. “This will give our American companies the certainty they need to reinvest in our community, get cash off of the sidelines, start hiring for new jobs, and expanding businesses,” Trump said. “I will also immediately cancel all illegal and overreaching executive orders. Next, I will ask each and every federal agency to prepare a list of all of the regulations they impose on Americans which are not necessary, do not improve public safety, and which needlessly kill jobs. Those regulations will be eliminated.” Last month in accepting the nomination at the Republican National Convention, Trump outlined hostility to what he believes is excessive regulation (see 1607220052). His campaign issued a news release promising Trump would “remove bureaucrats and replace them with experts who know how to create jobs” and “initiate targeted review for regulations that inhibit hiring.” Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., lauded the speech and said “to reinvigorate our economy, we must reduce redundant programs, roll back Washington’s regulatory regime.” Aides to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton issued a memo Monday saying a Trump presidency would hurt the economy. Another Clinton campaign news release touted some business stakeholders including investor Mark Cuban, Bloomberg CEO Michael Bloomberg, Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos questioning Trump’s business savvy.

The economic advisers to GOP presidential nominee include one aide with a connection to the content industry. Donald Trump unveiled Friday the names of 13 men comprising his economic advisory council, including Trump campaign finance chairman Steven Mnuchin, CEO of private investment firm Dune Capital Investment. The campaign touts his “extensive management and investment experience especially in” media and technology industries. He was named to his Trump campaign role in May. In 2014, Mnuchin was named co-chairman of the board of Relativity, a media company involved in content and distribution. He lauded its efforts “to build a global media company that is redefining what it means to be a content creator in the 21st century,” a news release then said. Relativity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year after Mnuchin’s departure. None of the other members of the council, who include a Heritage Foundation economist and Senate Budget Committee staffer, show any apparent ties to telecom or media policy.

Democrats unveiled a version of their 2016 party platform Thursday that includes all amendments. The 55-page text now showcases a significant telecom section, discussing IoT and 5G, that was added as an amendment during deliberations (see 1607110057). “Democrats will finish the job of connecting every household in America to high-speed broadband, increase internet adoption, and help hook up anchor institutions so they can offer free WiFi to the public,” the new language says. The platform backs net neutrality and the need for high-speed broadband (see 1607050058). High-speed internet connectivity "is not a luxury; it is a necessity for 21st century economic success, social mobility, education, health care, and public safety," it says. Democrats also "will take action to help America widely deploy 5G technology—the next generation wireless service that will not only bring faster internet connections to underserved areas, but will enable the Internet of Things and a host of transformative technologies," it says.

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in his acceptance speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention promised again to end China’s “outrageous theft” of U.S. citizens’ IP. Trump’s pledge to protect U.S. IP from China has been the candidate’s only stated position on copyright policy, leading several industry lobbyists to conclude it’s too early to say how Trump would handle copyright issues if elected president (see 1606290080). During his remarks, Trump also slammed excessive regulation, "the greatest job killer of them all," he said. "We will end it very, very quickly." Under his administration "in my first 100 days," he would go to the department heads in government to demand projects they could slash. “The politicians have talked about this for years, but I am going to do it," Trump said.

Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, is unfazed by the prospect of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump taking the reins on tech policy. The GOP 2016 party "platform shows a tech-friendly direction, and I believe Mr. Trump’s going to follow in that,” Farenthold said in Cleveland at an event hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, pegged to the ongoing Republican National Convention this week. Delegates earlier adopted and formally released the platform (see 1607190053). Farenthold pointed to Trump’s emphasis on good trade deals and the importance of intellectual property to such deals. He cautioned against getting into “the weeds” too quickly when talking to other lawmakers about tech policy. “It’s got to be top-line messaging and it’s almost got to be marketing,” Farenthold said Wednesday. “You’ve got to have bite-size chunks that they can understand.” House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, touted his IoT working group. “We’ve had three working group meetings already,” he said, citing input from the automotive and tech sectors. “We have so much activity out there.” Among industry officials of all types, “they’ve all said the same thing: when you’re doing this on the legislative side, let’s have more of a light touch out there,” Latta said. Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan agreed there needs to be a better dialogue so people can understand tech policy and don’t feel left out, such as on topics like IoT. “For us though, connecting the world, data flows, globalization, all of that is critical to enable us to fulfill our mission,” Egan said. “And what we do see around the world and the challenge that we have is countries are going inward, they’re worried about technology, they’re worried about technology companies that are not home-grown. They’re reacting by looking at data localization measures…that would essentially balkanize the internet, that absolutely would affect us from achieving our mission of connecting the world.” She said Facebook sees a need for educating policymakers about these implications.

House Transportation Committee ranking member Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., urged FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to get their priorities straight on how to best balance the 5.9 GHz band. “While I understand the desire for more unlicensed WiFi spectrum, the desire for better Pokemon Go play cannot be compared to the 35,000 motor vehicle deaths every year,” DeFazio told them in a letter dated Wednesday. Intelligent transportation stakeholders hold the spectrum, but many want testing to see if the band can be shared for unlicensed purposes. DeFazio cited the many motor vehicle accidents and deaths and said connected vehicles “would likely save many of these lives. There is no other public interest need for this spectrum that rises to this level of importance.” He said any delay in the dedicated short-range communications mandates isn't in the public interest and means “lives unnecessarily lost,” countering a recent petition requesting delay on account of cybersecurity and privacy protections. He said there’s time to handle those “before broad DSRC deployment.”

Senior House Commerce Committee Democrats are pressing the maker of the Pokemon Go app on whether the company realized the game's data usage and thought to consider consumers' data plans. “Are there best practices that Niantic follows to minimize the amount of data consumers use when playing Pokemon Go,” they asked in a letter dated Tuesday, signed by committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Trade Subcommittee ranking member Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Oversight Subcommittee ranking member Diana DeGette, D-Colo. “Has Niantic worked with wireless carriers to ensure that consumers are not unexpectedly hit with large overage charges? Does Niantic have any mechanisms in place to make sure consumers are made whole in the event they are hit with an unexpected overage charge resulting from the use of your app?” They requested answers by Aug. 9. Other legislators and groups have complained about possible privacy issues from the app (see 1607190066), on which Niantic hasn't commented.

Americans should have confidence in the NSA, Director and U.S. Cyber Commander Michael Rogers said Thursday at the National Press Club. “The nation is counting on us to generate the insights,” said Rogers. “So we’ve got to ask ourselves, how do you do that in a world in which resources are declining and … the technical challenges … are just getting more and more complex?” NSA professionals “believe in their missions, they believe in doing the right thing the right way and they are committed to doing it within a legal framework,” he said. “We always obey the rule of law. If we make a mistake, we acknowledge that mistake and we own it. We don’t take shortcuts.” Seeking better dialog between the government and technology companies, Rogers supported a model in which cyber professionals can move back and forth between the public and private sectors. “The two cultures at times talk past each other,” he said. Some in the government think the private sector is interested only in money, but Rogers said both sectors fight for something bigger than themselves. “If you’re out in the Valley, your view is that you’re harnessing the power of technology to change the world for the better,” he said. Better dialogue could crack how to deal with encryption, which Rogers said can be used for good and evil. “Encryption is a positive thing,” he stressed. “I don’t know what the answer is,” but there should be a conversation about what’s possible, he said. Neither a company nor an intelligence agency should decide alone, but rather there should be “a broader dialogue as a society about what are we comfortable with here and what makes sense for us.” Rogers said the U.S. Cyber Command is halfway through building “a dedicated cyber-mission force,” which will be a 6,200-person army of cyber professionals divided into 133 specialized teams. The mission force will reach initial operating capabilities by Sept. 30, and is expected to be fully operational by the same day in 2018, he said. The nature of cyber required that phased approach, he said. “Because demand at the moment exceeds capacity, this is the one mission set that I’ve been involved in as a military professional for 35 years [where] we’re not even waiting until the team is fully constructed. As soon as we get a cadre, we’re putting teams on targets.”

A group of business and technology associations is urging House and Senate Judiciary Committee leaders to pass legislation that would clarify how law enforcement officials would gain access to U.S. citizens' electronic communications regardless of that person's location or where that individual's personal data is located (see 1605250050). The associations sent a letter Thursday to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Pat Leahy, D-Vt., and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., urging them to pass both versions of the International Communications Privacy Act. The coalition said cloud services are lowering IT costs, improving services and creating jobs, but "American companies face uncertainty in the U.S. legal process ... when a company can be compelled to give up data stored by a foreign national." It said DOJ's actions in court could force U.S. companies to provide data to law enforcement agencies that didn't go through the mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) process or other appropriate international agreements, putting the companies "at a significant competitive disadvantage" in the international economy. "ICPA reinforces that U.S. law enforcement must attain a warrant for any electronic content for U.S. persons, settles uncertainty around obtaining such information for foreign nationals, and augments international rule of law by improving the MLAT process," the coalition said. Signatories to the letter are the ACT|The App Association, BSA|The Software Alliance, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Computing Technology Industry Association, CTA, Internet Association, Information Technology Industry Council, Software & Information Industry Association, TechNet, Telecommunications Industry Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.