Episode

 
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Today the U.S. Court of Appeals issued its ruling on the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order (A.K.A. Net Neutrality). The decision is creating headlines across the country. We’ve assembled panel of F.C.C. experts to explain what the court’s decision means and what it will mean for the Internet going forward. Please join us for a balanced debate about what the decision means for the future of the Internet and what Congress should do about it.

Date: Monday, June 20, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Location: Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2226
Register: Via Eventbrite here.
Lunch: A box lunch will be served.
Follow: @NetCaucusAC | #FCCNeutrality

• Matthew Brill, Partner, Latham & Watkins (bio)
• Markham Erickson, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson (bio)
• Russ Hanser, Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer (bio)
• Sarah Morris, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute (bio)
• Moderator: Lydia Beyoud, Senior Tech Reporter, Bloomberg BNA  (bio)

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View Photos on Flickr.

Date: Friday May 6, 2016 12pm-1:15pm
Location: Rayburn House Office Building Room Room 2226
RSVP: Via Eventbrite here.

Follow: @NetCaucusAC | #ISISOnline

Social media has flourished in large part because platforms have been freed from liability for content posted by independent users. But as instigators of violence and terrorism have figured out how to use social platforms to recruit and spread, companies and lawmakers must figure out how to balance the needs of protecting free expression online with the imperative to keep the public safe. Much of this content violates user agreements, but reviewing content for violations can be prohibitively time consuming for companies. What is the right policy to deal with this serious issue? How much should companies voluntarily cooperate with the government to keep violent propaganda off their platforms and identify suspicious users? What can be done to control and combat propaganda that is spread via social media?

Speakers

• Emma Llanso, Center for Democracy & Technology (Bio)
• Rashad Hussain, National Security Division, U.S. Department of Justice (Bio)
• Seamus Hughes, Deputy Director, Program on Extremism, George Washington University’s Center for Cyber & Homeland Security (Bio)
• Moderator: Miranda Bogen, Fellow, Internet Law & Policy Foundry (Bio)

More speakers will be announced on a rolling basis.

This widely attended educational briefing is hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (ICAC), part of a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Congressional staff and members of the press welcome. The ICAC is a private sector organization comprised of public interest groups, trade associations, non-profits, and corporations. The ICAC takes no positions on legislation or regulation. Rather, it’s a neutral platform where thought leaders debate important technology issues that shape legislative and administration policy in an open forum. We vigilantly adhere to our mission to curate balanced and dynamic debates among Internet stakeholders. Our volunteer board members ensure that we dutifully execute that mission. More information on the ICAC is available at www.netcaucus.org.

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Location Rayburn House Office Building Room 2237
Follow: @NetCaucusAC | #CryptoBalance

While a last minute hack averted some major courtroom drama between the F.B.I. and Apple the tension around strong encryption has only risen. There are still ongoing court cases where law enforcement wants access to encrypted devices. Recently both the House and Senate introduced legislation that seek to find the balance between privacy, security, and law enforcement access to personal communications. Given the concerns in Europe this issue will get even more intense as we race to the next election cycle. Join us on Friday as our panel looks at the cases, the legislation, and the industry developments at issue.

Panelists:

• Kevin Bankston, Director, Open Technology Institute, New America (Bio)
• Richard Downing Deputy Assistant Attorney General (Acting), U.S. Department of Justice (Bio)
• Matthew Green, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute (Bio)
• Susan Hennessey is Fellow in National Security in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution (Bio)
• Chris Strohm, Reporter, Bloomberg News (moderator) (Bio)

This widely attended educational briefing is hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (ICAC), part of a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Congressional staff and members of the press welcome. The ICAC is a private sector organization comprised of public interest groups, trade associations, non-profits, and corporations. The ICAC takes no positions on legislation or regulation. Rather, it’s a neutral platform where thought leaders debate important technology issues that shape legislative and administration policy in an open forum. We vigilantly adhere to our mission to curate balanced and dynamic debates among Internet stakeholders. Our volunteer board members ensure that we dutifully execute that mission. More information on the ICAC is available at www.netcaucus.org.

Date: Friday, January 15, 12:00 pm
Location: Rayburn House Office Building Room 2226
Follow: @NetCaucusAC | #ConsumerSpeech

Online review sites have enabled millions of consumers to share feedback about products and businesses — even the federal government has begun to encourage the public to review its services as a way to improve performance. But some businesses are less open to customer feedback. By including gag clauses in contracts and user agreements, these businesses try to prevent customers from leaving critical reviews of products and services, and threaten these reviewers with fines of hundreds or thousands of dollars if the comments are not removed. Some businesses maintain that negative reviews are detrimental and that anti-disparagement clauses are necessary to protect themselves from false or malicious reviews. Intellectual property and defamation laws have also been conscripted in the attempt to muzzle negative opinions.

Often hidden in the fine print of contracts, these clauses have already been struck down in courts a number of times — but sometimes, they aren’t struck down right away. In the majority of cases, customers are intimidated, cases go unheard and legitimate criticism by consumers is silenced. What is the right way to protect both consumers and businesses from bad-faith contracts and reviews? What other consumer protection issues must be dealt with to ensure a robust economy in the internet age?

Speakers: 

• Eric Goldman, Director, High Tech Law Institute, Santa Clara University School of Law (Bio)
• Brad Young, Senior Counsel, TripAdvisor
• Carl Settlemyer, Senior Attorney, Federal Trade Commission Division of Advertising Practices
• George Slover, Senior Policy Counsel, Consumers Union (Bio)
• Miranda Bogen, Fellow, Internet Law & Policy Foundry (moderator) (Bio)

This widely attended educational briefing is hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (ICAC), part of a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Congressional staff and members of the press welcome. The ICAC is a private sector organization comprised of public interest groups, trade associations, non-profits, and corporations. The ICAC takes no positions on legislation or regulation. Rather, it’s a neutral platform where thought leaders debate important technology issues that shape legislative and administration policy in an open forum. We vigilantly adhere to our mission to curate balanced and dynamic debates among Internet stakeholders. Our volunteer board members ensure that we dutifully execute that mission. More information on the ICAC is available at www.netcaucus.org.

Date: Friday, October 13

Speakers: 

• Damien Levie, Head of Trade Section, Delegation of the European Union to the United States (Bio)
• Mary Ellen Callahan, Partner, Jenner & Block, Moderator (Bio)
• Adam Schlosser, Director, Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation International, U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Bio)
• Abigail Slater, VP, Legal and Regulatory Policy at the Internet Association (Bio)
• Amie Stepanovich, U.S. Policy Manager, Access (Bio)

Details:

On Tuesday the European Court of Justice (ECJ) declared the US EU Safe Harbor digital privacy agreement invalid as part of a suit against Facebook. The implications of this decision are massive for U.S. Internet companies. The ECJ decision torpedoed the 15 year-old Safe Harbor agreement between the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Union. Since the U.S. does not have a digital privacy law that the EU recognizes as “adequate” the Safe Harbor agreement served as a stop gap to assure that personal information of EU citizens could flow to U.S. Internet companies. Close to 5,000 U.S. companies rely on the Safe Harbor to operate internationally, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon. The European court justified the scuttling of the Safe Harbor in large part by noting that NSA surveillance was unstoppable and renders the Safe Harbor an inadequate protection for Europeans’ personal information.

Our panel will explore the EU court’s decision and whether Congress will have to pass a digital privacy law immediately before international data flows dry up. Our panel will also look at other options for U.S. companies in lieu of congressional legislation.

Date: Tuesday, September 25

Speaker: Julia Hartz

Details:

Join the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus and the Women’s High Tech Coalition for a fireside chat about re-imagining the workplace with Julia Hartz, Co-Founder & President of Eventbrite.

As co-founder and President of Eventbrite, Julia Hartz has evolved the company from an innovative ticketing platform to the world’s largest marketplace for live experiences. Since the company founding in 2006, Eventbrite has generated over $3 billion in gross ticket sales, with more than 200 million tickets processed to events and experiences around the globe. Eventbrite has secured $200M in funding, and through Julia’s leadership, has cemented its place in the “Unicorn Startup Club,” reserved exclusively for companies with an over $1B valuation.

Under Julia’s guidance, company culture and optimizing workplace performance has remained an integral part of Eventbrite, which now boasts over 500 employees in eight offices around the world. Eventbrite secured a spot on Fortune’s 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials, and has been voted one of the “Best Places to Work in the San Francisco Bay Area” six years running. In the years since founding Eventbrite, Julia has been honored as one of Fortune’s 2015 40 Under 40 business leaders, Inc.’s 35 under 35 in 2014, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in 2013, and has been profiled in Forbes in both 2013 and 2015.

Julia landed in Silicon Valley via Hollywood where she began her career as a development executive at MTV and FX Networks. In today’s digital age, Julia believes that real-life, human experiences lead to individual happiness and strong global communities. This belief continues to fuel her passion while running Eventbrite today.

This address by Ms. Hartz is a continuation of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee Speakers Series, which brings Internet leaders and luminaries to the Capitol Complex to share their expertise with Internet policy leaders in Congress. Past “Speakers” have included Internet founding fathers such as Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee and Marty Cooper as well as industry leaders like Bill Gates, Michael Eisner, Meg Whitman, and Kazuo Hirai. Renowned Internet researcher danah boyd kicked off the 2014 Speakers Series back in February.

This widely attended educational briefing is hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (ICAC), part of a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization. Congressional staff and members of the press welcome.

Date: Friday, September 25

Details:

Join us for a discussion on the history of WiFi and the role it plays in everyone’s mobile data usage. Our panel will explain how clever engineers developed WiFi in a backwater band of spectrum that the FCC set aside in the 80’s for “junk” common household appliances like cordless phones, microwave ovens, garage door openers and baby monitors. This junk band was unique in that the FCC did not require an application to use the spectrum nor did it require a license (i.e. unlicensed). This “permissionless” use of the spectrum was completely different from the government’s traditional top-down spectrum allocation and assigned use method. When bandwidth-hungry smartphones were introduced WiFi provided a critical spigot to offload data from the traditional mobile networks. That trend continues today. The viral success of WiFi on the unlicensed junk band showed the FCC a new way to approach spectrum allocation which it has been implementing for several years. Our panel will finish with a discussion of upcoming FCC spectrum initiatives including a short conversation of the opportunities and challenges facing FCC unlicensed spectrum including uncertainties surrounding proposed deployment of LTE-U.

Speakers: 

• Paula Boyd, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs, Microsoft (bio)
• Fred Campbell, Executive Director, Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology, moderator(bio)
• Larra Clark, Office for Information Technology Policy, American Library Association (bio)
• John Hunter, Director, Spectrum Policy, T-Mobile (bio)
• David Young, Vice President, Public Policy, Verizon (bio)