Overnight Tech: Court lets net neutrality rule stand | Web giants duck fight over internet rules | Trump launches tech advisory council | Q&A with Box CEO Aaron Levie

NET NEUTRALITY NOTCHES ANOTHER COURT WIN: A federal appeals court on Monday rejected a request to review its decision upholding the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality regulations.

The victory for net neutrality supporters comes just days after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he is starting proceedings to repeal the rules, and could set the stage for a Supreme Court showdown.

In its denial for what’s called an en banc review, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals cited FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plans to repeal the net neutrality rules.

“En banc review would be particularly unwarranted at this point in light of the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the FCC’s Order,” the decision reads. “The agency will soon consider adopting a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would replace the existing rule with a markedly different one.”

{mosads}”In that light, the en banc court could find itself examining, and pronouncing on, the validity of a rule that the agency had already slated for replacement.”

Last year, a partial panel of the appeals court ruled against a lawsuit filed by the broadband trade group USTelecom, which argued that the FCC had overstepped its authority in creating the net neutrality rules.

USTelecom then requested a review by the full court, which is headed by Merrick Garland, whom former President Barack Obama unsuccessfully nominated to the Supreme Court last year.

The group did not reveal whether it would appeal to the Supreme Court.

“We will continue to review our legal options going forward to fully protect our open internet, and to connect all Americans to the promise and potential of broadband,” USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter said in a statement.

Read more here.

Please send your tips, comments and mixtapes to Ali Breland (abreland@digital-release.thehill.com) and Harper Neidig (hneidig@digital-release.thehill.com) and follow us on Twitter: @alibreland, @hneidig  and @HilliconValley. We’re also on Signal. Email or DM us for our numbers.

WEB GIANTS DUCK NET NEUTRALITY FIGHT: Some of the biggest names on the internet are trying to stay out of the contentious, public fight over the future of the Obama-era net neutrality rules. Google and other household names encouraged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enact the rules in 2015.

But now with the regulations on the chopping block, those companies believe the change will have little effect on their bottom line and are trying not to get dragged in. They could face pressure, though, from consumer groups and net neutrality advocates, who see them as crucial allies to saving the rules.

Read more here.

NEW DATE SET FOR NET NEUTRALITY BRIEFING: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai will brief Republican and Democratic members of Congress on Wednesday regarding his plan to roll back net neutrality.

The meeting was originally slated for last Friday, but was postponed. A House Energy and Commerce Committee aide confirmed the briefing, noting that all members of the committee are welcome to attend.

Pai, a Republican, introduced a proposal to curb portions of net neutrality at the end of April that has been met with vehement opposition from Democrats. But he’s won praise from top Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who have long criticized the rules that mandate internet service providers treat all web traffic equally.

Read more here.

INTRODUCING THE DIGITAL TRADE CAUCUS: Reps. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) launched the Digital Trade Caucus Monday, which aims to protect cross-border digital trade from government protectionism.

“Trade has gone digital and protectionist policies don’t work in an internet-age,” DelBene said in a statement. “We need continued American leadership in the digital economy and for that to happen our laws need to be up to date with the way the world works.”

Internationally, many nations have implemented national security platforms that are functionally similar to protectionist trade practices. In China and other countries, cloud service providers are required to have servers containing all data of local citizens, to be used for surveillance measures. So-called data localization keeps files within their jurisdictions and forces companies to maintain files they might otherwise delete.

Read more here.

WH CREATES AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL: President Trump signed an executive order on Monday creating a new technology council to help advise the government on streamlining its IT operations. A White House official told The Hill that the American Technology Council will be run by Chris Liddell, an assistant to the president and former CFO of Microsoft.

The council will meet with Silicon Valley leaders sometime in June to discuss ideas on modernizing government operations, the official added.

The council is part of Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner’s White House Office of Innovation, which was established in March to try to streamline government operations.

Read more here.

FACEBOOK TAPS FORMER NY TIMES EXEC TO RUN NEWS PRODUCT: Facebook has tapped a former New York Times executive to lead the company’s news products team.

In the newly created position, Alex Hardiman, who has been leading the social media site’s pages team since leaving the Times last year, will be in charge of building tools for news outlets.

“As a part of the Facebook Journalism Project, my colleagues and I will work collaboratively with news organizations across the spectrum to build new storytelling formats, local news communities, monetization options, and more,” she said in a Facebook post.

Read more here.

INTERNET ASSOCIATION HONORS TECH: D.C. based technology trade association, the Internet Association (IA), is holding its annual charity gala on Tuesday evening. At the event, the group will present its “Internet Freedom Awards” to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), FTC Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen, and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) for championing “the internet’s vital role in today’s economy, pursuing and implementing policies that foster innovation, opportunity, and jobs across the sector and the nation.” IA CEO Michael Beckerman will also interview Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the event.

Q&A WITH BOX CEO AARON LEVIE: We caught up the CEO of cloud-computing company Box (formely Box.net) Aaron Levie to discuss technology and politics particularly in regard to the Trump administration. Levie has been a vocal critic of some of the White House’s policies, especially on immigration.

Q: I know that some specific things the Trump administration has done has caused concern among some cybersecurity experts. From your perspective do you have issues with how the White House is handling cybersecurity?

A: I think in general, cybersecurity is one of the biggest threats from a government standpoint. If you think about how outdated a lot of our information technology is at the government, and how outdated a lot of systems are that people are using — this is a vast problem that goes well beyond the White House. I think there’s incremental risk in any administration. But this is a pretty big problem that is pervasive across government infrastructure. We see a pretty significant need to move to the cloud or at least a modern platform in the coming years if we’re going to make sure we have a modern, best-in-class cybersecurity footprint within the government. This is an area the government absolutely must pay attention to moving forward. Coming off the last administration where this was a top priority, We certainly hope that will remain the case in the new administration.

Are there areas outside of cybersecurity where you’re concerned about the Trump administration’s potential tack on an issue, especially ones that the president hasn’t given a clear position on yet?

I think if we look at the juncture that we’re at right now as a country. If you fast forward by ten or twenty years and said, “what is the economy going to look like in ten or twenty years from now?” You’d be hardpressed for find an industry that wasn’t affected by the digital landscape. Whether that’s automotive, healthcare, the tech industry directly. All of that is going to transform. When you think of the policies today [that] are going to drive either America’s ability to lead in those industries or fall behind, we think there’s a number of issues that have to be addressed, whether it’s stem education in early parts of education, whether it’s immigration reform to get more and more high-skilled talent to America that can help us build economies. We’re not going to build a healthy digital economy if we don’t have strong encryption and if we don’t have support for strong security practices.

You’ve talked about how there shouldn’t be as much of a delineation between business and politics as there has been. A lot of CEOs haven’t heeded that and are afraid of ruffling their relationship with Trump. Do you think that they’re holding their tongues too much?

It’s hard for me to speak for other business people and kind of what all the calculus is. In general, I think this is certainly — because of how dynamic the time we’re in is — and because of how dynamic this administration is — I think that warrants a significant amount of communication and clarity about where issues are going to be and what issues are going to be important. This is not a time for being passive about what’s really going to matter and what’s really going to drive our country and what our economy looks like over the next couple of decades. I think that business and politics are absolutely intersecting, and I think that it’s going to be more important than ever before that businesses and business leaders take a stand, and at minimum, just make their position clear on what do we think the ideal outcome [is] on any of these categories of policy.

If you were asked to be on an advisory board for President Trump would you follow Uber CEOs Travis Kalanick’s move and step down, or would you stay on to try to move discourse in a direction you like, like Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he’s doing?

I think it’s probably a little to hypothetical for me to answer, but I see both perspectives. On one hand, you want to ensure that [the] administration is surrounded by strong voices that represent the innovation economy and digital economy so there’s a counterbalance to some views. … I think it’s extremely important that you have people like Elon Musk that are in that discourse. I think it’s extremely important that you have people that are for innovation broadly. Conversely, you want to be make sure that it’s not perceived as an endorsement of any particular policy or the administration. That obviously implies the risk of a bunch of things or helping a bunch of things that you’re probably not going to agree in. 

ON TAP:

ITIF will host a roundtable on the world’s leading startup ecosystems at 9 a.m.

Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) of the House Judiciary Committee will deliver remarks on the committee’s innovation agenda at 10:15 a.m.

House Oversight Committee holds a hearing to mark up the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017 at 10:30 a.m.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Spending deal boosts funds for DHS office securing cyber infrastructure

Broadcasting and Cable: FCC hires GOP Hill staffer for media department

Hacker leaks new season of ‘Orange is the New Black’ after demanding ransom

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick backs out of Recode event appearance

Bloomberg: Layer3, a cable company aimed at millennials is partnering with Verizon

Apple has $250 billion in the bank, The Wall Street Journal reports