Overnight Tech: Dems want hearing on Sinclair-Tribune merger | Co-founder returns to Twitter | Clinton promotes tech advocacy group | Court rules against Backpage CEO

DEMS WANT HEARING ON SINCLAIR-TRIBUNE DEAL: A group of House Democrats are calling for a hearing on the proposed merger between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media Company.

Minority members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee — Reps. Anna Eshoo (Calif.), Mike Doyle (Pa.) and Doris Matsui (Calif.) — called for the acquisition to be scrutinized by the panel, especially in the wake of a recent Federal Communications Commission vote.

“This $3.9 billion deal would create the largest television broadcast company in the country, and as such, raises important questions about the future of our country’s media that must be examined by Congress,” the Democrats wrote.

{mosads}The letter was sent to Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) — the chairwoman of the subcommittee on technology.

Democrats have criticized a recent move by the FCC to reinstate a media ownership rule that they believe directly paved the way for the Sinclair-Tribune deal. The rule, called a “UHF discount,” makes it easier for major broadcasters to buy local television stations without hitting the national media ownership cap.

“The Republican FCC majority reinstated the UHF discount despite a previous finding that it was obsolete in the digital era,” the letter reads. “Its revival only serves as a loophole in the media ownership rules that opens the door to a wave of broadcast consolidation, as evidenced by this transaction.”

“We’ve long had a tradition of not holding hearings on mergers,” said a spokesman for Walden. 

Read more here.

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DEMS TARGET ANTI-REGULATORY LAW: Democrats are taking aim at President Trump’s power to roll back regulations. The Sunset the CRA and Restore American Protections (SCRAP) Act introduced Tuesday by Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.) and Tom Udall (N.M.) would eliminate the law that Trump and Republican lawmakers have used to repeal more than a dozen Obama-era regulations. Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) is backing identical legislation in the House. Republicans used the law to repeal the FCC’s internet privacy rules earlier this year.

Read more here.

CLINTON BOOSTS TECH ADVOCACY GROUP: Hillary Clinton promoted the advocacy group Color of Change on Tuesday in a series of tweets.  The group has made waves in tech advocacy, vocally protesting against Republican efforts to roll back on net neutrality and broadband privacy. The group also played a significant part in pushing tech giants like Cisco and Microsoft to not advertise at the Republican National Convention. But the group’s efforts aren’t limited to tech issues, and also focus on advancing racial justice. According to the tweets, Clinton’s “Onward Together” initiative will look to support the group in the coming weeks and months.

COURT RULES AGAINST BACKPAGE CEO OVER SUBPOENAED DOCS: A federal court ruled on Tuesday that Congress does not have to give up documents it subpoenaed from the website Backpage.com, which a Senate panel investigated for enabling sex trafficking.

The Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations released a report in January accusing Backpage executives of knowingly facilitating child sex trafficking. During the investigation, the panel subpoenaed Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer for various documents.

Ferrer partly complied with the subpoena after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his claims to withhold some documents on grounds of attorney-client and work-product privilege.

Ferrer, though, wanted the documents back after the Senate probe ended.

Read more here.

BIZ STONE RETURNING TO TWITTER: Twitter co-founder Biz Stone is coming back to the social media giant he helped build. While Stone’s formal role has yet to be announced, he said in a post that his “top focus will be to guide the company culture, that energy, that feeling.”

“It’s important that everyone understands the whole story of Twitter and each of our roles in that story,” Stone wrote. “I’ll shape the experience internally so it’s also felt outside the company.”

“You might even say the job description includes being Biz Stone,” he continued.

Read more here.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE GAP: BSA’s foundation, Software.org released a new report on closing the infrastructure gap. Most tech talk around infrastructure has focused on broadband deployment. Software.org’s study advocates for using technology to make advancements across all sectors of infrastructure. The report illustrates how proper software implementation can potentially help improve efficiency in a range of areas like air-traffic control, preventing train collisions and building bridges.

BRINGING SILICON VALLEY TO DC: ITI, a D.C. trade association for major technology companies, will host its annual Tech Show at the Carnegie Library on Wednesday night. Members of Congress, administration officials, and other policymakers are expected to be in attendance. On Thursday, ITI will honor their Tech Legislators of the Year and hold discussions with lawmakers and Trump Administration officials on the tech industry’s policy priorities.   

ON TAP:

NIST will hold a cybersecurity framework workshop at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday

ITIF is hosting an event on new uses for spectrum at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday

NTIA will host a webinar on increasing broadband access at 2:00 p.m.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Axios: Silicon Valley gatekeeper Marc Andreessen talks about why he thinks healthcare and education haven’t made rapid strides

Reuters: The EU is revisiting “the right to be forgotten”

Inside Sources: Sprint sues the FCC

Recode: Uber’s CTO and board director are under pressure from the sexual harassment investigation

Facebook says it will reimburse some advertisers after a mobile bug