U.S. internet firms ask
Trump to support encryption, ease regulations
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[November 15, 2016]
By Dustin Volz
WASHINGTON
(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.
“The internet industry looks forward to engaging in an open and
productive dialogue,” reads the letter, signed by Michael Beckerman,
president of the Internet Association, and seen by Reuters.
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. Though Trump made tougher
immigration policies a central theme of his campaign, he has at times
shied away from arguing against more H-1B visas for skilled workers,
saying in a March debate he was "softening the position because we need
to have talented people in this country."
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appears at Manchester, New
Hampshire, U.S., October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo
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.
Trump's often-shifting policy proposals on the campaign trail frequently
alarmed tech companies and sometimes elicited public mockery, such as
when Trump called for closing off parts of the internet to limit
militant Islamist propaganda.
Trump has also urged a boycott of Apple Inc products over the company's
refusal to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation unlock an iPhone
associated with last year's San Bernardino, California, shootings,
threatened antitrust action against Amazon, and demanded that tech
companies such as Apple manufacture their products in the United States.
In a statement, Beckerman said the internet industry looked forward to
working closely with Trump and lawmakers in Congress to "cement the
internet’s role as a driver of economic and social progress for future
generations."
(Editing by Leslie Adler and Jeffrey Benkoe)
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