Hillicon Valley: GOP leader wants Twitter CEO to testify on bias claims | Sinclair beefs up lobbying during merger fight | Facebook users experience brief outage | South Korea eyes new taxes on tech

View in Browser     Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill's newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers) and Morgan Chalfant (@mchalfant16), and the tech team, Harper Neidig (@hneidig) and Ali Breland (@alibreland).   GOP LEADER WANTS TWITTER CEO TO TESTIFY: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sent a letter to the chairman of the House Commerce Committee calling for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify on the company's filtering practices as top conservatives accuse the platform of silencing right-wing voices. Twitter denies that it's engaged in "shadow-banning" of conservatives, a process that makes certain accounts harder for users to come across. When certain GOP accounts became inaccessible through the platform's search engine last week, Twitter faced accusations that it's censoring Republicans. The company maintains that the incident was a glitch. But the explanation is unlikely to satisfy GOP lawmakers like McCarthy who are hoping to capitalize on conservatives' anxieties about socially liberal Silicon Valley. "Any solution to this problem must start with accountability from companies like Twitter, whose platforms have enormous potential to impact the national conversation -- and unfortunately, enormous potential for abuse," McCarthy wrote in the letter to Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), which was first reported by Axios. "In particular, I would like to request a hearing with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey so that the American people can learn more about the filtering and censorship practices on his platform," he continued. How Twitter is responding: Twitter declined to comment on the letter. In a blog post last week, though, the company said that the scope of the issue was confined to auto-populating search terms and that Democratic politicians were also affected. "Hundreds of thousands of accounts were impacted by this issue," the post reads. "This impact was not limited to a certain political affiliation or geography. And, to be clear, these accounts were only impacted within search auto-suggestions-- they still appeared in search results. Is it going to happen? Walden, who has called for more tech CEOs to appear before Congress in the wake of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Hill testimony, appears receptive to the idea. "Twitter is an incredibly powerful platform, filtering and shaping the information consumers see with the tweak of an algorithm," Walden said in a statement. "As policymakers, it's important we continue to examine the greater consumer protection implications of algorithms and platforms' decisions about content and data. Even well-intentioned algorithms can have unintended consequences. I look forward to welcoming Mr. Dorsey to testify before the Energy and Commerce Committee at a date and time to be agreed upon." The problem with conservatives' claims: While many do believe that there are issues with bias on tech platforms, journalists and experts have been extremely critical of the Vice report on shadow banning that likely motivated McCarthy's call for a hearing. Reporter Mike Isaac from The New York Times has a tweet thread that sums up the criticisms of the Vice piece. Conservatives, though, want this hearing badly: Republican lawmakers have been trying to find whatever ammo they can to hit tech companies over allegations of bias. They've held two hearings on the matter so far, and McCarthy has lobbed other attacks at tech firms besides Twitter for alleged bias against conservatives. Read more here.   SINCLAIR ADDS LOBBYING FIREPOWER TO SAVE MERGER: Sinclair Broadcast Group hired a group of Republican lobbyists last month as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) put its proposed merger with Tribune Media in jeopardy, according to disclosure forms released this week. The filings show that Sinclair tapped the lobbyists to advocate for the embattled merger on June 19, three days after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai (R) said he had "serious concerns" about the deal and would be referring it to an administrative law proceeding. The group of five lobbyists from the S-3 Group included three aides to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), including his one-time chief of staff, Rob Collins. The hire is notable for the conservative-leaning media company, which had not hired an outside lobbyist since 2000. Sinclair typically relies on industry trade groups like the National Association of Broadcasters to advocate for its interests. The hires may be too late to save the $3.9 billion Tribune deal. On the day that Sinclair hired the group, the FCC released an order accusing the company of trying to mislead regulators about several proposed sidecar deals aimed at bringing the combined broadcasting giant into compliance with media ownership restrictions. Read more here.   NEW TECH TAXES IN SOUTH KOREA: South Korea is exploring measures to collect taxes from major technology companies including Apple, Google and Facebook, according to the Korea Times. Korean lawmakers are reportedly working to implement new taxes on the companies, which currently pay no corporate taxes despite earning billions in the country. "Under the current law, preliminary or ancillary places of business are not regarded as global companies' offices in Korea, and this has played a role in their tax avoidance," Ahn Jeong-sang, a policy advisor to the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, told the Times. "Considering the characteristics of the digital economy, the concept of fixed places of business needs to be expanded so that the government can secure authority to impose taxes on them," he continued. Read more here.   FACEBOOK'S FAIL WHALE: For a few minutes on Friday, Facebook's website appeared to be down. Users flocked to Twitter to post screenshots of their blank Facebook desktop newsfeeds, displaying the platform's template of content boxes and spaces for profile pictures and text, but without any words or pictures. The outages do not appear to be universal. The Hill was still able to access the site as other users were reporting the social media platform was down for them. Facebook's response: "Earlier today, a technical issue caused some people to have trouble connecting to Facebook and it has since been resolved," a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Read more here.   SENATOR PRESSES DHS ON EMAIL SECURITY TOOL: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is asking the Department of Homeland Security what "actional cyber intelligence" officials have gained since they ordered federal agencies to adopt a key email security tool. The tool, known as the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conference (DMARC), allows organizations to report fraudulent emails or, when the strongest settings are enabled, block these messages from reaching recipients entirely. In a letter to Christopher Krebs, who leads the Department of Homeland Security's cyber and infrastructure protection wing, Wyden asked the department to expand on what it has learned from agencies' adoption of DMARC.  "Requiring agencies to transmit email impersonation threat data to DHS is only the first step. DHS must then collate and analyze those reports in order to understand the scope of the threat and to determine how best to protect federal agencies from impersonation," Wyden wrote. "I would like to understand what steps DHS has taken to analyze this information and to turn it into actionable cyber intelligence." Agencies were required to begin adopting DMARC in January. They face an October deadline to begin implementing the tool on its strongest setting, to help prevent individuals from falling victim to emails masquerading as those coming from government agencies.     NEW DOCUMENTS ON DOSSIER AUTHOR: The FBI on Friday released 71 pages of heavily redacted documents tied to the bureau's relationship with Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who compiled the Trump-Russia dossier. The documents offer little information because of the redactions, and are largely comprised of payment request forms for Steele. They do, however, indicate that Steele was told to stop gathering intelligence on behalf of the FBI in November 2016 -- building on information already known as a result of the Justice Department's recent release of surveillance warrant applications on former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.   A LIGHTER TWITTER CLICK: Politics Twitter is a mess.   AN OP-ED TO CHEW ON: The trouble with a $1 trillion Apple. (NYT)   ON TAP: The Black Hat and DEF CON security conferences kick off next week in Las Vegas.   NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: Campaigns are going it alone to fight misinformation on social media. (Associated Press) The new NSA director will soon weigh in on potentially splitting U.S. Cyber Command from the spy agency. (Fifth Domain) Criminals are trying to recruit employees at U.S. telecom companies to hack victims. (Motherboard) Not unlike other federal agencies, the FBI is having difficulty retaining cyber talent. (Politico) City officials banned Facebook from serving free food to help local restaurants. (The Guardian) Tech trade association, CompTia goes after Trump's tariffs in a letter to lawmakers.   Enjoy your Friday. It's been a long week.         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Technology Newsletters     Forward Technology Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2018 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Overnight Health Care: Anti-abortion group pushing red-state Dems to back Kavanaugh | Trump officials say ACLU should find deported parents | New rule requires hospitals to post prices online

View in Browser     Welcome to Friday's edition of Overnight Health Care. Today, the Trump administration is saying it's the ACLU's job to find parents who were deported without their children, bipartisan House members are pressing the administration on opioids, and an anti-abortion group wants to push red-state Democrats to vote for Brett Kavanaugh. We'll start with the latest politicking over President Trump's Supreme Court nominee.   Anti-abortion group to launch tour pressing red-state Dems to vote for Kavanaugh. Abortion is at the center of the fight over Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination, and now a new front is opening up. Susan B. Anthony List, a leading anti-abortion group, is launching a tour to press red-state Democratic senators to vote to confirm Kavanaugh. The tour, beginning Monday, will feature 26 press conferences across Indiana, North Dakota, Missouri, Florida, Alabama, Montana and West Virginia. The events will include local anti-abortion activists alongside SBA List leaders, the group said. "SBA List is mobilizing the pro-life grassroots nationwide and in key Senate battleground states to urge the Senate to swiftly confirm Judge Kavanaugh," the group's president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said in a statement. "Vulnerable senators up for re-election this year have a choice: stand with the President and their constituents and vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh, or cave to pressure from Chuck Schumer and the extreme abortion lobby." Democrats to watch: Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court last year and are now being closely watched to see how they will vote on Kavanaugh. Many Democrats are warning that Kavanaugh could vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, making abortion a crucial issue in the confirmation process. Read more here.   Trump administration says it's up to the ACLU to find deported parents In a court filing late Thursday night, the Trump administration said the American Civil Liberties Union should be responsible for finding the hundreds of migrant parents who have been deported without their children as a result of the Trump administration's immigration policy. The ACLU is suing the administration, and represents a group of parents who were separated from their children after illegally entering the country at the southern border. Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing that the ACLU should use its "considerable resources," its network of advocacy groups, and information from the government to locate parents removed to foreign countries. The government also said the ACLU should be responsible for ensuring that each deported parent has an opportunity to speak with a lawyer to make sure they really wanted to give up the opportunity to be reunified. The Trump administration said the State Department has made contact with foreign governments to assist in facilitating family reunions. However, the administration has long argued that many parents deported without their children don't want to be reunited. ACLU's response: While eager to help, the ACLU said it should be the government's ultimate responsibility to track down the deported parents. The administration was the one that deported them in the first place. "Not only was it the government's unconstitutional separation practice that led to this crisis, but the United States Government has far more resources than any group of NGOs," ACLU attorneys wrote. Reunified children: Before President Trump reversed his decision, government officials had separated over 2,550 children from their parents and sent them to shelters. According to the filing, 1,535 children were reunited with a parent as of Aug. 1; almost a week after a court-mandated deadline. There are still over 500 kids still in custody; more than 400 of them have parents who were deported.   Check out our coverage here. And for more from the ACLU, click here and here.   Bipartisan leaders of House panel press drug companies on opioid crisis There's a new step the House Energy and Commerce Committee is taking in its months-long investigation of the opioid crisis. This time the panel is directly targeting the makers of opioids. The panel's leaders sent letters to three companies that make opioids, Insys Therapeutics, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and Purdue Pharma, requesting a briefing with the committee and answers to questions about how the companies marketed opioids and whether they looked the other way when they saw evidence of abuse of their products. Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has long been under scrutiny for misleadingly marketing its product as nonaddictive. The company pleaded guilty in 2007 to misrepresenting the drug's addictive qualities. The committee's letter to Purdue questions whether the company actually changed its marketing behavior after 2007. The letter also points to evidence in media reports that the company knew the drug was being abused earlier than 2000, when officials have said they learned about the problem. Read more here.   New rule will require hospitals to post prices online. Hospitals will be required to post online a list of their standard charges under a rule finalized Thursday by the Trump administration. While hospitals are already required to make this information public on request, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said the new rule would require the info be posted online to "encourage price transparency" and improve "public accessibility." Starting Jan. 1, hospitals will be required to update the information annually. Why it matters: It's part of the administration's push toward price transparency in health care, but a hospital's listed price often won't be what is paid by a consumer, after other charges are considered, like the cost of a physician tending to a patient, or how much an insurance company will cover. Read more here.   Politifact weighs in on anti-Azar campaign. Remember the ad campaign launched against HHS Secretary Alex Azar? The campaign by the liberal reproductive rights group Equity Forward is targeting Azar for his role in enforcing the child separation policy. Well, it's been deemed "mostly false" by Politifact, which said the ad "neglects a striking amount of context." The ad portrays Azar as callously describing the situation with immigrant children at the border as "one of the great acts of American generosity and charity." "The ad contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False," Politifact said.   What we're reading Welcome to the new health-care debate (Bloomberg Opinion) With scant record on the topic, Kavanaugh elusive on abortion (Associated Press) Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo sets up another test for experimental treatments (Stat)   State by state Alaska governor highlights Medicaid expansion on 3rd anniversary of controversial decision (KTUU) Illinois governor signs laws aimed at nursing-home Medicaid backlog (WQAD)         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Healthcare Newsletters     Forward Healthcare Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2018 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

News Alert: Trump blindsided staff with promise to halt elephant trophy imports

View in your browser     Trump blindsided staff with promise to halt elephant trophy imports A series of tweets President Trump sent in November promising to halt imports of elephant trophies blindsided staffers in his own administration and cut off months of planning to ease the import process, newly released emails show. Trump’s tweet to put “on hold” the highly controversial imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia, a day after it was announced that African elephant trophies would be allowed into the U.S for the first time since 2014, led to widespread public backlash from lawmakers in both parties, animal rights groups and conservative figures such as Fox News host Laura Ingraham. But it also caused a frantic panic among key staff members closely involved in drafting the rule changes. Read the full story here           Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for News Alerts     Forward News Alerts     You Might Like       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.