Internet Giants Ask Trump For Tech Concessions He’ll Likely Never Grant

The Internet Association, a coalition of Facebook, Google, and 38 other internet giants, has written an open letter asking Trump for concessions regarding internet security. The union, which also includes Airbnb, Amazon, LinkedIn, Netflix, Twitter, Uber, and Yahoo, hope to publicly lobby the candidate to look favorably upon an industry that he has said little about. What he has said seems troubling to say the least. Farhad Manjoo, writing in The New York Times, reported on November 9 the laundry list of anxieties triggered by his campaign. "Mr. Trump promised to initiate antitrust actions against Amazon, repeatedly vowed to force Apple to make its products in the United States, and then called for a boycott of the company when it challenged the government’s order to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone." Not only that, but Trump held his 10-year-old son's ability with computers in distressingly high regard. Indeed, some speculate that Trump has literally never used a computer. So, here's the list of their demands, which may prove confusing for someone with Trump's grasp of "the cyber." First, the Association asks that Trump uphold Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. That act makes it tough to sue internet companies for actions their users take online. Trump has said he'd like to "open up" libel law, presumably so he can sue people more easily. They would also like him to protect Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows companies to avoid lawsuits if they remove copyrighted material, like YouTube videos, reasonably quickly. Trump has long been obsessed with licensing his name and likeness to collect hefty royalties. Perhaps most hopelessly, the Internet Association asks that Trump revise the 30-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act because "Internet users must have the same protections for their inbox as they do for their mailbox." Trump famously profited from a continued false scandal about Hillary's emails, as well as the leaked emails from both the DNC and her campaign chair. Of course, VP-elect Mike Pence is currently fighting a desperate court battle to hide a policy brief so damning that he hopes it never sees the light of day. The companies would also like Trump to support strong encryption. Trump famously asked consumers to boycott Apple after they refused to accept an FBI order to de-encrypt an iPhone used by a terrorist. The Internet Association also calls on Trump to stop allowing the NSA to spy on online communications without obtaining a warrant by changing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Trump, already the most paranoid president since Richard Nixon, has called on Muslims to spy on their friends and neighbors as well as calling for a Nazi-esque Muslim registry late last year. Good luck!