Overnight Tech: FCC loosens media ownership rules | AT&T hires former Trump lawyer to defend merger | Tech experts blast Trump vetting proposal

FCC EASES MEDIA OWNERSHIP RESTRICTIONS: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday voted to roll back restrictions on media ownership, a proposal that critics say is helping to pave the way for a controversial merger and further consolidation in the industry.

The commission’s party-line vote clears the way for the common ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market. The proposal also eliminates a rule that prohibited television stations in the same market from merging if such a deal would leave less than eight different stations in that market.

The move has incensed critics, who see it as part of Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s efforts to benefit the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is awaiting approval from the agency for its purchase of Tribune Media. The $3.9 billion deal that would let the combined company access 72 percent of the country’s television audience.

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This week, Democratic lawmakers have called for the FCC’s inspector general to investigate whether Pai has been improperly trying to benefit Sinclair. A group of Senate Democrats on Wednesday called on Pai to recuse himself from Thursday’s vote and any other agency matters that affect Sinclair.

A spokesperson for the chairman called the request “absurd” and denied that Pai’s deregulatory agenda is intended to benefit any single company.

Pai argues that the changes are necessary to allow media outlets to diversify and compete for ad revenue that is increasingly being vacuumed up by internet giants like Facebook and Google.

“Our decision is based on the law, the facts in the record and sound economics,” he said during a commission meeting on Thursday.

“The media landscape has changed dramatically in the last 42 years, and the idea that a company could dominate a media market by owning a radio station and a newspaper is utter nonsense,” he said.

Read more here.

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AT&T HIRES FORMER TRUMP LAWYER FOR TIME WARNER MERGER: AT&T is hiring media lawyer Daniel Petrocelli to serve as its lead trial counsel in case the Justice Department (DOJ) files a lawsuit to block a potential merger with Time Warner.

An AT&T spokesperson confirmed the hiring to The Hill.

Petrocelli, a partner at the firm O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, has previously worked for clients including Disney and President Trump, whom he defended in fraud lawsuits over the Trump University real estate training program.

The DOJ is reportedly considering a lawsuit to stop the $85 billion deal between AT&T and Time Warner.

Read more here.

TECH EXPERTS BLAST VETTING PROPOSAL: A chorus of technology experts on Thursday heavily criticized President Trump’s plan to use artificial intelligence to screen individuals seeking entry to the United States, calling it “neither appropriate nor feasible.”

More than 50 computer scientists, engineers and mathematicians wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urging officials to abandon the so-called “Extreme Vetting Initiative” proposal to use data mining to vet immigrants and visa applicants using data from the internet and social media platforms.

“Simply put, no computational methods can provide reliable or objective assessments of the traits that ICE seeks to measure,” the experts wrote. “In all likelihood, the proposed system would be inaccurate and biased. We urge you to reconsider this program.”

The department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) published details on the proposed initiative in June, laying out its intention to leverage automation to “determine and evaluate an applicant’s probability of becoming a positively contributing member of society as well as their ability to contribute to national interests” in order to fulfill Trump’s executive orders on immigration.

Read more here.

FCC CRACKS DOWN ON ROBOCALLS: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on Thursday to let phone service providers proactively block robocalls from fraudulent numbers.

The proposal was approved unanimously, with commissioners of both parties hailing it as a necessary step to protect consumers.

“These calls are very likely to be illegal or fraudulent; there’s no legitimate reason for anyone to spoof caller ID to make it seem as if he or she is calling from an unassigned or invalid phone number,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement.

Read more here.

TWITTER TESTING TWEET THREAD FEATURE: Twitter confirmed Thursday that it is working on a feature to allow users to more easily create chains of individual tweets that exceed Twitter’s 280-character limit on messages.

In a statement to TechCrunch, the social media company confirmed it was working on a feature allowing several tweets to be written out and posted at once, and has been testing the feature on both its Android and iPhone apps.

In the new feature, any of the tweets in the message chain can be edited before the user sends all the tweets at once using the “tweet all” button. Twitter would then queue the messages and post them in order.

Read more here.

COMCAST SAID TO BE INTERESTED IN BUYING PART OF FOX EMPIRE: Comcast has approached 21st Century Fox to propose an acquisition, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

CNBC also reported that Comcast is interested in buying some of Fox’s assets. The Journal is owned by Fox and CNBC is a Comcast subsidiary.

CNBC reported earlier this month that Disney was also interested in acquiring much of Fox’s operations. On Thursday, the outlet said that Comcast is interested in buying the same assets.

Fox is reportedly interested in selling off all of its holdings aside from news and sports.

Read more here.

ON TAP:

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration spectrum management advisory committee will hold an open meeting at 9:00 a.m.

Engine and Tech Freedom will host an event on Section 702 of FISA at 10:00 a.m.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Twitter dips it toes into the cryptocurrency discussion

Op-ed: Apple’s privacy update isn’t the kind of protection that consumers need

Nieman Lab: Tech firms team up with news outlets to label trustworthy news

Reuters: IBM urged to avoid working on ‘extreme vetting’ of U.S. immigrants

Bloomberg: Drug companies are warming up to the idea of an Amazon pharmacy