NTIA Chief David Redl will chat Friday with the U.S. ITU Association, discussing U.S. perspective on international communications policy, the agency said. It's at 4 p.m. at AT&T, 601 New Jersey Ave. NW.

The European Commission starting a Phase 2 review of Vodafone's buy of some Liberty Global businesses in Europe "is welcome and expected news," Liberty said Tuesday. It said it still expects regulatory approval by mid-2019. Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said it "always anticipated a second phase review given the size and scope of the transaction," and the body retaining regulatory authority over the case gives "the appropriate forum to demonstrate the consumer benefits that will be delivered." The EC said the review aims at ensuring Vodafone takeovers in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Romania "will not lead to higher prices, less choice and reduced innovation in telecoms and TV services for consumers." The $22.7 billion deal was announced in May (see 1805090005).

A new U.S.-Japan trade agreement should “promote innovation” and U.S. "competitiveness," so it should include “a robust chapter” on digital trade modeled after the text of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, testified Charles Freeman, U.S. Chamber of Commerce senior vice president-Asia, Monday at an Office of the U.S. Trade Representative hearing on U.S. negotiating objectives for a free-trade agreement with Japan (see 1811270002). The digital economy “is growing at almost two and a half times faster than the global economy, and trade in digital goods is growing more rapidly than trade in traditional manufactured goods and agricultural products,” said Freeman. Negotiations with Japan are “a real opportunity to set the highest global standard” intellectual property “creativity and innovation,” he said. “Both countries should take this opportunity to advance a model approach to sustainable access to innovation and creativity by promoting respect for property rights and a return of fair value for innovation.” Along similar lines on negotiating objectives for a potential U.S.-EU pact, the Computer & Communications Industry Association wants the USTR to “seek a holistic trade agreement with the EU to reduce barriers and encourage investment across the economy,” it commented Monday in docket USTR-2018-0035. The USTR is “strongly encouraged” to make digital trade a “priority in these negotiations with the EU,” said CCIA. “Failure to do so would be a significant missed opportunity.” Commitments to digital trade in a U.S.-EU agreement “will be important in ensuring continued EU market access for innovative American firms and in establishing a model elsewhere in the world,” said the Software & Information Industry Association. Though the EU’s position is that privacy can’t be subject to a trade negotiation, the U.S. “should nonetheless strive to come to an agreement providing for a positive cross-border data flow commitment,” it said. The U.S. “should also push back against a highly likely EU request for a cultural carve-out,” it said. There also should be an effort “to establish closer U.S.-EU cooperation on both digital and intellectual property rights issues vis a vis third countries,” it said. A hearing on U.S.-EU negotiating objectives is set for Friday. Comments in the docket were due midnight Monday.

Neither the U.S. nor Canada has provided China “any evidence” to support allegations Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou “violated their laws,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told a Beijing news conference Friday. Meng was arrested Dec. 1 while changing planes in Vancouver (see 1812060042). China demanded the U.S. and Canada “immediately clarify the reason for the detention and release the detainee,” to no avail, said the spokesperson. He declined to say whether President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Meng’s arrest during their G20 dinner meeting in Argentina.

EU governments agreed on a position on rules against online terrorist content, the EU Council said Thursday. The proposed rules apply to all hosting service providers that offer services there. Providers would have to take down terrorist content or disable access to it within one hour from receiving an order from authorities or face potential penalties of up to 4 percent of global revenue for the previous year. They would have a duty of care to prevent dissemination of terrorist content on their sites, and would have to take measures to prevent previously removed content from reappearing. The European Parliament must now adopt its own position before negotiations with the Council can begin. Industry is concerned, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and eight other groups said in a Tuesday letter to European justice and home affairs ministers. They recommended cloud services be excluded and asked that provisions requiring hosting service providers to monitor and filter data be stricken. "This last requirement, coupled with unworkable deadlines and high penalties, would lead to numerous removals by strongly incentivising hosting service providers to suppress potentially legal content," said the signatories, including the European Internet Services Providers Association, BSA|The Software Alliance, DigitalEurope and online platform industry trade association EDiMA. CCIA Europe Senior Policy Manager Maud Sacquet Thursday urged EU lawmakers to ensure their approach is "effective, proportionate and compliant with fundamental rights."

Internal Facebook documents released by a British lawmaker Wednesday suggest CEO Mark Zuckerberg wasn't forthcoming with Congress when claiming the platform doesn’t sell user data, said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. British MP Damian Collins, chairman of Parliament's Digital Committee, released some 250 pages of seized internal documents showing Facebook discussing requirements for companies to buy a certain amount of digital ads to continue accessing user data. “Any evidence of a pay-for-data model would fly in the face of the statements Facebook has made to Congress and the public,” Markey said. The trove also included emails from Facebook Product Management Director Yul Kwon supporting questionable methods for accessing Android call history data without user consent. In February 2015, he discussed a change that “would allow [Facebook] to upgrade users without subjecting them to an Android permissions dialog at all.” Facebook’s 2011 FTC consent decree requires affirmative user consent for the collection of certain user data. “This is a pretty high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective but it appears that the growth team will charge ahead and do it,” Product Manager Michael LeBeau wrote. The Android feature in question allows users “to opt in to giving Facebook access to their call and text messaging logs,” Facebook blogged Wednesday, addressing controversial issues cited in the documents. The data is used to “make better suggestions for people to call in Messenger and rank contact lists in Messenger and Facebook Lite.”

The EU abandoning a proposal to tax digital services means the region won’t be singling out a “key global industry dominated by American companies,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, Tuesday. Instead of pursuing similar “double taxation,” other countries should continue working through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development “framework on the important global dialogue regarding the digital economy,” he said.

Any U.S.-Japan trade agreement should “prohibit” customs duties on digital products and electronic transmissions, commented the Information Technology Industry Council in docket USTR-2018-0034. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative sought feedback to help shape the Trump administration’s negotiating posture (see 1811270002). It’s “tempting” for governments to consider levying duties or other “blanket fees” on digital goods and services, said ITI. Banning those “unnecessary” costs will eliminate burdens on digital trade and “serve as a vital model for future U.S. trade agreements" everywhere, it said. ITI wants the USTR to use negotiations with Japan to promote joint "cybersecurity cooperation efforts,” and “both countries should affirm that risk-based, consensus-driven, and interoperable cybersecurity approaches are more effective at combatting digital threats than prescriptive, mandatory, and sometimes conflicting regulatory regimes that are emerging" worldwide. ITI also urges the USTR to seek commitments from Japan to allow into the country for testing and demo purposes tech devices that don't yet have regulatory authorization, it said. "Currently, Japan does not allow for the importation of any devices that do not hold regulatory authorizations for these purposes. Adoption of measures similar to FCC provisions allowing imports of products for testing or demonstration will give U.S. firms equal opportunities in Japan’s market."

The U.S. should come in before China in the 5G race, but China ultimately will have the globe's largest 5G ecosystem, ABI Research said Tuesday. It said China's advantages (see 1808210046) are its vast population, with 160 cities with a population of more than a million and 15 cities with more than 10 million, plus Chinese government efforts to make 5G a cornerstone of its industrial revolution strategy. The researcher said China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom will start large-scale deployments in 2020. Ericsson forecasts 5G will reach more than 40 percent of the world's population by Dec. 31, 2024 (see 1811270028).

Rural Utilities Service "Buy American" regulatory amendments take effect Tuesday, said a rule set for Federal Register publication Tuesday. "This will codify long-standing RUS requirements which Agency borrowers have been required to follow pursuant to statute, bulletin, and contract as early as the 1950s."