The ICANN69 annual general meeting, scheduled for Oct. 17-22, will be held virtually instead of in person in Hamburg, Germany, ICANN announced Thursday. ICANN67 and ICANN68 were also held virtually because of COVID-19.

President Donald Trump said Friday he wants the Republican National Committee to update the party’s platform for the 2020 election campaign, in response to reports the RNC executive committee voted Thursday to leave the GOP’s manifesto unchanged from what it used in 2016, including on tech and telecom. The executive committee passed rules for its planned August convention in Charlotte that limit the number of delegates in attendance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The RNC decided to move other major parts of the convention to Jacksonville after Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper was unable to guarantee high-attendance gatherings could happen amid the pandemic. RNC rules say if the national convention isn’t able to fully convene in the convention city, then only roll call votes for the presidential and vice presidential nominees can occur. That would in effect bar the RNC from updating its platform for 2020. The 2016 one includes language on cybersecurity and privacy issues (see 1607270061). “The Republican Party has not yet voted on a Platform,” Trump tweeted. “No rush. I prefer a new and updated Platform, short form, if possible.” Republicans “intend to advance policies that protect data privacy while fostering innovation and growth and ensuring the free flow of data across borders” and “our agenda includes balanced protections for intellectual property,” the 2016 platform said. “We intend to facilitate access to spectrum by paving the way for high-speed, next-generation broadband deployment and competition on the internet and for internet services. We want government to encourage the sharing economy and on-demand platforms to compete in an open market, and we believe public policies should encourage the innovation and competition that are essential for an Internet of Things to thrive.” That platform criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for doing “little to advance our goal of universal broadband coverage.”

With content production still in widespread global lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, “strategic” diagnostic testing for the coronavirus “is critical for a safe return to work” for cast and crew, said “guidelines” published Friday by four unions in the film and TV industry. Without testing, “cast and crew would be asked to work each day in an environment of unknown risk,” said the Directors Guild of America, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the Teamsters and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of TV and Radio Artists. They propose that productions set up a system of A, B and C protective “zones.” Zone A is a “bubble encasing closely vetted vulnerable people,” including performers and crew, with no social distancing or masks. Zone B “is everywhere the production has a footprint that is not Zone A,” they said. Zone C is “the outside world,” they said. “No one can be allowed access to Zone A or Zone B for the first time unless they have been tested and cleared within the last 24 hours.”

House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., pressed the FCC Friday for “additional transparency” in the $200 million COVID-19 telehealth program. The FCC said Wednesday it has approved $104.98 million (see 2006100046). “While the FCC has posted weekly updates of funding awards, we are troubled by the lack of transparency regarding the health care providers who have applied but have not yet received an award,” Pallone and Doyle wrote Chairman Ajit Pai. “We have heard reports that many health care providers are facing issues obtaining funds, particularly those serving tribal lands. Similarly, health care providers report they have been unable to receive funding for some important telehealth equipment.” Pallone and Doyle want by June 19 a weekly updated “docket that includes all the applications the Commission has received” plus which applications have been approved and when funding is disbursed. They seek “a summary of any uses or devices that were not approved.” The agency “has been administering this program in a transparent manner,” a spokesperson emailed. “We have been providing weekly announcements of all of the funding applications that have been approved along with the details of those approved telehealth projects provided by the applicants.” The FCC’s “website contains a list of all of the approved applications sorted by state,” the spokesperson said. “Our focus has been and must continue to be on processing all of the applications quickly and carefully, an effort that could be undercut if we turn our attention to creating a new system for posting pending applications.”

Adobe “successfully transitioned” last month’s canceled Adobe Summit in Las Vegas to an “exclusively digital event,” said CEO Shantanu Narayen on a fiscal Q2 call Thursday. Holding the summit virtually “enabled us to engage a far larger audience than an in-person event and set the bar for virtual events,” he said. The conference “engaged” more than a half-million visitors, he said. Though it was difficult pre-pandemic to imagine conducting business only virtually with chief marketing and information officers, “a side benefit of everyone working at home is that we are able to schedule and engage with far more customers across multiple continents,” he said. “In all these discussions with business leaders, it is clear that investments in digital and specifically customer experience are more important than ever.”

The FCC should “at the very least” suspend regulatory fee increases for broadcasters or allow them to pay their fees in installments, said NAB in comments Thursday in docket 20-105. “Given the uncertainty on the duration of the pandemic, there is no telling when broadcast operating revenues will return to previous levels.” Broadcasters face a regulatory fee increase despite the unchanged FCC budget, the filing said. The agency should broaden the range of entities it collects regulatory fees from, and provide justification for the fee increase, the filing said: “Given that the FCC is requiring broadcasters (and other licensees) to pay for the privilege of being regulated, it must do far more to ensure these payments are reasonable, equitable and, at the very least, adequately explained.”

Next Century Cities urged Capitol Hill leaders Thursday to “acknowledge that digital infrastructure is essential and invest in the requisite broadband expansion, adoption programs, and network sustainability strategies that give Americans access to widespread digital opportunities.” The group cited “profound disruptions” from COVID-19, “reveal[ing] the societal cost of when millions of Americans cannot afford or do not have access to broadband.” It wrote Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the ranking minority party leaders. The House passed the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act last month. HR-6800 includes an $8.8 billion Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund and $5 billion for E-rate (see 2005130059).

Two years to the day since FCC's Communications Act Title II rollback took effect, predictions of hugely anti-consumer results "have proven as false today as foolish back then," Chairman Ajit Pai said at a Federalist Society event Thursday. His address largely recapped steps the agency took to deal with the pandemic. He said such deregulatory steps as the net neutrality rollback resulted in big fiber infrastructure investments that made U.S. broadband networks able to handle increased traffic during the pandemic.

COVID-19 response technology must be “non-discriminatory, effective, voluntary, secure, accountable, and used exclusively for public health purposes,” more than 80 advocacy groups said Thursday. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and New America’s Open Technology Institute signed a set of principles to “guide employers, policymakers, businesses, and public health authorities” while reopening society. Decision-makers should “be mindful of the risks of overreach and unintended consequences, especially to marginalized communities already suffering disproportionately from the virus and economic hardships,” the groups wrote.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, State E-rate Coordinators’ Alliance and Funds for Learning unveiled a Remote Learning During COVID-19 Act Thursday. The proposal mirrors SHLB’s April request for $5.25 billion in E-rate funding as part of COVID-19 legislation (see 2004280068). The House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HR-6800) includes $5 billion for E-rate (see 2005130059). More than 1,900 entities signed a Thursday letter to Capitol Hill leaders supporting including the Remote Learning During COVID-19 Act in future pandemic legislation, including New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge. The legislation “reflects the new reality that the traditional classroom model has had to shift to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the entities said. They said the proposal would “strengthen” the Emergency Educational Connections Act. HR-6563/S-3690 allocates less for E-rate.