The Big Story: Net neutrality fight continues. The period for commenting on the FCC’s proposed plans to roll back net neutrality rules may have closed, but the debate is far from over.

The Big Story: Anti-Encryption Rhetoric from DOJ. The Justice Department launched a new attack on strong encryption this week.

The Big Story: House Takes Up Section 230 Debate. The discussions about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act -- a foundational Internet law that protects Internet platforms from being held liable for the speech of their users -- and efforts to fight online sex trafficking have kicked off in the lower chamber.

The Big Story: Lawmakers’ $40B Ask for Internet Access. Democrats in the House and the Senate have added boosting Internet access to their economic agenda.

The Big Story: Congress Debates Bill to Change Section 230. The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing this week on the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (S.1693) a well-intentioned but overly broad bill that could be harmful to Internet platforms.

The Big Story: Senate CDA 230 Fight. We’ve spent much of the last few weeks warning about the unintended and potentially dangerous consequences of a well-intentioned bill called the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (S. 1693). The bill will be the focus of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing next week.

The Big Story: Trump Rescinds DACA. President Donald Trump’s administration announced this week that it will phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era policy that let 800,000 law-abiding undocumented immigrants stay and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation for renewable two-year periods. The administration’s decision gives Congress six months to pass immigration legislation before DACA protections are phased out.

Continuing to Make the Net Neutrality for Startups Case. This week, we filed our reply comments to the FCC on proposal to roll back the net neutrality rules put in place in 2015, a docket that has now seen more than 21 million comments.

Last Day to Vote for SXSW Tech Policy Panels. Voting on SXSW panels ends today, so it’s your last chance to vote for tech policy panels at next year’s SXSW. Get caught up on the offerings with our guide, which includes panels on everything from patent trolls, to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, to artificial intelligence.

Trade Talks Should Keep Startups in Mind. Representatives from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico met in D.C. this week to kick off talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. You may think of things like auto manufacturing and government contracts when you hear NAFTA, but it has major implications for U.S. startups that do business abroad or plan to do business abroad.

Tech Community Comes to Section 230’s Defense. Thousands of Internet companies rely on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects platforms from being held legally responsible for what their users say online. That’s why we and more than 30 companies, groups, and organizations—including Copia, Automattic, Cloudflare, GitHub, Medium, Patreon, and Reddit—wrote to two lawmakers looking to narrow Section 230’s protections in the name of curbing sex trafficking. In a letter this week, we reiterated the tech community’s demonstrated commitment to the laudable fight against sex trafficking but explained that the new bill from Sens. Rob Portman and Richard Blumenthal would have unintended devastating consequences for the Internet.

Startups Oppose Senate Bill Creating Exceptions to Bedrock Internet Law. A bipartisan group of Senators introduced legislation this week that would undermine Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), the fundamental intermediary liability law that protects Internet companies from being held legally responsible for what their users say on their platform. The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act has the admirable goal of cracking down on sex trafficking online, however, injecting an exception like this in to CDA 230 would create a huge litigation risk for early stage companies that could drastically diminish investment in the sector. While we continue to work with legislators and victims groups to curb the horrific practice of sex trafficking, Engine has opposed this legislation. If you are a startup, sign onto our letter and tell Congress not to undermine the protections that created the Internet. Also, check out our op-ed with the Charles Koch Institute on the importance of CDA 230 to the success and growth of the Internet.

Alexa Accelerator Names Nine Startups for Inaugural Amazon and Techstars Program. Amazon, in partnership with Techstars, welcomed the first class of its new Alexa Accelerator. Amazon will incubate nine startups for three months, providing seed money, mentorship opportunities, and access to University of Washington researchers. The Alexa Accelerator is an initiative spun out of the Alexa Fund, and is specifically geared toward incubating startups that work on applying machine learning and artificial intelligence to voice platforms. Amazon’s Alexa product line utilizes voice recognition to allow people to interact with a robot personal assistant, and the company has been heavily investing in technology to help bolster the products.

Engine Testifies Against Bad Patents at House Judiciary Committee Hearing. On Thursday, Engine’s President, Julie Samuels, testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet on the impact of bad patents on American businesses. Julie spoke to the weaknesses in the patent system and the progress that has been made to weed out low quality patents by Congress, the courts and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Patent trolls, armed with low-quality patents, are able to extract settlements from startups and small businesses, adversely impacting the companies that can least afford these threats. Since startups and small businesses are key drivers of innovation and job growth, troll threats against them are particularly stifling to American economic growth and prosperity.

Watch the hearing here. And read Julie’s full testimony here.

Engine Welcomes Reintroduction of Stock Options Bill. On Tuesday, Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Dean Heller (R-NV), along with Reps. Erik Paulsen (R-MN) and Joseph Crowley (D-NY) reintroduced the Empowering Employees through Stock Ownership (EESO) Act, bipartisan legislation that will make it easier for startup employees to exercise their stock options. Engine was joined by more than 70 companies and organizations in sending a letter supporting the legislation. In response to the reintroduction, Engine Executive Director, Evan Engstrom, noted that “The Empowering Employees through Stock Ownership Act will allow more employees to obtain a stake in the companies that they help to build and grow. This policy change is a no-brainer and a win-win for both startups and their employees.” Read more here.

The Venue Debate isn’t Over Yet. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Supreme Court’s decision in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods LLC. In his opening statement, Chairman Goodlatte stated that he hoped the decision will close the loophole that has allowed patent trolls to haul startups and innovators to the Eastern District of Texas. Several Members of Congress were extremely supportive of the Court’s decision and stated that they hoped startups would see relief from abusive patent litigation. Several of the witnesses testified that the decision will see a substantial curb in forum shopping and will restore order to a broken patent system.  

Tech Stages Internet Day of Action for Net Neutrality. In response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recent announcement that it intends to roll back Obama-era open internet protections, a number of the tech industry’s biggest names, including Etsy, Amazon, Mozilla, and Kickstarter, have publicly announced that they will hold a national day of action in protest. On July 12, the companies, along with numerous other organizations (including Engine), will change their websites to bring awareness to the FCC’s attempts to undermine the free and open internet. At stake are the rules implemented under a Tom Wheeler-led FCC in 2015 that prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking or throttling internet users. The effort is reminiscent of the wide-scale internet blackout orchestrated by tech companies in protest against SOPA and PIPA in January of 2012, which would have resulted in significant censorship on the internet. If you or your company are interested in participating, you can sign up here. 

Trump Asks Supreme Court to Revive Travel Ban. The Trump Administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to revive his immigration travel ban after yet another court blocked the effort last week. In a 10-3 ruling, a federal appeals court in Richmond, VA upheld an earlier Maryland ruling that suspended key parts of the Executive Order, which would would prevent entry for immigrants from six Muslim-majority countries and ban refugees from around the world. In response, President Trump has filed an appeal and asked the high court to temporarily lift the freeze. Trump will need the votes of five of the nine justices to stay the lower court orders and just four votes to add the case to the court’s docket. The startup community has pushed back against the President’s ban, with more than 300 startups and investors calling the it “morally and economically misguided” in a February letter to the President. We’re tracking.