Donald Trump on Net Neutrality, cyber warfare, and ISIS online recruitment.
Donald Trump on Net Neutrality. Image: Slate.

At around 3:00 a.m. (CT), American businessman, television personality, and Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump received a call by from Hillary Clinton. She congratulated him for winning the US Presidential election 2016.

Trump’s victory makes him the 45th POTUS, who will begin his term next year.

Many sources regard his triumph as widely unexpected, even though he never failed to appeal to the largest sectors of the population.

Trump won key states such as Florida, Michigan, and Ohio last night, some of them historically Democrat.

However, the race is over, and it’s time to review what is Mr. Trump’s stance on critical issues regarding technology. During the last couple of months, Net Neutrality and internet security have made it to the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

How will Trump fight ISIS online recruitment?

During the campaign, Donald Trump said the Middle Eastern terrorist group, ISIS, is effectively “beating us [Americans] in our own game,” referring to the fact that they seem to have a broad reach through the Internet.

The then Republican candidate has suggested “closing” some parts of the Internet to hinder ISIS online recruitment tools.

“ISIS is recruiting through the Internet. ISIS is using the Internet better than we are using the Internet, and it was our idea. I want to get our brilliant people from Silicon Valley and other places and figure out a way that ISIS cannot do what they’re doing,” he said in a debate on December 15, 2015.

Donald Trump and Net Neutrality

On a tweet published almost two years ago, the businessman deemed the Obama administration’s acceptance of Net Neutrality as a “top-down power grab,” suggesting the President’s move was merely a way for him to control the Internet on a larger scale.

He explained that would “target conservative media,” though did not clarify exactly how. Net Neutrality is the principle that all data running on the Internet should be treated equally to avoid issues such as arbitrary slowdown of bandwidth.

In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reclassified broadband internet connection as a telecommunications service, something that put the Internet below a set of regulations that (most people argue) favor Net Neutrality.

Trump has compared this decision to a redo of the “Fairness Doctrine” of 1949, which required broadcasters to present controversial issues on television in a manner that adjusted to the FCC’s moral precepts.

But again, he has failed to provide a solid argument on why he believes these cases are similar.

What about cyber warfare and China? 

Trump names “outrageous currency manipulation, its systematic attempt to destroy our manufacturing base, and its industrial espionage and cyber warfare against America,” the three greatest threats to the U. S. purported by the Chinese government right now.

He holds President Obama guilty for not taking action on these matters and argues China’s actions could spark a ‘trade war,’ which he believes is already underway, in his 2011 book ‘Time To Get Tough.’

Source: On The Issues