It’s Day One of Trump and net neutrality is already in trouble

FCC watchers have been saying for a while that Ajit Pai would be tapped as interim FCC chair after Tom Wheeler stepped down (he did so today), but a new report claims Pai will become the new chairman full-stop. Pai reportedly met with then president-elect Donald Trump last weekend, which adds credibility to the story. 

The appointment could be disastrous for net neutrality. Obama appointment Wheeler (and a Democratically-controlled commission) in 2015 classified broadband a Title II service that would be regulated as a public service. The new rules forbade broadband providers to sell internet "fast lanes" of any kind to large internet companies at the expense of small ones and consumers. Pai has been outspoken in his opposition to the ruling. If Pai is chairman, experts have told me, he could either enact a new ruling reversing Wheeler's, or could simply decline to defend Wheeler's ruling against the legal challenges of big broadband providers like AT&T and Verizon. In fact, a Pai appointment could be a catalyst for new legal attacks. 

Opponents of Wheeler's ruling have argued that imposing such regulatory control removes the impetus to further invest in the speed and capacity of the networks. This view aligns with the Trump administration's stated goal of pulling back the reach of the government's regulatory arm.  MS

Well, that didn't take long.

It's only been 25 min and the Dept. of Labor's report on Advancing LGBT Workplace Rights has been taken down. https://t.co/KzBp8VZweD pic.twitter.com/UhnWqWZvPC

— Jay Franzone (@JayFranzone) January 20, 2017

Some Twitter users say they're still able to access the report (I, for one, cannot). Elsewhere, occurrences of "LGBT" appear to already have been wiped from WhiteHouse.gov.

All mentions of #LGBT removed from https://t.co/SA7jODMMx8; 44 mentions for 'military'. The great work begins. pic.twitter.com/CIpdITywnl

— Jonathan D. Lovitz (@jdlovitz) January 20, 2017

To be fair, officials could very well replace these pages with different information outlining the Trump administration's plans to protect LGBT workers, many of whom can still legally be fired for being gay or trans all across the United States.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see. RB

Angered by Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's decision to be part of Donald Trump's Strategic and Policy forum, protesters have reportedly chained themselves to the front doors of Uber's San Francisco offices, preventing employees from entering the building. Uber has advised those employees to work from home or elsewhere this morning.

Protestors block entryway of @Uber building in #SF #InaugurationDay pic.twitter.com/iOWBpeB28a

— Sarah Ravani (@SarRavani) January 20, 2017

Music joins protestors outside Uber Hq on market st in solidarity of #InaugurationDay #j20resist. Hundreds protest across nation.@KPFANews pic.twitter.com/zjUCccaCpJ

— Mike Kohn (@MikeCKohn) January 20, 2017

EP

As soon as President Trump took the Oath of Office, the White House website completely switched over, including some major changes such as the deletion of Obama's climate change page.

And it's pushing FLOTUS's jewelry collection on her page:

"Melania is also a successful entrepreneur. In April 2010, Melania Trump launched her own jewelry collection, "Melania™ Timepieces & Jewelry", on QVC."

MB

At noon today, the @POTUS Twitter account switched from Barack Obama's hands to Donald Trump's hands, and followers were reset to zero. But it didn't stay that way for long. Within 15 minutes, the account already had 3.62 million followers. 

Obama had 13.7 million and was still gaining followers up until the end. We're tracking the account's growth check back soon. 

Update: One hour later, Trump was up to 3.93 million. 

Update 2: Two hours later, Trump was up to 5.27 million.

CZ

Hospitalist, pharmacist, sales engineer, site reliability engineer, and product manager top LinkedIn's ranking of 20 positions with the most potential for career growth this year. The jobs were given weighted scores based on salary, career advancement, number of job openings in the U.S., year-over-year growth in job openings, and widespread regional availability. Analysts gave the most weight (30%) on salary and the least (10%) on regional availability. 

Fast Company will be covering Glassdoor's list of the best jobs when it goes live on Tuesday. Although those were scored differently (one factor is job satisfaction), stay tuned for our report that compares the two lists.

LD

Today's the day America has been craving or fearing, depending on your politics. Donald Trump will take the Oath of Office as the 45th president of the U.S. at noon EST. If you're not one of the hundreds of thousands gathered in D.C. to celebrate or protest the historic occasion, there are plenty of ways to watch it. Here are some suggestions on how not to watch this transfer of power: Don't just sit and watch the spectacle without consulting these resources:

• The biggest unresolved questions facing the Trump administration, from Obamacare's replacement to the shape of any infrastructure deal.

• Study this list of Trump's nominees for the most important positions in his administration.

• Help update this constantly evolving map of Trump World, the 1,500 people and organizations connected to the incoming administration. 

• For live fact-checking, PolitiFact's Twitter feed is on it.

• Don't watch it on TV or Facebook Live, say some progressives who want to deny Trump the chance to brag about his "yuge" ratings. "It is also a small but effective way of demonstrating to the national media that we don't want coverage of the show, but of the substance." Rather, listen to it on the radio, they suggest. Or follow it via the New Yorker's Jason Adam Katzenstein live-drawing the event.

And if you really really must see it, here's the video:

MB

Just hours before Donald Trump was scheduled to be sworn in, tech execs Ellen Pao and Laura I. Gómez wrote an appeal to Twitter chief Jack Dorsey arguing that the incoming president should be suspended from the platform. It's not just because of the things he tweets, Pao and Gómez write, but because the things he tweets incite his followers to cause real harm. 

Admittedly, it's hard to imagine Twitter actually suspending Trump, but the execs do make some interesting points. Especially compelling is their implication that Trump's baleful antics are essentially dragging Twitter into the social-media mud, something Twitter Inc. as a company can scarcely afford these days:

"But @realdonaldtrump is bringing out the worst of Twitter — the company, the platform, and its users. He's using his manipulation skills and your platform to bully others, and to incite supporters to harass people — both on Twitter and in real life."  

So maybe suspending Trump would just be good business. That's an argument even he should be able to get behind.

[Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images] CZ

The Doomsday Clock, which tracks how close scientists see humanity as being to destruction, has been set to 3 minutes to midnight since 2015. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the publication that's set the virtual clock since 1947, typically only adjusts the clock once per year—and they're going to announce 2017's setting this Thursday, January 26. 

Since factors including climate change, nuclear threats, cyber attacks, and infectious disease were cited by the Bulletin last year in explaining the current setting, it's hard to imagine the clock losing any time. 

Here's a dashboard showing some of the factors taken into consideration when setting the clock.

SM

Samsung will make an official statement as to the cause at a press conference on Monday, reports the Wall Street Journal. Until then, the Journal's sources are saying in most cases the "irregularly sized" batteries were to blame, as well as "manufacturing problems" with the batteries.

[Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images] MG

But it wants a number of concessions from the Indian government—including a 15-year tax holiday on imports of components and equipment—in order to move iPhone production there, reports Bloomberg.  MG

He is now using a more secure, encrypted handset of a brand that has not been identified, reports the Associated Press. But the most important question isn't what type of Secret Service-approved phone Trump is now using, but whether this means fewer tweets . . . MG