Legislators from both sides of the aisle -- Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) -- have teamed up to urge the Federal Trade Commission to investigate over-the-top video clip streaming site TikTok based on reports that suggest the Chinese-based company is not insulated from the Chinese government's demands for data on U.S. users.

Warner and Rubio are the chair and vice chair, respectively, of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

In a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan, the senators cited a BuzzFeed story about leaked internal TikTok meeting data showing U.S. user data had been accessed from China.

Also: FCC's Carr Tells App Stores TikTok Has to Go

They said they wanted her to immediately launch a Sec. 5 investigation, which is an inquiry into potential false and deceptive conduct. That includes that the site offered employees in China "unfettered access to user information, including birthdates, phone numbers, and device identification information."

They told Khan that TikTok had appeared to misrepresent its relationship to its ByteDance parent and subsidiaries, one of which, ByteDance Technology, is partially owned by the Chinese Communist Party, and that updates to TikTok's privacy policy that indicate that the site may be collecting biometric data "heighten their concern." ■

Former Time Warner chairman and CEO Richard Parsons is one of several journalists and executives being honored at the Nov. 11 Multicultural Media & Correspondents Association (MMCA)’s virtual Multicultural Media Correspondents Dinner.

The 5th annual dinner, which honors media industry legends and luminaries of color, will also honor journalist Lisa Ling, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Jacky Rosen, NPR host Maria Hinojosa, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and Revolt TV’s Detavio Samuels, said the media diversity organization. 

Comedians Kym Whitley and Sherri Shepherd will host the event. 

“We are beyond thrilled with the level of engagement and support the MMCD has received in just its fifth year,” said David Morgan, MMCA president said in a statement.

A bipartisan bill has been introduced to make sure that Chinese telecom ZTE complies with all the conditions of the Trump Administration's deal to lift its previously imposed seven-year ban on export of U.S. components to the company.

ZTE tech includes everything from phones, tablets and smartwatches to mobile hot spots, broadband routers, switchers and servers. 

The ZTE Enforcement Review and Oversight (ZERO) Act would also mandate that "if the Commerce Secretary cannot regularly certify ZTE’s full compliance with the deal and with relevant U.S. export controls and sanctions laws, the denial order’s crippling punishments will be reinstated against ZTE."

The conditions for lifting the ban included what the President characterized as "high level security guarantees, change of management and board, an actual requirement to purchase U.S. parts, and a $1.3 billion fine."

Related: Senate Commerce Passes Ban on ZTE Funding

The initial ban was issued when ZTE was found not to have complied with a U.S. sanction agreement. 

Commerce Department officials had concluded ZTE violated the terms of its settlement agreement with the U.S. over illegally shipping telecom equipment to Iran and North Korea and declared that U.S. companies would be prohibited from exporting technology to ZTE. That move resulted in ZTE essentially shuttering and calling the U.S. move unfair.

Related: Pai Supports U.S. Ban on USF Funds to Chinese Tech Suppliers

The Chinese government then tried to get the President to help ZTE, saying it could cost Chinese Jobs. The President agreed to lift the ban, but said it was with strong conditions, which are the ones the senators want to make sure are complied with this time around. 

Spearheading the legislative effort are Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), joined by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Me.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Rubio was an early and frequent critic of the decision to lift the ban. “With China’s communist government posing the greatest, long-term threat to the United States, we must continue to confront ZTE’s real risks to our economy and national security,” he said. “While it was a mistake to reach a ‘deal’ with ZTE in the first place, this bill will ensure ZTE is finally put out of business if it does not hold up its end of the bargain.”

Sen. Warner was no fan either of what he called the Trump Administration's "cave" to China.

“ZTE has a history of violating U.S. sanctions and misleading the U.S. government," said Warner. "Unfortunately this Administration has shown that it cannot be trusted to defend American interests and punish companies like ZTE that pose a threat to our security. This bipartisan legislation would ensure that if ZTE once again violates trade restrictions or its agreement with the U.S. it will be held accountable in a significant, painful way." Warner is vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has decided to run to keep his seat in the Senate, has joined with a bipartisan group of senators to press FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to speed testing of the 5.9 GHz band to determine "whether and how" it can be shared among incumbents--like vehicle-to-vehicle communications--and wireless uses like cable WiFi.

Joining Rubio on the letter were Cory Booker (D-N.J) and California Democratic Reps Darrell Issa, Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), and Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio).

Rubio and Booker are co-sponsors of the Wi-Fi Innovation Act. Both have been leading voices for freeing up spectrum for mobile broadband.

“Congress, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the Department of Transportation must work together with industry to help meet this demand, while also ensuring that the transportation technologies utilizing this band can operate safely when such technology is deployed in the future,” the senators said.

The senators were pretty much preaching to the choir.

On June 1, the FCC issued a public notice on the 5.9 GHz band, including setting a January 2017 deadline for completing testing of sharing in the band.

Cable operators have been pushing for more 5 GHz spectrum to fuel their Wi-Fi hotspots, the industry's primary mobile broadband play.

The FCC has an open inquiry into using the band for unlicensed, and DOT has agreed on testing the co-existence of vehicle-to-vehicle communications (intelligent transportation system [ITS] devices) and Wi-Fi.

Wheeler joined by Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, in January outlined a three-phase device-testing regime to potentially open up new spectrum in the 5.9-Gigahertz band for more cable WiFi hotspots without interfering with automobile crash-avoidance systems.

Unlicensed devices will have to pass all three tests before any conclusions are drawn about whether Wi-Fi and V2V can coexist.

That testing regime came in response to Hill pressure to find a resolution and free up the spectrum. At that time, the FCC signaled it would be refreshing the record.

The goal is clash avoidance as well as crash avoidance given that the cable and automotive industries have come together after tensions over whether the band could be opened up to unlicensed without threatening those nascent intelligent automotive systems.

WASHINGTON — Free Press Action Fund released a 2016 Internet Voter Guide Monday (March 14) providing its take on the candidates views on the issues the net neutrality fan says are most important to Internet voters.

Nobody got particularly high marks on the issue of encryption, with free press saying no candidate has backed "strong, pro-consumer" measures.

"Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio have all challenged Apple’s right to protect the security of its users, and both Democratic candidates vaguely advocated for both parties to work together for a solution," Free Press said. For its part, the group has backed protests of the FBI's legal effort to get Apple to help it access info on the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

The guide also out, for example, that Hillary Clinton in 2015 wrote a piece in support of the FCC's preemption of state laws limiting municipal broadband buildouts, while Ted Cruz wrote the FCC claiming it was a threat to states rights

Other takeaways:

• "While more than 34 million Americans lack truly high-speed Internet at home, Donald Trump and Cruz have been silent on the issue and Gov. John Kasich has suggested that consumers are to blame for high broadband prices. In the Republican field, only Rubio has backed legislation to expand affordable Wi-Fi deployment and further use of unlicensed spectrum for Internet access.

• "Though three-quarters of Americans have either no broadband or no choice of Internet service providers, Cruz and Rubio oppose community broadband networks, which give local businesses and residents alternative options for high-speed Internet access. Neither Trump nor Kasich have articulated positions on the issue.

• "Cruz was one of only four Republicans to sponsor the USA Freedom Act, which curbs some of the government’s mass surveillance powers, and Kasich agreed that it was a “step forward.” When Secretary Hillary Clinton was in the Senate, she cast votes that enabled NSA mass surveillance but has since called on the NSA to be more transparent. Sen. Bernie Sanders has opposed the Patriot Act and stated that he would 'absolutely' end sweeping NSA surveillance. Trump and Rubio are both in favor of government spying on Americans.

• "Cruz, Rubio and Trump all oppose the Net Neutrality protections that millions of Americans fought for: All three Republican contenders have come out against the FCC’s open Internet rules. Both Democratic candidates have advocated for enforcing strong Net Neutrality rules."

The Republican presidential debates continue to score big ratings for Fox News Channel.

Last night’s debate from Detroit pulled in 16.9 million viewers according to early Nielsen ratings, behind only Fox News’ record-setting Aug. 6 debate telecast which drew 24 million viewers. Overall, the debate is currently the fourth most-watched Republican debate so far during the 2016 political season.

The debate, moderated by Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace and featured some heated rhetoric mostly from presidential candidates Donald Trump, Maro Rubio and Ted Cruz, also drew 5.5 million viewers in the adult 25-54 demo.

A special post-debate The O'Reilly Factor last night (11 p.m.-12 a.m.) delivered 7.4 million viewers, marking the show’s highest-rated telecast of the year.

The debate was also a hit on social media, generating 2.3 million tweets reaching a unique audience of 8.6 million Twitter users, according to Nielsen Twitter TV ratings.

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump appear poised to dominate in the Super Tuesday primary state voting March 1, and Trump has widened his lead nationally over a diminishing GOP field, according to various national and state polls.

Trump has 49% of Republicans, 33 points ahead of his closest rival, Marco Rubio, with Ted Cruz at 15% (essentially Rubio and Cruz are in a statistical tie for second), according to the latest CNN/ORC poll (conducted Feb. 24-27).

On the Democratic side, Clinton has 55% of Democratic voters to rival Bernie Sanders' 38%.

If Trump and Clintondominate, each will be in a strong position to grab their respective nominations, though Cruz is leading in his home state of Texas, which would give him more than a quarter (155) of the delegates at stake on the GOP side.

A dozen states (and American Samoa) hold their primaries March 1, with 595 delegates at stake on the Republican side and 865 on the Democratic, according to an NPR Super Tuesday primer.

A total of 2,383 delegates are needed to win the Democratic nomination and 1,237 needed to win the Republican nod. Political analyst Josh Putnam, interviewed for the Washington Post, said the different totals are because the Republicans only allocate three delegates per congressional district, whether is heavily Republican, while Democrats allocate more delegates in Democrat-heavy districts.

CNN and Telemundo combined to draw 14.5 million viewers for last night’s Republican Debate from Houston, according to Nielsen Fast National data.

The debate, the last before the big March 1 “Super Tuesday” primaries, averaged 13.2 million viewers on CNN and 1.2 million on Telemundo. Among adults 25-54, CNN registered 4.0 million viewers and Telemundo had 626,000. 

The debate produced fireworks between Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who today picked up an endorsement from former presidential hopeful Chris Christie, and his closest competitors Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

The debate was also a huge hit on social media, with the event drawing 2.2 million tweets reaching a unique audience of 7.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen Twitter TV ratings.

To mark the one-year anniversary of the FCC's partisan vote to impose Title II-based network neutrality rules, eight Republican senators including two presidential candidates co-sponsored a bill to nullify that vote and prevent any future reclassification of Internet access as a telecommunications service subject to Title II.

Presidential candidates Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ted Cruz (Tex.) signed on to the bill, spearheaded by Sen. Mike Lee (Utah), along with former candidate Rand Paul (Ky.), John Cornwyn (Tex.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Benjamin Sasse (Neb.), and Thom Tillis (N.C.).

The bill is essentially one paragraph, and states: "The rule adopted by the Federal Communications Commission....on Feb. 26, 2015 (relating to broadband Internet access service) shall have no force or effect, and the Commission may not reissue such rule in substantially the same form, or issue a new rule that is substantially the same as such rule, unless the reissued or new rule is specifically authorized by a law enacted after the date of enactment of this Act."

“The Internet has always been one of the best models of the free market,” said Rubio in a statement after the bill was introduced. “There are low barriers to entry, back and forth communication between consumers and providers, and a rapid evolution of ideas. “Through burdensome regulations and tight control like the net neutrality rule, the government only hinders accessibility and the diversity of content,” he said. “Consumers should be driving the market, and we can help by encouraging innovation, incentivizing investment, and promoting the competitive environment this industry needs.”

“The threat of anticompetitive behavior should always be taken seriously,” Lee said in introducing the bill, [b]ut it makes no sense for a five-person panel of presidential appointees to write a sweeping law aimed at solving a problem that might someday exist. There are more effective, more democratic, and less intrusive ways to address anticompetitive behavior, including existing antitrust and consumer-protection laws.”

The bill makes a statement, but is highly unlikely to make it into law. Republicans tried a similar net neutrality- blocking maneuver with riders on last year's omnibus budget bill.

On the other side of the presidential race, both former Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are big backers of net neutrality rules. Sanders, in fact, joined in an amicus brief from Democratic senators last fall backing the FCC in its court defense of Title II-based regs.

With all due respect to Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the biggest winners at Monday night’s Iowa caucus were the cable news networks.

With viewer interest in this year’s presidential political campaign at unprecedented levels, its not surprising that Fox News, CNN and MSNBC drew big numbers for their coverage of the political primary season’s first voting night.

Fox News and CNN can fight over whose caucus coverage won over the biggest audeince – Fox News drew 4.3 million viewers during the 8 p.m. to midnight time period to top all news nets, while CNN reached a cable news network high 1.4 million viewers in the adult 25-54 category – but the fact is that coverage from all three networks easily bested their respective primetime audience averages.

The high ratings performances continues the trend begun last fall with the Republican Presidential debate telecasts notching record audiences for Fox News and CNN, as well as Fox Business Network and CNBC.

With the New Hampshire primaries a week away and primaries in Nevada and South Carolina later this month, look for viewers to continue to vote for the cable news networks as the primary outlets for their political fix.