online advertising, digital innovation and more. [inaudible conversations] welcome everybody. welcome. hello, welcome, everybody.

welcome to the 14th annual state of the net conference. thank you for coming. some have been here for 14 years in a row and i really appreciate. a lot of you have been here for a number of years. i think you as well. this year has been an interesting year. not only national affairs, but also in internet policy. it has been a really interesting convulsive, different year. a lot of things have changed. we are really excited. when put together a great group of speakers that will be here to talk about a lot of those changes that have happened to us in internet policy in the last year. also scope out what we think this year will look like. that is kind of the point of state of the neck. in january. my name is tim and i'm the executive director of the organization founded by jerry berman who was over here. you will hear from him at lunch who founded the organization

and found the concept. [applause] jerry is a giant and we are happy to have him back. he will be introducing in the program so you will hear from him. normally it snows before this snow tomorrow. i am thrilled about that and the people that can organize a state of the union can deal with that. today we have good weather and we are thrilled to have a great lineup of speakers. really quickly i would like to thank our sponsors. you can see some of them on the screens around you. include comcast, universal, facebook, we have verizon, they will be rotating throughout the day so we want to thank them. we also want to thank folks at c-span that showed up to live

stream this on their channel here we are thrilled to have a lot of people tuning into this. the # four today if you like to >> we did a walk through with the security team from some of and security of the last meeting a 14th annual and i said yes it started in 2006. he said what did you talk about in internet policy back in 2006? and i had to think. before the iphone a lot of issues that were grappling with ted and today something is new and scary and i'm thrilled to be a part it have. but let's get going. we have an agenda in your bag. so h everything we have so many key notes moving from this room rooms upstairs and back in this room and out to break out and back in for the end so bear with us as we shuffle arranged but

for our first speakers today let me introduce amy, she is on the senate commerges committee an i said this is an interesting year in policy, senator is really kind of rising as far as tackling some of the toughest issues we're dealing with in policy and democracy and freedom of i expression and we're thrild to have her with us todays. she's the response of the honest ads act in the united states senate and again she's a leader in -- on meat issues and we expect to hear a lot more from her and let ming with to the stage amy. [applause] >> where do they live thank you everyone. i e heard the discussion of the weather an when you're from minnesota your ears you get going. i will note, that about a month ago it was 38 below zero without windchill in minnesota and that a few years ago, it was colder in minnesota than it was on mars for one day. you can google it. it happened the range rover was in a warm part of mars and we

scored colder and now all of these people are coming for the super bowl next weekend. and i talkedded to someone from our staff many minnesota i go what's -- we're already doing the dog sledding, we're going to do the ski thing we're going to do afl this. he said senator it is going to be a little cold so watch out for this.it so i'm very excited to speak here. and you know that tomorrow night we're going to hear the "state of the union." but i'm just as excited to give my first state of the net. and i think there will be a few differences in our speeches. so i'm very excited to be on c-span 3. so we won't try to compete many that way. but i also think there may be some differences in terms of some of the focuses that i have and that i think we need to be talking about as a country. and i want to thank internet education foundation and all of theed group that made this realy

important conference possible while i'm not focusing on these issues in my speech i was asked to talk about u some of our security issues. you know there are major issues of net neutrality what we're dealing dealing with right now, and there areal also -- big issues with with broadband i'm in a state that has a lot of rural areas and i'm one of the founders of our rural broadband caucus in the senate. we even have our own logo that's unique in the senate and we've got good bipartisan group, and i was disappoint that side we weren't able to take some of that overseas money and put it into -- infrastructure which would have included rule brod band but we will live to fight another day and i think between the universal service fund and some of the other ways we can find funding we have to really up our game because we've got, you know, farmers that are doing their business in the mcdonald's parking lot. my favorite story recently wases

oncologist who goes to parking lot of a restaurant when he can't get to the hospital to do his work for his patients. so we need to see some improvement. i will say in addition to being cold my state is really focused on technology. we are the state that brought the world everything from the popup toaster to the pacemaker we nchted it the flight recorder. and even the first supercomputer. so i would say hashtag you're welcome. [laughter] and -- so we to a lot of things in the midwest that don't always get recognize ared in the tech area. that continue os to be a major part of our economy. we have 17, 1400 companies a and small thriving businesses which is a big apartment of it as well and in that way the internet has been really important to me.

the reason i got involved is because i'm the daughter it of a reporter. my dad spent his whole career he's now 90 will be 0 next month i started with the ap and he actually in 1960 was the one who called race for kennedy there were three states out, illinois, minnesota, and california. andt, he knew how northern minnesota my relatives iron range and boat he called it and guy in new york for the ap says i have three words, two words for you guyses in minnesota. be right. [laughter] and they were. so he interviewed everyone are from ginger rodgers to famous coach of the bears to ronald reagan so that is deep in my roots is -- is is a free press, and free information and accurate information had. so that's what brings me to this issue at my core.

the second reason i'm so interested in this is that i spent eight years as the lead prosecutor in the county about a quarter of our state's population and i did a lot with white collar and making sure that we have an even playing field when it came to criminal enforcement and i say that not to it scare everyone. but more to make the case that i would look at things that it didn't matter if someone committed a crime with a crowbar or they committed a crime with a computer. it's still a crime and that our erlaws have to be sophisticateds those that are breaking them. which, of course, applies to -- everything from gleek chul property theft to what we're seeing across the world right now with the interference in our election. and the third way i come at this election at this -- at this issue -- and i was thinking about this in the car on the way over -- is that i caned. i have run for office, and most importantly i have run for

officee from a position of not having personal wealth. and so in my first race for this countyn attorney job had is the chief prosecutor i was outspent 3-1 something like that 4-1, i remember i could only run ads on cable which at the time was like no one hardly had had cable. so i remember the day of the election my opponent was running network way before people were running computer ads right, in fact, first candidate ever to have like put an ad on the newspaper website. big deal at the time. [laughter] and so -- i because we have so little money so we're looking at ways to be cheap so iftion on cable i remember some guy called had. it was a very close race i was running against the congressman sister a republican congressman sister and guy called into radio stationn is she has ads on constantly and the radio host goes sir do you just listen to espn? because that's only --

i had like black an white awsdz on within thing. so i knew what that was like and i ended up winning by less than i think 9 votes for precinct in this county which was two congressional directs. and you had it by not only that way. but by -- putting up 3,000 long fines being in 29 parades doing 5 pancake breakfasts okay look if i had done 70 i would have lost. i bring this this up there's a reason are for this. this has because i have a firm believe inha grassroots plucks n even playing field and i ran for senate more pronounced running against a sitting congressman for the u.s. senate. and ing had never raised more tn $500 per person. and so i suddenly was calling everyone and no one would return my call bauds they couldn't say any name didn't know who was. and i finally gave up a very is true story and i used mid-own personal remember when we have

those -- and i called everyone i ever knew in my life a true story i have the record ind raised 17 thorks from ex-boyfriends. and as my husband has pointed out it is not an expanding base. so why does this matter? it matters busy i'm on seised with havinghi fairness in campaigns because that's why i hated it i the citizens yiebt united decision and iam don't le stark money behind the sans. i want to have transparency and final reason and phil get to what i want to talk about so you know where i'm coming from why i have such a passion for this is because i'm from minnesota and we have highest voting turnout in the country. and we tend to really like fair pns and transparency some of it is our scandinavian tradition. and so when you see a shenanigan

a nice word for basically fraud and basically criminal activity infliewngsing elections -- you have a real problem on your hands. an if we want to guarantee the right for free elections we're going to have to do something about this. and i kind of put it into two one more focus on today but first is the election infrastructure. and senator lankford and i have a bill along with senator kamala harris and lindsey graham which is focused on puttings -- about 400 million we found a way to pay for it with leftover grant money into the state election infrastructure, and you look at how much money that is that it is 3% of one aircraft carrier okay. and so -- when we are spending this much money on our national testifies the fact that we're being outspent and outdone on the internet when it comes to protecting our democracy many this greatest country that is developed all of these

incredible technologies and -- and the internet itself that is a problem. and so that's why i think as we look at our own national atsecurity priorities and we lok at protecting our elections we have to start seeing our election infrastructure as a major part of that. so what's happening. well according to our -- own department of homeland security, our russians attempted to hack at least 21 states election systems in 2016. russia also launched cyberattacks against the u.s. voting software cane. and hacked e-mail of more than 100 local election officials. and last september, the chicago board of elections reported that names, addresses, birth dates other sensitive information of tens of thousands of registered voterses were exposed. but they didn't just try to hack into our election systems as you all mow. they alsoto larged an extended d

sophisticated infrastructure design for our country and destroy americans confidence in our political system. and sort of as a kind of perfect round as we go into this year, request which for me has been a tumultuous year on the inaugural stage ixa was replaced as the mt famous american in washington -- by melania trump. itit was very difficult. she was actually born in our way fromon where my relatives are from -- andd as i said thes other day every time i look at her it is like looking in the mirror. [laughter] but in addition to that year my actual end of the year 2016 was spent with john mccain we're hoping health is getting -- it is very difficult situation. with john and lindsey graham on the frontline with the ukrainian troops, in in the middle of the night on newier's eve which one do you kiss?

[laughter] there we were and we would also visited lithuania, and georgia, and to hear these stories of what these countries have been dealing with for years of foreign relations in thes on the foreign relations committee just put a report out on this which is known surprised based on what we have heard they have seen this movie before. right? w they as they get mad russia does, with they get a big thing over it and so what do they do? they cut off their internght simply because they moved a statue of a russian soldier from a public square into a cemetery where the other statues like that were. or -- t in one of the countries that was when they are having their 25th anniversary of independence so they invite some of the -- ukrainian parliamentarians, of course, in exile from crimea they invite that to the celebration , and then they cut off the internet russia gets mad thef parol minnesotatarians frm

that country. had this kind of stuff has been going on for a long time testimony if the fake ads. influence of the election, best example i had was we heard directly when we were in they told us directly and that -- the russians have been mad at norway building up their military, so they've been running some fake ads one with was that norway economy was completely tanking that they were running out of fruits and vegetables. in the entire country of norway -- so as a result all of these russians who had seen it on their own -- arriving to see their friends and relatives with bags and bags of friewghts an vegetables and i love that story because it is not just a political intrigue story. it can hit people really directly as they try to understand -- what this fake news is really about. so in the u.s., so if i go back to that story -- and i remembered that time with

that blizzard coming at us as we're standing there with president to show our american might to the russians. and to putin directly, and he's got machine guns to mccain and lindsay a pistol me two daggers but that's a whole other story. but really what we have to stand up to show our american might was that we're protecting our internght. that we're a beacon of democracy and that we're a beacon of democracy because we have a free and fair election and we know how to handle this and what we haved learned since is we didn't really know how to handle it. it was not just the hacking which we have sensell learned which took way too long to tell our state lx officials about. but it is also about the very essence of american political campaigns which is how you communicate. do you have even playing field but there's dark money going on but at least when you put ads out you have to have disclosures

and disclaimers so we find out thatn russia spent at least 100 thorks dollar on facebook ads to influence 2016 election, we know that the disinformation are reached more than 126 million americans. we know that russia has a troll factory that ploy employs 12,000 agents expected to make hundreds of comments on social media. that are divisive all is fake and all of it bankrolled by president piewt son we know that there's a lot of fake stuff out there in america, right? fake tan, fake wrestling storelines on tv, we can deal request some of the fake things but when you've got people on our state that don't though that they're fake things, that is a whole other thing when you're dealing withe fake political ads that like the ones we showed at the judiciary hearing that actually -- directed people to text their

votes in. that happened it it in america. right? we have those ads that were put out on social media over and over again that said hague, don't deal request the lines text in your vote for hillary. here's the texting number. that's criminal.te that is criminal to catch people who did that because that's a direct interference with the election. form reel director of national intelligence james clapper testified last year, that russia will continue to interfere in our political system. he said this, i believe russia is now emboldened to continue such activities in the future both here and around the world and to do it even more intensely. so that next election is 281 tie days are from todays and that is why -- james lankford and i working so hard to try to get that funding out there -- and so that's the first bill i want to mention to you guys.

to 86 million for election security that also requires -- information to go to state election officials and so that there are certain people in each state to have that security clearanceai so they could receie that information do you know that, that issue about the 21st states my state didn't find out until it went public. that they had tried to hack into our state. i didn't know it. i've been talking about this this issue for months we didn't know it in the case of illinois i mentioned they got right into the voters security. wesupport for this bill from the freedom caucus go figure, and in the house o mark medicine does is carrying similar version actually the identical bill to one that i had done with lindsay thatat is -- just a very -- a little bit different than the one that senator lankford and i have, and both of those bills are aimed at this because there's concern on the left and right that if you have a hack somewhere --

when you have dozens and dozens of states that have not updated their election infrastructure equipment, if in the past decade you think russia doesn't know that.ur they do know that so i'm not like disclosing some secret when you have that going on and you have -- i think something like ten or 12 states that don't even have backup paper ballots, right, so no way to audit it afterwards so what bill does is it gets money out to the states. let's mac sure the information is shared from homeland security and third thing let's have this this audittings so if something does go whereon you have a way to prove it and minnesota is unique. we have with had a lot of recounts and very closed elections. in the way h you do that, of course, when you're trueing to check out a close election or if there have been some kind of fraud is by having this backup paper ballots. so those are the components for the bill and it is something we would look to get done. okay. secondly and this is the honest ads bill that i was mentioning here.

so we have some kind of well known hearings that went on on this. and the fact that we do know are that 1.4 billion spepght on join line ads in 2016 nearly eight times amount that was spent in 2012 everyone e agrees this trend will continuesp whether it is up to -- three billion, four billion we don't it know that in 2018 but those are kind of projections that we're seeing that there's going to be a lot of migration of campaign money over to -- the social media side. a pugh poll found that 65% of americans use the internet in 2016 for election-related information. onis line plat formals dwarf largest internght platform has 210 million american users largest cable provider has 22 million subscribers so that is why when we look at our election

laws they were all designed back at the time where it was print and it was radio and it was tv. right? so that is why we want to upgrade them and that's what honest ads act is about that i introduced with senator mccain and senator warrener to me summer ofly creating even playing field and sending message to not just russia but to all of these countries across theou world that we see thiss a priority for our national security which is protecting our long-standing freedom to vote and freedom to have fair elections. so you think about this this is not a s&l skit with your coworker right, these are actual paid political ads. will it get it all of our problems of course it won't get into all of our aboutor pros it doesn't get at issues that i talked about or some of the other things but it will at least get at some of the problem and that is the paid political ads. so --

that is why i scdz you to look at this bill. i know that -- facebook, twitter, google have taken some t measures which we appreciate to upgrade their policies and have called this out as a problem. from back in the last election, but i believe the only way you're boing to make this this work is if you apply this across the board. so it is not just one company doing one thing and another company taking this measure. and o i ask is when some of the companies that hearings said well this would be really difficult for us to follow this kind of law. remember when the law says now for pripght precinct radio and tv if you have a candidate ad which some of the providers have said that they will put disclosures on. or if you have an ad of -- of national legislative importance then you have to have theon disclaimer you know prepad and paid for by amy whatever it is, but you also have to have the disclosure. so that means that candidates o opponents and the press are going to be able to see what

these ads are they can't just pop up on a facebook page for, you know,ey one day or an hour. away.en go so no one ever knows that they existed. and so the answer we got was well that will behearted for us to figure out what those ads are. my radio station is and in minnesota can puring it out. they have to keep them in a foil or they have to put it online and i believe that the greatest countries in america should be able to figure out just like our radio station does, just like the miption star tribune does. just like the -- network tv do or cable tv. they are able to figure out what those ads are. that get a lawyers opinion and then they know what ads are. that is the same thing we have to do for paid political ads on the internght. it is one step toward protecting our elections and i am just hopeful that people will see the light here and we'll be able to got it done. i will close with reminder and

why question can't wait to act in 1923, many years before the internght internet before our race to space and general secretary of the soviet communist was asked about a vote in the central committee of the party. stalin was unconcerned about the vote. after all he explained that who voted was completely unimportant. what was extraordinarily important he said was who would tout the vote and it is now 95 years later and sometimes it seems like we are back at square one. and now we the russians again trying to in my mind influence who votes by suppressing votes by putting needs ads out, and alsovo possibly who count the ve as in, our voting infrastructure. we literally have them trying to it attackot us on both ends.

and we know they are not our only threat throughout the 21st century they're be going to continue to use cyberwarfare and we immediate to prepare against these threats no matter where they come from. nothing and its really make this case strongly despite everything you hear, nothing could be less partisan than securing the future h of our elections. and the freedoms that those elections preserve. it was marco rubio who said during the last election, you know, one thing they're going after one party and one candidate. and then next time it will be the other candidate and the other party. i kind of like quoting stalin and, quote, withing marco i thought he r would enjoy that. [laughter] so whether you are a four-star general a fourth grader, or a computer engineer at four square, this is an issue that

unites all of us because protecting our democracy and allowing technology to plowrish go hand-in-hand. the freedom to speak, the federal to vote, to participate freely, ispe closely intertwined not just with with who we are as americans in our hearts. the daughter of a newspaper reporter, it is also about how our economy workings and how we innovate and how we move forward as a nation. this will be the true measure of the state of the internet. this year and the years to come. it is whether or not we can make sure, yes it is available to all. but alsoab whether it continueso enhance our freedoms and not limit our freedoms. so that is what i hope you think about as you hear all of the presentations today, today how that the internet as it has done so well for so long should be used for truth it should be used to shine s a light.

and it should be used to ensure that american people get more information, accurate information toic choose their leaders and their government and their own future. so thank you very much enjoy the event. and i really appreciated being able to launch you off today. thank you. [applause] >> hello everyone it is my pleasure an my privilege to be up here this podium at the internet education foundations 14th annual state of the net conference. my name is emory a fellow at the internet law and policy and a framework for early career professionals that was started bit ief parent organization. and i'm here to interview -- sorry i'm here in other o room