Bill to save net neutrality is 46 signatures short in US House
Lawmakers seeking to reinstate network neutrality rules are still 46 signatures short of getting the House of Representatives to vote on the measure. A discharge petition needs 218 signatures to force a House vote and 218 votes would also be enough to pass the measure. So far, the petition has signatures from 172 representatives, all Democrats. That number hasn't changed in two weeks. "We're 46 [signatures] away from being able to force a vote on the resolution to restore the Open Internet Order," Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) said. The Senate voted in May to reverse the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of net neutrality rules, with all members of the Democratic caucus and three Republicans voting in favor of net neutrality.
California net neutrality bill moves forward, despite loss of some provisions
After a week of legislative setbacks and online acrimony, a bill to restore Obama-era net neutrality protections in California has moved a step forward. Members of the California State Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee voted 8-2 to move SB822 on to its next stop, the Assembly Appropriations Committee, after more than an hour of comment from internet service providers and community organizations at the Capitol. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) the bill’s author, said he supported the effort to move the bill on despite amendments made recently that he said “eviscerated” protections for internet users, including young, low-income and minority communities with limited internet access. Wiener warned the privacy committee that he has no intention to pass a “fake” net neutrality bill if he’s unable to restore the bill’s original protections, including prohibiting zero-rating, a practice wherein providers exempt favored websites and apps from data caps; prohibiting blocking, speeding up or slowing down websites; and charging websites unreasonable amounts for access to an internet service provider’s customers. “Consumers are not protected, small businesses are not protected and they will get stomped out of existence,” Wiener said. “It is the next generation of Netflix and Google that are going to get destroyed with the lack of net neutrality.” If the bill maintains its current language and does not get amended according to his recommendations, Wiener said he will withdraw his legislation.
Remarks of FCC Commissioner O'Rielly before the Cloud Comms Summit
It is a true honor to have the chance to speak before members of the relatively new Cloud Communications Alliance....During times of change, an agency must refrain from subjecting new technologies to old regulatory structures.At a minimum, an agency should not act unless it is clear that the agency has authority, that there is evidence of a market failure warranting intervention, and that the benefits of acting outweigh the costs. Otherwise, regulators risk suppressing further entry, innovation, and investment. Companies that have options for how they allocate their capital will naturally avoid areas that have added regulatory exposure. That’s why I have consistently fought to halt, or at least mitigate, the prior Commission’s mission creep as it tried to extend its reach to edge providers or other new entrants. I have been so outspoken on the need to declare other services, including VoIP and text messaging, to be interstate, information services, freeing them from unnecessary federal and state requirements. Both services are extremely popular with consumers and businesses, and there is abundant competition both from legacy providers and new over-the-top players to meet the market’s needs. Nonetheless, both services continue to be the target of what I’ve called regulation by analogy.
Cities, the FCC and Gigabit Networks
The federal government is recognizing what cities and those of us here in 2013 already knew: that our policies should ensure that bandwidth never constrains economic growth or social progress. Unfortunately, one thing hasn’t changed; the federal government’s view of its own role in helping achieve that goal. It is: 1) Make cities do all the hard work, pay all the government costs and accept all the blame for whatever happens; and 2) Let the federal government pay none of the costs, do none of the hard work, and take all the credit. The current Federal Communications Commission has curiously interpreted its statutory mandate to dramatically reduce its regulatory powers over broadcasters, ISPs, telephone companies, cable companies, and wireless companies, while simultaneously asserting new authority to regulate prices and micromanage over one set of enterprises: local governments.
[Blair Levin is a Non-resident Senior Fellow of the Metropolitan Policy Project of the Brookings Institute]
Facebook gives up on building internet-beaming drones
Four years after embarking on a project to bring internet access to remote locations through the use of internet-beaming drones, Facebook is giving up on designing its own aircraft. Instead, the tech giant said that it will work with aerospace manufacturer Airbus and other partners. As part of the decision to shut down its project, Facebook is also closing a facility in Bridgwater, England, where it was developing drones. Facebook engineer Yael Maquire said other companies have been investing in the development of high-altitude aircraft and other technology necessary to beam internet access from airborne platforms.
Commissioner Rosenworcel Announces Availability of Small Cell Model Agreements
Right now, policymakers across the country are focused on strengthening American infrastructure. That effort includes roads, bridges, and broadband networks that support 5G wireless services. That’s vital—because to be first to a 5G future, we need to focus as much on the ground as on the skies. But figuring out how to deploy 5G infrastructure—which puts a premium on small cells—is a big task. It means acknowledging that we have a legal tradition of local control in this country but also recognizing that more streamlined and uniform practices can help speed deployment. Our cities are important partners in this effort. That’s why today I am making available model agreements for small cell and 5G deployment negotiated by the City of San Jose and approved ... by the San Jose City Council. Through these agreements, carriers will benefit from streamlined access to thousands of city-owned poles for their small cell deployments. In turn, carriers will fund a decade long effort to help close the digital divide in San Jose, where more than 95,000 residents still lack access to broadband Internet service at home. I thank Mayor Sam Liccardo for his leadership, and I share his hope that these agreements can inform the work of cities and towns nationwide to support universal broadband deployment and expand the civic and commercial opportunities of the digital age.
Let’s Get Vertical
In the wake of the government’s setback in the AT&T/Time Warner case, it’s natural enough to ask: what will be that case’s impact on the government’s ability to challenge vertical mergers in the future? I think the answer is “very little if anything.” The government could take steps to build an even stronger foundation for the review of vertical mergers in the future. Here are some suggestions. First, the current 1984 guidelines on the treatment of vertical (technically, non-horizontal) transactions should be withdrawn. Second, new vertical guidelines should be created. Here are five specific topics that I think are worthy of consideration: 1) Should the presence of concentrated markets make a difference? 2) How can we better demonstrate the theoretical and factual basis for identifying when mergers increase bargaining leverage? 3) As a related topic, the Department of Justice and the Federal trade Commission would be well-served by providing greater detail on how to tell whether the control of an input will distort competition. 4) There is more work to be done on so-called coordinated effects. 5) The antitrust agencies have offered guidance on the use of structural and behavioral remedies in a series of speeches, but this guidance could be synthesized and codified.
[Sallet is a Benton Senior Fellow. He works to promote broadband access and deployment, to advance competition, including through antitrust, and to preserve and protect internet openness. He is the former-Federal Communications Commission General Counsel (2013-2016), and Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Litigation, Antitrust Division, US Department of Justice (2016-2017).]
Department of Justice Approves Disney’s Purchase of Fox Assets
The Department of Justice approved the Walt Disney Company’s $71 billion bid for the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox, potentially complicating Comcast’s desire to make a rival offer for Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment empire. The government’s approval was filed in federal court on the condition that Disney, which already owns ESPN, divest all of Fox’s 22 regional sports networks, which include valuable channels like the Yankees’ YES network. “Today’s settlement will ensure that sports programming competition is preserved in the local markets where Disney and Fox compete for cable and satellite distribution,” said Makan Delrahim, the head the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
T-Mobile, Sprint execs pitch merger to Senate antitrust subcommittee
Executives from T-Mobile and Sprint pitched their $26 billion merger to the Senate's antitrust subcommittee, saying that the combination would give their companies the ability to develop increased capabilities and catch up with bigger wireless carriers. “When we do this, AT&T and Verizon will be forced to react and follow our lead or we will happily take their customers and give them more value and better price,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said. “Trust me, the New T-Mobile will not stop, we will be relentless,” he added. And Marcelo Claure, the executive chairman of Sprint, said that his company needs the merger to go through to survive. “We have struggled to barely break even,” Claure said. The two executives also painted the deal as essential for keeping the US on the bleeding edge for developing 5G wireless networks. The combined company, they argued, would be able to develop a 5G network that could compete with those from AT&T and Verizon and offer greater benefits to consumers.
Justice Department Antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim: Supreme Court ruling won't shield Big Tech
Justice Department Antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim said that he doesn't think the Supreme Court's American Express ruling would make it more difficult to take on the biggest online platforms over competition concerns. Critics of large tech companies worry the ruling providers might offer Silicon Valley companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Uber protection from antitrust prosecution because they use so-called two-sided marketplaces to connect parties, such as buyers and sellers. Delrahim said he saw the ruling as a "sound decision" overall. "I was more worried the Supreme Court would come up with a test [that would] cause harm to new business models like Uber and Airbnb," he said, adding that would have been a greater hardship to the economy than just losing this case. "I think to the extent that it creates that transaction and you bring in third party sellers and buyers, they could benefit from that, but not in other areas of their business," he said. Delrahim did say he thought that the ruling could limit antitrust enforcers' ability to take on Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb, but would not protect the companies in the case of criminal behavior, like price fixing.
[see also The Supreme Court decision Silicon Valley is reading]
CWA Will Oppose T-Mobile-Sprint Without Job Commitments
In advance of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the proposed T-Mobile-Sprint merger, the Communications Workers of America called on the companies to commit to protecting workers' rights and not eliminating jobs, and threatened to oppose the deal if they won't make that commitment. CWA conceded that the CEO of T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom, Tim Höttges, has said that the merger will create and repatriate jobs. But it wants that in a "binding" form at the Federal Communications Commission, which is vetting the deal along with the Department of Justice. CWA said that according to its own analysis, the deal could result in more than 30,000 job losses stemming from closing 2,750 duplicative Boost (Sprint) and MetroPCS (T-Mobile) prepaid wireless stores. "T-Mobile and Sprint must make a clear statement to regulators and to their employees that they will not interfere with union organizing activities and make binding guarantees to maintain, create and bring back jobs, without cutting current compensation for workers."
Conservative Coalition Supports T-Mobile and Sprint Merger
[Press release] A group of conservative organizations sent a letter to the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee supporting the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, saying the transaction is consistent with antitrust law and will benefit consumers. The groups say the merger will drive competition and will result in higher speeds and lowered prices for consumers.
'Deceived by Design:' Google and Facebook Accused of Manipulating Users Into Giving Up Their Data
Facebook and Google introduced new privacy settings in order to comply with Europe’s sweeping new privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, but campaigners still aren’t satisfied. Some official complaints on the day the new law went into force, and now others have raised further concerns about how the companies manipulate people into exposing their data. The issue is that some of the privacy settings clearly steer people towards choosing certain options. Consumer groups from a range of European countries, including Norway, the UK and France, sent letters to their national privacy regulators, asking them to probe these so-called “dark patterns” tactics. American consumer groups, led by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC,) are also asking the Federal Trade Commission to look into the practice.
Facebook’s Latest Problem: It Can’t Track Where Much of the Data Went
Facebook's internal probe into potential misuse of user data is hitting fundamental roadblocks: The company can’t track where much of the data went after it left the platform or figure out where it is now. Three months after CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged to investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of Facebook data, the company is still combing its system to locate the developers behind those products and find out how they used the information between 2007 and 2015, when the company officially cut data access for all apps. Zuckerberg has said the process will cost millions of dollars. One problem is that many of the app developers that scooped up unusually large chunks of data are out of business, according to developers and former Facebook employees. In some cases, the company says, developers contacted by Facebook aren’t responding to requests for further information. Facebook is now trying to forensically piece together what happened to large chunks of data, and then determine whether it was used in a way that needs to be disclosed to users and regulators. In cases where the company spots red flags, Facebook said it would dispatch auditors to analyze the servers of those developers and interrogate them about their business practices. Ime Archibong, Facebook’s vice president of product partnerships, said most developers have been “responsive” but noted that the process requires a fair bit of detective work on their end. “They have to go back and think about how these applications were built back in the day,” Archibong said.
Inside Facebook and Twitter’s secret meetings with Trump aides and conservative leaders who say tech is biased
Twitter and Facebook are scrambling to assuage conservative leaders who have sounded alarms — and sought to rile voters — with accusations that the country’s tech giants are censoring right-leaning posts, tweets and news. From secret dinners with conservative media elite to private meetings with the Republican National Committee, the new outreach reflects tech giants’ delicate task: satisfying a party in power while defending online platforms against attacks that threaten to undermine the public’s trust in the Web. The complaints have come from the upper echelons of the GOP, including top aides to President Donald Trump. The chief executives of Facebook and Twitter, meanwhile, have both admitted in recent months that Silicon Valley’s ranks are dominated by liberals, which has only fed accusations of bias from the right. Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey convened a rare private dinner with Republican leaders and conservative commentators in Washington recently. Apparently, among those attending the June 19 dinner were Mercedes Schlapp, a top communications adviser for President Trump; Grover Norquist, the leader of Americans for Tax Reform; television host Greta Van Susteren; and Guy Benson, a Fox News commentator.
As publishers pump out repetitive content, quality reporting suffers
According to figures provided by media analytics company Newswhip, The Washington Post published 10,580 individual things in May of this year, including wire stories, graphics, and other miscellania. CNN published 9,430, The New York Times 5,984, The Wall Street Journal 4,898, and NPR 2,254. Similar numbers are not available for the pre-smartphone era, but the print edition of the Post on June 26 —a decent analogue for the numbers in the print-driven era—included 135 stories, less than half the daily web total. Many stories are either repetitive or seek to aggregate or comment on publicly available information—because it’s simply impossible for any quantity of journalists, no matter how industrious, to find 10,000 original things to publish in a month. And most newsrooms have either reduced the numbers of reporters and editors, or fought to keep it roughly static. The net effect is to speed up and amplify the groupthink that has always plagued journalists. And to deny audiences something they crave in a world that is changing fast: context.
Federal officials struggle to drag political ad rules into the internet age
During a daylong public hearing, the Federal Election Commission’s four remaining commissioners — two seats are vacant because President Donald Trump hasn’t appointed anyone to fill them — couldn’t find consensus on how to best drag federal political ad regulations into the Internet age. “I don’t think we’ve gotten very far,” FEC Chairwoman Caroline Hunter, a Republican, said two hours into the hearing, which featured testimony from 12 representatives of think tanks, activist groups and legal organizations. “Keep hope alive, madam chair,” Democratic Vice Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub said with a sigh. Several people who testified at the FEC hearing implored agency commissioners to act. “The elephant in the room today is the mechanics of online advertising have become notoriously opaque, while our transparency rules, certainly in respect to political advertising, have not evolved,” said Joseph Jerome, policy counsel of advocacy group Center for Democracy & Technology. “New industry-led self regulatory efforts may solve this problem. It also has the potential to make the situation worse if the FEC does not engage in meaningful oversight.” At the most basic level, FEC commissioners are trying to decide how online ads should display a disclaimer that generically reads: “Paid for by Committee X. Not authorized by any candidate of candidate’s committee.”
Rep Nunes is demanding new information on Trump campaign and FBI informants
House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) is showing no signs of de-escalating a conflict with the Justice Department over the Russia investigation, hitting the department with an expansive new request for "any contacts" between FBI intelligence sources and over a dozen Trump campaign associates. The new request seeks information not only on "FBI informants," but also on "undercover agents, and/or confidential human sources" who interacted with former Trump associates before July 31, 2016 -- the start of the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. The list of Trump associates Chairman Nunes indicated he's interested in includes: Michael Caputo, Sam Clovis, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Corey Lewandowski, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, Sam Nunberg, George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Walid Phares, Joseph Schmitz, Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr. The day before the Nunes letter, on June 26, the Justice Department told Nunes that he already had the answer to his question about whether the FBI had used informants "against" members or associates of the Trump campaign.
2018 Research: Women and people of color in local TV and radio news
The percentage of women and people of color in TV newsrooms and in TV news management are at the highest levels ever measured by the RTDNA/Hofstra University Newsroom Survey. About a quarter (24.8%) of newsroom staffers are people of color--11.&% African American, 10.8% Hispanic or Latino, 2% Asian and .3% Native American. That is still well below minority representation in the population as a whole, which is about 38%. Highlights:
- The percentage of women and people of color in TV newsrooms and in TV news management are at the highest levels ever measured, but while the minority population in the U.S. has risen 12.4 points in the last 28 years, the minority workforce in TV news is up just 7.
- The disparity in representation of people of color in TV management is shrinking.
- The percentage of TV news employees overall and of TV news directors who are women is at an all-time high.
- There are fewer women and people of color in radio this year than last.
- The percentage of people of color in radio is up from its low in 2010, but down from the high 22 years ago and far from on par with the population overall.
- There are twice as many men as women in radio news, and just under half of radio news staffs include at least one woman, but the percentage of women news directors has increased in the past year.
Senate Commerce Committee Approves Nomination of Geoffrey Starks to be a Member of the Federal Communications Commission
The Senate Commerce Committee approved eight bills including the Measuring the Economic Impact of Broadband Act of 2017 (S.645), and four nominations, including Geoffrey Starks to be a Member of the Federal Communications Commission. S.645 would require the Secretary of Commerce to conduct an assessment and analysis of the effects of broadband deploymnet and adoption on the economy of the United States. Committee Ranking Member Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) called for the Senate to move quickly on Starks' nomination given that FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is the only Democrat on the commission and the only one "holding the line" for consumers, he said.
David Lawrence to Lead T-Mobile/Sprint Transaction Task Force
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that David Lawrence will lead the FCC task force coordinating the agency’s review of the transaction proposed by T-Mobile US and Sprint. The parties filed their applications with the Commission on June 18, 2018. Lawrence comes to the FCC from the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, where he served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, most recently for AAG Makan Delrahim. Lawrence joined the Front Office of the Antitrust Division in 2016, assisted the management of the Division through the transition between Administrations, and has focused on issues in the telecommunications and transportation sectors. Lawrence started his career at the Antitrust Division as an Honors Program attorney in the Telecommunications and Broadband Section. While there, he served as lead attorney for several complex investigations. He also won three Antitrust Division Awards of Distinction, including for his work on a number of high-profile transactions before the Department. Before joining the Department of Justice, Lawrence clerked for Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Richard J. Holwell of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Lawrence is a graduate of New York University School of Law and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he majored in Physics.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) -- we welcome your comments.
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