August 2015

Debate Lineup Illustrates Power of Fox News

The buildup to the first Republican presidential debate shows that the influence of Fox News Channel on the GOP selection process is stronger than ever.

The musical chairs-like rules for participation in the Aug 5 televised debate required candidates to reach a certain threshold in opinion polls, making national exposure to an interested audience vital at a stage in the campaign when candidates are usually shaking hands in early primary states. And where better to find that audience than on Fox News Channel? The 17 candidates — only 10 of whom are invited to the prime-time debate — made a total of 273 separate appearances on Fox News in May, June and July, according to a count by liberal-leaning group Media Matters for America. Six hopefuls — Donald Trump, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina and Rick Perry — have appeared 20 times or more each on Fox or Fox Business Channel, the network said. Besides interviews, candidates have joined the panel of talk shows like "Outnumbered" or "The Five."

Rep Barbara Lee calls on Apple to release diversity data

Rep Barbara Lee (D-CA) called on the nation's technology companies to release federal data on the diversity of their work forces.

Rep Lee was in Silicon Valley with two other members of the Congressional Black Caucus to turn up the heat on the tech industry to hire more African Americans. "We have asked them all to release the data," Rep Lee said. "If they believe in inclusion, they have to release the data so the public knows that they are being transparent and that they are committed to doing the right thing." Apple, one of technology's most powerful companies, has refused requests from USA TODAY to make public data it routinely supplies to the US Department of Labor on the demographics of their workers. "Apple seems to be moving in the right direction. Tim Cook wants his company to look like the country and I think they are very committed to doing everything they can do," Rep Lee said.

The Kapors raise the bar for tech diversity

[Commentary] Mitch Kapor, one of the co-founders of Lotus, and his wife, Freada Kapor Klein, who for years have been on the forefront of the issue of tech and diversity, said they will spend $40 million to address the structural inequities that make it hard for African-Americans and other groups to become successful tech entrepreneurs.

Their approach is not just wonderful but impressive. They don't plan to just give money away, but tackle what they see are the key issues that have kept certain groups outside of the tech industry. Chief among them is access to capital. Over the next three years, Kapor Capital, the family's venture firm, will invest $25 million in technology startups. At least half of the companies it invests in will have founders from groups who have had low representation in tech, such as African-Americans, Latinos and women, Mitch Kapor said. In addition, tech entrepreneurs who receive investments will be required to create a "diversity plan," he said. The firm is in the process of interviewing for a portfolio services director to help the entrepreneurs do that. The plans will vary, but companies would set hiring goals that are also tied to firms' business goals, he said.

China to tighten grip over country’s Internet users

China has tightened its grip over the country’s 650 million Internet users by announcing moves to station police officers inside large Internet companies in an effort to heighten censorship and prevent subversion, according to a senior security official.

The move follows a spate of recent efforts to tighten the screws on social media users, as well as a draft cyber security law that will grant authorities broad new powers to control the Internet in the country and force web companies to share more data with the government. Chen Zhimin, the deputy minister of public security, revealed a plan to set up “network security offices” in major internet companies — such as Tencent and Alibaba — “in order to be able to find out about illegal internet activity more quickly”, although he did not specify how the initiative would work.

TWC: CNS Just Seeking FCC Peering Mandate

In its response to the information network neutrality compliant filed by Commercial Network Services in July, Time Warner Cable told the Federal Communications Commission that there was no violation, that TWC was applying an industry standard peering policy, and that CNS was just trying to get the FCC to mandate a settlement-free deal that CNS did not warrant, according to a copy of TWC's reply to the complaint. "CNS’s Informal Complaint does not remotely demonstrate any violation of the 2015 Open Internet Order or the Commission’s rules," said the cable operator. "Rather, CNS asks the Commission to establish a new mandate of 'open peering' that would result in tremendous inefficiency and would upend market-based Internet traffic-exchange practices that for many years have functioned successfully 'without significant Commission oversight.'"

TWC said it enters into settlement-free agreements with other networks where "various technical criteria -- including total traffic volume and the ability to interconnect in multiple locations -- are satisfied," and where there is a relatively equal exchange of value. "CNS did not satisfy those criteria and thus did not qualify for settlement-free peering under TWC’s industry-standard policy."

Let Your Voice be Heard on IANA Transition

Nearly 17 months ago, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration kicked off activities to complete the privatization of the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) as promised in 1998 by transitioning our stewardship role over certain technical functions related to the DNS. We have reached an important milestone in that process as the two working groups tasked with developing proposals related to the transition have released them for final comment. These technical functions, known as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, play an important but limited role in how the DNS and Internet operate.

In recent days both the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) and the Cross Community Working Group (CCWG) on Enhancing ICANN Accountability have posted their proposals for review and final public comment. Comments are due September 8, 2015, for the ICG’s proposal and September 12, 2015, for the CCWG’s proposal. I urge all parties with an interest in the IANA transition to review these proposals and provide feedback to the working groups. This is the best way to make your voice heard and make a difference. It is particularly important that stakeholders everywhere evaluate whether these plans meet the criteria that we have said must be part of the transition. I greatly appreciate the time and effort the community has put into developing these proposals. With the participation of as many stakeholders as possible, I am confident that this transition will result in a stronger ICANN and an Internet that will continue to grow and thrive throughout the world.

In the First Person: A Broadband Journey with Diabetes

[Commentary] My name is Tesch West and I have diabetes. I am also a legal intern on the Federal Communications Commission's Connect2Health Task Force, where we are charting the broadband future of health and care and working to ensure that the FCC stays ahead of the health technology curve. I was inspired to work on this Task Force because of the impact these issues have on my life. According to the Centers for Disease Control, just over 29 million Americans have diabetes, and only 5 percent are living with type 1 diabetes. While 5 percent may seem insignificant in comparison to the other 95 percent living with type 2 diabetes, I can assure you that the 1.25 million Americans with type 1 would disagree. I should know - I'm one of them.

I was diagnosed when I was 10 years old. I haven’t let an autoimmune disorder hold me back from achieving my dreams, such as going to law school. Broadband health technology has been a big part of my success. I have a wireless implantable sensor that tests my blood sugar and notifies me when my medication should be delivered. I literally sleep easier knowing it will wake me if there is a problem. Also, my glucometer and insulin pump use radio frequencies to "talk" to each other and I can download all of this information and send it to my doctors. Quite the change from 14 years ago when I was first diagnosed - the hospital staff drew my blood for a simple glucose test with a plastic tube and a glucometer the size of a loaf of bread. With the help of broadband-enabled technologies, such as telehealth and implantable sensors, my diabetes is under control and manageable. It doesn't define me. It is only a part of my life. Working at the Connect2HealthFCC Task Force, I have come to realize that by charting the future of broadband-enabled health care, we are charting the future of people like me.

[Tesch West is a second year law student at George Washington University Law School. She is currently working as a legal intern on the Connect2HealthFCC Task Force]

Sen Thune Bill Would Improve Access, Availability of Rural Health Care

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) introduced the Rural Health Care Connectivity Act of 2015 (S 1916), a bill that wold amend the Communications Act to permit skilled nursing facilities (SNF) to apply for support from the Universal Service Fund's (USF) Rural Health Care Program (RHCP). The Communications Act specifies which types of health care providers are eligible to receive RHCP support, of which SNFs are currently not included.

“For many South Dakotans, it is not as easy as jumping in the car and driving down to the local hospital for a checkup, which is why access to rural health care, including telemedicine, is such an important issue for South Dakota families,” said Chairman Thune. “This common-sense bill would support and improve the health care services that skilled nursing facilities can provide to our rural communities by allowing them access to much-needed funds that are currently out of reach. My legislation achieves this goal without raising the existing cap on the Universal Service Fund.”

FCC Announces Workshop to Promote the Wider Use of the Emergency Alert System

The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau and the Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission will host a workshop to promote the wider use and increased accessibility of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on Thursday, August 27, 2015, from 1:00pm to 4:30pm. The workshop will explore two key issues: 1) how to improve the usefulness of the EAS for emergency managers at the state and local levels and 2) how to improve the accessibility of alerts to people with disabilities.

In particular, the workshop will discuss methods to empower and encourage state and local emergency managers to utilize the EAS and Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) systems more widely for localized alerts and exercises. The workshop will also address the accessibility of EAS visual messages, including the technical feasibility of improving the synchronicity of EAS audio with the WAS visual crawl and the readiness off Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology for increased usage in national and local alerting.

Memo to MPAA: Congress didn’t pass SOPA

Remember 2012, when there was that giant Internet backlash against the Stop Online Piracy Act that, amazingly, Congress listened to and hence the content-industry-backed legislation died a loud death? Well apparently the Motion Picture Association of America didn't get the memo that SOPA failed. SOPA provided for DNS-redirecting of blacklisted sites. It gave the Justice Department the power to seek court orders from search engines like Google not to render search results of infringing websites. What's more, the failed proposal also would have codified that content owners like the MPAA and Recording Industry Association of America have the legal backing to seek court orders demanding that judges require financial institutions and ad networks to stop doing business with sites that content owners prove are dedicated to infringing activity.

According to Mitch Stoltz, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the MPAA is invoking SOPA-like powers to take down sites dedicated to infringing motion pictures, saying, "the studios are asking for one court order to bind every domain name registrar, registry, hosting provider, payment processor, caching service, advertising network, social network, and bulletin board - in short, the entire Internet -- to block and filter a site called MovieTube. If they succeed, the studios could set a dangerous precedent for quick website blocking with little or no court supervision, and with Internet service and infrastructure companies conscripted as enforcers. That precedent would create a powerful tool of censorship -- which we think should be called SOPA power, given its similarity to the ill-fated SOPA bill. It will be abused, which is why it’s important to stop it from being created in the first place."

Benton

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