December 11, 2015 (Accountable Political Ads Now)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2015
No events on our calendar for today, but here’s a look at the week ahead https://www.benton.org/calendar/2015-12-13--P1W
AGENDA
FCC Confirms December 17 Meeting Agenda - press release [links to Benton summary]
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Tech companies push to keep net neutrality out of spending bill
White House to GOP: Drop Ideological Riders
How Google May Have Accidentally Undermined Net Neutrality Rules
NCTA’s Powell: Network Neutrality Decision Likely 'Hodgepodge' [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
MORE INTERNET/BROADBAND
A Starting Point for CAF Post-ROFR Auction - FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly
44 Mayors and City Leaders Support Modernizing Federal Lifeline Program to Include Broadband - Next Century Cities press release
The Promise and Peril of Universal Internet
Our borderless Internet - WaPo op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Are we giving away the Internet to Russia and China? - Medium op-ed [links to Benton summary]
US broadband market reaching saturation, analyst warns cable investors [links to Benton summary]
Broadband Adoption: Brookings Researchers Uncover New Drivers [links to telecompetitor]
Retailers are urging congressional lawmakers to reject a customs enforcement bill unless an online sales tax provision is added. [links to Hill, The]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC Technical Advisory Council Releases Mobile Device Theft Prevention Report - press release [links to Benton summary]
SECURITY
White House meets with privacy advocates about encryption [links to Washington Post]
Encryption: Conflating two technical issues in one policy debate [links to American Enterprise Institute]
Lawmakers: No evidence San Bernardino shooters used encryption [links to Hill, The]
Sen Lindsey Graham Demands that Silicon Valley Offer Backdoors to its Encrypted Information [links to Revere Digital]
FBI Chief Says Texas Gunman Used Encryption to Text Overseas Terrorist [links to New York Times]
Bill targeting terrorist propaganda on the Internet misses the mark [links to Los Angeles Times editorial]
Mark Cuban says Apple should ban Twitter [links to CNN Money]
The Rationale Behind Verizon's Interest in Yahoo's Web Business [links to Benton summary]
PRIVACY
Americans are more likely to be happy giving away their personal data
FTC should school privacy advocates who falsely claim Google spied on children - The Hill op-ed [links to Benton summary]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Introducing the New FCC Website - press release
Dept of Transportation Offers $40 Million Prize For Its "Smart City Challenge" [links to Washington Post]
EDUCATION
US Department of Education Releases 2016 National Education Technology Plan - press release
The Every Student Succeeds Act includes block grants intended for technology [links to Benton summary]
CONTENT
Silicon Valley Is in a War Over Artificial Intelligence and Facebook Just Made Its Boldest Move Yet [links to Revere Digital]
The Internet’s Loop of Action and Reaction Is Worsening - analysis [links to Benton summary]
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Campaign Finance Reformers File Complaints Against 18 Stations
Accountable Political Ads Now - op-ed
The Internet’s Loop of Action and Reaction Is Worsening - analysis [links to Benton summary]
It’s Time for the TV Networks to Challenge Trump - John Cassidy editorial
The Tarnished Trump Brand [links to New York Times editorial]
Is Trump the Candidate Destroying Trump the Brand? [links to AdAge]
ADVERTISING
Twitter is now delivering ads to users without accounts [links to Los Angeles Times]
Startup Factual provides detailed profiles of mobile-device users that are used to decide what advertisements to show them [links to Wall Street Journal]
TELEVISION
10 Tech Prediction For TV For The Coming Year [links to TVNewsCheck]
JOURNALISM
Fox Co-Hosts Attack Mark Zuckerberg Over Statement Of Support For The Muslim Community [links to Media Matters for America]
The Washington Post reaches the end of an era, but its mission remains [links to Washington Post editorial]
HEALTH
33% of US households with broadband adopt mHealth devices [links to Fierce]
OWNERSHIP
Cablevision Shareholders Withdraw Suits to Block Altice Deal [links to Multichannel News]
DIVERSITY/LABOR
Hacking the State of Pay in Silicon Valley - Revere Digital op-ed [links to Benton summary]
New technology meets old labor laws in the gig economy [links to Brookings]
POLICYMAKERS
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer Joins GoFundMe [links to Revere Digital]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Americans are more likely to be happy giving away their personal data
EU can suspend new data transfer pact with U.S. if worried about privacy: Official [links to Reuters]
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
TECH COMPANIES PUSH TO KEEP NET NEUTRALITY OUT OF SPENDING BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
Major technology companies are pushing Congress to keep any network neutrality-related measures out of an end-of-year spending bill lawmakers are seeking to wrap-up during the week of Dec 14. More than a dozen companies and trade groups representing the largest players in the industry sent a letter to House and Senate leadership calling for a trio of provisions to be kept out of the “chaotic appropriations process.” “We are writing to urge you to refrain from including riders relating to net neutrality and the Federal Communication Commission’s Open Internet Order in the upcoming omnibus spending legislation,” the companies wrote in the letter spearheaded by the Internet Freedom Business Alliance. Companies signing the letter include Cogent, Etsy, Kickstarter, Tumblr, Twilio and Vimeo. Trade groups Engine, Incompas and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) also signed it. CCIA represents Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Yahoo and many other tech companies.
benton.org/headlines/tech-companies-push-keep-net-neutrality-out-spending-bill | Hill, The
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WHITE HOUSE TO GOP: DROP IDEOLOGICAL RIDERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The White House has again signaled that it can't support a budget agreement that includes "ideological riders" insisted on by Republican legislators, riders like those that would limit network neutrality rules strongly championed by that White House. House and Senate Democrats are widely expected to pass a short-term Continuing Resolution to keep the government open past the Dec. 11 deadline and push the battle over a final bill, including over the riders, until mid-week during the week of Dec 14. Among the riders at issue are ones that would grandfather joint sales agreements that would otherwise be treated as attributable ownership interests in a March 2014 FCC decision, block funding of new network neutrality rule implementation until legal challenges were resolved and not allowing those new net neutrality rules to result in rate regulation.
benton.org/headlines/white-house-gop-drop-ideological-riders | Broadcasting&Cable
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HOW GOOGLE MAY HAVE ACCIDENTALLY UNDERMINED NET NEUTRALITY RULES
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Just days before the Federal Communications Commission was set to finalize its controversial network neutrality regulations, Google scrambled to lobby for a last-minute tweak. In a series of phone calls, which were later disclosed in a regulatory filing, three Google lawyers pressed top FCC officials to retool the legal authority underlying an important part of the regulations. At the time, Google's request seemed like an arcane footnote in the much-broader fight over net neutrality. But now, more than nine months later, that tiny tweak is causing big headaches for the FCC in federal court. On Dec 4, the three judges on the panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals grilled the FCC on the legal classification that Google requested. The dispute doesn't threatened to cripple the core of the FCC's net neutrality rules. But the late change could lead the court to throw out the FCC's authority over traffic congestion at the back end of the Internet. That would be a major blow to companies such as Netflix, which have complained that Internet providers are extorting them by demanding payments to relive congestion at interconnection points. That congestion can lead to grainy video quality and lengthy buffering times, Netflix says. "It looks as if the commission is in trouble on interconnection," said Randolph May, the president of the Free State Foundation, a conservative think tank that opposes the FCC's rules. "To the extent that Google is responsible [for the change]...I think it does present a problem for the commission."
benton.org/headlines/how-google-may-have-accidentally-undermined-net-neutrality-rules | National Journal
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
COMMISSIONER O’RIELLY ON CONNECT AMERICA FUND
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly]
[Commentary] A funny thing is happening on the way to enacting a reverse auction for a key portion of the high-cost Connect America Fund (CAF). Instead of installing a program based on competitive forces and free market principles, some people want the Commission staff to select winners and losers with an inappropriate bias against certain technologies. Such manipulation would be the surest way to produce greater inefficiency, overpay for service and leave many consumers unserved. Further, this would set bad precedent and undermine future Commission universal service efforts. Accordingly, I suggest that we reject this approach, focus on the sound, broad principles that everyone should support, and then turn to implementing the details. The principles are:
Serve as many unserved consumers as possible with service that meets specified baseline performance requirements.
Eliminate artificial categories, which could discount providers capable of providing the requisite service, and are based on unsupported assumptions.
Fiber should not be the default, nor should unlicensed, satellite or other qualified providers be sidelined.
Establish a real auction – not sealed bids or subjective staff review. Multi-round structure enables competition, where it exists, to achieve greater cost-efficiencies.
Funding should not flow to areas that already have broadband (i.e., 10/1 service for price cap areas).
benton.org/headlines/starting-point-caf-post-rofr-auction | Federal Communications Commission
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SUPPORT FOR LIFELINE
[SOURCE: Next Century Cities, AUTHOR: Press release]
Forty-four mayors and city officials sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission supporting the FCC’s proposal to improve Internet access for low-income families through the federal Lifeline program. A bipartisan group of municipal leaders from communities across the nation expressed their support for a proposal that will likely come before the FCC in early 2016, which would allow low-income families to use their Lifeline benefit to purchase broadband services at a subsidized rate. In the letter, city leaders encouraged the FCC to ratify the proposal to modernize the Lifeline program, stressing the need to put “broadband in reach” for low-income families in order to enhance education, civic engagement, and economic opportunity. The mayors’ letter also specified principles they support in a Lifeline proposal, including a portable benefit that promotes competition and a budget-neutral approach to Lifeline modernization. The mayoral letter was coordinated by Next Century Cities, a nonprofit membership organization made up of mayors and other elected city leaders working to ensure fast, affordable, and reliable Internet access for all of their residents. City leaders signing the letter included mayors from major metropolitan areas such as Boston, MA, Charlotte, NC, and Seattle, WA as well as smaller communities such as Mount Vernon, WA, Davidson, NC, and Yellow Springs, OH.
benton.org/headlines/44-mayors-and-city-leaders-support-modernizing-federal-lifeline-program-include-broadband | Next Century Cities
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PROJECT LOON
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Dominic Tierney]
Google’s audacious plan to provide “balloon-powered Internet for everyone” is gathering momentum. But can the tech giant be trusted? In the short run at least, Project Loon will aid the global middle billion rather than the bottom billion. For this venture to work, Google has to rely on a cooperative government, the existence of basic freedoms, capable local telecommunications firms, and a tech-savvy but under-served population. To benefit from the network, people need a cheap cell phone and data plan, which disqualifies many of the poorest. Google’s ultimate goal is balloons without borders: a free-floating network providing “balloon-powered Internet for everyone.” Will the corporation fly beyond the reach of state regulation? And will the project hand Google an effective monopoly over the Internet in developing countries? Some Indonesian telecommunications firms are already concerned about competition—although Google promises to share its profits.
benton.org/headlines/promise-and-peril-universal-internet | Atlantic, The
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PRIVACY/SECURITY
AMERICANS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE HAPPY GIVING AWAY THEIR PERSONAL DATA
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: James Vincent]
Every year, the United Kingdom's telecommunications regulator Ofcom releases a report on the state of the international communications market. 2015's report -- which includes data from countries including the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan -- offers a number of interesting insights, including the decline of fixed phone lines around the world, the relative expense of mobile data in the US, and varying morning smartphone routines around the world. When asked how much they agreed or disagreed with the statement "I am happy to provide personal information online to companies as long as I get what I want," Americans were most likely to agree strongly. Respondents from Sweden were least likely to agree with this premise, while German and Spanish individuals were also more likely to be suspicious of companies using their personal data. To compare the price of cellphone tariffs in different countries, Ofcom looked at different tiers -- from a super-basic line with only 50 minutes of talk time a month, to a premium package with 500 minutes, 200 texts, and 5GB of 4G data. The report shows that America is clearly the most expensive country to buy a cellphone tariff, even though prices fell 3 percent during 2015. (Ofcom's figures factor in the cost of handsets in these tariffs, amortizing them over a three-year period.)
benton.org/headlines/americans-are-more-likely-be-happy-giving-away-their-personal-data | Verge, The | Ofcom report
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
NEW FCC WEBSITE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: David Kitzmiller, Deanna Stephens]
The new Federal Communications Commission website features a more responsive design, a new site navigation structure, and an improved search capability. The site has moved from a flat design with minimal linking between pages to a hierarchical design that utilizes cross-linking, menus, and greater clarity of where you are on the site map. The new site navigation features a “toggle” capability that allows visitors to browse by "Category" or "Bureau and Office." Extensive user research revealed visitors to FCC.gov prefer a clear separation of consumer content and practitioner content. Using a toggle navigation allows us to meet the navigation preferences of different site visitors. The new site features a new search application. The new search brings together results from both FCC.gov and the Electronic Document Management System (EDOCS) into a seamless search experience. The user interface also allows for visitors to search only within FCC.gov and EDOCS and provides an array of facets to help further refine search results. Work will continue in the weeks and months ahead to continue refining the relevancy of the search results. Over time, we would like to continue expanding upon the unified searching capability to add new datasets to the application. The design of the site has been upgraded to a more modern look-and-feel that is responsive to the device you are using. This means that the display will adjust depending on whether you are using a mobile device, tablet or computer. The site also utilizes brighter colors and more white space to direct eye focus and enhance the scanability of webpages. These improvements are intended to provide an easier user experience for site visitors navigating the website.
benton.org/headlines/introducing-new-fcc-website | Federal Communications Commission
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EDUCATION
US DEPT OF EDUCATION RELEASES 2016 NATIONAL EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY PLAN
[SOURCE: Department of Education, AUTHOR: Press release]
The US Department of Education announced the release of the 2016 National Education Technology Plan and new commitments to support personalized professional learning for district leaders across the country working to improve teaching and student achievement through the effective use of technology. The 2016 plan outlines a vision of equity, active use, and collaborative leadership to make everywhere, all-the-time learning possible. While acknowledging the continuing need to provide greater equity of access to technology itself, the plan goes further to call upon all involved in American education to ensure equity of access to transformational learning experiences enabled by technology. The plan calls for schools and districts to:
Redesign teacher preparation programs to shift from a single technology course to thoughtful use of technology throughout a teacher’s preparation and minimum standards for higher education instructors’ tech proficiency.
Set an expectation of equitable access to technology and connectivity inside and outside of school regardless of students’ backgrounds.
Adopt high-quality openly licensed educational materials in place of staid, traditional textbooks.
Implement universal design principles for accessibility across all educational institutions and include these principles within teacher preparation programs.
Improve technology-based assessments to allow for embedded delivery within instruction and making near real-time feedback for educators possible.
Establish a robust technology infrastructure that meets current connectivity goals and can be augmented to meet future demand.
benton.org/headlines/us-department-education-releases-2016-national-education-technology-plan | Department of Education
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORMERS FILE COMPLAINTS AGAINST 18 STATIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Campaign finance reform groups continue to press the Federal Communications Commission to take action on political ad disclosures. The Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause and the Sunlight Foundation have filed complaints against 18 TV stations in seven markets, claiming they incorrectly identified Independence PAC USA as the sponsor of political ads rather than the true sponsor, and the sole funder, billionaire Michael Bloomberg. The groups say that they warned the stations that they were in violation of FCC regulations by not identifying Bloomberg and, when none changed their IDs, filed the complaint. Under FCC rules, broadcasters are required to identify the "true identity" of the sponsor, but just how that is defined is a point of contention. In 2014, the FCC's Media Bureau dismissed the same groups' complaints against TV stations WJLA-TV Washington (DC) and KGW-TV Portland (OR). Robert Baker, assistant chief of the Media Bureau's policy division, said at the time that they had not made a "sufficient showing that the stations had credible evidence casting into doubt that the identified sponsors of the advertisement were the true sponsors." But he also said "our approach might have been different if the complainants had approached the stations directly to furnish them with evidence calling into question that the identified sponsors were the true sponsors." That appears to have guided the approach taken to the latest round of complaints.
benton.org/headlines/campaign-finance-reformers-file-complaints-against-18-stations | Broadcasting&Cable
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ACCOUNTABLE POLITICAL ADS NOW
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Michael Copps]
[Commentary] Yesterday Common Cause, the Sunlight Foundation, and the Campaign Legal Center, represented by the Institute for Public Representation at the Georgetown University Law Center, filed formal complaints against 18 television stations in four states, asking the Federal Communications Commission to order these broadcasters to make on-air disclosures of the true identity of the sponsors of political ads appearing on their stations. The three organizations also sent letters informing more than 100 other stations of the true sponsor of certain Independence USA PAC ads they had run. It should have been easy for the stations to do this because the founder and sole funder of this organization is Michael Bloomberg. Why are these complaints directed to the FCC? Because the agency has legal authority, right now, to require full sponsor disclosure. The law has been on the books since the 1930s. The Commission applies the requirement to commercial sponsors but not to political sponsors, in spite of the fact that the rule clearly encompasses both. As far as the Commission ever got was to state formally, years ago, that citizens have a right to know by whom they are being persuaded. Unfortunately the FCC never got around to making sure this right was implemented. It has been petitioned more than once and asked in sundry ways to enforce accountable ads. I pushed for this as hard as I could when I served on the FCC, and I have joined hands with many citizen groups since then to make it happen.
https://www.benton.org/blog/accountable-political-ads-now
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MEDIA AND TRUMP
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: John Cassidy]
[Commentary] In a huge country like the United States, it is hard to exaggerate how much television counts during national political campaigns. And it isn’t just personal appearances that matter: it is how much overall attention each candidate (and his or her proposals) receives. For months now, Donald Trump has been virtually ever-present on cable-news networks and broadcast-network political shows. Indeed, it is probably safe to assume that no Presidential candidate in U.S. history has received as much free air time as Trump has. Often, he has nothing new to say. And unlike virtually everybody else, he doesn’t even have to turn up in the studio to be interviewed. If his schedule doesn’t permit it, or he can’t be bothered to schlep around midtown Manhattan, the producers of many shows, including some of the flagship Sunday-morning programs, allow him to call in by telephone. A Trump interview generates ratings, and ratings generate advertising dollars. That gives Trump great leverage. When he wants some publicity for his latest wheeze, he can usually have his pick of broadcast venues. When he threatens to boycott a particular show, or even an entire network, as he has done on several occasions, it is a consequential matter for the folks running the networks. Often, they buckle to his demands. So, what can be done? I don’t have the answer: I’m not sure anyone does. But it would be reassuring if there were more evidence that senior people in journalism, particularly at the TV networks, were grappling with it. As Trump has maneuvered his way to his current position, the GOP isn’t the only prominent American institution that has been in denial about its role in enabling him.
[Cassidy has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1995]
benton.org/headlines/its-time-tv-networks-challenge-trump | New Yorker
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