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February 2016

Commissioner Pai Remarks: Internet Regulation First-Year Report Card

One year ago today, the Federal Communications Commission decided to join 20th century regulation and the 21st century Internet together in not-so-holy matrimony. It’s fitting that the traditional one-year anniversary gift is paper—for that’s pretty much all that utility-style regulation has produced over the last 12 months. Reams of paper have been spent on litigation. Mountains more have been built counseling Internet service providers on the new requirements. And there are even stacks and stacks of paper that have been filed responding to the agency’s Paperwork Reduction Act analysis. All this has been a gift to the legal profession. But for most Americans, the marriage has been a dud. No, the Title II Order was not the product of an expert agency looking at the facts and making an independent judgment. It was the product of raw political power. So what were the results? Unfortunately, for those of us who cherished the free and open Internet, nothing we didn’t predict.

  1. We knew that President Obama’s plan to regulate the Internet would harm investment and slow down broadband deployment. And one year later, we are already seeing those results.
  2. We knew that President Obama’s plan would give the FCC the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works.
  3. We knew that President Obama’s plan would create massive uncertainty.

Apple's Tim Cook to shareholders: Taking on the FBI is the right thing to do

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook defended his hard-line stance against the FBI and a court order over consumer privacy as “the right things to do” during the company’s annual investors conference Feb 26. “We are a staunch advocate for our customers' privacy and personal safety,” Cook said, perched on a stool in front of about 200 shareholders. “We’ve been in the news lately, and some of you may have some questions on that. We do these because these are the right things to do. Being hard doesn’t scare us.” The comments, which hinted at the company’s messy, public feud with the FBI over the last two weeks, drew applause from the crowd gathered at Apple headquarters.

AT&T gave $62K to lawmakers months before vote to limit muni broadband

A Missouri legislative committee recently approved a bill that would limit the spread of municipal broadband networks, helping private Internet service providers such as AT&T avoid competition. A few months before that vote, AT&T donated a total of $62,500 to political committees in Missouri. This included $20,000 to the House Republican Campaign Committee, $20,000 to the Missouri Democratic State Committee, $7,500 to the Missouri Republican Party, and $15,000 to the Missouri Senate Campaign Committee (apparently a Republican group). One of the donations is listed by the Missouri Ethics Commission as occurring just two weeks ago, but apparently it was as made in September 2015 and not deposited until Feb because the original check was lost. The donations were made before the legislature went into session; AT&T's policy is to not make contributions during legislative sessions. AT&T gave similar amounts in previous years. CenturyLink, which also supports restrictions on municipal broadband, gave $6,000 to the Missouri Senate Campaign Committee in November 2015. CenturyLink opposed a municipal broadband network in Columbia, Missouri, in 2014.

Google gives $1M to Bryan Stevenson's racial justice effort

Google.org is teaming with Bryan Stevenson and his non-profit Equal Justice Initiative to push America to confront its violent racial history. The philanthropic arm of the Internet giant says it will help bring online the public education programs on racial justice developed by this Harvard-educated lawyer and author of the bestseller "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption" so that millions of people can be exposed to them. And Google.org is giving $1 million to the Equal Justice Initiative to support Stevenson's broader efforts to create civil rights landmarks such as the nation's first lynching memorial and memorial markers at lynching sites.

"Our mission statement is universal access to information and knowledge for everyone. I think what's exciting about what EJI is doing is that at a national level it is really trying to tell the untold history around race in this country and help people develop a deeper understanding for the narrative around race and how we have gotten to where we are," said Justin Steele, a principal with Google.org and the Bay Area and racial justice giving lead.

TV Pundits Praise Hillary Clinton On Air, Fail to Disclose Financial Ties to Her Campaign

Tune into television coverage of the presidential campaign and undoubtedly you will hear from various pundits described as “former campaign strategists” and “political contributors” explaining the latest developments of the race. But in many cases, these pundits -- though introduced as neutral experts on campaigns or party politics -- in fact have financial ties to the candidates they praise on the air.

Several consultants who work at firms retained by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her affiliated Super PACs appear regularly on the major television networks, frequently touting Clinton. A review of pundits on the major networks and cable news also found one prominent pundit who often praised Jeb Bush, without the network revealing her relationship with his campaign. “Journalism 101 teaches that reporters and TV news hosts must properly identify their sources and analysts,” says Jeff Cohen, an associate professor of journalism at Ithaca College.

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