December 2016

CHAIRMAN WHEELER

CHAIRMAN WHEELER ANNOUNCES HIS PLANS TO STEP DOWN
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
Chairman Tom Wheeler, after more three years at the helm of the agency, announced he intends to leave the Federal Communications Commission on January 20, 2017. Chairman Wheeler issued the following statement:
“Serving as F.C.C. Chairman during this period of historic technological change has been the greatest honor of my professional life. I am deeply grateful to the President for giving me this opportunity. I am especially thankful to the talented Commission staff for their service and sacrifice during my tenure. Their achievements have contributed to a thriving communications sector, where robust investment and world-leading innovation continue to drive our economy and meaningful improvements in the lives of the American people. It has been a privilege to work with my fellow Commissioners to help protect consumers, strengthen public safety and cybersecurity, and ensure fast, fair and open networks for all Americans.”
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-wheeler-announces-his-plans-step-down | Federal Communications Commission | The Hill | The Verge | Washington Post | ars technica | B&C | IDG News Service | MediaPost | Telecompetitor | Deadline | CNN | LA Times | USA Today | Morning Consult
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CHAIRMAN WHEELER’S GIFT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Adrianne Furniss]
[Commentary] In reviewing the successes of the last year, but, more broadly, the last three years, the person I keep returning to is Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler. Chairman Wheeler has upheld the public interest, recognized the power of communications to strengthen communities, and acted to modernize and reform programs that bring open, affordable, high-capacity broadband to all Americans. His legacy is the opportunities for all Americans to connect to jobs, education, healthcare, and family. As we enter this holiday season, I am thankful for Chairman Tom Wheeler’s gifts to the American people. To me, what is amazing about his many accomplishments can’t always be measured by the dockets he opened, the votes he won, or the initiatives he proposed. The day-to-day impacts of his actions can often be more readily seen in the child who can now reach a hand across a keyboard to access a whole new universe of knowledge thanks to gigabit connections to the school and Wi-Fi in the classroom. Or in the young mother who can now coordinate work and her child’s medical care thanks to her Lifeline connection. Or the small business owner who can now compete on a level playing field with its bigger business competitors thanks to a free and open Internet. Or the community that was once left behind, that is able to get ahead with new broadband options. In other words, it’s not the orders he voted or the computers he connected, but the lives he touched in ways both big and small. I expect they will be felt not just for a year, or a chairman’s term, but in the case of that little girl … it just may change her life.
benton.org/headlines/celebrating-chairman-wheelers-gift-american-people | Benton Foundation
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HOW WHEELER BECAME A NET NEUTRALITY CHAMPION
[SOURCE: Vice, AUTHOR: Sam Gustin]
When Tom Wheeler was tapped by President Barack Obama to lead the Federal Communications Commission in 2013, many public interest advocates were skeptical, if not downright hostile, toward his appointment, because of his lengthy background as a top lobbyist for the cable industry, from 1979 to 1984, and the wireless industry, from 1992 to 2004. But over the next three years, Chairman Wheeler won over the public interest community, and infuriated his former clients in the cable and wireless industries, by successfully spearheading the most pro-consumer telecom policy reforms in a generation, including the agency’s landmark policy protecting network neutrality, and agency rules protecting consumers from broadband industry privacy abuses. “Tom Wheeler has been—by far—the best FCC Chairman in the 45 years I have practiced communications law,” said Andrew Schwartzman, Benton Senior Counselor at the Public Interest Communications Law Project at Georgetown University Law Center's Institute for Public Representation.
benton.org/headlines/how-fcc-chairman-tom-wheeler-became-net-neutrality-champion | Vice
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WHEELER TRADES SHOTS WITH SEN JOHNSON
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
Outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler and Sen Ron Johnson (R-WI) traded barbs Dec 15 in the wake of Chairman Wheeler’s announcement that he would step down. During the last FCC open meeting of 2016, Chairman Wheeler said he had made clear his intentions to depart from the agency after the Obama administration ends. “This is in keeping with the commitments I have made since March that I would cooperate with the new administration to ensure a smooth transition,” he said. Chairman Wheeler, a Democrat, said Senate Republicans ignored his offer to step down in exchange for the reconfirmation of FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, also a Democrat. And he particularly singled out Sen Johnson, saying the senator made it “pretty clear” that he wanted to create a 2-1 GOP majority in the FCC. Sen Johnson disputed Chairman Wheeler's words.
benton.org/headlines/chairman-wheeler-trades-shots-sen-ron-johnson | Hill, The
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WSJ HEARTS WHEELER
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] For three years Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler rammed through his agenda on partisan lines, including classifying the internet as a public utility. He took orders from the White House, Google and the nonprofit Public Knowledge, to the extent there’s any difference among the three. Wheeler refused to pass around draft rules and sandbagged his colleagues with surprise votes and deals, the details of which were often altered later. Republicans are eager to roll out a reform agenda, and with Chairman Wheeler gone they’ll have a chance to do it, no Senate parliamentary tricks required. As for Tom Wheeler, he’s about to see that his legacy can be reversed in months because it was rooted in partisan self-interest rather than the national interest.
benton.org/headlines/tom-wheeler-has-left-group-chat-republicans-can-now-reshape-fcc-and-roll-back-his-agenda | Wall Street Journal
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ACCESSIBILITY

FCC CLEARS PATH FOR TRANSITION FROM TTY TECH TO REAL-TIME TEXT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission amended its rules to allow phone companies to replace support for an outdated form of text telephone communications, known as TTY, with support for real-time text, to provide reliable telephone communications for Americans who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, or who have
a speech disability. As the nation’s communications networks migrate to IP-based environments, real-time text technology will allow Americans with disabilities to use the same wireless communications devices as their friends, relatives and colleagues, and more seamlessly integrate into tomorrow’s communications networks. Under FCC rules, phone companies and manufacturers are required to support accessible text communications services, which for years have taken the form of TTY services. Under the new rules, carriers and manufacturers will be allowed to use the more advanced and interoperable real-time text technology to meet this obligation.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-clears-path-transition-tty-technology-real-time-text | Federal Communications Commission
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TRANSITION

FIRST 100 DAYS
[SOURCE: House Freedom Caucus, AUTHOR: Rep Mark Meadows (R-NC)]
The House Freedom Caucus released a list of more than 200 rules and regulations the group thinks President-elect Donald Trump (R-NY) should target during his first 100 days in office. Rural broadband loans and loan guarantees at the Department of Agriculture are on the hit list. Just one item for repeal at the Federal Communications Commission: network neutrality.
benton.org/headlines/freedom-caucus-offers-wish-list-trumps-first-100-days | House Freedom Caucus
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TRUMP AND TELECOM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] During the campaign, Donald Trump railed against powerful corporations and promised to prevent blockbuster mergers like the proposed $85.4 billion deal between AT&T and Time Warner. That was then. Since the election, President-elect Trump has been decidedly less interested in constraining the power of big companies, especially those in the telecommunications industry. Investors and financial analysts are already betting that the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission under Trump will be more likely to approve mergers in this industry, including perhaps a deal between Sprint and T-Mobile. Trump appears ready to do away with regulations on this oligopolistic industry. As it is, a lack of competition for some services is driving up prices. Public interest groups, Democratic lawmakers and sensible Republicans in Congress ought to vigorously oppose Trump’s deregulatory agenda. This won’t be easy, but they could, for example, try to challenge policy changes by filing lawsuits against the FCC, a tactic the telecom industry has used countless times over the years to stymie or delay regulations they opposed. When Senate Democrats pick a new FCC commissioner, they ought to pick a strong consumer advocate who will use the position to speak out forcefully for more competition in the industry and common-sense approaches like net neutrality rules. Susan Crawford, of Harvard Law School, and Tim Wu, of Columbia Law School, are two experts who specialize in telecommunication issues and fit that bill.
benton.org/headlines/expect-cozy-trump-telecom-alliance | New York Times
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TURNING POINT?
[SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Gretel Kauffman]
All things considered, Donald Trump's meeting with tech industry leaders could have gone much worse. The meeting, described by one technology reporter as a "watershed moment" for the tech industry, came hours after an announcement that Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick, both outspoken critics of Trump during his campaign, would be taking on strategic adviser positions as part of the president-elect's Strategic and Policy Forum. To industry observers, the developments marked a distinct shift in tone for the relationship between Trump and an industry that overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton. And while it's still too early to tell what that relationship will look like over the next four years, they see potential for cooperation following a heated campaign during which the president-elect openly feuded with some of the very executives who gathered at Trump Tower.
benton.org/headlines/are-we-seeing-turning-point-trumps-relationship-silicon-valley | Christian Science Monitor
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TRUMP AND TECH
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR:]
Silicon Valley practically invented the reality distortion field, so it should not have been surprised that president-elect Donald Trump told technology executives on Wednesday to “like me — at least a little bit” because of “the bounce”. But the only chief executive at Trump Tower to have experienced much of a bounce was Ginni Rometty of IBM. It is time to cheer up. Taken at its worst, the nationalist, anti-free trade, anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric of Mr Trump would be bad news for the US tech sector, which relies on a steady supply of overseas engineers and the tolerance of foreign policymakers. But look at the financial sector. It would be hit by the same policies if they were enacted. Yet bank investors’ glasses are half-full: they are assuming much of the rhetoric is bluster and greedily anticipating action on deregulation. As Peter Thiel says, people should take Trump “seriously but not literally”. Much of the world cannot afford to be so blasé, but the tech sector can. It should be looking forward to an even more compelling handout, should Trump make good on his promise of a tax holiday on repatriating foreign profits.
benton.org/headlines/trump-and-tech-too-literal | Financial Times
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

NEW REPORT ON PRIVACY RISKS OF WEARABLE DEVICES
[SOURCE: Center for Digital Democracy, AUTHOR: Kathryn Montgomery, Jeff Chester, Katharina Kopp]
Personal health wearable devices that consumers are using to monitor their heart rates, sleep patterns, calories, and even stress levels raise new privacy and security risks. Watches, fitness bands, and so-called “smart” clothing, linked to apps and mobile devices, are part of a growing “connected-health” system in the U.S., promising to provide people with more efficient ways to manage their own health. But while consumers may think that federal laws will protect their personal health information collected by wearables, the report found that the weak and fragmented health-privacy regulatory system fails to provide adequate safeguards. This report provides an overview and analysis of the major features, key players, and trends that are shaping the new consumer-wearable and connected-health marketplace.
benton.org/headlines/new-report-health-wearable-devices-pose-new-consumer-and-privacy-risks | Center for Digital Democracy | read the report
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ELECTION 2016

HOW 2016 CHANGED DEMOCRACY
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Lionel Barber]
[Commentary] Something profound is happening in advanced democracies. The forces at work are cultural, economic, social and political, driven in part by rapid technological change. In political terms, Brexit and the Trump triumph highlight the decline of the party system and the end of the old left/right divide. There is a widespread disillusion among western democracies with globalisation. The progressive abandonment of controls on capital, goods, services and labour, epitomised by the launch of the single European market and the single currency, reached its apogee in the summer of 2007. In 2016, we saw, finally, that this period — call it Globalisation 2.0 — is over. Free trade has become ever harder to sell to a public worried about job security and the competitive threat from developing countries. Free movement is also in question. Trump’s winner-takes-all approach and his lack of respect for minority rights violates a cornerstone of democracy and free society, as set out in the 10th of the Federalist Papers written by James Madison, one of the founding fathers. His position mirrors the more extreme Brexiter demands that the “will of the people” be respected at all costs. Anyone who raises objections — the media, the opposition or, indeed, the judiciary — risks being branded “enemies of the people”. This is not merely populism run rampant. It is a denial of politics itself, which, as the late scholar Bernard Crick reminds us, is the only alternative to government by coercion and the tyranny of the majority. We have been warned.
[Lionel Barber is the FT’s editor]
benton.org/headlines/year-demagogue-how-2016-changed-democracy | Financial Times
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

ATT RESPONDS AGAIN RE: SPONSORED DATA INQUIRY
[SOURCE: AT&T, AUTHOR: Joan Marsh]
As we explain (again) in the response provided to the Wireless Bureau, the video entertainment marketplace is ripe for disruptive change, which is exactly why consumers have enthusiastically embraced Data Free TV in all its competitive forms. That enthusiasm has caused competitors to react with additional consumer-friendly video offerings, like the T-Mobile offer announced recently.. And although the Commission has decided to apply Title II to broadband services, the Wireless Bureau’s analysis of AT&T’s sponsored data platform abandons decades of Title II jurisprudence to raise questions about a service that undeniably increases choice and lowers costs for video consumers. This is exactly the type of pro-consumer benefit that the DirecTV acquisition was designed to achieve.
benton.org/headlines/att-responds-again-wireless-bureaus-sponsored-data-inquiry | AT&T | B&C | Morning Consult
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JOURNALISM

FACEBOOK UNVEILS NEW FEATURES TO FIGHT FAKE NEWS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
Facebook is rolling out new features to combat fake news on its platform, including flagging disputed stories, following a wave of criticism at the social media giant. The new tools include a streamlined reporting process to identify fake news, flagging those stories, improved sharing analytics and steps to tackle spammers. The changes were introduced by Facebook vice president of product management Adam Mosseri. “We believe in giving people a voice and that we cannot become arbiters of truth ourselves, so we're approaching this problem carefully,” Mosseri wrote. “We've focused our efforts on the worst of the worst, on the clear hoaxes spread by spammers for their own gain, and on engaging both our community and third party organizations." Under the changes, users will now have an option to report news stories they believe are fake by checking a box.
benton.org/headlines/facebook-unveils-new-features-fight-fake-news | Hill, The | Facebook
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MANY AMERICANS BELIEVE FAKE NEWS IS SOWING CONFUSION
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: Michael Barthel, Amy Mitchell, Jesse Holcomb]
According to a new survey by Pew Research Center, most Americans suspect that made-up news is having an impact. About two-in-three US adults (64%) say fabricated news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current issues and events. This sense is shared widely across incomes, education levels, partisan affiliations and most other demographic characteristics. Though they sense these stories are spreading confusion, Americans express a fair amount of confidence in their own ability to detect fake news, with about four-in-ten (39%) feeling very confident that they can recognize news that is fabricated and another 45% feeling somewhat confident. Overall, about a third (32%) of Americans say they often see political news stories online that are made up.
benton.org/headlines/many-americans-believe-fake-news-sowing-confusion | Pew Research Center | USA Today | B&C | Politico
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OWNERSHIP

21ST CENTURY FOX TO TAKE OVER EUROPEAN BROADCASTER SKY
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR:]
21st Century Fox and Sky PLC say they have agreed on a $14.6-billion takeover of the British broadcaster by the US-based media giant. The deal announced Dec 15 values Sky shares at $13.41 each. It is not expected to be complete before the end of 2017. Rupert Murdoch's Fox already owns just over 39% of Sky. An earlier attempt to acquire the rest was scuttled by the 2011 phone-hacking scandal that rocked his British newspapers. Taking control of Sky would give 21st Century Fox, which owns cable networks Fox News, FX and the Fox broadcast channel and a major Hollywood film studio, a distributor in Europe. Sky has 22 million customers in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy.
benton.org/headlines/21st-century-fox-take-over-european-broadcaster-sky | Associated Press | Multichannel News
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December 2016

Summer Redstone Relinquishing Voting Power on the Board of Viacom

Leading Candidate for WH Press Secretary: Trump would 'absolutely not' ban media outlets from White House

Why Margaret Sullivan left the public editor job at the New York Times

December 16, 2016 (Wheeler Announces His Plans To Step Down)

Digital Denied: The Impact of Systemic Racial Discrimination on Home-Internet Adoption

President Obama Says U.S. Will Retaliate for Russia’s Election Meddling

U.S. Faces Tall Hurdles in Detaining or Deterring Russian Hackers

Republican National Committee Security Foiled Russian Hackers

Russia Turns Over American Cybertheft Suspect to the U.S.

Editors Defend Coverage of Stolen Emails After News of Russian Hacks