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  2. February 2017

February 2017

New court, second look: 'Citizens United' built on crumbling base

[Commentary] Since Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, many have asked what a new ninth justice might mean for campaign finance law. The shorthand for this was often “Citizens United.” Could it be overturned?

There is nothing in Judge Neil Gorsuch’s record to suggest that he is hostile to recent Supreme Court money in politics decisions. If anything, there is some evidence that he thinks the court could go further in rolling back campaign finance restrictions. Regardless of his pre-existing views, or those of other members of the court, at some point it should be necessary to compare the evidence of what has happened to what the court assumed and predicted when issuing these opinions. A Supreme Court that does so will be forced to concede that many of those decisions are built on a foundation of sand, and need to be reconsidered.

[Lawrence Norden is the deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.]

Facebook and the press: The transfer of power

[Commentary] Journalism's business crisis is well known, but in the wake of the US presidential election it is increasingly obvious that the true existential crisis for journalism is its lack of influence. Fake news, a decline in trust, and plunging revenues are all proxies for a loss of influence and impact over public opinion and policy. But influence, like energy, is only ever transferred, never destroyed. And the reluctant recipients of the displaced influence once enjoyed by the press are technology companies, which now command not just the dollars but the attention of the global audiences they serve.

Without Twitter and Facebook to amplify the diminished messages of news outlets and individual journalists, most published news would feel very much like shouting into the wind. Facebook in particular, which is currently the exoskeleton of the news industry, has recently made minor adjustments to its policy in regard to journalism that nevertheless represent an enormous philosophical shift for the company. Exercising economic power for Facebook is second nature, but in terms of how it exercises influence, the company is still in the novitiate.

NY attorney general sues Time Warner Cable over internet speed fraud

The New York attorney general’s office announced a lawsuit filed against Spectrum-Time Warner Cable and its parent company, Charter Communications, for allegedly defrauding and misleading New Yorkers about internet speeds and quality. “The allegations in today’s lawsuit confirm what millions of New Yorkers have long suspected — Spectrum-TWC has been ripping you off,” said New York Attorney General Schneiderman. “Today’s action seeks to bring much-needed relief to the millions of New Yorkers we allege have been getting cheated by Spectrum-Time Warner Cable for far too long.”

Schneiderman claimed that the Spectrum-Time Warner Cable was still misleadingly promising consumers internet speeds that they could not deliver on. The complaint specifically alleges that since January 2012, Spectrum-TWC marketing materials claimed that consumers who subscribed to their internet service would "fast, reliable connection" in their homes. After 16 months of investigation, though, the Schneiderman's office found that hundreds of thousands of speed tests showed that customers were “getting dramatically short-changed on both speed and reliability” by as much as 80 percent.

Are Police Biased Against Independent Journalists?

On Inauguration Day, police arrested six journalists who were covering protests in Washington (DC). The reporters were hauled before Superior Court judges and each charged with felony counts of “inciting to riot” and cause bodily harm, a crime punishable up to a maximum of 10 years in jail and fines of up to $25,000. By pressing charges against some reporters while releasing others, authorities have made a value judgment about what sort of journalism gets protected and what leads to severe legal penalties. It appears police have a bias against smaller independent reporters and freelancers, who may lack the backing and legal support of larger media outlets.

Government should not be in the position of deciding who is and who isn’t a journalist. Authorities can’t determine who’s allowed to engage in acts of journalism and who doesn’t have the right. But the First Amendment isn’t enough. People need to stand up for these reporters — especially now that they are under attack on so many fronts — and show their outrage by speaking out in support of journalists’ rights whenever these arrests occur.

AT&T to buy FiberTower for millimeter wave

AT&T said it has agreed to purchase FiberTower and its millimeter wave spectrum rights for an undisclosed amount. FiberTower owns licenses in the 24GHz and 39GHz bands, and provides wireless services to carriers, enterprises and government entities. Carriers typically use FiberTower’s services for wireless backhaul. The FiberTower acquisition will help AT&T realize its vision for 5G and centralized radio access networks, the carrier said.

In urban areas, AT&T plans to deploy remote radio heads linked to central baseband processing units. These links can be accomplished with fiber when it is available, but installing new fiber for every C-RAN deployment would be expensive and often impractical because of zoning and permitting issues. FiberTower says its 24GHz and 39GHz spectrum can provide more than 200 high capacity links per square kilometer, and the company has been actively marketing this solution to carriers. The company holds licenses in most states and in several major metropolitan areas, including Washington, D.C., Boston, Baltimore and Detroit.

How Trump’s Immigration Rules Will Hurt the US Tech Sector

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan 27 issuing a temporary ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, it went into effect immediately. The order had immediate consequences for thousands of people. But beyond harming long-term US residents, their families, their education, and their work, the executive order could cause long-lasting shockwaves in the business world—and especially in the technology sector.

Computer-related jobs are the top source of new wages in the US, according to analyses from Code.org, a nonprofit organization that advocates for more access to computer-science education. But there aren’t enough skilled American workers to fill open tech jobs in the US: There are more than 500,000 open computing jobs, but only about 43,000 Americans graduate from college with computer-science degrees every year. That’s a problem that H-1B visas—non-immigrant visas that allow high-skilled foreign workers to be employed, temporarily, by American companies—are designed to solve. A forthcoming executive order will likely change the rules to make it harder for companies to grant foreign workers H-1B visas.

Here’s why your browser may tell you the White House website isn’t secure

Some visitors to the White House website have reported seeing messages that carry some scary warnings. A message from Google Chrome warns: “Attackers might be trying to steal your information from messages.whitehouse.gov, for example passwords, messages or credit cards.” Post staffers ran into similar messages on Microsoft's Edge browser, Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox browser. According to cybersecurity professionals, the messages don't seem to be prompted by an attack. In fact, the messages aren't obviously linked to anything nefarious at all; it’s likely due to a simple maintenance oversight.

Experts said that the messages are appearing because the site's security certificate — or, very simply put, the thing that verifies that a site is what it says it is — isn’t valid. It appears the White House’s equipment isn’t configured correctly, and the old certificate was revoked or allowed to expire without getting replaced, said Kenneth White of the Open Crypto Audit project, a nonprofit dedicated to improving cybersecurity. There are perhaps hundreds of pieces of equipment and servers that need to be just right to keep the White House site up and running correctly, so it’s easy to miss something, he said.

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