April 2017

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2017
Today's Event -- Facilitating the 21st Century Wireless Economy, House Communications Subcommittee hearing -- https://www.benton.org/node/257283

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   President Trump Completes Repeal of Online Privacy Protections From Obama Era
   Statement Of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai On President Trump Signing Into Law The Congressional Resolution Of Disapproval - press release
   World Wide Web Creator Tim Berners-Lee: selling private citizens' browsing data is 'disgusting'
   The inventor of the Web Tim Berners-Lee predicts ‘a massive outcry’ over online privacy [links to Benton summary]
   Statement Of Commissioner Michael O'Rielly On President Signing CRA Regarding Misguided FCC Privacy Rules - press release [links to Benton summary]
   Crowd Surrounds Nullification of FCC Privacy Rules [links to Benton summary]
   Public Knowledge Response to President Trump Dismantling Online Privacy Protections [links to Public Knowledge]
   Trump has signed repeal of the FCC privacy rules. Here’s what happens next. [links to Washington Post]
   How President Trump and Congress Just Dismantled Your Online Privacy Rights [links to Public Knowledge]
   Republicans’ rollback of broadband privacy is hideously unpopular [links to Benton summary]
   Privacy Groups Unbowed By GOP Broadband Privacy Rule Smackdown [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   Trump Administration Considers Far-Reaching Steps for ‘Extreme Vetting’
   Sen Wyden, Paul introduce bill to end warrantless phone searches at border
   Ex-Obama defense chief Ash Carter calls for boosting Pentagon, Silicon Valley ties [links to Hill, The]

COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
   Most Say Tensions Between Trump Administration and News Media Hinder Access to Political News - Pew research
   LA Times President Trump Editorial Part 13: Trump's Authoritarian Vision - LA Times editorial
   CNN Had a Problem. Donald Trump Solved It.
   New Freedom House Rankings Show Democracy Ebbing [links to Foreign Policy]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Next Century Cities Releases 2017 Policy Agenda on Emerging Issues when Expanding Broadband Access - analysis
   FCC Chairman Ajit Pai really sounds like he plans to end Title II net neutrality [links to Verge, The]
   Reactions to FCC Charter Decision [links to Broadcasting&Cable]

CHILDREN & MEDIA
   FTC, Amazon to Withdraw Appeals, Paving Way for Consumer Refunds Related to Children’s Unauthorized In-App Charges - press release [links to Benton summary]

OWNERSHIP
   Fox Losing More Advertisers After Sexual Harassment Claims Against O’Reilly [links to New York Times]
   Qualcomm wants antitrust case dismissed [links to Hill, The]

GOVERNMENT
   Trump’s tweets will be preserved by the US National Archives [links to Verge, The]

ELECTION 2016
   AEI: Data and decision making: Lessons from the 2016 election [links to American Enterprise Institute]

POLICYMAKERS
   DNC Chairman Perez unveils new DNC communications shop [links to Hill, The]

LABOR
   Seattle law letting Uber and Lyft drivers unionize is temporarily blocked [links to Los Angeles Times]
   Pittsburgh's rocky relationship with Uber takes another turn [links to CNN]

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SECURITY/PRIVACY

TRUMP COMPLETES REPEAL OF ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTIONS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
President Donald Trump signed a congressional resolution to complete the overturning of internet privacy protections created by the Federal Communications Commission during the Obama Administration. The change will allow broadband internet service suppliers, such as cable and telecommunications companies, to track and sell a customer’s online information with greater ease. The bill uses a little-known tool called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) that allows Congress and the president to overturn recently passed agency regulations. A successful CRA bill also prevents the agency from implementing similar rules in the future.
benton.org/headlines/president-trump-completes-repeal-online-privacy-protections-obama-era | New York Times | The Hill | B&C
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PAI STATEMENT ON TRUMP SIGNING PRIVACY REPEAL
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai]
President Donald Trump and Congress have appropriately invalidated one part of the Obama-era plan for regulating the Internet. Those flawed privacy rules, which never went into effect, were designed to benefit one group of favored companies, not online consumers. American consumers’ privacy deserves to be protected regardless of who handles their personal information. In order to deliver that consistent and comprehensive protection, the Federal Communications Commission will be working with the Federal Trade Commission to restore the FTC’s authority to police Internet service providers’ privacy practices. We need to put America’s most experienced and expert privacy cop back on the beat. And we need to end the uncertainty and confusion that was created in 2015 when the FCC intruded in this space.
benton.org/headlines/statement-fcc-chairman-ajit-pai-president-trump-signing-law-congressional-resolution | Federal Communications Commission
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BERNERS-LEE ON WEB PRIVACY
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Sam Thielman]
The Trump Administration’s decision to allow internet service providers (ISPs) to sign away their customers’ privacy and sell the browsing habits of their customers is “disgusting” and “appalling”, according to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web. Speaking in an interview, as he was declared recipient of the prestigious Association for Computing Machinery’s AM Turing award, Berners-Lee expressed mounting concerns about the direction of the internet he did so much to promote. Berners-Lee expressed particular concern for the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to scrap an Obama-era rule that would have prevented ISPs from harvesting their customers web logs. “That bill was a disgusting bill, because when we use the web, we are so vulnerable,” he said. Berners-Lee also discussed Republican politicians’ plans to roll back the so-called net neutrality protections that are the backbone of an open internet, how his own legacy intersects with the great Alan Turing’s, and the astonishing progress of the web since he launched the very first website on 1 August 1991.
benton.org/headlines/world-wide-web-creator-tim-berners-lee-selling-private-citizens-browsing-data-disgusting | Guardian, The | Wired | CNN
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EXTREME VETTING
[SOURCE: Vox, AUTHOR: Laura Meckler]
Foreigners who want to visit the US, even for a short trip, could be forced to disclose contacts on their mobile phones, social-media passwords and financial records, and to answer probing questions about their ideology, according to Trump administration officials conducting a review of vetting procedures. The administration also wants to subject more visa applicants to intense security reviews and have embassies spend more time interviewing each applicant. The changes could apply to people from all over the world, including allies like France and Germany. The measures—whose full scope haven’t yet been publicly discussed—would together represent the “extreme vetting” President Donald Trump has promised. The changes would be sure to generate significant controversy, both at home, from civil libertarians and others who see the questions as overly intrusive, and abroad, with experts warning that other nations could impose similar requirements on Americans seeking visas.
benton.org/headlines/trump-administration-considers-far-reaching-steps-extreme-vetting | Vox
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WYDEN, PAUL INTRODUCE BILL TO END WARRANTLESS PHONE SEARCHES AT BORDER
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Morgan Chalfant]
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before searching the digital devices of Americans trying to reenter the United States. The practice of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents asking for passwords to search the digital devices of Americans seeking entry into the United States has attracted significant media attention and raised concerns among privacy advocates in recent months. Sens Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced legislation that cites the 2004 Supreme Court case Riley v. California, in which the court ruled that law enforcement needed a warrant to search an electronic device in the case of an individual’s arrest. The bill, a version of which Reps Jared Polis (D-CO) and Blake Farenthold (R-TX) introduced in the House, states that the principles of the Supreme Court decision extend to searches of Americans’ digital devices at the border. The legislation, called the Protecting Data at the Border Act, also states that Americans must be made aware of their rights before they agree to give up passwords, social media account names or other digital account information or to hand over their devices to law enforcement.
benton.org/headlines/sen-wyden-paul-introduce-bill-end-warrantless-phone-searches-border | Hill, The | Vox | The Verge
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COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY

RESEARCH ON TENSION BETWEEN TRUMP AND NEWS MEDIA
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: Michael Barthel, Jeffrey Gottfried, Amy Mitchell]
Following a presidential campaign season characterized by regular conflicts between Donald Trump and the news media and the continuation of these tensions since President Trump took office, nearly all Americans have taken notice, and large majorities feel these tensions are causing problems. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, 94% of Americans say they have heard about the current state of the relationship between the Trump administration and the news media. And what they’ve seen does not reassure them: Large majorities feel the relationship is unhealthy and that the ongoing tensions are impeding Americans’ access to important political news. Moreover, both of these concerns are widely shared across nearly all demographic groups, including large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans. About eight-in-ten Americans (83%) say current tensions have made the relationship between the administration and the news media unhealthy; just 15% say it is healthy despite current tensions. Americans also think these tensions are impacting them directly. About three-in-four U.S. adults (73%) say that these tensions are getting in the way of access to important national political news and information.
benton.org/headlines/most-say-tensions-between-trump-administration-and-news-media-hinder-access-political-news | Pew Research Center
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TRUMP'S AUTHORITARIAN VISION
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Standing before the cheering throngs at the Republican National Convention last summer, Donald Trump bemoaned how special interests had rigged the country’s politics and its economy, leaving Americans victimized by unfair trade deals, incompetent bureaucrats and spineless leaders. He swooped into politics, he declared, to subvert the powerful and rescue those who cannot defend themselves. “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” To Trump’s faithful, those words were a rallying cry. But his critics heard something far more menacing in them: a dangerously authoritarian vision of the presidency — one that would crop up time and again as he talked about overruling generals, disregarding international law, ordering soldiers to commit war crimes, jailing his opponent. Remember that President Trump’s verbal assaults are directed at the public, and are designed to chip away at people’s confidence in these institutions and deprive them of their validity. When a dispute arises, whose actions are you going to consider legitimate? Whom are you going to trust? That’s why the public has to be wary of Trump’s attacks on the courts, the “deep state,” the “swamp.” We can’t afford to be talked into losing our faith in the forces that protect us from an imperial presidency.
benton.org/headlines/la-times-president-trump-editorial-part-13-trumps-authoritarian-vision | Los Angeles Times
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CNN HAD A PROBLEM. TRUMP SOLVED IT.
[SOURCE: New York Times Magazine, AUTHOR: Jonathan Mahler]
An inside look into the strange symbiosis between Jeff Zucker and the president he helped create.
By the time Jeff Zucker’s name came up for the CNN job in 2012, both he and the 24-hour news network seemed to some people like relics of a different era in television. One of those who lobbied on his behalf was Donald Trump. He sang Zucker’s praises to Turner Broadcasting System’s chief executive at the time, Phil Kent, who was in charge of hiring for the position, when the two were seated next to each other at a black-tie charity dinner at the Plaza Hotel hosted by the American Turkish Society. Zucker and Trump spoke every month or so during the Republican primaries. CNN’s anchors — Jake Tapper in particular — did some of the toughest interviews with Trump, who would sometimes call Zucker afterward to complain, often going on expletive-laden rants. After securing the nomination, though, Trump made the calculation that he would be better off simply turning against certain media outlets. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, carried the message to Zucker in June, not long after CNN took the unprecedented step of fact-checking Trump’s statements — a large number of which were completely untrue — in real-time with on-screen chyrons. Kushner told Zucker over the phone that in the future, Trump would be doing interviews with only friendly outlets.
benton.org/headlines/cnn-had-problem-donald-trump-solved-it | New York Times Magazine
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

NEXT CENTURY CITIES POLICY AGENDA
[SOURCE: Next Century Cities, AUTHOR: Deb Socia, Christopher Mitchell, Todd O'Boyle, Katie Watson]
Next Century Cities released its 2017 Emerging Issues Policy Agenda, offering policy recommendations that support the expansion of high-quality, affordable broadband access to all. The agenda also explores some of the latest challenges to expanding next-generation internet access and innovations to tackle such barriers. Next Century Cities communities are leading the way in implementing these policies and practices across the country. The policy agenda includes information and recommendations on issues such as local municipal authority, competition in multiple dwelling units, high-quality access for low-income households, small cell deployment, and One Touch Make Ready policies. For each policy issue, this new resource gives examples of local innovation and success, as well as policy recommendations to drive better competition and increased broadband access locally. The policy agenda also explores principles for government when developing legislation and undertaking broadband infrastructure investments, which is timely given the interest in Congress and at the state level for new investments in broadband.
benton.org/headlines/next-century-cities-releases-2017-policy-agenda-emerging-issues-when-expanding-broadband | Next Century Cities | read the agenda | Government Technology | telecompetitor
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