BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 2017
Today's Event -- The FISA Amendments Act, Senate Judiciary Committee -- https://www.benton.org/node/261218
SECURITY/PRIVACY
FCC Looks to Provide Privacy Reporting Reminder
Pai Seeks Clarity on Broadband Privacy [links to Benton summary]
A Three-Step Plan to Promote Consumer Privacy - Morning Consult op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Editorial: Restore internet privacy protections for Californians [links to Monterey Herald]
Chairman Pai reveals new details about cyberattack following John Oliver segment
Dems: FCC DDoS Attack Raises Cybersecurity Questions [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Trump Administration unveils cyber pact with Israel [links to Hill, The]
Color of Surveillance Conference Highlights Monitoring of Immigrant Communities [links to Free Press]
Comcast, Other ISPs Back FTC Against AT&T Mobility [links to Benton summary]
Industry 'surprised' by DOJ appeal in data warrant case [links to Benton summary]
OTI to “Five Eyes” Countries: Undermining Encryption Won’t Make Us Safer [links to New America]
Sen Warner Praises FTC Guidance on Smart Toys [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
NET NEUTRALITY
Wither Net Neutrality Regulation? Net Neutrality Special Issue Blog #3 - Technology Policy Institute
National Black Chamber of Commerce: We want net neutrality and equal opportunity online [links to East Bay Times]
Analysis: Majority of FCC Comments Favor Repealing Internet Rules [links to Benton summary]
How sharing economy regulatory models could resolve the need for Title II net neutrality - AEI op-ed [links to Benton summary]
MORE INTERNET/BROADBAND
Rural Broadband Efforts Gain Bipartisan Momentum
Remarks of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai At Broadband For All Seminar, Stockholm, Sweden - speech [links to Benton summary]
AT&T Fixed Wireless Footprint Expands, Now Reaches 70K Locations in Nine States [links to telecompetitor]
Wireless Tower Dispute May Derail BVU Optinet Municipal Broadband Sale [links to Benton summary]
COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
President Trump: Obama didn't 'choke,' he 'colluded or obstructed' [links to Benton summary]
Election hacking fears turn heat on Homeland Security [links to Hill, The]
President Trump touts social media use with Indian prime minister [links to Hill, The]
RNC Chair Doubles Down on 'Fake News’ [links to Benton summary]
Why the Case for Transparency Must Be Made Anew - Nieman Reports op-ed [links to Benton summary]
President Trump’s Media Policy Creating Friction [links to Benton summary]
Journalists Condemn Trump Press Restrictions, But Don’t Expect Them To Boycott Briefings [links to Huffington Post]
Why the National Enquirer loves President Trump — and why that matters [links to Washington Post]
How "Fox & Friends" celebrates President Trump [links to CNN]
Facebook, Free Expression and the Power of a Leak - op-ed [links to Benton summary]
TRAVEL BAN
Tech industry on travel ban: The fight goes on [links to CNN]
TECH WEEK
Technology Week Recap - press release [links to Benton summary]
CONTENT
Twenty years after Reno v. ACLU, the long arc of internet history returns - Brookings analysis
How 7 words unfit for TV fostered an open Internet 20 years ago today [links to Benton summary]
How to delete yourself from the Internet [links to USAToday]
TELECOM
Ringless voicemail spam won’t be exempt from anti-robocall rules
Senate Minority Leader Schumer calls for FCC crackdown on ringless robocalls [links to Benton summary]
We Can Use Existing Telecom Infrastructure for Quantum Communications [links to Vice]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Sprint Enters Into Exclusive Talks With Charter, Comcast On Wireless Deal
T-Mobile rolls out LTE-U support in six cities [links to Verge, The]
NYU Wireless founder disappointed in ITU’s choice of mmWave specs for rural areas [links to Fierce]
Commissioner O'Rielly Remarks Before CITEL PCC.II Delegation - speech [links to Benton summary]
TELEVISION
Kagan Sees Pay-TV Subs Dropping to 82M By 2021 [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
JOURNALISM
Three CNN staffers resign over retracted Scaramucci-Russia story
Your short attention span could help fake news spread [links to Verge, The]
Media opposes right-of-publicity bill: ‘an attack on the First Amendment’ - CJR analysis [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
Is Amazon getting too big? [links to USAToday]
Op-Ed: Amazon Is Trying to Control the Underlying Infrastructure of Our Economy [links to Vice]
DIVERSITY
Wall Street Journal Reporters Demand Action On Newsroom Diversity [links to Huffington Post]
If you weren't raised in the Internet age, you may need to worry about workplace age discrimination [links to Benton summary]
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
How Congress tweets, visualized [links to Washington Post]
POLICYMAKERS
Snapchat hires new director of US public policy [links to Hill, The]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
European Union fines Google €2.4 billion over abuse of search dominance
China’s All-Seeing Surveillance State Is Reading Its Citizens’ Faces [links to Wall Street Journal]
UK Parliament hit by 'sustained' cyber-attack [links to BBC]
Google faces $1 billion EU fine for abuse of dominance in search [links to Benton summary]
Canada's Supreme Court clears way for Facebook privacy lawsuit [links to Reuters]
The high-tech jobs that created India’s gilded generation are disappearing [links to Washington Post]
Russia, upping pressure on Telegram app, says it was used to plot bombing [links to Reuters]
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SECURITY/PRIVACY
FCC LOOKS TO PROVIDE PRIVACY REPORTING REMINDER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Apparently, an item Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has circulated for a vote on "Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services" essentially clarifies that the telecommunication customer proprietary network information (CPNI) privacy rules that were in effect before the Tom Wheeler FCC adopted a new broadband privacy regime are still in effect after that regime was nullified by Congress. It is a way to remind carriers that they are still responsible for submitting an annual certification of compliance with those CPNI privacy rules. The item was described as administrative in nature and focused on voice privacy, rather than providing any new guidance on broadband privacy, apparently. In addition, the item dismisses petitions to reconsider the Wheeler-era rules, since they were mooted by the Congressional Review Act resolution. Chairman Pai has proposed reclassifying ISPs as information service providers, rather than telecoms, after which the Federal Trade Commission would reclaim its authority over broadband privacy, which it lost when ISPs were classified as common carriers in the 2015 Order. The FTC is prevented from enforcing regulations on common carriers.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-looks-provide-privacy-reporting-reminder | Broadcasting&Cable
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PAI DETAILS ON FCC CYBERATTACK
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai unveiled new details about a reported cyberattack that came after comedian John Oliver urged his viewers to flood the agency with pro-network neutrality comments. In response to a series of questions about the incident from Sens Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chairman Pai said he was taking the issue seriously. “I agree that this disruption to [the Electronic Comment Filing System] by outside parties was a very serious matter,” Pai wrote in a letter. “As a result, my office immediately directed our Chief Information Officer (CIO) to take appropriate measures to secure the integrity of ECFS and to keep us apprised of the situation. The Commission's CIO has informed me that the FCC's response to the events sufficiently addressed the disruption, and that ECFS is continuing to collect all filed comments. The ECFS slowed to a crawl after Oliver’s HBO show addressed the net neutrality proceeding in May, leading many to assume that the system was bogged down by an influx of public filings. But the next day, FCC CIO David Bray said the disruption was caused by a malicious distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, a move designed to take down a site by flooding it with fake traffic. “I appreciate the FCC’s response,” Sen Wyden said. “I’m waiting to draw any final conclusions until the FBI weighs in. However, it is clear that FCC wasn’t ready for this attack. In the future, the agency should consider other ways to submit comments if its web portal fails again.”
benton.org/headlines/chairman-pai-reveals-new-details-about-cyberattack-following-john-oliver-segment | Hill, The
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NET NEUTRALITY
WITHER NET NEUTRALITY REGULATION
[SOURCE:, AUTHOR: Scott Wallsten, Wallis Romzek]
[Commentary] Network neutrality rules are not the way to maintain a free and open Internet, according to Michael Katz, professor of economics and director of the Center for Telecommunications and Digital Convergence in the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Regulation never “levels” a playing field because that assumes we know the optimal balance between firms. We don’t, and if an optimal balance exists today it might be different tomorrow. In this case, proponents believe tilting the field more towards edge providers is important for innovation. One problem with that belief, Katz argues, is that the Internet has never been neutral. For example, the Internet was designed in a way that “works relatively poorly for applications that are highly sensitive to packet loss and require very low latency (e.g., telepresence) and works relatively well for applications that require little bandwidth and are not time sensitive (e.g., email).” Another problem with the level playing field argument is that it should apply to many industries and services, not just the Internet. Yet, we know that paid prioritization has become crucial in other areas, like package delivery (think FedEx, UPS, or expedited shipping in e-commerce). Finally, the argument tends to focus on particular firms that might not do well with paid prioritization at the expense of consumer welfare. However, consumer welfare may be improved by new services that cannot currently exist, or must exist via workarounds that are not technically “paid prioritization.” The point is not that one of these necessarily outweighs the other, only that it is incorrect to automatically conclude that the net effect of paid prioritization is negative.
benton.org/headlines/wither-net-neutrality-regulation-net-neutrality-special-issue-blog-3 | Technology Policy Institute | Review of Industrial Organization
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
RURAL BROADBAND EFFORTS GAIN BIPARTISAN MOMENTUM
[SOURCE: Morning Consult, AUTHOR: Mariam Baksh]
Expanding high-speed internet access to rural areas has been one of the few issues that’s drawn bipartisan support in a sharply divided Congress. And while nothing’s assured, backing by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai may help push those congressional efforts across the finish line. Chairman Pai recently talked up the Senates Gigabit Opportunity Act (S 1013), that would effectively legislate his proposal for spurring broadband investment in remote areas, where internet access is available through 1990s-era dial-up service. The legislation — introduced May 3 by Sen Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and co-sponsored by Sen Chris Coons (D-DE) — would provide tax benefits for investments in “gigabit opportunity zones,” primarily in low-income and rural communities. On the other side of the Capitol, Rep David Loebsack (D-IA) introduced related legislation, the Rural Wireless Access Act (HR 1546), which would require the FCC “to establish a consistent methodology for its collection of coverage data about the available speed tiers and performance characteristics of commercial mobile and data service” for use in deciding on the eligibility of areas that can receive funds from the FCC-administered Universal Service Program or similar initiatives.
benton.org/headlines/rural-broadband-efforts-gain-bipartisan-momentum | Morning Consult
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OWNERSHIP
SPRINT TALKS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shalini Ramachandran, Ryan Knutson, Dana Mattioli]
Apparently, Sprint has entered into exclusive talks with Charter Communications and Comcast as the cable companies explore a deal that could bolster their plans to offer wireless service, according to people familiar with the matter. Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son and the cable firms have entered into a two-month, exclusive agreement for discussions through late July, putting merger talks with T-Mobile US on hold. One arrangement that has been considered is for Charter and Comcast to invest in improving Sprint’s network in exchange for favorable terms to offer wireless service using the carrier’s network. Such a deal could involve the companies taking an equity stake in Sprint. The cable companies already have such a network-resale agreement with Verizon Communications, but the Sprint deal could provide much better terms. While thought to be the much less likely scenario, the talks also include the possibility for the cable companies to jointly acquire Sprint. Sprint has a market value of $32 billion and $32.6 billion of net debt.
benton.org/headlines/sprint-enters-exclusive-talks-charter-comcast-wireless-deal | Wall Street Journal
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CONTENT
RENO V ACLU
[SOURCE: Brookings, AUTHOR: Stuart Brotman]
Twenty years ago, on June 26, 1996, the US Supreme Court unanimously decided Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, which found the communications decency provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to be unconstitutional. Applying strict scrutiny under the First Amendment, the Supreme Court concluded that unlike broadcasting – where the Federal Communications Commission’s indecency regulation has been upheld due to the unique characteristics of that medium – no content regulation with a justification of online child protection would be allowed. This means that there continues to be no content restrictions on what American internet users can send or receive. Viewed in contemporary context, two lessons from Reno v. ACLU endure. First, as a constitutional law matter, there is a firewall for US government restrictions on any non-obscene online content. In turn, this virtually unfettered freedom has fueled the pervasiveness of the internet in our lives. Remember, Facebook and the world of online apps – which now exceed websites as the go-to sources online – did not even exist then. Mark Zuckerberg was only 13 years old when the court decision was released, and other app content pioneers such as Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel were still in elementary school. This leads to the case’s second legacy, which is more implicit but also of great importance. Given the continuing inability to predict the speed and scale of internet development or changing consumer preferences, there seems to be a subtext in that government may find it difficult to develop broad prescriptive long-lasting approaches to internet regulation. The FCC favored this ex ante approach when crafting the Open Internet order under the Obama Administration. Under new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the agency seems to favor a revision that limits government oversight to the Federal Trade Commission’s traditional enforcement authority. As the FCC compiles its rulemaking record to justify this significant change in approach, it would not be surprising to see the Reno v. ACLU decision used to support a return of this light-touch regulatory framework.
benton.org/headlines/twenty-years-after-reno-v-aclu-long-arc-internet-history-returns | Brookings
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TELECOM
RINGLESS VOICEMAIL SPAM WONT BE EXEMPT FROM ANTI-ROBOCALL RULES
[SOURCE: ars technia, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
A petition to exempt ringless voicemails from anti-robocall rules has been withdrawn after heavy opposition. In March, a marketing company called All About the Message petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for a ruling that would prevent anti-robocall rules from applying to ringless voicemails. But the company withdrew its petition without explanation in a letter to the FCC last week, even though the commission hadn't yet ruled on the matter. As the name suggests, a ringless voicemail is the delivery of a voice message to a voicemail box without ringing the recipient's phone. The now-withdrawn petition asked the FCC to declare that this type of message does not count as a "call" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which prohibits non-emergency calls made with auto-dialers, artificial voices, or prerecorded voices without the "prior express consent of the called party."
benton.org/headlines/ringless-voicemail-spam-wont-be-exempt-anti-robocall-rules | ars technia
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JOURNALISM
3 CNN STAFFERS RESIGN
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Hadas Gold]
Three CNN staffers have resigned following the publication and subsequent retraction of a story linking a Trump transition team member to the Russia-related investigations. The piece, published late during the week of June 19, cited an anonymous source saying the Senate Intelligence Committee was looking into the chief executive of a $10-billion Russian investment fund who met with financier Anthony Scaramucci before the inauguration. The reporter, Pulitzer-prize nominee Thomas Frank, assistant managing editor Eric Lichtblau (who recently joined from the New York Times) and Lex Haris, the executive editor in charge of investigations, are all out. "In the aftermath of the retraction of a story published on CNN.com, CNN has accepted the resignations of the employees involved in the story's publication," CNN said in a statement.
benton.org/headlines/three-cnn-staffers-resign-over-retracted-scaramucci-russia-story | Politico
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
GOOGLE FINED
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Rochelle Toplensky]
The European Commission has hit Google with a €2.42 billion (approximately $2.73 billion) antitrust fine for abusing its dominance in search, a decision with potentially far-reaching implications for both the tech sector and already strained transatlantic relations. The European Commission ended its seven-year competition investigation, concluding that the search group had abused its near-monopoly in online search to “give illegal advantage” to its own shopping service. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, said Google “denied other companies the chance to compete” and left consumers without “genuine choice”. “Google’s strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn’t just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals. Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results and demoting those of competitors. What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules.” The company has 90 days to make changes and must “refrain from any measure that has the same or an equivalent object or effect”, the commission said.
benton.org/headlines/european-union-fines-google-eu24-billion-over-abuse-search-dominance | Financial Times | WSJ
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