BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2017
FCC monthly meeting on Tuesday https://www.benton.org/calendar/2017-09-24--P1W
COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY
The Real Trouble With Trump’s ‘Dark Post’ Facebook Ads
ELECTIONS
Facebook to turn over thousands of Russian ads to Congress, reversing decision [links to Washington Post]
INTERNET/BROADBAND/TELECOM
Senators Want Public Comment on Network-Neutrality Complaints
Video: Restoring internet freedom vs. the digital elite [links to American Enterprise Institute]
Bret Swanson: The FCC’s path to ‘restore internet freedom’ [links to American Enterprise Institute]
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to lower broadband standards is “crazy,” says Commissioner Rosenworcel
Take the Politics Out of Broadband Progress Reports - op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Rural broadband seen as a necessity to rural economic growth
Chairman Pai Remarks to Kansas Broadband Conference - speech
Internet Society: Internet Rulemaking is Going to Get More Complicated
Broadband Provider Groups Seek CAF II Auction Changes [links to Benton summary]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
On regulations for 5G: Micro licensing for locally operated networks - research [links to Benton summary]
Mexican TV Is Interfering with Rural Broadband in California [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
Greenlight now more likely for Sprint/T-Mobile [links to Marketplace]
Comcast’s Cohen: Sinclair-Tribune merger would help and hurt us [links to Fierce]
Why Google is spending $1.1 billion to acqhire 2,000 HTC engineers: for what comes after the smartphone [links to Vox]
Comcast Buys Stringify, an Internet of Things Startup [links to Multichannel News]
The Tide Is Turning Against Big Tech’s Monopolies—Because of the University of Chicago [links to Chicago Magazine]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
FCC Chairman Pai on Hurricane Maria's Impact on Puerto Rico's Communications [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Department of Commerce Seeks Comment on Proposed Rules for 911 Grant Program - press release [links to Department of Commerce]
911 Grant Program – Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [links to National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
HEALTH
How Jimmy Kimmel, of all people, became one of the most influential voices on health care [links to Washington Post]
Jimmy Kimmel and the politics of late night [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
JOURNALISM
Lessons on covering race and racism after Charlottesville [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
The Media Has A Probability Problem: The media’s demand for certainty — and its lack of statistical rigor — is a bad match for our complex world [links to Five Thirty Eight]
LABOR
Tech's push to teach coding isn't about kids' success – it's about cutting wages [links to Guardian, The]
PRIVACY/SECURITY
FCC Removes Broadband Privacy Rule from the Books [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Distrustful US allies force NSA to back down in encryption fight [links to Reuters]
We Need a Law Requiring Faster Disclosure of Data Breaches—Now [links to New America]
Insurance Grows for Cyberattacks [links to Wall Street Journal]
GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS
Lawmakers say they value open government. But not for themselves. [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
Agencies Need to Apply Telecommunications Transition Planning Practices to Reduce Potential Delays and Added Costs [links to Government Accountability Office]
Mark Zuckerberg still isn’t running for president — he’d rather help government solve tech problems [links to Vox]
POLICYMAKERS
President Trump is assembling the most male-dominated government in decades [links to Guardian, The]
COMPANY NEWS
Facebook has 2 billion users, record profits, vast influence, and big problems in Washington: Mark Zuckerberg’s Fake News Problem Isn’t Going Away [links to Bloomberg]
How Gary, Indiana, is fighting to win Amazon’s heart [links to Washington Post]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
A Fair and Efficient Tax System in the European Union for the Digital Single Market [links to European Commission]
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COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY
THE REAL TROUBLE WITH TRUMP'S 'DARK POST' FACEBOOK ADS
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Issie Lapowsky]
Pandering to the base is a tradition as old as politics itself. But in the social media age, it’s easier than ever for politicians to take those tailored messages—the kind they might not like to share with the whole world—and disseminate them only to the people who are most likely to agree. And targeting allows campaigns to silo thousands of possible audiences with just a click, making it harder than ever to hold politicians accountable for all of it. Some have taken to calling this type of ad a “dark post,” an overly nefarious name for what is, in actuality, just the way digital ads operate today. Technically speaking, Trump's ad buy works the same as one for the pair of Zappos shoes that somehow follows you around the internet. You’re seeing those shoes because Facebook thinks you're in the market for shoes. But President Trump isn’t running a shoe store; still less than a year into his term, he's already running a reelection campaign. And when the president sends one subset of the population a message that the rest of the population can’t see—especially one that's at odds with reality—it feels like a fundamental failure of government transparency.
benton.org/headlines/real-trouble-trumps-dark-post-facebook-ads | Wired
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INTERNET/BROADBAND/TELECOM
NET NEUTRALITY COMPLAINTS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A group of Democratic senators has joined in a call for the Federal Communications Commission to allow for public "review and comment" on tens of thousands of network-neutrality complaints provided through a Freedom of Information Act request in May, saying the FCC has not provided sufficient opportunity to vet them. They said the documents were only produced a few days before the August Open Internet Order proceeding deadline and were only posted to the FCC website recently. “Although the Commission has undertaken an historic proceeding to undo the Open Internet Order, the FCC has failed to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to comment on the tens of thousands of filed complaints that directly shed light on proposed changes to existing net neutrality protections,” they wrote in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “The public deserves an opportunity to review and analyze evidence that has a direct impact on the proceeding.” The senators want Chairman Pai to tell them what efforts the FCC has taken to analyze the complaints, responses from ISPs and other documents, how it will incorporate them into the record and when, whether the FCC will issue a public notice and comment cycle on them. Signing on to the letter were Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Al Franken (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Kamala Harris (D-CA).
benton.org/headlines/senators-want-public-comment-network-neutrality-complaints | Multichannel News
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DEFINING BROADBAND
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal that could lower the country's broadband standard is "crazy" and does nothing to solve the United States' broadband accessibility problems, said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The FCC is "proposing to lower US broadband standard from 25 to 10Mbps," Commissioner Rosenworcel tweeted. "This is crazy. Lowering standards doesn't solve our broadband problems." Commissioner Rosenworcel didn't make an official statement when the Notice of Inquiry was released because she wasn't on the commission at that time; she was sworn in for a new term just days later. She previously served on the FCC before a temporary departure caused by political haggling in the Senate. In her first term on the FCC, Commissioner Rosenworcel argued that the FCC should set its broadband standard much higher. "I think our new threshold should be 100Mbps—and gigabit speed should be in our sights," Commissioner Rosenworcel said upon the release of 2016’s broadband analysis. "I believe anything short of goals like this shortchanges our children, our future, and our digital economy." Commissioner Mignon Clyburn objected to parts of the Notice of Inquiry when it was released, saying that the home broadband speed standard should be raised and that mobile should not be considered a substitute for home Internet. The FCC will vote on a final determination of whether broadband deployment is happening quickly enough sometime after the reply comment period ends. Whatever the FCC decides, it may be a party-line vote of 3-2, with the Republican majority winning out.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-ajit-pais-plan-lower-broadband-standards-crazy-says-commissioner-rosenworcel | Ars Technica | Washington Post
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RURAL BROADBAND AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
[SOURCE: Wisconsin State Farmer, AUTHOR: Carol Spaeth-Bauer]
It's hard to run a successful business without access to high speed broadband. That was the message that repeatedly surfaced as Senate Democrats discussed issues important to rural America during a rural summit on Sept. 13. Sen Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) joined senators from Montana, Delaware. North Carolina, Minnesota, Michigan and other states, along with national leaders, to discuss issues important to rural America, with an emphasis on boosting economic opportunity. Representing Wisconsin, Sen Baldwin was joined by Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden and James Wessing, president of Kondex Corporation in Lomira. In describing the importance of rural communities, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) pointed out that about 60 million Americans live in rural areas, which is equivalent to 20 percent of the US population. However, the other 80 percent of the nation's population relies on that 20 percent for their food, energy and "so much of what they need to survive day to day."
benton.org/headlines/rural-broadband-seen-necessity-rural-economic-growth | Wisconsin State Farmer
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KANSAS BROADBAND CONFERENCE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai]
There’s no question that high-speed Internet is a game-changer for rural Americans. It’s improving standards of living more than any new technology since the rural electrification effort in the early 20th century. That is—so long as you have access. And that’s the big challenge. Rural Americans too often find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide. In rural America, 28% of households lack access to high-speed, fixed service. In urban areas, only 2% go without. Rural Americans are missing out on opportunities for jobs, health care, education, and more, and there’s a significant cost to those lost opportunities. But I worry that we’re losing something even greater if rural communities remain stuck in the analog age. That’s the slow fade of rural communities themselves. To be clear, I’m not saying that the digital divide is the reason why rural communities are shrinking. This trend started before the commercial Internet even existed. What I am saying is that how we deal with the digital divide will affect the destiny of towns like Parsons and Ulysses and Beloit and Hiawatha. It’ll help determine if this population loss gets faster, slows down, or is potentially reversed. Broadband-enabled opportunities for jobs, education, health care, and agriculture can be a great equalizer for rural America. But so long as some rural communities don’t have broadband, they’ll fall further and further behind. To spur network deployment in sparsely populated areas where the economic incentives for private investment don’t exist, the FCC is providing direct funding that leverages—not displaces—private capital expenditures. But we also want to modernize our regulations to give companies a stronger business case to build and expand high-speed networks. The plain truth is that bureaucratic red tape at all levels of government can slow the pace and increase the cost of network deployment.
benton.org/headlines/chairman-pai-remarks-kansas-broadband-conference | Federal Communications Commission
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INTERNET RULEMAKING IS GOING TO GET MORE COMPLICATED
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Mohana Ravindranath]
In a new report from the Internet Society, a think tank founded by Vint Cerf, authors recommend governments take a “multistakeholder” approach—inviting members of the public and representatives from various industries—to create “consensus policy” surrounding the internet. They could determine what should be censored, how encryption affects national security, and whether citizens maintain their personal freedoms online. That approach is distinct from the “multilateral” approach in which several governments work together, excluding representatives from civil society. “Measures that may be intended to secure cyberspace will increasingly undermine personal rights and freedoms,” the report predicted. “If current trends are any indication, more and more governments will restrict and control Internet use and access through censorship, network shutdowns and other means.”
benton.org/headlines/internet-society-internet-rulemaking-going-get-more-complicated | nextgov | see the report
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