1. Monthly archive
  2. November 2017

November 2017

Wondering if the Russians reached you over Facebook? You can soon find out.

Facebook is creating an online tool to allow users to determine if they might have been exposed to Russian disinformation during the 2016 presidential election and its fractious aftermath. The new tool, which the company said will be available by the end of 2017, is the latest move by Facebook to respond to public and political pressure to reveal the extent of the Russian disinformation campaign waged on its social media platform and on Instagram, which Facebook owns.

ISPs Renew Pledges Not to Block or Throttle

Internet service providers were renewing their pledges not to block or throttle or otherwise discriminate against legal online content. Under Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's plan, if ISPs did block or throttle or prioritize, they would have to disclose that to the FCC per transparency rules regarding network management, and Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission could respond accordingly.

The proposal to do away with net neutrality is worse than you think

[Commentary] In doing away with the 2015 rules that prohibit broadband providers from discriminating against or favoring certain content, applications and services (that is, no blocking, no throttling, no fast lanes and a general rule against discrimination), Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has radically departed from bipartisan FCC precedent. This opens the door for companies like Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and Charter to pick winners and losers on the Internet by controlling which online companies get faster and better quality of service and at what price.

Commissioner Clyburn Fact Sheet on Net Neutrality

Is it true that Chairman Pai’s proposal would eliminate Net Neutrality? Yes. It eliminates all prohibitions against blocking and throttling (slowing down) applications by broadband providers, and enables them to engage in paid prioritization and unreasonable discrimination at the point of interconnection. It ignores thousands of consumer complaints and millions of individual comments that ask the FCC to save net neutrality and uphold the principles that all traffic should be created equal. 

Ajit Pai and the FCC want it to be legal for Comcast to block BitTorrent

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai released his proposal to kill net neutrality today, and while there’s a lot to be unhappy with, it’s hard not to be taken with the brazenness of his argument. CHairman Pai thinks it was a mistake for the FCC to try and stop Comcast from blocking BitTorrent in 2008, thinks all of the regulatory actions the FCC took after that to give itself the authority to prevent blocking were wrong, and wants to go back to the legal framework that allowed Comcast to block BitTorrent. 

The FCC is unilaterally giving up its net neutrality authority with little to replace it

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s strategy may be to use the repeal of network neutrality rules to force the hand of Congress. Those familiar with FCC deliberations say abdicating its net neutrality authority could pressure Democrats into cooperating with Republicans on passing a bill. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) has offered to hammer out net neutrality legislation with Democrats in the past. 

The public wins a DOJ-AT&T court battle, no matter the result

[Commentary] The Justice Department (DOJ) just filed a lawsuit over AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner. For a number of reasons, I think this is a good thing. In fact, it could be a really good thing, and that is true regardless of who wins in the end. Here’s why:

Reason 1: The antitrust agencies and the courts have given businesses a pretty clear framework of how to think about mergers between direct competitors, but this is not true when it comes to vertical mergers.

Reason 2: An AT&T loss might actually be good for CNN.

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for December 2017 Open Meeting

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 14, 2017.

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