BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, MAY 22, 2014
Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected Workshop AND Globalization Goes Digital http://benton.org/calendar/2014-05-22/
OWNERSHIP
FCC’s 2014 Quadrennial Regulatory Review Published in Federal Register - public notice
AT&T-DirecTV merger: Heavy regulatory scrutiny ahead
Is Peter Chernin Key To AT&T’s Deal With DirecTV? - analysis [links to web]
Why the AT&T-DirecTV Deal Is the Dumbest, Most Wasteful Deal Ever (at Least Since Comcast–Time Warner Cable) - editorial
The AT&T -- DirecTV merger: Dynamic competition at work - AEI op-ed
AT&T: Dish Would Have Posed Regulatory Problems [links to web]
Telecom mergers may cut consumer choice - San Francisco Chronicle editorial
Comcast goes for shock and awe
Sen Franken Seeks Answer On Comcast Net Neutrality Condition [links to web]
Why Dyn just bought global-Internet-monitoring firm Renesys
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Net neutrality may be harder to achieve than we thought - analysis
House Commerce Committee Asks How/Whether To Regulate Edge Providers
Sen Franken Seeks Answer On Comcast Net Neutrality Condition [links to web]
MORE ON INTERNET/BROADBAND
Why We Need The DOTCOM Act - House Commerce Committee press release [links to web]
See which ISPs Google, Microsoft and Netflix trade Internet traffic with
Online Gambling Suffers Setback [links to web]
Latest stats show Comcast/TWC merger will cap 79% of broadband subscribers
AT&T's Stephens: Local permitting efficiencies could drive more FTTH deployments [links to web]
Time Warner Cable Begins Major Internet Speed Increases in Los Angeles and New York City - TWC press release [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Cellphone market needs a shake-up - editorial [links to web]
What a Comcast wireless service could mean - analysis [links to web]
AT&T exec: We'll be adding 1,500 to 3,000 cell sites per year for 'foreseeable future' [links to web]
Hispanic Consumers Embrace Mobile Technology [links to web]
PRIVACY/SECURITY
California Urges Websites to Disclose Online Tracking
The Right Response to the “Right to Delete” - op-ed
Public utility compromised after brute-force attack, DHS says [links to web]
Change your passwords, eBay urges customers as it reveals large-scale data breach
US Companies Hacked by Chinese Didn’t Tell Investors
Another privacy threat: DNS logging and how to avoid it [links to web]
Experts: Consumers have to protect themselves online [links to web]
Despite Data Thefts, the Password Endures [links to web]
PATENTS
Patent Troll Bill Shelved Over Industry Fighting
Tech hits back after Sen Leahy shelves patent bill [links to web]
Who’s behind the last-minute push to thwart patent reform? [links to web]
RADIO/TV
Closed Auction of AM Broadcast Construction Permits Closes - FCC public notice [links to web]
CONTENT
What Google Search Algorithm Changes Do To The Internet [links to web]
The Secret Science of Retweets [links to web]
Study: people are better at spotting bull when they see it on Twitter [links to web]
With audio recognition, Facebook can help automatically check in to your favorite music, movies and TV [links to web]
ADVERTISING
Google cheated ad partners, says lawsuit, but case points to dirty tricks campaign
Google Predicts Ads in Odd Spots Like Thermostats [links to web]
Viewers' TV Time Affects How Advertisers Dish Dollars - Nielsen press release [links to web]
TV Audience Only Partially Attentive To Ads [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Fine Line Seen in US Spying on Companies
House Rules Committee Sets Debate For USA Freedom Act [links to web]
White House ‘strongly supports’ NSA bill [links to web]
Honey, I Shrunk the NSA - WSJ editorial [links to web]
States Continue Banning Employer Access to Social Media [links to web]
National security journalists say it’s only getting harder to report on intelligence agencies [links to web]
GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
Feds Could Save $20 Billion with Better It Infrastructure Initiatives, Study Finds [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Meet Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC Swing Vote
COMPANY NEWS
Google Beats Apple in List of World's Most Valuable Brands [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Youths in ‘Happy’ Video Find Iran’s Grip on Internet Is Still Tight
EU Antitrust Chief Casts Doubt on Google Deal Over Rivals’ Links
MORE ONLINE
Marc Andreessen: In 20 years, we’ll talk about Bitcoin like we talk about the Internet today [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
MEDIA OWNERSHIP FILING SCHEDULE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
On April 15, 2014, the Federal Communications Commission released a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the 2014 Quadrennial Regulatory Review – Review of the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In the 2014 Quadrennial Review FNPRM, the FCC seeks additional comment on the broadcast ownership rules including proposed modifications of those rules. The FCC also seeks comment on certain aspects of the Commission’s 2008 Diversity Order, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit remanded and directed the Commission to address in the context of the media ownership review proceeding. Additionally, the FCC seeks comment on the proposed disclosure of certain broadcast television station sharing agreements. By this Public Notice, the FCC’s Media Bureau announces that the 2014 Quadrennial Review FNPRM was published in the Federal Register on May 20, 2014.5 Comments must be submitted no later than July 7, 2014. Reply Comments must be submitted no later than August 4, 2014.
benton.org/node/184477 | Federal Communications Commission
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
AT&T-DIRECTV MERGER: HEAVY REGULATORY SCRUTINY AHEAD
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: ]
Congressional lawmakers promised to hold hearings for AT&T's proposed $48.6 billion acquisition of DirecTV, mere months after Comcast's $45 billion proposal to acquire Time Warner Cable. Analysts monitoring the proceedings say the quick succession of mega-deals in the telecommunications industry could pave the way for other deals between telecom companies and cable and satellite providers, forcing regulators to quickly set a course that will sustain them through a period of predicted consolidation. "We have seen waves of mergers transform industries, time and time again," said Jeff Kagan, a longtime independent analyst covering the wireless and telecom industries. "They seem to come in waves. There are quite a number of mergers, then nothing for several years. Then it starts again. Comcast with Time Warner Cable and AT&T with DirecTV look like they are trying to start this next wave of mergers." The two recent mega-deals have certainly caught the eye of the nation's lawmakers.
benton.org/node/184441 | Fortune
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
WHY THE AT&T-DIRECTV DEAL IS THE DUMBEST, MOST WASTEFUL DEAL EVER (AT LEAST SINCE COMCAST–TIME WARNER CABLE)
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: S Derek Turner]
[Commentary] AT&T just announced that it is buying DirecTV, the nation’s top satellite-TV company, for a total transaction value of $67.1 billion (that’s $48.5 billion in cash and equity, plus $18.6 billion in debt). For this kingly sum AT&T gets a satellite-only company with declining profits and no physical assets located here on planet Earth. This is by far the dumbest, most wasteful deal ever. (Well, at least since Comcast announced its plans to buy Time Warner Cable.) These two takeovers are a perfect illustration of everything that’s wrong with America’s telecommunications market. Case in point: For the total price of these two mega-deals, $67 billion, AT&T and Comcast could collectively deploy super-fast gigabit-fiber broadband service to every single home in America.
benton.org/node/184491 | Free Press
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
THE AT&T -- DIRECTV MERGER: DYNAMIC COMPETITION AT WORK
[SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute, AUTHOR: Roslyn Layton]
[Commentary] With its proposed acquisition of DirecTV, AT&T is making a stake to be the nation’s premier pay TV provider on every screen -- TV, laptop, mobile phone and tablet. Its dream is seamless connectivity and streaming video from home to car to office and even to airplanes. AT&T recognizes that most consumers don’t know, much less care, whether their connection is fiber, xDSL, LTE, or satellite. They just want a good service, preferably at a low price as possible. Coming on the heels of another mega merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the AT&T/DirecTV development is a textbook example of dynamic competition, characterized by high capital costs, technological change, and network effects. In dynamic markets, competition is created not by the number of providers but by the level of technology. Only two players, albeit with different technologies, are needed to create dynamic competition. AT&T and Comcast have to go through increasingly burdensome and obligatory merger review from not only the Federal Communications Commission, but also the Department of Justice and the Senate Judiciary Committee. If we care about innovation and investment, we should encourage these players to grow as big as possible for the simple reason that the larger they are and the larger their revenues, the larger the incentives for upstarts to disrupt them. The best outcome would be to approve both mergers as soon as possible and let the companies duke it out in the marketplace. The battle of superpowers is America’s forte. Let it flourish. [Layton studies Internet economics at the Center for Communication, Media, and Information Technologies (CMI) at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, Denmark]
benton.org/node/184439 | American Enterprise Institute
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
MERGERS CUT CONSUMER CHOICE
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The business of supplying pay TV, Internet connections and phone service is narrowing to a handful of giant firms. In the latest example, AT&T wants to acquire DirecTV for $47 billion in a merger that could limit consumer options in a fast-changing media landscape. The proposal is another chessboard move by telecom behemoths trying to figure out a successful future in a confusing business world. Consumers, the same target audience giving telecom providers fits, may be at risk. This should be an era when choices are multiplying for customers shopping for an Internet connection, pay TV service and a smartphone plan. In response, though, major companies want to bundle this "triple play" and reduce choices, buy up rivals and limit options with offerings billed as simplified packages. For frazzled shoppers, that may sound like a bargain. It's time for federal authorities to hit the pause button and consider the profound effects.
benton.org/node/184559 | San Francisco Chronicle
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
SHOCK AND AWE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Megan Wilson]
Comcast is waging a campaign of shock and awe for its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable by fielding one of the biggest lobbying teams ever seen in Washington. The company has added seven lobbying firms to its roster since first proposing the deal earlier this year, and it is adopting a posture of overwhelming force to try to win approval from federal regulators. Comcast’s lobbying roster was already one of the largest in the city; the company had 33 firms working on its behalf at the start of the year. Since the announcement, that total has increased to 40 firms. The new hires have given Comcast extensive connections to federal agencies and congressional committees that are vetting the merger. Lobbyists working for the company include former aides for the House Commerce Committee, and the House and Senate Judiciary committees, in addition to the Justice Department, the Federal Communications Commission and former top officials within the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. One prominent tech lobbyist said mergers require a larger K Street team than the usual legislative fights.
benton.org/node/184557 | Hill, The
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
WHY DYN JUST BOUGHT GLOBAL-INTERNET-MONITORING FIRM RENESYS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
When something goes wrong on the Internet, monitoring firm Renesys is watching. Since 2000 the firm has tried to be the first to notify customers when Internet transmission goes dark, whether it's because of political strife or an undersea cable malfunction. Earlier, the company noticed another service outage in Syria's embattled Aleppo region. Renesys announced that it was being acquired by Dyn, which monitors and manages its customers' Internet traffic. The sale price was not disclosed. Both companies are privately held. The acquisition reflects Web companies growing concern about the instability of the Internet. Internet outages have become more noticeable: Entire countries sometimes go off the map -- or traffic gets mysteriously rerouted. "The world has become very flat when it comes to Internet usage," says Jim Cowie, Renesys' head of research and development. And that means more demand for intelligence about the status of the global Web, which can be volatile, he said.
benton.org/node/184427 | Washington Post | GigaOm
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
NET NEUTRALITY MAY BE HARDER TO ACHIEVE THAN WE THOUGHT
[SOURCE: Digitopoly, AUTHOR: Joshua Gans]
[Commentary] Network neutrality requires a lot of neutrality to be effective. Put simply, in situations where consumers have a direct pricing relationship with content providers (such as is the case with Netflix), if you prohibited ISPs from charging different access fees to different content providers, ISPs could use consumer charges to undo any real consequences of that. Also, the mechanism by which an ISP obtained rents from content providers was by charging consumers more for content from ‘high value’ providers. Strong net neutrality will put all content providers on the same terms and so that mechanism will not be available. Thus, content providers will hang on to the surplus they create in competition with other content providers while ISPs will capture only baseline value common across all content. Then there’s the critical question of ISP investment incentives. Their investment increases the value of all services. If that increase is correlated positively or is independent of content value, then net neutrality regulation has no impact on the ISPs ability to capture the marginal value of their investments. So this is not a situation where price discrimination allows ISPs to cover fixed costs they would not ordinarily cover. Instead, when it comes to network quality, net neutrality regulation does not stand in the way of investments that increase quality in a more or less neutral fashion. Finally, there’s competition amongst ISPs. Many commentators -- myself included -- have suggested that if only we had enough ISP competition there would be no role for net neutrality regulation. Even strong net neutrality will not be effective in ensuring that content providers receive profits consistent with competitive outcomes.
benton.org/node/184470 | Digitopoly
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
HOUSE COMMERCE COMMITTEE ASKS HOW/WHETHER TO REGULATE EDGE PROVIDERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The House Commerce Committee’s Republican leadership wants input on how and whether the Federal Communications Commission should regulate edge providers. That was one of the questions teed up in the third in a series of white papers the committee is issuing as part of its review and planned rewrite of communications law. The latest white paper focuses on competition policy and what role the FCC should have. Among the questions for stakeholder comment is one on competition at the network level and the substitutability of various delivery mechanisms. "Following the Verizon decision, the reach of the Commission to regulate 'edge providers' on the Internet is the subject of some disagreement," the white paper says, then asks. "How should we define competition among edge providers? What role, if any, should the Commission have to regulate edge providers," which it describes as "providers of services that are network agnostic." The issue the white paper raises is whether edge providers are also potentially subject to that regulation (for example, would paid priority in a search engine's rankings be something that impedes the "virtuous cycle" of unfettered access to content that the FCC is pledging to preserve through new open Internet rules).
benton.org/node/184468 | Broadcasting&Cable
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
MORE ON INTERNET/BROADBAND
SEE WHICH ISPS GOOGLE, MICROSOFT AND NETFLIX TRADE INTERNET TRAFFIC WITH
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
The network interconnection deals between content providers and Internet service providers (ISPs) are often shrouded in secrecy, at least when it comes to the question of whether any money is changing hands. But it's possible to figure out which companies are directly exchanging traffic with ISPs by examining publicly available information if you know where to search. Analyst Dan Rayburn shows which ISPs the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix, Pandora, eBay, and Apple have direct connections with. The connections are "public information that anyone can look up simply by knowing the networks' Autonomous System number (AS) and looking at their peers," Rayburn wrote. "You don’t have to be a networking engineer to look at BGP [Border Gateway Protocol] relationships and see what is taking place. It’s all public info."
benton.org/node/184466 | Ars Technica
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
LATEST STATS SHOW COMCAST/TWC MERGER WILL CAP 79% OF BROADBAND SUBSCRIBERS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
As the government discusses the pending Comcast acquisition of Time Warner Cable, the latest broadband adoption stats from Leichtman Research Group show that if the deal goes through, 79 percent of US broadband subscribers will find themselves under a data cap. Because Time Warner Cable, the third largest broadband provider in the US, didn’t have a cap, the acquisition by Comcast would notably change the number of people who will go from unlimited broadband to those who have a cap or pay more the more they download.
benton.org/node/184443 | GigaOm
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
PRIVACY/SECURITY
ONLINE TRACKING DISCLOSURE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Vindu Goel]
Every major Internet browser has a feature that lets you tell a website that you don’t want it to collect personal information about you when you visit. And virtually every website ignores those requests. Tracking your online activities -- and using that data to tailor marketing pitches -- is central to how Internet companies make money. Now California’s attorney general, Kamala Harris, wants every site to tell you -- in clear language -- if and how it is respecting your privacy preferences. The guidelines, published on Wednesday, are intended to help companies comply with a new state privacy law that went into effect on Jan. 1. That law requires sites to prominently disclose all their privacy practices, including how they respond to “do not track” requests.
benton.org/node/184445 | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
THE RIGHT RESSPONSE TO THE “RIGHT TO DELETE”
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Jules Polonetsky, Omer Tene]
[Commentary] The decision by the European Court of Justice, requiring Google to delete search results that display a Spanish user in a bad light, continues to cause consternation among online experts and supporters of free speech. Unwittingly, the European Court appointed Google a global online censor, imposing on it the unenviable burden of policing content on the Web. In doing so, it furnished Google (and similar online intermediaries) with strikingly vague criteria and little process, to boot. And if understaffed privacy regulators intend to handle complaints case by case, they will soon be swamped by an unmanageable deluge of individual take-down requests. But condemning the Court’s decision should not invalidate the concerns it sought to address. In general, much of our information is subject to fairly clear norms that guide us in who can accessible what and for how long. Why can’t technology do more to ensure that certain types of recorded data decays or becomes less accessible with time? Much more than law, technology can account for subtle differences in individuals’ subjective privacy expectations, which fluctuate based on the context and nuance of interpersonal relationships. Let’s have many more companies experiment with default settings that allow for data decay. While these solutions are imperfect, they chart a promising path toward a world where some friction allows us to retain and hide a bit of ourselves.
[Polonetsky serves as executive director and co-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum; Tene is vice president of research and education at the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)]
benton.org/node/184529 | Revere Digital
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS, EBAY URGES CUSTOMERS AS IT REVEALS LARGE-SCALE DATA BREACH
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: David Meyer]
EBay users are being advised to change their passwords after hackers compromised some employees’ log-in credentials to break into the eBay corporate network. The company said in a statement that the hackers broke into a database including “encrypted passwords and other non-financial data” and had not got their hands on any financial or credit card information, but best practice dictates users should change their passwords anyway. The stolen information may include customer names, phone numbers, dates of births, email addresses, physical addresses, and encrypted passwords. The breach took place between late February and early March but was not detected until recently. PayPal data is not affected, being stored in a different (and fully encrypted) system.
benton.org/node/184432 | GigaOm | Revere Digital | The Hill
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
US COMPANIES HACKED BY CHINESE DIDN’T TELL INVESTORS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Chris Strohm, Dave Michaels, Sonja Elmquist]
Three US public companies identified as Chinese hacking victims didn’t report the theft of trade secrets and other data to investors, despite rules designed to disclose significant events. Two of the companies -- aluminum maker Alcoa and metals supplier Allegheny Technologies -- said the thefts weren’t “material” to their businesses and therefore don’t have to be disclosed under Securities and Exchange Commission rules designed to give investors information that may affect share prices. Scott Kimpel, a lawyer who previously worked on disclosure rules as a member of the SEC’s executive staff, said there is “a gray area where a lot of the companies are not perfectly clear on what they should be disclosing.”
benton.org/node/184434 | Bloomberg
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
PATENTS
PATENT TROLL BILL SHELVED OVER INDUSTRY FIGHTING
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
Tech industry hopes of a solution to the problem of patent trolls became more elusive when lawmakers gave up on patent legislation after being unable to reach a compromise on some details. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), announced he’s pulling the patent troll legislation for the foreseeable future because of an inability to resolve some outstanding issues. “Unfortunately, there has been no agreement on how to combat the scourge of patent trolls on our economy without burdening the companies and universities who rely on the patent system every day to protect their inventions,” Sen Leahy said. Disagreement between tech companies and universities over “fee shifting,” or who pays the legal fees when patent troll lawsuits fail, has been a stumbling block for lawmakers.
benton.org/node/184493 | Revere Digital | Vox | The Hill | ars technica | GigaOm
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
ADVERTISING
GOOGLE CHEATED AD PARTNERS, SAYS LAWSUIT, BUT CASE POINTS TO DIRTY TRICKS CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Jeff Roberts]
Someone claiming to be an ex-Google employee suggested in April that the company conspires to steal revenues from its partners who host Google-provided ads on their websites. Now, a prominent Seattle-based lawyer who used to work for Microsoft is using those accusations as the basis for a nationwide class action lawsuit against Google. A company called Re-Post filed a class action complaint (embedded below) in San Francisco on behalf of other websites that are allegedly getting shortchanged by Google. The complaint suggests this is part of a pattern: Google conspires to cheat those who use its AdSense program, which lets websites host ads provided by Google and share in the profits. Under the alleged scheme, Google waits until a few days before an AdSense partner is due to receive a quarterly pay-out, and then cites a policy violation in order to terminate their account. Terminating an account in this way lets Google keep all the money. Critics of Google can find plenty to gnash their teeth about: from its repeated privacy flubs to its illegal pharma ads to its growing influence in Washington. But a lawsuit claiming that Google is blatantly cheating and shutting down its AdSense partners, which contribute a good part of Google’s revenue, just doesn’t make much sense. Rather, this new lawsuit over ads, along with another improbable class action filed against Google in April, suggests that someone is running what amounts to a legal smear campaign.
benton.org/node/184430 | GigaOm | C-Net|News
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
FINE LINE SEEN IN US SPYING ON COMPANIES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Sanger]
American officials insist, when speaking off the record, that the United States was never acting on behalf of specific American companies. But the government does not deny it routinely spies to advance American economic advantage, which is part of its broad definition of how it protects American national security. In short, the officials say, while the National Security Agency cannot spy on Airbus and give the results to Boeing, it is free to spy on European or Asian trade negotiators and use the results to help American trade officials -- and, by extension, the American industries and workers they are trying to bolster. Now, every one of the examples of NSA spying on corporations around the world is becoming Exhibit A in China’s argument that by indicting five members of the People’s Liberation Army, the Obama administration is giving new meaning to capitalistic hypocrisy. In the Chinese view, the United States has designed its own system of rules about what constitutes “legal” spying and what is illegal. That definition, the Chinese contend, is intended to benefit an American economy built around the sanctity of intellectual property belonging to private firms. And, in their mind, it is also designed to give the NSA the broadest possible rights to intercept phone calls or email messages of state-owned companies from China to Saudi Arabia, or even private firms that are involved in activities the United States considers vital to its national security, with no regard to local laws. The NSA says it observes American law around the globe, but admits that local laws are no obstacle to its operations.
benton.org/node/184447 | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
POLICYMAKERS
JESSICA ROSENWORCEL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
As a young law grad in the 1990s, Jessica Rosenworcel left New York for Washington "kicking and screaming" at the behest of her future husband. The policy world held little allure, she said, though she knew she wanted to be on the front lines. Little did she know. Rosenworcel now sits on the Federal Communications Commission and has become the commissioner to watch as the agency takes up its busiest and most complicated agenda in years. It's considering rules that control how broadband providers treat content flowing over their pipes, how to allocate wireless spectrum among a number of companies, and whether to approve a spate of mergers in an era of industry consolidation. All of these decisions will shape how Americans communicate and access voice, video and data from work, home and on mobile devices in the future. The agency's high-profile agenda is shining a spotlight on the commission's five members, especially Rosenworcel, 42 years old, who has emerged as the swing vote on spectrum, broadband rules and at least one of the mammoth mergers before the FCC.
benton.org/node/184565 | Wall Street Journal
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
STORIES FROM ABROAD
‘HAPPY’ IN IRAN
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Rick Gladstone]
Six young Iranians who were arrested for posting a YouTube video of themselves dancing on Tehran rooftops to “Happy,” the globally infectious pop song, were released on bail as new details emerged of their possible mistreatment while incarcerated amid an outpouring of sympathy -- including a subtly supportive Twitter post from Iran’s president. The arrests of the six, who were all under 25 and included women not wearing their mandatory headscarves, were carried out over the weekend. They were taken into custody just as the president, Hassan Rouhani, was giving a speech arguing that Iranians should embrace the Internet instead of viewing it as an insidious Western threat to Islamic morals. The six were shown on state television a day before their release, backs to the camera, apologizing for having made the video, which was uploaded on YouTube in April and received more than 165,000 hits. The television broadcast also included an admonition from Tehran’s police chief, Hossein Sajedi, who told all young Iranians never to make such videos.
benton.org/node/184547 | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
CASTING DOUBT ON GOOGLE DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: James Kanter]
Joaquín Almunia, the European Union’s antitrust chief, said that he might yet take a tougher stance toward Google in a long-running case that he and the company have been in talks to settle for more than a year. The announcement is a potential blow for Google, which reached a tentative deal with Almunia in February by agreeing to display rivals’ links more prominently in its search results. Google has been trying to resolve the three-year case and avoid a potential fine of up to $5 billion. But whether the announcement was an indication of a new hard line by Almunia or a diplomatic nod to the company’s many critics in Europe was not clear. And any action would still be months away.
benton.org/node/184472 | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top