Daily Digest 1/29/2018 (Gives US All Your 5G)

Public broadcasters are supporting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's weed-whacking of some of what they see as outmoded regulations, including having to provide the FCC with lists of programs or issues and having to run educational/informational (E/I) on-screen bugs. In meetings at the FCC, executives of PBS, CBP, NPR and America's Public Television Stations "expressed appreciation for the Commission’s efforts to date to eliminate or modify regulations that are outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome." The groups say lifting some regulatory requirements will help them better redirect their limited resources to "the highest and best use."

On Jan 19, 2018, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai responded to various Members of Congress regarding the Restoring Internet Freedom Proceeding, who had raised concerns over the FCC's handling of the 50,000 informal complaints from the National Hispanic Media Coalition's FOIA request. Chairman Pai wrote, "Because the Commission did not rely on these informal complaints as the basis for its determination, it does not have an obligation to incorporate materials relating to those complaints into the record. Nonetheless, the Commission takes consumer complaints seriously and finds them valuable in informing us about potential violations of the Commission's rules. Since the Title II Order's rules became effective in June 2015, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau has engaged in an ongoing review of informal consumer complaints. Many complaints convey frustration or dissatisfaction with a person or entity or discuss a subject without actually alleging wrongdoing on which the Commission may act; others represent isolated incidents that do not form a trend that allow judicious use of our limited resources. Most do not allege conduct that relates to or violates the Title II Internet regulations imposed by the Commission in 2015."

Apparently, the Department of Justice's special counsel Robert Mueller and his office have interviewed at least one member of Facebook's team that was associated with President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The interview was part of Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and what role, if any, the Trump campaign played in that interference. Mueller's team speaking with a Facebook employee does not necessarily implicate Facebook in any wrongdoing. It's natural that a company not only close to the campaign but also directly impacted by Russian active members would be on Mueller's radar.

Congress on Jan 25 published responses from Facebook, Twitter, and Google to questions about how Russian actors used their platforms to spread misinformation before and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The responses address issues including whether there is any evidence of collusion between the Russian parties and the Trump campaign, and how Google, a unit of Alphabet, is handling its commercial transactions with a Russian broadcaster that federal intelligence agencies say is a propaganda outlet for the Kremlin. The responses, which were submitted to Congress in recent weeks, are an extension of answers that executives from the three companies gave in hours of testimony in 2017. Facebook gave different responses to questions from two lawmakers about whether there was evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian-backed actors. In one set of answers, the company said it found “what appears to be insignificant overlap” between the ad-targeting criteria and content used by the IRA and that used by the Trump campaign. In another set of responses, Facebook said it can’t “substantiate or disprove allegations of possible collusion.” Facebook also said that it had no evidence that the IRA used U.S. voter registration data to target ads on the platform.

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit told the Federal Communications Commission to respond to a request that the court stay implementation of the FCC's December media regulation rule rollback. In a petition for an emergency writ of mandamus, Prometheus Radio Project and Media Mobilizing Project had asked the court to block the Feb. 7 implementation of the FCC's November broadcast ownership deregulation decision and direct the FCC to better gauge the impact of that decision on media ownership diversity before proceeding. In has long been arguing that commissions under both Republicans and Democrats have failed to follow the Third Circuit's directive to consider diversity in its periodic reviews of its broadcast ownership rules. The court gave the FCC until 3 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 2, to respond to Prometheus et al.

Sinclair Broadcast Group representatives met with Federal Communications Commission officials to suss out what the agency will consider in reviewing broadcaster ownership of more than one top-rated TV station in a local market. Sinclair Senior Vice President Rebecca Hanson and outside counsel Miles Mason wanted “a better understanding” of the criteria the commission will use in analyzing ownership of more than one of the four top-rated TV stations in a market, according to an ex parte disclosure detailing the Jan. 22 meeting. Remember, the FCC in 2017 relaxed a ban on ownership of multiple top-rated stations in a local market and created a case-by-case review process for such arrangements. Sinclair, which is seeking to buy 42 Tribune TV stations, has identified 10 markets in which the two companies both own stations. The FCC paused its 180-day shot clock to review the $3.9 billion merger to give Sinclair time to sort out plans to sell off some stations as well as potentially make the case for ownership of multiple top-rated stations.

After sitting vacant for a year, the Trump administration has nominated a new permanent federal Chief Information Officer (CIO): Suzette Kent, currently a principal with law firm Ernst & Young’s financial services practice. The White House announced Jan. 26 the president’s intention to nominate Kent as the next administrator of the Office of Electronic Government within the Office of Management and Budget, a role most have come to know as the federal CIO. The position is charged with setting IT management policy for the entire federal government, including overseeing cybersecurity policy through the currently vacant federal chief information security officer. Kent would be the fourth federal CIO, taking over for Tony Scott, who retired from the role at the end of the Obama administration. Since Scott’s retirement, his deputy, Margie Graves, has been filling in as acting federal CIO. Scott succeeded Steven VanRoekel, who was the second federal CIO after Vivek Kundra, who was appointed by Obama in 2009. Kent has been with Ernst & Young since late 2015, with stints at JPMorgan, Carreker Corporation and Accenture before that. Her 27-year career has been focused on financial and payment services.

Tech giants are preparing for a stringent new set of data privacy rules in the region, called the General Data Protection Regulation. Set to take effect on May 25, the regulations restrict what types of personal data the tech companies can collect, store and use across the 28-member European Union. Among their provisions, the rules enshrine the so-called right to be forgotten into European law so people can ask companies to remove certain online data about them. The rules also require anyone under 16 to obtain parental consent before using popular digital services. If companies do not comply, they could face fines totaling 4 percent of their annual revenue. With the deadline for the new rules now just a few months away, Silicon Valley’s tech behemoths have been scrambling to get ready.