Daily Digest 2/1/2018 (Don't Forget Puerto Rico)

[Commentary] The ability to speak and be heard is a basic human right. And the ability to communicate during a disaster is a life-and-death issue. But both are often denied to people of color. This has been the case in Puerto Rico. Hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico’s infrastructure, leaving the island without power and phone service, and damaging 95 percent of all cell towers. And the press has reported that at least 1,000 people have died. Now, four months later, about a third of the population is still without power and close to 10 percent of the island’s cellphone towers still haven’t been repaired. In addition, home internet services have yet to be restored to at least a third of the island. This is why it’s critical for the Federal Communications Commission to hear from and listen to the Puerto Rican community on the impact Hurricane Maria has had on their ability to access communications services — and how this has affected their lives. The FCC is seeking public comment on the effects on the communications infrastructure from the four hurricanes that struck seven states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017. It’s the FCC’s job to ensure the public has access to a working communications network, especially during a disaster. But after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans had to travel long distances to find cellphone reception so they could talk with their loved ones and find the help that they needed. There is so much the public still doesn’t know about what the government and the communications industry did before and after the hurricane to ensure service on the island wasn’t lost — or was quickly restored in the event of an outage. It’s critical for the FCC to hear from the Puerto Rican community about the challenges they’re facing in being able to access communications services — and what can be done to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.

Congressional action to update the Telecommunications Act will be incremental, according to House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR). "We're looking at it piece by piece," Walden said at the 2018 State of the Net conference on Jan 29. He added that Congress also "needs to look at the FCC operation" overall, acknowledging that "we live in a different era" than when the 1996 Telecom law was enacted. Chairman Walden said he expects a "program-by-program" evaluation, but did not suggest any timetable or urgency for the review. Chairman Walden's outlook on piecemeal telecom reform legislation echoes the view of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD). At 2017's conference, Sen Thune also avoided any expectation that an omnibus revision of the Telecommunications Act is likely. 

Wanting to lead in 5G is not enough to get the transition across the finish line. The key is to update our regulatory structures so that they are what I call “5G Ready.” This means taking concrete steps to reform our regulations and ensure that they incentivize the massive private sector investments necessary to build the networks of the future. I want to highlight three steps that I think regulators must take to get 5G Ready. First, we must modernize our infrastructure deployment rules. The permitting, siting, and review processes that applied during the transition to 4G is not going to work for 5G given the massive number of small cells that this transition will entail. The second step I think we need to take to ensure we’re 5G Ready is to continue freeing up spectrum for mobile broadband. The third and final piece of the 5G picture that I want to talk about today is ensuring that our regulations do not stand in the way of innovation. We must make sure that our regulatory framework provides the incentives necessary to unleash the massive investment in private sector capital needed to deploy, upgrade, and maintain the networks of the future.

Top Democratic lawmakers slammed Facebook and Twitter for dodging new questions about Russian efforts to spread propaganda on their platforms.  For Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), their continued concerns center on the #ReleaseTheMemo campaign. The hashtag, popular at times on Twitter, calls attention a still-secret report produced by congressional Republicans that its leaders say shows abuse of power at the FBI. Beyond doubting its credibility, Democrats remain fearful that Kremlin-aligned bots and trolls on major social media platforms have sought to amplify and spread #ReleaseTheMemo — all in a bid to discredit the Justice Department’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Earlier, Rep Schiff and Sen Feinstein wrote to demand Facebook and Twitter conduct a full investigation. Now, though, the lawmakers said they are dissatisfied with the tech giants’ replies — and demanded that they look more closely. “As the 2018 election season begins in earnest, we cannot allow Russia or any other outside power to manipulate U.S. public opinion or degrade Americans’ trust in the authenticity of domestic political and policy debates,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote in their new letter.

The White House took down the popular “We The People” petitions website, started by Barack Obama’s administration, in December, with the promise that the site would be restored by “late January.” As of 3 p.m. on Jan. 31, the site, which allows citizens to post petitions that require a White House response when they meet a certain number of signatures, is still down. Among its most popular petitions was one calling for President Donald Trump to put his businesses and financial assets in a blind trust (356,000 signatures), and another calling for him to resign (138,000), both above the 100,000 threshold used during the Obama years to initiate a formal response. The White House has not responded to a petition since Trump took office.

[Commentary] Republicans have been largely supportive of the [Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media mega-merger], not just because of the principle that the government should stay out of business decisions, but also for political reasons: Conservatives are excited about the prospect of a national broadcast giant with a distinct right-leaning perspective. In the short term, they’re right to be excited: The merged broadcaster would have 215 TV stations covering more than 72 percent of U.S. households, an unprecedented reach into Americans’ living rooms. But in the long run, the move could well backfire, creating huge political problems for Republicans and President Donald Trump. Opening the door to the Sinclair deal could pave the way for networks such as NBC, CBS and ABC to consolidate their own empires even further, creating huge liberal broadcasters that dwarf the size and power of the merged Sinclair-Tribune company. For the sake of the conservative movement, a truly diverse press, and real competition, the Department of Justice should stick to Trump’s campaign promise to protect the public against the “concentration of media power” and reject the Sinclair-Tribune merger. We simply have too much to lose. [Tom DeLay represented Texas as a Republican in the House of Representatives from 1985 to 2006, and served in House Republican Leadership from 1993 until 2005.]

[Commentary] One year ago, President Trump designated Ajit Pai as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. New America reviews Pai’s first year as chair, which was marked by a radical agenda that rolled back consumer protections and rubber-stamped corporate wish lists.

1. Repealed Net Neutrality
2. Abandoned Consumer Privacy
3. Put Industry Ahead of Consumers
4. Exacerbated the Digital Divide 
5. Stoked Mergers and Stifled Competition
6. Kept the Public in the Dark