Daily Digest 5/11/2018 (Net Neutrality Repeal Gets a Date)

[Press release] Today, the FCC gave notice that net neutrality protections will be taken off the books on June 11. This is profoundly disappointing. The agency failed to listen to the American public and gave short shrift to their deeply held belief that internet openness should remain the law of the land. The agency turned a blind eye to serious problems in its process—from Russian intervention to fake comments to stolen identities in its files. The FCC is on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American people. It deserves to have its handiwork revisited, reexamined, and ultimately reversed. I raised my voice to fight for internet freedom. I’ll keep raising a ruckus to support net neutrality and I hope others will too.

[Speech] I believe that the networks that we rely on should be totally free of discrimination, and should reflect our greatest democratic ideals. I believe that our networks are more valuable to all of us when they connect all of us. I believe that public resources should be deployed primarily on behalf of the public. I believe that we have a moral obligation to serve the unserved and close existing gaps, while allowing existing prosperity to continue, so long as it does not cause undue disadvantage to anyone else. And I believe that it is the role of the government to step in, when markets have failed, and the status quo looks more like stagnation.

What more can we do, when millions speak out in favor of net neutrality and, despite having the people and the law on our side, our leadership turns its back on decades of communications policy? What more can we do when the nightmare of media consolidation is underscored by leadership that continues to diligently unravel the promise of broadcasting, to the benefit of the few? What more can we do when our nation sits transfixed for days learning every detail about an invasion of their privacy and the misuse of their personal data online, but many of the lawmakers feigning concern last year voted to allow Internet service providers to do much worse with impunity? What more can we do when broadband is universally considered a necessity, if not a human right, yet, in the face of well-known disparities, our leaders opt for platitudes over policy—and, in fact, take steps to worsen the condition of those most in need?

We fight harder. We shout louder. We strengthen our bonds, though shared ideals and concerted action. We escalate each time our civility is mistaken for weakness. When pushed, we push back twice as hard, confident that the moral superiority of our positions was settled long ago, if not on this earth then surely in the ether. We do so because we must. In the face of the longest odds. In times of great upheaval and strife. If our leaders are not leading, then we lead.

The Federal Communications Commission  launched a proceeding to consider eliminating various rules that require the maintenance and posting of broadcast licenses and related information in specific locations. The FCC originally adopted broadcast license posting rules in 1930. Over the years, it expanded these rules to apply to new services that were deployed by broadcasters. Because the vast majority of the information contained on these licenses is now available through the Commission’s electronic databases, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking asks whether regulations requiring broadcast licenses and related authorizations to be physically posted are outdated and no longer necessary.

Republicans aren’t exactly rushing to support the Congressional Review Act resolution from Senate Democrats to restore the Obama-era net neutrality rules. While net neutrality advocates are trying to secure that elusive 51st vote, prominent GOP members are scoffing. Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Bob Corker (R-TN) and John Boozman (R-AR) plan to vote against the CRA. “That was pretty much a no-brainer for me, it wasn’t even a difficult decision,” said Sen Corker who is retiring, arguing that the internet functioned fine before the Federal Communications Commission regulations. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), another name floated by advocates as a potential yes vote, suggested that no Republican but Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) would join Democrats in supporting the resolution. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), meanwhile, enjoys playing the wild card. “I did some more reading this weekend and I’ve got more questions,” Sen Kennedy said of his extensive deliberations, noting he had a meeting scheduled with the Congressional Research Service on May 10. “I haven’t made a decision. The more research I do, the more interesting it gets and the more questions I have.”

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee made public for the first time the full cache of more than 3,000 ads that Facebook said were purchased by a pro-Kremlin group, the Internet Research Agency. The ads, fewer than 50 of which had previously been revealed, offer the clearest window yet into the evolving tactics used by the group as it sought to amplify social and political tensions in the US. The Russian-backed pages initially deployed relatively simple techniques, buying ads targeted to reach large segments, such as all Facebook users living in the US. Many of those ads gained little traction with users. By 2017, the tactics were sharper, the cache shows. They bought ads focused on a specified radius around specific cities and targeted people with certain job titles, such as “coal miner,” or certain employers—including Facebook itself. The ads show how aggressive and broad-based the Russian-backed Facebook pages were in pushing hot-button social and racial issues, including illegal immigration and police brutality. Some pages used Facebook to publicize real-world rallies in cities across the US. Others used Facebook to sell apparel or gain personal information about users by urging them to fill out surveys or share their profile photos. Only a subset of the ads explicitly mentioned the election, and those that did largely attacked Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton or raised doubts about the federal government. 

Klout, the service which measured online influence and assigned people a zero-to-100 score based on their social media followings, will shut down on May 25. Everyone’s Klout scores will go away, and with them, any remaining chance that businesses will treat us better or worse based on those scores. But the data Klout gathered from people presumably lives on. Lithium Technologies, the social-media marketing company that bought Klout in 2014, implied in its announcement that it has integrated Klout’s software and data into its own products. 

State, county and local governments are working to modernize their information technology systems, but officials in Illinois say they must also update how they communicate with one another. Agency leaders at all levels discussed the paradigm during the inaugural Chicago Digital Government Summit May 9.

Three days after President Donald Trump was sworn into office, AT&T turned to his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for help on a wide portfolio of issues pending before the federal government — including the company’s proposed merger with Time Warner. Internal documents reveal that Cohen’s $600,000 deal with AT&T specified that he would provide advice on the $85 billion merger, which required the approval of federal antitrust regulators. It is unclear what insight Cohen — a longtime real estate attorney and former taxi cab operator — could have provided AT&T on complex telecom matters. A “scope of work” describing Cohen’s contract in an internal AT&T document shows that he was hired to “focus on specific long-term planning initiatives as well as the immediate issue of corporate tax reform and the acquisition of Time Warner.” He was also directed to “creatively address political and communications issues” facing the company and advise the company on matters before the Federal Communications Commission. The internal AT&T documents show that Cohen was supposed to spend half his time on “legislative policy development” and the other half on “regulatory policy development.” Payments to Cohen were approved by two executives in AT&T’s public affairs office in Washington. The documents specified that Cohen, who was not a registered lobbyist, was to spend none of his time engaged in lobbying. They described his work as advising the company, not contacting federal officials.

Democrats like to advocate for the distribution of wealth, and party politicos from the California Democratic Party joined their friends in Pebble Beach this weekend to spread lots of it. Along with AT&T—their corporate BFFs—Democratic politicos from around the state gathered with lobbyists, captains of industry and others for a schmooze-fest known as the Speaker’s Cup at Pebble Beach. Over the past 21 years, the event has become a hallowed but top-secret weekend for California Democrats in Del Monte Forest. The Speaker’s Cup is a fundraising affair for the California Democratic Party that includes a weekend of golf, spa treatment packages, fraternal camaraderie, free gifts and at least one VIP reception.