Daily Digest 6/6/2018 (Facebook Did What Now?)

Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-VA) said he is concerned that companies like Huawei and ZTE, which government officials believe are a threat to national security, might have been able to get user data from Facebook after it was revealed the company had data-sharing partnerships with roughly 60 device makers. “Does our personal info reside on a server in China? I think Facebook owes us that answer,” Ranking Member Warner said. He said that he felt as though Facebook still had not given him a direct answer on if Chinese companies were included in the list of device makers that Facebook had partnered with. "I believe it’s a serious danger. I’ve been disappointed we’ve not gotten a straight answer," he said. He noted that given the information he had at the moment, “it would be surprising to me if they somehow excluded Chinese companies.”

Edward Snowden has no regrets five years on from leaking the biggest cache of top-secret documents in history. He is wanted by the US. He is in exile in Russia. But he is satisfied with the way his revelations of mass surveillance have rocked governments, intelligence agencies and major internet companies. What has happened in the five years since? He is one of the most famous fugitives in the world, the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary, a Hollywood movie, and at least a dozen books. The US and UK governments, on the basis of his revelations, have faced court challenges to surveillance laws. New legislation has been passed in both countries. The internet companies, responding to a public backlash over privacy, have made encryption commonplace. Snowden, weighing up the changes, said some privacy campaigners had expressed disappointment with how things have developed, but he did not share it. “People say nothing has changed: that there is still mass surveillance. That is not how you measure change. Look back before 2013 and look at what has happened since. Everything changed.” The most important change, he said, was public awareness. “The government and corporate sector preyed on our ignorance. But now we know. People are aware now. People are still powerless to stop it but we are trying. The revelations made the fight more even.”

When the government broke up the telephone system in 1984, the fact that AT&T could count most citizens as customers and that it was arguably the best-run telephone company in the world was not deemed compelling enough to preserve its monopoly power. The breakup would unleash a wave of competition and innovation that ultimately benefited consumers and the economy. Facebook seems to be in a similar position today — only with far greater global reach than Ma Bell could have imagined. It is the most powerful communications and media company in the world. And that power is being abused. Competition might change the game. That so many internet users are concerned about their privacy may serve as an invitation for another company to challenge Facebook. At some point a government agency might be willing to break away some of its components and chop it down to size. After all, it’s happened before.

Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly privately slammed the Trump administration’s competence over a proposal to nationalize the country’s 5G wireless network. “That is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Commissioner O’Rielly wrote to a telecommunication attorney in a Jan 28 e-mail obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. He added: “The ability of an administration, especially this one, to carry it out is near zero.” The blunt e-mail contrasts with Commissioner O’Rielly’s public show of support for the Trump administration less than a month later at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 23. In a recent statement, Commissioner O'Rielly sought to disconnect his pro-Trump comments at CPAC from his reaction to the 5G proposal, saying the two issues are "apples and oranges." And he stood by his stance on the 5G concept. "Any plan to nationalize 5G would be a tremendous error and an executable nightmare, especially for this administration which has faced inordinate obstacles and opposition," he said.

The following items have been adopted by the Federal Communications Commission and deleted from the list of items scheduled for consideration at the June 7, 2018 Open Meeting:

• Audacy Corporation Application for Authority to Launch and Operate a Non-Geostationary Medium Earth Orbit Satellite System in the Fixed-and InterSatellite Services (IBFS File No. SAT-LOA-20161115- 00117): The Commission will consider an Order and Authorization that recommends granting Audacy’s request to construct, deploy, and operate a proposed non-geostationary satellite (NGSO) constellation to provide continuous, high-speed, low-latency relay services to other NGSO spacecraft operators through Audacy’s proposed satellites and gateway earth stations.
• O3b Limited Request for Modification of US Market Access for O3b Limited’s Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit System in the Fixed-Satellite Service and in the Mobile-Satellite Service (IBFS File Nos. SATMOD-20160624-00060, SAT-AMD-20161115-00116, SAT-AMD-20170301-00026, SAT AMD-20171109- 00154): The Commission will consider an Order and Declaratory Ruling that recommends granting a request to modify O3b’s existing US market access grant by adding new non-geostationary satellites and new frequency bands in order to provide broadband communication services in the United States.
• Updating the Intercarrier Compensation Regime to Eliminate Access Arbitrage (WC Docket No. 18-155): The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes measures to eliminate access arbitrage in the intercarrier compensation regime.
• Enforcement Bureau Action: The Commission will consider an enforcement action.

Comcast has agreed to pay $155 million in back taxes to Oregon in order to settle a nine-year property tax dispute. Comcast will also drop its attempt to secure a tax break that OR created as part of a failed attempt to bring Google Fiber to the state. Gov Kate Brown (D-OR) announced the settlement with Comcast, noting that the legal battle "likely would have continued for many more years because several distinct and complex legal questions were in dispute." OR accepted the $155 million payment despite previously arguing that Comcast owed $200 million. The cable TV company's fight with OR tax collectors dates to 2009, when the state changed its methodology for assessing Comcast's telecommunications equipment. The tax is an unusual one, using "central assessment" to tax a company's property based on such nebulous factors as the value of the company's brand. Comcast sued, and the state Supreme Court ruled against Comcast in 2014. The company didn't pay up, though, continuing to contest aspects of the Oregon tax law. Under the settlement, "Comcast acceded to the central assessment methodology," Gov Brown's announced. The settlement will also affect what Comcast pays in future taxes. The OR legislature in 2015 voted to reduce property taxes for companies that offer gigabit-speed Internet service. That move was designed to lure Google Fiber to the state, but Comcast ended up seeking the tax break when it started offering gigabit speeds. But under the settlement, Comcast "agreed to withdraw its gigabit exemption application," Gov Brown's announcement said. "If approved for the exemption, Comcast's property tax burden would have been significantly reduced."

National Republicans are looking to boost turnout in June 5's pivotal CA primaries with texts targeting GOP voters in key districts. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is targeting 115,000 Republican voters who have either not turned in their vote-by-mail ballots or need to vote on Election Day. Voters began receiving text messages the week May 25 and will receive one more on June 5 reminding them to vote. Voters will receive a text message that reads "ELECTION ALERT: Today is Primary Day! Turn in your ballot or vote on-person before 8pm tonight to help California Republicans." They'll also be sent a link to a program that helps find their polling place, and they can text back and forth with a party official if they have questions. The text program targets voters specifically in California's 39th, 48th and 49th congressional districts, which are home to important, yet unpredictable races.

As it wrestled with accusations about a fake cyberattack, the Federal Communications Commission purposely misled several news organizations, choosing to feed journalists false information, while at the same time discouraging them from challenging the agency’s official story. Internal emails reviewed by Gizmodo lay bare the agency’s efforts to counter rife speculation that senior officials manufactured a cyberattack, allegedly to explain away technical problems plaguing the FCC’s comment system amid its high-profile collection of public comments on a controversial and since-passed proposal to overturn federal net neutrality rules. The FCC has been unwilling or unable to produce any evidence an attack occurred—not to the reporters who’ve requested and even sued over it, and not to US lawmakers who’ve demanded to see it. Instead, the agency conducted a quiet campaign to bolster its cyberattack story with the aid of friendly and easily-duped reporters, chiefly by spreading word of an earlier cyberattack that its own security staff say never happened.

Britain’s culture secretary said that 21st Century Fox should be allowed to bid for control of the satellite broadcaster Sky -- as long as Fox sells 24-hour news channel Sky News. The news from Britain sets up a potential bidding war with Comcast for a jewel of Europe’s media industry. The decision by the culture secretary, Matt Hancock, ends months of uncertainty over whether the British government would block Rupert Murdoch’s efforts to buy the 61 percent of Sky that his company does not already own. But in a nod to concern over Murdoch winning too much control of Britain’s media landscape, Hancock also required the sale of Sky News. The decision frees Fox to sweeten its bid for control of Sky in the face of competition from Comcast. Murdoch’s offer values Sky at about $25 billion; Comcast’s values the broadcaster at $29 billion. Yet a fight for Sky is in some ways a proxy war for a bigger battle: one between Comcast and Walt Disney over control of a majority of Murdoch’s media empire.