Gov performance

Spring 2018, soon after Facebook acknowledged that the data of tens of millions of its users had improperly been obtained by the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, a top enforcement official at the Federal Trade Commission drafted a memo about the prospect of disciplining the social network. Lawmakers, consumer advocates and even former commission officials were clamoring for tough action against Facebook, arguing that it had violated an earlier Federal Trade Commission consent decree barring it from misleading users about how their information was shared.

That Facebook can’t stay out of the headlines is not just a crisis for Facebook. It’s also a crisis for the Federal Trade Commission—indeed, it’s a “credibility-check moment.” Every day that passes in which the consent order is not enforced against Facebook adds to speculation that something is deeply broken at the agency. Moreover, the tech firms want the FTC to be named as their sole regulator, pre-empting stronger action by states and their attorneys general to protect privacy.

This is my case for why I am pro-agency rulemaking authority, and you should be too.

Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate Gigi Sohn said that the new Democratic-majority House will probe the handling of net neutrality by the Trump administration.  She noted that Democrats are “angry” with the Federal Communications Commission repealing the rules that protected consumers from slowing or blocking internet content.

Federal prosecutors are examining whether foreigners illegally funneled donations to President Trump’s inaugural committee and a pro-Trump super PAC in hopes of buying influence over American policy. The inquiry focuses on whether people from Middle Eastern nations — including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — used straw donors to disguise their donations to the two funds. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee misspent some of the record $107 million it raised from donations. The criminal probe by the Manhattan

The Nov 27 Senate hearing on the activities of the Federal Trade Commission highlighted the shortcomings of applying industrial-era thinking to internet-era challenges. The new digital reality calls for both expansive regulatory oversight as well as legislative action. FTC Chairman Joseph Simons' constrained description of the FTC’s authority highlights the need for creative new responses the the ongoing collision between conservative dogma and the unconstrained activities of Big Tech.

According to the Federal Communications Commission’s last-published report, 24 million Americans lack access to high-speed internet service, with 19 million of them in rural areas. But last week the New York Times offered new numbers and they’re problematic, too. It found that 162 million people across the country do not use internet service at broadband speeds. There’s a big delta between 24 million and 162 million. 

According to unnamed sources, the Justice Department is investigating whether crimes were committed when potentially millions of people’s identities were posted to the Federal Communications Commission’s website without their permission, falsely attributing to them opinions about net neutrality rules. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has delivered subpoenas to at least two organizations related to the comments.

Now that Democrats are about to take charge of the House in January, lawmakers plan to force some accountability on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. FCC oversight is a top priority for the House Commerce Committee in the upcoming session, according to committee members. “We plan to put the consumer first by pushing policies that protect net neutrality, promote public safety, and provide meaningful privacy and data security protections that are seriously lacking today,” said incoming-Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ).

The Federal Communications Commission has once again refused a New York Times request for records that the Times believes might shed light on Russian interference in the net neutrality repeal proceeding. The Times made a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request in June 2017 for FCC server logs and sued the FCC in September 2018 over the agency's ongoing refusal to release the records. The court case is still pending, but the Times had also appealed directly to the FCC to reverse its FoIA decision.