Press Release

The Federal Communications Commission took action to support the deployment of a nationwide network for use by first responders. The decision, consistent with duties entrusted to the FCC by Congress, will help ensure that state-built portions of the network are interoperable with the core network so that public safety officials can communicate seamlessly with each other during emergencies.

The FCC established the standards and procedures it will use to review state plans. The decision addresses:

• The timeline for states to provide notification of their opt-out decisions and file plans with the FCC;
• Information states should include in their plans to demonstrate compliance with the statutory criteria for interoperability with FirstNet’s network;
• Some of the technical criteria and standards that the FCC will use in evaluating state plans;
• The FCC’s review process, including participation by interested parties, treatment of confidential information, and the timing of FCC action; and
• The FCC’s process for documenting its decisions to approve or disapprove state plans.

In addition, in light of recent filings by FirstNet in the docket, the Report and Order directs the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau to issue a Public Notice seeking comment on one remaining element of the FCC’s review standard, after which the FCC will issue an order on that element.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed to add an alert option to the nation’s Emergency Alert System (EAS) to help protect the nation’s law enforcement officers.

Called a “Blue Alert,” the option would be used by authorities in states across the country to notify the public through television and radio of threats to law enforcement and to help apprehend dangerous suspects. Blue Alerts can be used to warn the public when there is actionable information related to a law enforcement officer who is missing, seriously injured or killed in the line of duty, or when there is an imminent credible threat to an officer. As a result, a Blue Alert could quickly warn you if a violent suspect may be in your community, along with providing instructions on what to do if you spot the suspect and how to stay safe.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) would amend the FCC’s EAS rules by creating a dedicated Blue Alert event code so that state and local agencies have the option to send these warnings to the public through broadcast, cable, satellite, and wireline video providers. While some states have individual Blue Alert programs that use various methods to issue these warnings, the proposal is intended to support the development of a national framework that states can adopt. This goal is consistent with the Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act of 2015. The Act, which is being implemented by the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), directs cooperation with the FCC. The COPS Office has expressed the need for a dedicated EAS code for Blue Alerts.

The NPRM invites public comment on the proposal.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed rules to help unmask anonymous callers who threaten and harass schools, religious institutions, and other victims.

This effort follows the FCC’s temporary waiver earlier this year of caller ID privacy rules in order to help law enforcement address threatening phone calls received by Jewish Community Centers. The FCC is seeking to help law enforcement and community institutions get from telephone providers quick access to the information they need to identify and thwart threatening callers. The FCC seeks to streamline this process so that, going forward, institutions facing harassing or threatening calls can work with law enforcement to access caller ID info of the anonymous callers more quickly than the current, case-by-case waiver process. The proposal would amend the FCC’s rules to ensure that law enforcement and threatened parties can quickly identify threatening callers without the regulatory delay of applying for and being granted a waiver of the rules. The proposal lays out a path that protects consumer privacy by ensuring that caller information only be disclosed for truly threatening calls and that only law enforcement personnel and others responsible for the safety and security of the threatened party have access to otherwise-protected caller ID information.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed a $120 million fine against an individual who apparently made almost 100 million spoofed robocalls in violation of the Truth in Caller ID Act. The law prohibits callers from deliberately falsifying caller ID information to disguise their identity with the intent to harm or defraud consumers.

Adrian Abramovich of Miami, Florida, apparently made 96 million spoofed robocalls during a three-month period. Abramovich’s operation apparently made the spoofed calls in order to trick unsuspecting consumers into answering and listening to his advertising messages. The proposed fine is based on 80,000 spoofed calls that the FCC has verified. Consumers reported receiving calls that appeared to come from local numbers but, if they answered, they heard an automated message prompting them to “Press 1” to hear about “exclusive” vacation deals from well-known travel and hospitality companies such as Marriott, Expedia, Hilton and TripAdvisor. Consumers who did press the button were then transferred to foreign call centers where live operators attempted to sell vacation packages often involving timeshares. The call centers were not affiliated with the well-known travel and hospitality companies mentioned in the recorded message.

In its continuing effort to eliminate costly and unnecessary regulations, the Federal Communications Commission proposed easing certain audit and reporting rules to better reflect the changing role of payphones in a mobile era.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) adopted by the FCC proposes to eliminate an annual audit and associated reporting requirement that in some cases reportedly costs more to undertake than the payphone compensation revenue it protects. An accompanying Order waives the audit and reporting requirements for 2017 and 2018 while the FCC weighs their permanent elimination in the future. Obligations to appropriately compensate payphone providers are not affected by today’s actions. The FCC proposes eliminating the audit and reporting requirements. As an alternative, it asks about replacing them with a less burdensome requirement such as self-certification, and seeks comment on these issues and additional reforms.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has awarded a grant to KWMU-St. Louis Public Radio to collaborate with three other public media stations to drive diversity in news coverage, audiences and staff. St. Louis Public Radio will work with KCUR-Kansas City, WNPR-Hartford and Oregon Public Broadcasting on the 27-month project that includes resources for training for newsrooms and news management, documenting the project’s process and reporting on best practices to the rest of the public media system. A St. Louis-based editor will guide the reporters based at each of the four stations in producing in-depth multimedia stories. Reporters will also contribute to their station’s daily broadcasts, produce news spots, and engage with diverse communities through events, social media, listening posts and/or podcasts. The collaboration will produce joint reporting projects for broadcast and digital distribution, and pitched for national distribution.

Members of the new Broadband Access Coalition called on the Federal Communications Commission to authorize a new, licensed, point-to-multipoint (P2MP) fixed wireless service in the underutilized 3700 - 4200 MHz spectrum band used primarily by fixed satellite services. The proposed licensing scheme and operating rules enable gigabit and near-gigabit broadband service in rural and underserved areas, and promote competition for broadband delivery among various technologies and licensees.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he intends to appoint Rosemary C. Harold to serve as chief of the Enforcement Bureau. Harold is an attorney with considerable experience both within the agency and in private practice, as well as a former journalist. Harold will be working closely with Michael Carowitz who, having served as acting bureau chief, will continue to help lead the Bureau as deputy bureau chief.

Harold rejoins the agency from Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP, where she was a partner. Prior to joining the firm in 2011, Harold was a legal advisor to then-FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell for media and broadband issues and deputy chief of the FCC’s Media Bureau. She began her career as a journalist, working as a reporter and bureau chief for the Miami Herald and an editor at C-SPAN. She earned her law degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, her master’s degree from the University of Missouri, and her bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary.

The real information problem—which we at the Hewlett Foundation are actively exploring with potential philanthropic interventions as part of our democracy reform work with the Madison Initiative—is biased news, including misinformation, disinformation and propaganda. Research shows that many citizens are psychologically predisposed to want to read biased news that reaffirms their pre-existing beliefs and tribal identities. This creates obvious pernicious incentives for commercial technology platforms that want to keep people on their sites. So, compared with fake news, biased news will be harder to address.

Polarization and hyper-partisanship remain the key concerns at Madison. However, some recent evidence calls into question the correlation between growing ideological polarization and social media, given that the most rapidly polarizing—older—demographics are the least likely users of social media. So while some actors are motivated by ideological partisanship, some are profit motivated, some seek to amplify prejudices via hate speech, and still others appear not particularly ideological, but instead most interested in shifting the balance of power domestically (or in the case of Russia globally, towards a more illiberal democracy).

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced the creation of the Global Indigenous Ambassador Program. The program establishes two Indigenous Ambassadors, to be selected from underrepresented indigenous communities. Through the inclusion of a broader and more diverse base of knowledgeable constituents, ICANN will be better equipped to support the next generation of the global Internet community.

"This is an exciting opportunity for two Indigenous Ambassadors to learn about ICANN and the At-Large community, representing the best interests of Internet end users," states Loris Taylor, President & CEO, Native Public Media. ICANN is now accepting applications for two Global Indigenous Ambassadors. Applicants must be members of unserved or underserved tribal or native communities and meet the ICANN Fellowship Program criteria. Selected participants will receive travel, hotel, and per diem for the ICANN60 Conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to be held 28 October – 3 November 2017. The deadline for submitting applications is 6 July 2017.