Daily Digest 12/12/2017 (Break the Internet)

Benton Foundation

Net Neutrality

FTC, FCC Outline Agreement to Coordinate Online Consumer Protection Efforts Following Adoption of The Restoring Internet Freedom Order

The Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced their intent to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under which the two agencies would coordinate online consumer protection efforts following the adoption of the Restoring Internet Freedom Order.  “The Memorandum of Understanding will be a critical benefit for online consumers because it outlines the robust process by which the FCC and FTC will safeguard the public interest,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Instead of saddling the Internet with heavy-handed regulations, we will work together to take targeted action against bad actors. This approach protected a free and open Internet for many years prior to the FCC’s 2015 Title II Order and it will once again following the adoption of the Restoring Internet Freedom Order.” “The FTC is committed to ensuring that Internet service providers live up to the promises they make to consumers,” said Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen. 

“The MOU we are developing with the FCC, in addition to the decades of FTC law enforcement experience in this area, will help us carry out this important work.”

The draft MOU, which is being released Dec 11, outlines a number of ways in which the FCC and FTC will work together to protect consumers, including:

  • The FCC will review informal complaints concerning the compliance of Internet service providers (ISPs) with the disclosure obligations set forth in the new transparency rule. Those obligations include publicly providing information concerning an ISP’s practices with respect to blocking, throttling, paid prioritization, and congestion management. Should an ISP fail to make the required disclosures—either in whole or in part—the FCC will take enforcement action.
  • The FTC will investigate and take enforcement action as appropriate against ISPs concerning the accuracy of those disclosures, as well as other deceptive or unfair acts or practices involving their broadband services.
  • The FCC and the FTC will broadly share legal and technical expertise, including the secure sharing of informal complaints regarding the subject matter of the Restoring Internet Freedom Order. The two agencies also will collaborate on consumer and industry outreach and education.

FCC explains how net neutrality will be protected without net neutrality rules

The Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission released a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) describing how the agencies will work together to make sure ISPs keep their network neutrality promises. In short, ISPs will be free to do whatever they want—unless they make specific promises to avoid engaging in specific types of anti-competitive or anti-consumer behavior. When companies make promises and break them, the FTC can punish them for deceiving consumers. That's what FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Acting FTC Chair Maureen Ohlhausen are counting on. “Instead of saddling the Internet with heavy-handed regulations, we will work together to take targeted action against bad actors," Chairman Pai said.

Can the FTC Really Handle Net Neutrality? Let’s Check Against the 4 Most Famous Violations.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and defenders of the draft Order insist that a combination of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Section 5 (15 U.S.C. 45), state consumer protection law, and anti-trust law will provide more than adequate protection for consumers and anyone who doubts this is — you guessed it — fear mongering. Happily, we do not need to speculate on this entirely. We can simply apply the proposed rules in the draft Order and the protections cited by the draft Order and its defenders and apply them to the four most significant network neutrality violations on record ... 
 [Harold Feld]

House Commerce Committee GOP Leaders on FCC, FTC Consumer Protection Announcement

As the FCC prepares to rightfully restore internet freedom with Title I internet rules, it’s good to know that these powerful commissions are working together to protect consumers from any unfair or anticompetitive practices. The FTC has successfully provided those essential protections for decades, and we are confident they will continue to do so. Today’s announcement from the FTC and FCC is a positive move for consumers and the internet ecosystem.

Ranking Member Pallone on Memorandum of Understanding Between FTC and FCC if Net Neutrality is Rolled Back

Today’s agreement between the FCC and FTC underscores the absurdity of Chairman Pai’s proposal to eliminate net neutrality and his plan to abandon the FCC’s statutory responsibilities as the expert agency overseeing our communications networks.  Chairman Pai’s plan not only leaves consumers fending for themselves, it is now creating a bureaucratic nightmare with no one left in charge when things inevitably go wrong.  And by acting before the Ninth Circuit decides whether the FTC has any authority over broadband providers, this MOU is effectively worthless.

Statement of FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on FCC/FTC Agreement

The agreement announced today between the FCC and FTC is a confusing, lackluster, reactionary afterthought: an attempt to paper over weaknesses in the Chairman’s draft proposal repealing the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules. “Two years ago, the FCC signed a much broader pro-consumer agreement with the FTC that already covers this issue. There is no reason to do this again other than as a smoke and mirrors PR stunt, distracting from the FCC’s planned destruction of net neutrality protections later this week.

What's the Rush to End Net Neutrality?

The Federal Communications Commission will vote to repeal its 2015 network neutrality rules during its December 14 meeting. But some FCC Commissioners, lawmakers, and public interest groups are urging FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to delay the vote on his proposal. Despite calls for a vote delay, Chairman Pai appears determined to return "to the legal framework for Internet regulation that was in place” in 2014 (even if this plan breaks with 50 years of history).  And although Chairman Pai claims he is restoring the authority of the FTC “to police the practices of Internet service providers”, did the FTC ever act on one of these practices before 2015?  December 14 is the day of the vote, but there’s much more news to come before, during, and after the FCC’s meeting. 

Internet Pioneers and Leaders Tell the FCC: You Don’t Understand How the Internet Works

More than 20 internet pioneers and leaders including the “father of the internet”, Vint Cerf; the inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee; and the Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak have urged the Federal Communications Commission to cancel its vote to repeal network neutrality, describing the plan as “based on a flawed and factually inaccurate” understanding of how the internet works. “The FCC’s rushed and technically incorrect proposed order to repeal net neutrality protections without any replacement is an imminent threat to the internet we worked so hard to create. It should be stopped,” said the technology luminaries in an open letter to lawmakers with oversight of the Federal Communications Commission on Dec 11. “It is important to understand that the FCC’s proposed order is based on a flawed and factually inaccurate understanding of Internet technology,” the internet pioneers state, adding that the flaws were outlined in detail in a 43-page comment submitted by 200 tech leaders to the FCC in July. “Despite this comment, the FCC did not correct its misunderstandings.” They argue that the FCC should delay the vote until it has fully investigated the problems with the online commenting system and come up with an alternative way of protecting net neutrality principles.

Activists, Democratic Lawmakers plan net neutrality rally outside FCC

Net Neutrality Protestors Take to Auto-Twitter

Mozilla, BitTorrent, Reddit, Etsy and Patreon are among those driving calls to Congress as part of the Break the Internet network neutrality protest scheduled for Dec 12. That is according to Fight for the Future, which says it has created a tool that will allow protestors to auto-tweet net neutrality messages every 10 minutes in the 48 hours running up to the FCC's planned December 14 vote. 

Get set: Your internet bill is about to soar, thanks to Trump's FCC

[Commentary] Dec 14's the day that the Trump administration will overturn former President Obama’s rules protecting consumers from greedy telecom companies manipulating internet access and pricing. I got a preview of what’s to come over the weekend as my Spectrum internet bill soared by 20% — and as I encountered the take-it-or-leave-it policy imposed by Spectrum’s owner, Charter Communications, which purchased Time Warner Cable in 2016. The current net neutrality rules have depressed the ability of telecom companies to fleece broadband internet customers who have cut the cord on pricey pay-TV packages and switched to streaming-video services. Happily for the industry, but not so much for consumers, that’s about to change. [David Lazarus]

Mobile-Wireless Market Might Be Our Post Net-Neutrality World

With the rules governing internet services set to be rolled back this week, service providers and their detractors are envisioning new models that could translate into a wider range of fees—both lower and higher. The current rules, expected to be all but eliminated by the Federal Communications Commission, require that internet service providers treat all traffic on their networks equally, a concept known as net neutrality. The FCC’s vote, scheduled for Dec 14, has far-reaching implications for the way consumers experience the internet, how they pay for it and, potentially, which companies will dominate it. One example of how things could work is the mobile wireless market, where some providers already favor certain websites and services over others. Under the new regime, internet providers would be allowed to prioritize their own or other companies’ services by delivering them at higher speeds—sometimes called fast lanes. Net neutrality advocates worry that if content companies start paying for faster delivery, they will pass those costs onto consumers. That means that AT&T could not only exempt DirecTV Now from monthly data caps, but it could also ensure DirecTV Now always loads faster and has a clearer picture quality than a rival like Netflix—unless those rivals pay for faster delivery, too.

If Net Neutrality Is Repealed, What Will It Mean For People Who Don't Have Broadband Yet?

Right now, cities and towns have a little bit of leverage when talking to cable companies about installing fiber networks, according to Harvard law professor Susan Crawford. "Through saying, 'Look, come and build this network for us. But you can only build it by providing equal service to everybody in town and at a low price,' that's how that particular direction is being carried out in Massachusetts,” Crawford said. But she said towns may not be able to do that anymore. “The great uncertainty created by the recent FCC order is that Mr. Pai has said that any language coming out of a city or a state that's inconsistent with what I'm up to is hereby blocked by this order.” Crawford also said that if a town required a company to build a network that reaches all its residents, it could be violating the new FCC rule.

The FCC plans to repeal net neutrality this week — and it could ruin the internet

The Neutrality Network

[Commentary] As I watch great work [of net neutrality rules] get wiped away by a Federal Communications Commission chairman focused exclusively on making an industry happy, I can’t escape the recognition that led me to move on from this field just over a decade ago. For as I read the frantic activism on Reddit and Twitter, I just want to grab these great souls by the shoulders and ask them, “Why would you ever expect network neutrality to survive within a government that has so completely given up on democratic neutrality?” Because there is a deep but obvious link between the internet we want and the democracy we should have. What our democracy does, it should do with representatives who are, analogously, independent. Not independent of us, the citizens, but of the equivalent to network intermediaries, the concentrated funders of political campaigns. Representatives must be free to aim for the policy that reflects the demands of the people, as efficiently and effectively as they can, independent of the interests of any powerful, and entrenching, intermediaries. Democracy needs independence — not from the people, but from the current Congress-owners—just as the internet needs independence from the potentially corrupting influence of its intermediaries: the network owners. [Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School]

via Medium

This is the future if net neutrality is repealed; the creeping, costly death of media freedom

[Commentary] If you’re scared of a future America without network neutrality, I want to terrify you. The potential repeal of what should be a civic right should chill you to the bone. After spending twelve years running a company that helps millions of people to break through the barriers of censorship imposed by oppressive governments, I am quite familiar with the ramifications of such repressions. When a country lacks an open internet, the government (and companies friendly with said government) are able to do anything from simply blocking or banning apps entirely (EG: Facebook, Twitter, Skype, WhatsApp for censorship or economic reasons) to more aggressive moves such as Egypt’s effective shutdown of their internet service providers.  As a lucky American, it’s easy to say “this can’t happen here,” which is a reasonable, human gesture — we live under a democracy, but said democracy also has polarized politics and a totally different lobbying system to the rest of the world. While we have freedom of speech, we also have billions of for-profit lobbyist dollars acting as a cudgel against our interests. Out of the top 50 last year, the top 10 included AT&T, spending $16.3 million, and Comcast (the largest cable provider in America and owner of NBCUniversal) ranked 12th, spending $14.3 million. Verizon* spent $10 million, and T-Mobile $8 million. AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, the NCTA ($13.4 million in lobbying in 2016) spent over half a billion dollars looking to destroy net neutrality. What I want to establish is the hunger these companies have had for the destruction of your right to a neutral internet. America may not have a dictatorship, but it now, if net neutrality is repealed, will have an oligopoly. As Gizmodo has mapped out, net neutrality exists so that ISPs cannot legally “give preferential treatment to services they directly profit from and block those they don’t, all the while charging internet companies like Netflix additional fees for speedier access to consumers.” [David Gorodyansky is the chief executive officer of AnchorFree.]

Net neutrality is on its way out. But that might not be so bad for Sacramento

What Facebook Taught Me About Net Neutrality

[Commentary] Strong network neutrality rules don’t just protect companies — they also protect you as a consumer and ensure that you’re getting the full services you’re paying for. If an internet provider slows or blocks a site that you want to look at, it is denying you the right to freely choose the content that’s important to you. To see this more clearly, it’s crucial to understand that net neutrality concerns the delivery of data only once it reaches your internet provider’s network, which is only a small part of the internet as a whole. To create an invisible “fast lane” for someone else, your provider is slowing your connection to the internet.  Opponents of net neutrality argue that prioritization, blocking and throttling will actually increase innovation. Certain services, they say, require a special channel that can be shielded from congestion. What they fail to mention is that it’s already possible to create dedicated internet links that guarantee a highly reliable connection, and that this is commonplace today within the framework of a neutral internet. In fact, we do it at Philo to ensure uninterrupted delivery of television feeds from content providers to our servers.  The truth is that these arguments are a cover — what internet providers opposed to net neutrality really want is the ability to extract payments from companies that simply want their consumers to have equal access to their services. [Andrew McCollum is the chief executive of Philo, an internet television company.]

The Hypocritical Dishonesty Of The Net Neutrality Campaign

Mozilla (and many others) are building their case for net neutrality around the fear that other, bad corporations are going to impose “censorship” that is so much worse the benevolent speech patrols of the corporations they like. The Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to turn Internet service providers into regulated utilities, which the Trump administration has just reversed, was never about stopping them from controlling content. It’s actually about money. It’s about who pays for all of that bandwidth we’re using. To be more specific, it’s about trying to make certain unpopular companies (like Comcast) pay for it, so that other, more popular companies (like Netflix) don’t have to. This is a dispute over who should bear the cost of the Web’s considerable infrastructure, and net neutrality was the government coming in to put a thumb on the scales and dictate the winners and losers.

Communications and Democracy

Ex-Spy Chief: Russia’s Election Hacking Was An ‘Intelligence Failure’

Michael Morell is one of the career types who’s broken with decades of practice to confront President Donald Trump. A veteran of nearly three decades in the CIA, Morell rose from within the ranks to become the agency’s longtime deputy director, twice serving as its acting leader before retiring during President Barack Obama’s second term. In the summer of 2016, he broke with tradition to endorse Hillary Clinton over Trump, and he has continued to sound the alarm ever since. But in a revealingly self-critical and at times surprising interview, Morell acknowledges that he and other spy-world critics of the president failed to fully “think through” the negative backlash generated by their going political. “There was a significant downside,” Morell said. The Russian 2016 hacking, Morell said, was in fact a U.S. “intelligence failure” in multiple ways. It was, he argued, at the least “a failure of imagination that’s not dissimilar to the failure of imagination that we had for 9/11,” with America’s spy agencies apparently unable to have conceived of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and electronic hacking of Gmail being used to attack the country’s election.

President Trump Escalates His Criticism of the News Media, Fueling National Debate

President Donald Trump has escalated his fiery attacks on the news media, seizing on a recent string of mistaken reports to bolster his case that he is being persecuted by a left-leaning establishment out to bring him down and fueling a national debate over truth, accountability and a free press. While every president has groused about his coverage, President Trump has proved to be the most vocal and visceral news media critic in the Oval Office in at least a generation. In recent days, news outlets have provided him ammunition with reporting errors. But the barrage has deepened concern among media executives about what they see as a concerted campaign to discredit independent journalism. For the most part, Mr. Trump’s blasts at the news media have been rhetorical. But he has warned that he might go beyond name calling, such as when he threatened to try to revoke a broadcasting license for NBC after a news report he challenged. Networks like NBC do not hold federal licenses themselves, but their individual television stations do. Trump’s administration has taken aim at CNN’s corporate ownership. Analysts said Trump’s criticisms represented an effort to undermine faith in journalism. “It is a common thing in the authoritarian playbook to discredit the media so that they are the only source that can be trusted,” said Indira Lakshmanan, who holds the Newmark chair in journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute. “Making it so there is no objective truth is the most dangerous thing of all of this.”

White House Press Secretary, reporters spar over 'fake news'

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparred with reporters during her Dec 11 briefing over errors made by media outlets in reports on President Donald Trump. Sanders disputed the notion that mistakes made by news outlets were “honest mistakes” during a heated exchange with CNN’s Jim Acosta.  "You cannot say it's an honest mistake when you're purposely putting out information you know is false," Sanders said. Sanders and Acosta talked over one another during the exchange. “I’m not finished,” she responded when reporter Brian Karem tried to cut in. The exchange with Acosta comes amid escalating tensions between the White House and CNN.

CNN accuses President Trump of online bullying after attack on Don Lemon

CNN accused President Donald Trump of being an online bully after the president tweeted an attack against anchor Don Lemon, calling him the “dumbest man on television.” “In a world where bullies torment kids on social media to devastating effect on a regular basis with insults and name-calling, it is sad to see our president engaging in the very same behavior himself,” a CNN spokesperson said. “Leaders should lead by example.”

More Broadband/Internet

Court: Axia must keep 'middle-mile' broadband network operating

Private Providers Spent Nearly $1 Million to Fight Municipal Broadband in One Small Colorado City

New financial disclosures for a November ballot initiative show that a group backed by private internet providers spent just over $900,000 to try and block city-owned broadband service in Fort Collins, Colorado. The big spenders were nonetheless defeated by a citizens’ group that spent only $15,000 to support the bond measure, which passed with 57% of the vote on Nov. 7, approving up to $150 million in financing for a city-run broadband utility. Opposition to the measure was spearheaded by the group Priorities First Fort Collins, which according to filings, received most of its funding from the Colorado Cable Telecommunications Association. National telecom giant Comcast is a member of the group. Most of the group’s spending was on advertising, including a commercial that argued public spending on broadband would pre-empt spending on roads and public safety. That argument has been described as deceptive, though, since the bond would be repaid with subscriber fees and not from the city budget. Fort Collins Mayor Wade Troxell characterized efforts by the measure’s opponents as “misinformation.”

As net neutrality repeal looms, Boulder takes closer look at city-owned broadband

It's going to cost somewhere between $70 and $140 million, officials estimate, to build out the underground fiber-to-the-premises network that Boulder (CO) needs to make community-wide broadband a reality. The question for the City Council has never been whether this pursuit is worthwhile, as voters and elected leaders clearly agree on the value of open-access, affordable, high-speed internet — the introduction of which would put pressure on the incumbent Comcast-CenturyLink duopoly to lower their prices and offer higher speeds. Rather, the question is: Who is going to pay for this build-out? And, for much of the past year, based on advice of a consultant Boulder has paid $186,000 to date, the most likely answer seemed to be that the city would partner with an outside provider willing to pay for the build-out. But now, Boulder is taking its closest look to date at another path, in which the city finances the build and owns the network.

How Google Fiber turned 2017 into its comeback year

Google Fiber showed new life in 2017, after a near death experience in late 2016. The fiber internet pioneer launched in three new cities—Huntsville (AL), Louisville (KY), and San Antonio (TX)—in 2017. It also began to heavily rely on shallow trenching, a new method of laying cables, to expedite the construction process. "We're very pleased with the response from residents in these markets—along with our other existing Google Fiber cities, where we worked hard throughout the year to bring Fiber service to even more people in many more neighborhoods," a Google Fiber spokesperson said. The comeback happened after a construction halt and the CEO stepping down in October 2016, which left some wondering if Fiber was on its last breath. 

The ‘Alt-Right’ Created a Parallel Internet. It’s an Unholy Mess.

[Commentary] If you’ve lost sleep worrying about the growing power of the alt-right — that shadowy coalition that includes white nationalists, anti-feminists, far-right reactionaries and meme-sharing trolls — I may have found a cure for your anxiety. Just try using its websites. What I found on these sites was more pitiful than fear-inspiring. Sure, some alt-tech platforms were filled with upsetting examples of Nazi imagery and bigoted garbage. But most were ghost towns, with few active users and no obvious supervision. As technology products, many are second- or third-rate, with long load times, broken links and frequent error messages. A few had been taken offline altogether. If the alt-right’s ideology harks back to 1940s Germany, its web design might transport you to 1990s GeoCities. Even the movement’s own adherents have grown frustrated.

Privacy

How Email Open Tracking Quietly Took Over the Web

via Wired

Code injection: A new low for ISPs

[Commentary] Comcast and other Internet service providers “experimenting” with data caps inject JavaScript code into their customers’ data streams in order to display overlays on Web pages that inform them of data cap thresholds. They’ll even display notices that your cable modem may be eligible for replacement. And you can't opt out. Think about it for a second: Your cable provider is monitoring your traffic and injecting its own code wherever it likes. This is not only obtrusive, but can cause significant problems with normal Web application function. It’s abhorrent on its face, but that hasn’t stopped companies from developing and deploying code to do it. 

I used to track cell phone location information for prosecutors. My experience illustrates the overwhelming need for better technical resources for defense attorneys.

Ownership

Democratic lawmakers push for stricter antitrust rules amid merger boom

Democrats are ramping up their attacks on major corporate mergers after a series of mega-deals from corporate giants.  But Democrats aren’t just taking aim at the behemoth deals themselves: they’re looking at the specific government policies that permit them. Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on directly attacked the Chicago school of economics — the principles that have significantly influenced how federal regulators evaluate mergers. Sen Warren and other Democrats say that these principles allow and, in some cases, encourage larger mergers, which they believe threaten competition and potentially hurt the public as well.  Democrats’ criticism comes amid a new wave of mega-mergers in 2017, which Wall Street expects to continue into 2018. Over the past year, companies including AT&T and Time Warner, CVS and Aetna and Monsanto and Bayer have pursued multibillion-dollar mergers. Overall, billion-dollar plus mergers are up from a year ago.

Spectrum/Wireless

Verizon looks at 5G markets where municipalities are progressive about new tech

Verizon’s Ed Chan didn’t exactly spill the beans about where Verizon will launch commercial 5G residential broadband services next year—that would be rather peculiar if he did—but he did give a few insights into the decision-making process. Verizon announced it will launch the first commercial application of next-generation broadband services in three to five U.S. markets in 2018, starting with Sacramento (CA). The operator didn’t name the other markets and simply said more information would be provided at a later date. When asked about the selection process during a Barclays investor conference on Dec 7, Chan said that there are multiple things at play, including results of market trials. Generally speaking, it’s important to get the right municipalities involved, not just geography-wise. “We wanted to go after a set of cities” that could be highlighted as 5G cities, so they went through the economics of the right density and places and considered which municipalities were more progressive about new technologies.

via Fierce
Government Communication

Chairman Pai Announces New Dashboard and Transparency Upgrades to FCC.gov

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced the launch of an online dashboard to provide the public with more information on the agency’s work. Available immediately on the agency’s website, fcc.gov, this resource will help consumers access reports and graphics on FCC workloads, pending actions, and other accountability matrices, and more easily access Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) materials. “Since becoming Chairman, I’ve made it a priority to find ways to improve transparency at the FCC,” said Chairman Pai. “We serve the American people. To do that, it’s important to remain accountable to them and give them accurate, regularly-updated information about our work. I’m proud of the efforts my FCC colleagues make every day, and today’s upgrades will help consumers everywhere know more about those efforts. Today’s announcement brings to fruition a proposal I first introduced in 2013. I’m glad we’re finally able to activate this good-government tool.”

Accessibility

Half a Century Later – An Alternative to Teletypewriter (TTY)

AT&T is pleased to announce the launch of a new service – Real-time Text (RTT) – that replaces teletypewriter (TTY) and brings communications for people with hearing loss and speech disabilities into the 21st Century.  RTT is a text-based communication service that alleviates many of TTY’s short comings.  TTY requires turn taking, allows for the use of only a small set of device-generated characters, and is very slow.  With RTT, each text character is transmitted and received in near real time, allowing for a conversational flow of communication, simultaneously with voice.  This allows for a two-way conversation without requiring turn taking.

via AT&T
Lobbying

Congress took $101 Million in Donations from the ISP Industry -- Here's How Much Your Lawmaker Got

Policymakers

Inside Trump's Hour-by-Hour Battle for Self-Preservation

With Twitter as his Excalibur, the president takes on his doubters, powered by long spells of cable news and a dozen Diet Cokes. But if President Donald Trump has yet to bend the presidency to his will, he is at least wrestling it to a draw. Around 5:30 each morning, President Trump wakes and tunes into the television in the White House’s master bedroom. He flips to CNN for news, moves to “Fox & Friends” for comfort and messaging ideas, and sometimes watches MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” because, friends suspect, it fires him up for the day. Energized, infuriated — often a gumbo of both — President Trump grabs his iPhone. Sometimes he tweets while propped on his pillow, according to aides. Other times he tweets from the den next door, watching another television. Less frequently, he makes his way up the hall to the ornate Treaty Room, sometimes dressed for the day, sometimes still in night clothes, where he begins his official and unofficial calls.

President Trump attacks NYT report that he watches up to 8 hours of TV a day

President Donald Trump lashed out at The New York Times on Dec 11 over a report that said he watches a minimum of four hours of television each day. “Another false story, this time in the Failing @nytimes, that I watch 4-8 hours of television a day — Wrong!” Presidnet Trump wrote on Twitter. The tweet comes after the Times, in a report published over the weekend, cited individuals close to the president saying Trump watches anywhere from four to sometimes eight hours of TV during the day. CNN aired a segment on the report focused on Trump's television habits less than an hour before Trump's tweet. “Also, I seldom, if ever, watch CNN or MSNBC, both of which I consider Fake News. I never watch Don Lemon, who I once called the ‘dumbest man on television!’ Bad Reporting,” President Trump added.

How Ajit Pai tore up the rulebook for the information age

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has rewritten the rules of the information age so thoroughly that there's no mode of communication under his control where the rules aren't looser than they were a year ago. Here's a look at what he's done. While some of his deregulation has been bipartisan, his big-ticket proposals have divided the agency and the nation. He's actively courted fans of President Donald Trump's populist rhetoric and inspired scorn on the left. Many top Republican priorities have been mired in Washington gridlock since Trump took office. Not so at the FCC. Chairman Pai swiftly orchestrated the wholesale deregulation of the networks Americans use every day, which will likely alter the way people experience the internet, broadcast TV and even AM radio. Those changes will play out over years — not immediately.

via Axios
More Online

Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) -- we welcome your comments.

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