Daily Digest 6/21/2018 (FCC's July Agenda)

Benton Foundation

Open Meeting of the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board -- NIST

Headlines is updated all day long at www.benton.org/headlines

Agenda

Scoring a Victory for 5G

[Press release] When it comes to 5G, we need to keep the playbook fresh and forward leaning. So at our July 12 meeting, the Federal Communications Commission will take another step to ensure that America continues to lead the world in mobile innovation. Headlining the agenda at the FCC’s July meeting is a proposal to make more intensive use of mid-band spectrum from 3.7 to 4.2 GHz, commonly called the C-band. Another area in which the FCC has made substantial progress but must not stand still is emergency alerting. Building on the Public Safety Bureau’s recommendations, we will vote on July 12 on an order and proposed rules designed to stop and correct false emergency alerts. One of our biggest efforts to update the Commission’s rules has been our Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative. In the latest action to come out of the MMRI, the FCC will begin to review our children’s programming rules. These rules impose programming mandates on broadcast television stations (and only broadcast television stations). FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly has developed a number of proposals for updating these regulations to better match today’s video marketplace. Another set of regulations hasn’t kept pace with technology: our rules regarding number portability. [W]e’ll vote on July 12 on preliminary steps to achieving nationwide number portability. We’ll have one final vote—this one focused on improving our internal processes. On tap is an order that would create a uniform set of procedural rules for formal complaint proceedings administered by our Enforcement Bureau.

[FCC Chairman Pai]

The White House looks to coordinate online privacy plan

The White House is in the early stages of determining what a federal approach to online data privacy should look like. The preliminary conversations show that the White House wants a voice in the contentious domestic and global debate about how to protect consumer privacy online. Gail Slater, special assistant to President Donald Trump for tech, telecom and cyber policy at the White House National Economic Council, has met with industry groups to discuss possible ways to put in place guardrails for the use of personal data, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Apparently, there are several possible outcomes from the conversations the White House is having:

  • An executive order directing one or more agencies to develop a privacy framework. That could direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an arm of the Commerce Department, to work with industry and other experts to come up with guidelines. The process would likely be similar to the one the Obama administration launched on cybersecurity in 2013. Congress later supported the continued work on the standards, and President Trump required the use of the framework to help manage government agencies' cyber risk.
  • An executive order could also kick off a public-private partnership to lay out voluntary privacy best practices, which could become de-facto standards. However, it's unclear how an executive order would affect the Federal Trade Commission, which is an independent agency charged with keeping an eye on private sector privacy issues.
via Axios

FTC is hitting the road for ideas on how to regulate tech

The Federal Trade Commission plans to embark on a cross-country listening tour to gauge how academics and average Web users believe the US government should address digital-age challenges, from the rise of artificial intelligence to the data-collection mishaps that have plagued companies like Facebook. The effort was announced by new FTC Chairman Joe Simons and includes 15 or more public sessions in a series of cities that have yet to be announced. The hearings are expected to touch on a wide array of topics like the agency’s “remedial authority” to address privacy and security abuses, the potential risks posed by big data, and the commission’s tools to enforce antitrust laws as media, tech and telecom companies gobble each other up or seek to enter new lines of business. The public outreach will begin in September and continue into January 2019. “When the FTC periodically engages in serious reflection and evaluation, we are better able to promote competition and innovation, protect consumers, and shape the law, so that free markets continue to thrive,” Chairman Simons said. The FTC also invites public comments on a variety of topics, such as the healthcare, high-tech, or energy industries. 

Broadband/Internet

California net neutrality bill ‘eviscerated’ in Assembly committee meeting

A California network neutrality bill that advocates hailed as the “gold standard” for Internet protections was “eviscerated,” its chief backer said, in a committee hearing the morning of June 20.  In an 8-0 vote, the state Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee adopted amendments to SB822, by CA State Sen Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), which stripped it of provisions that would have given the state the strongest prohibitions against discriminatory treatment of Internet traffic in the country. “It is no longer a net neutrality bill,” a visibly frustrated state Sen Wiener said after the vote. In an unusual move, the committee voted on the bill before Wiener was given a chance to testify. “I will state for the record ... I think it was fundamentally unfair,” he said.

The committee, led by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), issued amendments to the bill late on the night of June 19. Among its recommendations were to permit a controversial internet service provider practice called “zero rating,” where some websites and apps don’t count against a consumer’s data allotment. The committee voted to move the bill to the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee despite state Sen Wiener’s objections. Wiener asked to withdraw the bill, which would have likely killed the proposal because of an upcoming June 29 deadline to pass all policy bills. “These California Democrats will go down in history as among the worst corporate shills that have ever held elected office. Californians should rise up and demand that at their Assembly members represent them. The actions of this committee today are an attack not just on net neutrality, but on our democracy,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future.

FCC Commissioner Carr Remarks at Senate Broadband Caucus -- "Agriculture and Broadband for Strong Rural Communities"

[Speech] We know the need for broadband in rural America. And we know the lost productivity and the lost job opportunities when fast connections are lacking. And yet the struggle to connect rural America— the financial cost, and the sheer sweat and elbow grease it takes—is hard to understate. From back here in DC, it’s often hard to appreciate the sheer quantity of data that today’s farmers and ranchers need to get their jobs done.  At the Federal Communications Commission, we are committed to taking steps to close the digital divide and ensure that everyone has access to the opportunities that broadband enables. But we have more work to do to bring better, faster, and cheaper broadband to more Americans. This means we need to keep cutting the regulatory red tape that needlessly drives up the costs of deploying broadband infrastructure. We need to keep freeing up spectrum for next-generation uses. And we need to continue supporting rural broadband providers through programs like our Connect America Fund.

Lifeline

Discounted Phones Save Lives of Homeless LGBT Teens — Now They Might Be Taken Away

[Op-ed] Nationwide, nearly two in five homeless youth identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. That adds up to 650,000 young people on our streets who face special risk of bullying, discrimination, and assault. To stay safe, they rely on something simple — a wireless phone. Many homeless LGBT young people are eligible for a program that helps them get wirelessly connected. It’s called Lifeline. For decades, Lifeline has been run by the Federal Communications Commission. The program is premised on the idea that low-income individuals need basic communications to ensure they have a fair shot at securing employment, a place to live, and the ability to reach out in an emergency. In practice, it lowers the cost of phone service for those who can least afford to pay. Today, the program serves 10 million people, including many young people who lack a safe place to live. In light of the epidemic of homelessness among LGBT youth, the FCC should be figuring out how to get Lifeline service into the hands of young people who need it. But instead, the FCC’s is planning to make deep cuts to the Lifeline program. As proposed, these cuts would leave 70 percent of Lifeline participants without a connection.

[Jessica Rosenworcel is a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission]

Ownership

Disney Raises Offer for 21st Century Fox in Bidding War With Comcast

The Walt Disney Company sharply increased its offer for 21st Century Fox June 20, as it looks to win a bidding war with Comcast for Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment conglomerate. In a quickly issued statement agreeing to the sweetened deal, 21st Century Fox said that the revamped offer from Disney, now valued at $71.3 billion, was “superior to the proposal” made by Comcast last week. The bid by Disney is 35 percent higher than its earlier offer and about $6 billion more than Comcast’s. Disney’s chief executive, Robert A. Iger, who has staked his legacy on this deal, made the new offer just before Fox’s board was to meet to discuss Comcast’s latest proposal, which had topped Disney’s earlier bid. Now Comcast will have to decide whether to counter this latest offer.

Does Disney or Comcast Have a Better Shot at Regulatory Approval for Fox Deal?

While offering billions in a bidding war for most of 21st Century Fox’s TV and film assets, both Disney and Comcast are also on the front lines of a battle of words, each trying to position its bid as the one most likely to gain regulatory approval from the government. To be sure, both deals would likely be scrutinized by the Justice Department for different reasons. “I’m not prepared to say which is better positioned,” said Georgetown Economics and Law professor Steve Salop . “But I don’t think the fact that the [Department of Justice] lost its suit with AT&T-Time Warner means Comcast is clear of regulatory concerns in a vertical merger. Plus, there’s some horizontal overlap, and there’s some overlap in Disney’s deal as well.”

FCC Peppered With Petitions to Deny Sinclair/Tribune Deal

The Communications Workers of America, National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA, the NewsGuild-CWA, and the Parents Television Council have all filed petitions with the Federal Communications Commission asking it to deny the merger between Sinclair and Tribune, which would create the largest broadcast group in the country with over 200 stations.

FCC Won't Consider 39% Ownership Cap at July Meeting

Despite recent buzz that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai would be scheduling a vote at the July 12 public meeting on a proposal related to the FCC's review of the 39% ownership cap/UHF discounts, such an item did not make the agenda. Chairman Pai blogged about the items on that July meeting, and while there was a potential media ownership deregulation item on it--children's TV rules--there was no mention of the discount or cap. An FCC spokesperson would not comment on the absence of an item, but confirmed it would not be voted at the meeting and nothing had been circulated.

FCC Commissioner O'Rielly Remarks Before the Mackinac Center for Public Policy -- "Smart Regs for Smart Tech"

[Speech] As many of you know, on June 12 Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against the US government and in favor of AT&T’s application to merge with Time Warner, without the imposition of any conditions. From the viewpoint of many, both the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice have been stuck in administrative molasses, seeking to apply sectoral market analysis, preserve questionable bright line tests, and continue the imposition of rigid restrictions as part of transactional reviews the same way now as in 2008, 1988, or 1958. I would posit that the entire foundation of how the government currently views the “communications” market – be it voice, video, or data – is outdated and misguided.  The problem with such an approach, of course, is that when you narrowly define a marketplace and narrowly recognize competition – far devoid from market realities – the result typically leads to the application of additional regulations or limitations beyond what is necessary to protect consumers. The FCC will launch its 2018 Quadrennial Review of our Media Ownership rules later in 2018. In this review, I will seek an updated market definition that incorporates many of the findings in Judge Leon’s decision. For my part, and to quote Judge Leon yet again, “I simply cannot evaluate” our media ownership rules “without factoring in the dramatic changes that are transforming how consumers view video content.”

Privacy

How Phone Companies Share Your Data

Carriers get requests for their customers’ whereabouts from all sorts of places. How they handle them depends on who is asking. 1) Each carrier has a dedicated legal team that evaluates the requests of law-enforcement officers. 2) Emergency calls are routed to public-safety answering points, which can obtain the caller’s location without affirmative consent. 3) Middlemen like LocationSmart and Zumigo can access information on cellphone users’ whereabouts in situations where the company seeking the information might not know which carrier to ask. 4) Carriers also sell bulk data on groups of cellphone users to marketers.

Instead of asking carriers for data gleaned from cell-tower interactions, software companies get users to share their location through cellphone software that uses GPS and Wi-Fi signals to more accurately pinpoint customers. Carriers aren’t involved in this data sharing.

Advertising

With 'Roseanne' and Samantha Bee, TV advertisers confront a political minefield

Television advertising is caught in the crossfire of the country’s political battles. When TV stars such as Roseanne Barr, Samantha Bee and Laura Ingraham get into trouble, advertisers retreat rather than risk having their brand names become collateral damage in the highly charged partisan atmosphere enveloping the media landscape. By the time a comedian or commentator is forced to apologize for a tweet or joke that goes too far, many sponsors want their commercials out before they can become the target of angry social media protests. Social media now makes advertiser boycott threats fast-moving, highly public situations that require an immediate response, often prompting skittish companies to abandon offending programs.

Content

What happens if Apple loses its Supreme Court App Store antitrust appeal?

The Supreme Court will decide whether iPhone users can sue Apple for locking down the iOS ecosystem, something the suit’s plaintiffs say is creating an anti-competitive monopoly. Apple v. Pepper could theoretically affect how tech companies can build walled gardens around their products. The Supreme Court isn’t going to make a call on that specific issue, but its decision could affect people’s relationship with all kinds of digital platforms. Here’s what’s at stake when the Supreme Court case starts, which should happen sometime in the next year. What happens if Apple loses? Nothing — yet. If a court rules that Apple has an unlawful monopoly, it could require Apple to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars or even change its App Store model. If the Supreme Court upholds the Ninth Circuit’s decision, though, it will just send the case back to a lower court, where the fight will keep going. But the decision will also affect how much power consumers have over digital platforms. In 1998, a major appeals court ruling shot down concertgoers who sued Ticketmaster for driving up ticket prices, saying that Ticketmaster was actually selling distribution services to concert venues. The Ninth Circuit’s opinion explicitly says that decision was wrong. So a favorable Supreme Court ruling wouldn’t just keep this particular lawsuit alive. It could make other powerful online stores more accountable toward their users.

via Vox
Emergency Communications

Letter from FCC Commissioner O'Rielly on Guam 911 Fee Diversion

On June 20, 2018, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly wrote to Gov Eddie Calvo (R-Guam) regarding 911 fee diversion. "I am writing to follow-up on my Feb 20, 2018 letter inquiring on your territories' 9-1-1 fee diversion practices....As of today, four months later, my office has not received a response from you or your office...The citizens of Guam rely on the 9-1-1 system to work in their most dire times of need. It is beyond disappointing to learn that your territory has made a habit of diverting these funds for other purposes. Therefore, i respectfully request that you cease such diversionary practices at once, and work with the Commission to deliver on the promises of NextGen 911 for the residents of Guam."

Security

Bipartisan group of lawmakers urge Google to drop partnership with Chinese phone maker Huawei

A bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter to Google expressing concerns over the company’s partnership with the Chinese phone maker Huawei. The group of senators and congressmen said that the partnership poses national security concerns, in step with previous efforts to keep Chinese tech firms, including ZTE and Huawei, from doing business in the US. “Since the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released its investigative report on the national-security issues posed by Chinese telecommunications firms in 2012, US officials have publicly raised concerns about Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government,” the lawmakers wrote, citing a report outlining the potential national security risks posed by Chinese tech companies.  The lawmakers who signed the letter addressed to Google CEO Sundar Pichai included Rep Mike Conaway (R-TX), Sen Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rep Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Rep Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD).

Elections

Publisher of National Enquirer Subpoenaed in Michael Cohen Probe

Apparently, federal authorities have subpoenaed the publisher of the National Enquirer for records related to its $150,000 payment to a former Playboy model for the rights to her story alleging an affair with Donald Trump. The subpoena from Manhattan federal prosecutors requesting information from the publisher, American Media Inc., about its August 2016 payment to Karen McDougal is part of a broader criminal investigation of President Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Investigators are probing any potential efforts by Cohen to suppress damaging information about Trump during the presidential campaign, including whether he coordinated with American Media to pay McDougal and then not publish her account, apparently. Prosecutors are examining whether the payment violated campaign-finance or other laws. American Media hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing, and the company has denied paying McDougal to suppress her story.

Government and Communications

Propaganda or news: Should media publish government’s child-detention photos?

Based on the photographic evidence, living conditions inside government-run detention centers for immigrant children separated from their parents in south Texas look reasonably orderly and clean. But there’s a major catch: All of the photographs depicting life inside the facilities have been supplied by the government itself. There’s been no independent documentation; federal officials, citing the children’s privacy, have barred journalists from taking photographs or video when they’ve been permitted inside. This has left news organizations with a quandary: Do they publish the handouts supplied by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — which has an incentive to make its facilities look as humane and comfortable as possible — or do they reject the photos as essentially propaganda? The New York Times, for one, has taken the latter course. On June 18, it said it would not publish CBP-supplied photos. One of the government-supplied photos — a shot of children sprawled on thin mattresses under mylar blankets — was featured prominently by many news organizations on June 19. The photo ran atop The Washington Post’s front page, although a caption spelled out the context.

Lobbying

How Amazon Became One of Washington’s Most Powerful Players

When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com Inc more than two decades ago, he sought to keep the online bookstore away from the government’s reach. He has said he looked into placing its headquarters on an Indian reservation as a tax-saving strategy. That was then. Today, Amazon, whose revenues in 2017 topped $177 billion, has become deeply entwined with the federal government. Bezos has built one of the largest lobbying operations in Washington, bigger than those of powerhouses such as Exxon Mobile and Walmart. Its cloud-computing business is a major government contractor, with an estimated $1.5 billion in contracts in 2017. And the company has been pushing hard to change the law to allow government employees to buy more of their own supplies on Amazon.com. With three Washington-area locations among the 20 finalists for its planned second headquarters, Amazon could become a big part of the capital region’s social fabric. 

How Tech Companies Conquered America’s Cities

Across the country, cities are straining. Housing costs are exploding, transportation systems are overwhelmed, infrastructure is crumbling, and inequality is on the rise. Yet there’s little support from federal or state authorities — “infrastructure week” is a punch line in Washington, not a policy. Efforts to raise money for local projects are under siege from conservative activists, while measures to build more housing are halted by liberal ones. Into this void march the techies, who come bearing money, jobs and promises of out-of-this-world innovation. But there’s a catch. Corporations are getting wide latitude in determining the future of cities. They are controlling more key services and winning important battles with once-indomitable city governments. Local officials find themselves at the mercy of tech: They can’t live without tech money, even if tech interests have a way of eclipsing every other civic priority. How did tech companies become America’s most-powerful local power brokers?

  1. Many other local institutions, from small businesses to local newspapers, have lost much of their influence — thanks, in large part, to the internet.
  2. While the fall of local media undermined interest in local issues, tech companies began to notice that their platforms gave them direct access to new levers of local influence. And they began to deploy those levers to withering effect.
Policymakers

Senate Commerce Committee Vets FCC Commissioner Nominee Geoffrey Starks

Federal Communications Commission nominee Geoffrey Starks got a thorough vetting by the Senate Commerce Committee June 20, including a charge from Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD), who said the "hyperpartisanship of the last commission must come to an end" and called on Starks to "seek opportunities for common ground." Chairman Thune suggested the model for that was the current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his "spirit of openness, transparency and collaboration" that he encouraged Starks to embrace.

Starks promised to work with his colleagues and the committee for the interests of the American people as consumers, taxpayers and citizens. He said his main priorities would be consumers and the public interest, getting "robust, affordable" broadband to all Americans through the right incentives, and advancing telemedicine--his father is a doctor. He would not say whether he favored a legislative fix for the FCC's net neutrality authority, only saying the FCC was a creature of Congress and would "defer to its legislative priorities." (He came out strongly for the previous FCC's classification of ISPs under Title II common carrier regulations.) Chairman Thune said he would take that as "close to a yes" as he was going to get. Asked if he supported coordination of broadband subsidy programs by the FCC and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service, Starks agreed saying one hand needed to know what the other was doing.

Starks, currently assistant bureau chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, is taking the seat of Mignon Clyburn, who exited earlier in June. Starks will get a full, five-year term since Clyburn's term expired in 2017. The committee is expected to approve Starks' nomination, which then would proceed to a full Senate vote (the House does not get to weigh in on nominations). Chairman Thune said he hoped Starks could be confirmed by the full Senate quickly, and in that spirit asked for answers to written questions from the committee by June 25.

Benton Welcomes New Senior Fellow and Public Advocate Gigi Sohn

Benton Foundation Executive Director Adrianne B. Furniss named Gigi Sohn Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate. Furniss said, “The Benton Foundation is honored to support the ongoing work of one of the nation’s leading public advocates for open, affordable, and democratic communications networks. As federal and state policymakers change rules that will impact communications for years to come, there is no better spokesperson than Gigi Sohn to raise the profile of issues like net neutrality, privacy, broadband access and affordability, and competition so that all Americans understand what’s at stake.”

Broadband internet access has become essential to full participation in our society, our economy, and our culture. Sohn will continue to broaden citizen awareness and action through three strategies:

  1. Public Voice: Communicating what is at stake in telecommunication debates in ways that ordinary people can understand; and educating and providing comment for national, local, and trade press on various communications and technology policy issues.  Sohn seeks both greater coverage of these issues by the press and greater understanding of these issues by the public.
  2. Coalition Building:  Identifying, organizing, and activating partners from public interest groups, state and local representatives, and companies large and small.
  3. Support for the Field: Ensuring that the community fighting for public interest communications policies is adequately resourced with the funding, contacts, and strategic guidance it needs to be effective. 
Stories From Abroad

The Unexpected Fallout of Iran's Telegram Ban

Seven weeks after Iran's conservative-led judiciary banned the secure communications app Telegram inside the country, Iranians are still reeling from the change. Though Telegram has critics in the security community, it has become wildly popular in Iran over the last few years as a way of communicating, sharing photos and documents, and even doing business. The service is streamlined for mobile devices, and its end-to-end encryption stymies the Iranian government's digital surveillance and censorship regime. If the government can't see what you're talking about and doing, it can't block or ban behavior it doesn't like. Telegram's defenses, combined with robust support for Farsi, have attracted 40 million active Iranian users—nearly half the country's population. OnJune 20, the Center for Human Rights in Iran published a detailed report on the profound impact of blocking Telegram, based on dozens of firsthand accounts from inside the country. Researchers found that the ban has had broad effects, hindering and chilling individual speech, forcing political campaigns to turn to state-sponsored media tools, limiting journalists and activists, curtailing international interactions, and eroding businesses that grew their infrastructure and reach off of Telegram.

via Wired
More Online

Former Board Member: The ACLU Retreats From Free Expression (Wall Street Journal)


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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