BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2016
Heritage hosts The FCC and Internet Regulation: A First Year Report Card https://www.benton.org/calendar/2016-02-26
APPLE VS FBI
Apple Files Motion Opposing Order to Unlock iPhone
Apple case creates fervor for encryption bill in Congress [links to Washington Post]
Android phones are easier for police to crack than iPhones [links to CNNMoney]
Apple's Small Lobbying Presence Is Its Most Glaring Weakness in Washington [links to Washington Post]
Google Will Join Microsoft in Backing Apple With a Legal Filing in FBI Case [links to Revere Digital]
Verizon takes Apple’s side in FBI showdown [links to Bloomberg]
FBI director admits Apple encryption case could set legal precedent [links to Revere Digital]
Yochai Benkler: Apple’s battle with the FBI is not about privacy v security, but a conflict created by the US failure to legitimately oversee its security service post Snowden [links to Guardian, The]
Troy Wolverton: Apple-FBI dispute has security lessons for the rest of us [links to San Jose Mercury News]
David Ignatius: Apple is fighting the wrong encryption case [links to Washington Post]
While it defies U.S. government, Apple abides by China's orders — and reaps big rewards [links to Los Angeles Times]
Journalist Gets Hacked While Writing Apple-FBI Story
MORE ON SECURITY/PRIVACY
Obama Administration Set to Expand Sharing of Data That NSA Intercepts
Digital-Savvy Millennials Will Sacrifice Privacy for Personalization, Says Leo Burnett Exec [links to AdWeek]
The MTA has surveillance devices in almost every subway station, but it’s not using them [links to Verge, The]
Cameron Kerry: The White House makes cybersecurity its valentine [links to Brookings]
Contractors Annoyed After DHS Scraps $675 Million Cyber Contract [links to nextgov]
BROADBAND/INTERNET
House panel approves bill to extend network neutrality exemption
GOP marks network neutrality anniversary with repeal bill [links to Hill, The]
Google Is Lighting Up Dormant 'Dark Fiber' All Over the Country
Google Fiber Strategy Adapts, Any Market Could be Next - analysis
Broadband Is More Than Infrastructure - op-ed
AT&T sues Louisville over ‘Google Fiber’ proposal
ELECTION AND MEDIA
The one-word distillation of the Clinton Rules? Negativity. The Trump Rules: Intimidation, aggrandizement, and a lack of curiosity. [links to Media Matters for America]
Sinclair: Ad ‘Money Will Flow’ Even If Donald Trump Is Nominee [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
OWNERSHIP
Bernie Sanders Raises Concerns About Charter-TWC Merger [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Media Bureau Denies Latina Broadcasters Stay Motion - press release [links to Benton summary]
Viacom Chief Must Testify on Media Mogul Sumner Redstone’s Mental State [links to New York Times]
TELEVISION
Some Viewers Risk Losing PBS Broadcasts After FCC Auction
Media Bureau Denies Latina Broadcasters Stay Motion - press release [links to Benton summary]
ACA, NCTC Team To Back FCC Programming Inquiry [links to Benton summary]
CONTENT
US defence department funded Carnegie Mellon research to break Tor [links to Guardian, The]
Mobile devices are upending 15 years of “search-engine optimization” techniques crafted to attract Google’s attention [links to Wall Street Journal]
ADVERTISING
Battle Heats Up Over Mobile Ad Blocking [links to Wall Street Journal]
SATELLITES
GAO Approves FCC’s Info Collection to Implement the STELAR Act [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
DIVERSITY
2016 Hollywood Diversity Report: Busine$$ as Usual [links to Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA]
91% white. 76% male. Changing the face of Oscar voters will take dramatic action. [links to Los Angeles Times]
Zuckerberg reprimands Facebook employees for defacing 'Black Lives Matter' slogan [links to USAToday]
Y Combinator accepts first tech diversity non-profit [links to USAToday]
FCC REFORM
Stop Unfairly Censoring Commissioners - FCC Commissioner O’Rielly press release
POLICYMAKERS
Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Resigns Amid a Community Revolt [links to Vice]
JOURNALISM
5 Ways Mobile Is Changing News Consumption - analysis [links to Benton summary]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
In Poland, a media grab signals rising power of nationalists [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
Net neutrality: BBC urges Ofcom to protect iPlayer [links to Guardian, The]
APPLE VS FBI
APPLE FILING
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Daisuke Wakabayashi, Devlin Barrett]
Apple asked a federal court to toss out an order requiring the company to help law enforcement unlock a phone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino terror attacks, calling the order “unprecedented” with “no support in the law.” In the filing, Apple argued that the case is about more than one person’s phone, because the government wants it to create new software that could later be used on other phones. “This is not a case about one isolated iPhone,’’ the filing says. ”No court has ever authorized what the government now seeks, no law supports such unlimited and sweeping use of the judicial process, and the Constitution forbids it.’’ In its filing, Apple argues that hacking cases, like the theft of millions of personnel records from the Office of Personnel Management, highlight the need for strong encryption. The company also said that if the courts side with the Justice Department and the FBI, it would invite new, more far-reaching demands from the government: “If Apple can be forced to write code in this case to bypass security features and create new accessibility, what is to stop the government from demanding that Apple write code to turn on the microphone in aid of government surveillance, activate the video camera, surreptitiously record conversations, or turn on location services to track the phone’s user? Nothing.’’
benton.org/headlines/apple-files-motion-opposing-order-unlock-iphone | Wall Street Journal | The Guardian | ars technica
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HACKING AND APPLE-FBI STORY
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Michael Grothaus]
On a recent American Airlines flight from Dallas to Raleigh, journalist Steven Petrow decided to get some work done on a story he was writing about the potential impact on ordinary Americans of the battle between Apple and the FBI over creating a tool that will allow the FBI to access virtually any iPhone. The feud has divided the public, lawmakers, and tech CEOs over a person’s right to privacy versus the need for national security. The FBI says it needs a backdoor into the iPhone so it can extract data from terrorists’ iPhones, while Apple says creating a backdoor would leave everyone open to increased attacks from hackers. When the flight took off, Petrow’s stance on the matter was "I don’t really need to worry about online privacy," he wrote. "I’ve got nothing to hide. And who would want to know what I’m up to, anyway?" But by the time Petrow landed, he found out "in a chillingly personal way" just how much the outcome of the Apple-FBI battle matters to everyone. That’s because Petrow had been hacked mid-flight. Petrow logged in to the Gogo in-flight Internet connection to read and send emails to sources for his story. As the plane landed in Raleigh and Petrow got up to disembark, a passenger behind him revealed that he knew Petrow was a journalist and had just been working on the Apple-FBI story. The passenger even recited an email Petrow had received from a security expert back to him almost verbatim. This passenger knew all this information, he revealed, because he had hacked Petrow’s computer in-flight, as well as the computing devices of almost every other passenger on the plane. "That’s how I know you’re interested in the Apple story," the hacker said. "Imagine if you had been doing a financial transaction.”
benton.org/headlines/journalist-gets-hacked-while-writing-apple-fbi-story | Fast Company | USA Today
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MORE SECURITY/PRIVACY
SHARING DATA INTERCEPTS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage]
The Obama administration is on the verge of permitting the National Security Agency to share more of the private communications it intercepts with other American intelligence agencies without first applying any privacy protections to them, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. The change would relax longstanding restrictions on access to the contents of the phone calls and email the security agency vacuums up around the world, including bulk collection of satellite transmissions, communications between foreigners as they cross network switches in the United States, and messages acquired overseas or provided by allies. The idea is to let more experts across American intelligence gain direct access to unprocessed information, increasing the chances that they will recognize any possible nuggets of value. That also means more officials will be looking at private messages — not only foreigners’ phone calls and emails that have not yet had irrelevant personal information screened out, but also communications to, from, or about Americans that the NSA’s foreign intelligence programs swept in incidentally. Civil liberties advocates criticized the change, arguing that it will weaken privacy protections.
benton.org/headlines/obama-administration-set-expand-sharing-data-nsa-intercepts | New York Times
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BROADBAND/INTERNET
TRANSPARENCY BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: David McCabe]
The House Commerce Committee approved a bill that would temporarily keep small Internet service providers (ISPs) exempt from some network neutrality rules. The bill extends for five years the exemption for small ISPs from transparency requirements that are part of the rules. Bipartisan support for the bill came after last-minute deal-making between Democrats and Republicans on the committee. Democrats had objected to an initial version of the legislation that applied the exemption to any ISP with 500,000 or fewer subscribers, because they said it would include companies that were too large to be considered a small business. That version also would have made the exemption permanent. But the version approved Feb 25 applies to Internet providers with no more than 250,000 subscribers and no longer extends the exemptions indefinitely.
benton.org/headlines/house-panel-approves-bill-extend-network-neutrality-exemption | Hill, The | B&C
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GOOGLE LIGHTING UP DARK FIBER
[SOURCE: Vice, AUTHOR: Jason Koebler]
Most people don’t know that many cities throughout the United States are already wired with "dark fiber": infrastructure that, for a variety of reasons, is never used to provide gigabit connections to actual residents. This fiber is often laid by companies you rarely hear about, like Zayo and Level 3, which lay fiber infrastructure in hopes the city, a provider like Google, or a corporate customer (like an office building) will eventually make use of it. This can either be a really difficult process or an easy one, depending on local ordinances. Google is going to start lighting some of those cables up. Welcome to the future of broadband in major cities. “Google is setting a precedent and demonstrating its willingness to offer its services over a network it doesn’t own,” said Joanne Hovis, the President of CTC Technology & Energy [and a member of the Benton Foundation Board of Directors] . “That’s something we really haven’t seen in the broadband era. You don’t have to build a new network, you can leverage what’s already there and different providers can use different bundles in fiber strands to compete with each other.”
benton.org/headlines/google-lighting-dormant-dark-fiber-all-over-country | Vice
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ANY MARKET COULD SEE GOOGLE FIBER NEXT
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Bernie Arnason]
[Commentary] The Google Fiber strategy is adapting and expansion to any number of new markets appears to be on tap. Safe to say we really don’t know what their next move will be. Apparently any market could be in play. Google’s model has always given them tremendous flexibility in how they serve markets. Some argue they’re allowed to only offer service in areas that have the most promise, by utilizing their fiberhood approach. They are now adapting this Google Fiber strategy to potentially cherry pick the best market segments, using existing fiber. If fiber assets are available, they could target the best high margin potential customers, and get competitive gigabit services (or less) to them more quickly, maybe even through a hybrid fiber – wireless approach.
benton.org/headlines/google-fiber-strategy-adapts-any-market-could-be-next | telecompetitor
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MORE THAN INFRASTRUCTURE
[SOURCE: Broadband Communities, AUTHOR: Julia Pulidindi]
[Commentary] For local governments that invest in broadband infrastructure, a critical component of success is ensuring that their communities have access to the infrastructure and take advantage of its benefits. Access to high-speed broadband Internet is becoming vital for businesses and economic development, and most cities recognize its importance. Broadband adoption and use, which were once commonly overlooked, are equally important for economic development and are now beginning to get their fair share of attention. Communities need to be bold and strategic about how to meet their residents’ broadband needs. The old adage “there is no one-size-fits-all solution” is true even in the broadband world, but with some out-of-the-box thinking, communities can create innovative, sustainable approaches to meeting residents’ digital literacy needs.
[Pulidindi is a broadband analyst for Advantage Engineers, which provides engineering and consulting services for telecommunications and other projects]
benton.org/headlines/broadband-more-infrastructure | Broadband Communities
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AT&T SUES LOUISVILLE
[SOURCE: Courier-Journal, AUTHOR: Phillip Bailey]
AT&T filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging Louisville lacks jurisdiction to allow high-speed Internet service providers such as Google Fiber to install equipment on its utility poles. The company says it welcomes competition in providing Louisville residents with faster online access but the so-called "One Touch Make Ready" ordinance passed recently is unlike any other in the US and violates state and federal rules. "AT&T pursued this course of action because the Metro Council has no jurisdiction to regulate pole attachments," spokesman Joe Burgan said. "Because of this, the ordinance is invalid." High-speed Internet providers are now allowed to install their new equipment on utility poles owned by AT&T and possibly move other companies' installations thanks to the measure, which Mayor Greg Fischer's office supported as a way to lay the groundwork for Louisville's fiber-optics network. The council approved that measure unanimously over objections from AT&T and Time Warner Cable, which lobbied heavily against the proposal. In the 11-page suit, AT&T asks for a federal judge to clarify that the authority to regulate poles is reserved to the Kentucky Public Service Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.
benton.org/headlines/att-sues-louisville-over-google-fiber-proposal | Louisville Courier-Journal
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TELEVISION
INCENTIVE AUCTION AND PUBLIC TV
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Thomas Gryta]
Local Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations could pull in hundreds of millions of dollars this year by selling their airwaves to the federal government, raising worries that pockets of the US could lose their access to public television. The Federal Communications Commission is poised to buy broadcast licenses from local TV stations, aiming to free up airwaves and resell them to wireless provider. Major station owners have agreed to participate in the FCC auction. So have some of the nation’s roughly 350 public-TV stations, whose broadcasts currently cover about 99% of the U.S. population. It isn’t clear just how many stations have signed on, because the process is confidential under FCC rules. The stations that sell their airwaves could go off the air, potentially redrawing the map for public television and its audience. The Public Broadcasting Service, which produces programming for its independent member stations, has little say in the matter, and won’t get any of the sales proceeds. Public-TV advocates fear the auction will deprive some Americans of their free access to noncommercial television. “We’ve been concerned about that for quite a while, and still don’t have a good handle on what our exposure is there,” said Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, referring to the possibility that some stations could leave the air.
benton.org/headlines/some-viewers-risk-losing-pbs-broadcasts-after-fcc-auction | Wall Street Journal
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FCC REFORM
CENSORING COMMISSIONERS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly]
[Commentary] As it is being applied today, the Commission’s existing rule intended to protect nonpublic information hinders Commissioners’ abilities to engage in the fulsome dialogue and obtain the data needed to most thoroughly and thoughtfully consider and comment on items. Moreover, it’s being applied discriminatorily as Commissioners are silenced while the Chairman, the Commission’s media relations team and select staff are not only allowed to openly discuss items, but also post blogs, tweet, issue fact sheets, brief the press, and inform favored outside parties about their content. While I’d prefer to make certain draft documents available to the public and will continue to fight for this, other changes could help improve transparency in the meantime. As a first step, let’s make it standard procedure that all Commissioners and their staffs can discuss the substance of items on circulation or a meeting agenda, minus adjudicatory law enforcement items. To effectuate this, the Chairman should provide blanket written approval to the Commissioners to permit open discussion about the items before us.
benton.org/headlines/stop-unfairly-censoring-commissioners | Federal Communications Commission
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