April 2011

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2011

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PRIVACY/CYBERSECURITY
   President Obama Releases the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace - press release
   National Identity Strategy Envisions a More Trustworthy Internet - editorial
   What’s next for privacy on the Hill? - analysis
   Center for Digital Democracy wants government to scrutinize geo-targeted ads by AT&T
   Three largest online poker sites indicted and shut down by FBI
   Snooping: It's not a crime, it's a feature

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Genachowski's NAB Speech a Wasteland - editorial
   Sprint CEO Says AT&T Deal Poses ‘Serious Threat’ to Industry Innovation
   April 9-15: Spectrum -- The Air That We Breathe
   CTO Chopra not sweating potential decline in spectrum auction revenue due to merger [links to web]
   Slim’s cellphone subsidiary hit with $1 billion fine by Mexico’s competition commission
   Retailers Retool Sites to ease Mobile Shopping [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   CBO Scores Bill on Reclaiming Unused Broadband Stimulus Funds - research
   Seeking to narrow the definitions of 'broadband' - analysis
   North Carolina cities mobilize against anti-muni broadband bill
   No more addresses: Asia-Pacific region IPv4 well runs dry
   The Cloud Threat to the Software Business [links to web]
   EU to probe online data traffic management

KIDS AND MEDIA
   Apple facing class-action lawsuit over kids' in-app purchases
   Busy Job of Judging Video-Game Content to Be Ceded to Machines

TELEVISION
   Cable Carriage Is Still An Important Goal In The Quickly Growing Digital TV Age

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Barack Obama reelect’s first job: Reconnect

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Restriction grows on Internet freedoms
   UAE Puts Curbs on Email
   The VOA Is Losing Its Voice - editorial
   Chairman Issa pledges to save transparency sites [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Microsoft, Google to testify at Oversight hearing on federal regulations [links to web]
   Despite media yammer, there’s hope for real news - editorial [links to web]
   Facebook trying to 'friend' journalists [links to web]
   Arts Funding Survives, With Cuts [links to web]
   President Obama Dishes on Federal Technology [links to web]
   TV Viewers Embrace Long-form Digital Content [links to web]
   Kansas bill loosens regulations on AT&T wireline service [links to web]
   Race to the Smart Grid [links to web]
   E-mail Confidential - analysis [links to web]

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PRIVACY/CYBERSECURITY

NATIONAL STRATEGY ON TRUSTED IDENTITIES IN CYBERSPACE
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Howard Schmidt]
President Barack Obama released the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). This Strategy seeks to improve security in cyberspace and e-commerce. We can see how this plays out in at least two areas. First, passwords alone are not secure enough, which contributes to online fraud and identity theft. It is also inconvenient to have to remember dozens of passwords to access different online services. Second, it is difficult for individuals to prove their true identity when they want to perform a sensitive transaction online, like banking or accessing health records. These problems are limiting the full economic potential of the Internet, because certain services cannot easily be moved online. NSTIC envisions a private sector led effort to create a new infrastructure for the Internet, built on interoperable, privacy-enhancing, and secure identity credentials. This new infrastructure is centered around choice. First, you don't have to use it at all. If you do, you can choose when or how to use it. Under this strategy, you will be able to choose from many different identity providers: perhaps your bank, your health care provider, your email provider, or any other preferred organization. We seek to create an ecosystem of many different providers, so that there is an option that suits every individual who wants to participate. Individuals can also choose between different credentials, or ways of logging in: cell phones, keychain “fobs,” smart cards, and many others ­ in fact, there will undoubtedly be ways that have not yet even been invented.
benton.org/node/55673 | White House, The | read the strategy | WH Fact Sheet | Department of Commerce | IDG News Service | GigaOm | The Hill | ars technica | Reuters | nextgov
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CDT ON PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Department of Commerce, AUTHOR: Leslie Harris]
[Commentary] Why should the American people care about a “strategy” for Internet identity? First, a growing number of our Internet transactions require an identity. We’re continually prompted to create new accounts to participate in online social networking, shopping, banking, and forums. Most of us have no idea how our identifying information will be used or shared. It certainly doesn't help that we have to offer a fresh set of information to every new service that comes along. Without a new approach, this trend will continue. We deserve better control over our identity and stronger assurances that it will not be misused. Innovation isn't slowing down; we have to catch up. Secondly, services that will make our lives easier and more convenient—sometimes involving highly sensitive information—are still waiting to come fully online. Health care and government services are slowly staking out an Internet presence, but they will remain at the starting line until a reliable and trustworthy platform for establishing and confirming user identity exists. We’re pleased to see the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace has made individuals its first priority. The Administration must remain firmly dedicated to an identity ecosystem that is voluntary, protective of privacy, affords users a wide variety of choices for whether and how they will convey their identity online, and compliant with a full set of Fair Information Practice Principles. This effort must also be built on the foundation of comprehensive privacy legislation. We encourage the Administration to incorporate its existing support for baseline privacy legislation with the Strategy’s implementation. Finally, the Strategy recognizes that anonymity and pseudonymity -- crucial elements of our privacy and First Amendment rights -- are and must remain vital characteristics of the Internet alongside any new identity ecosystem. The Strategy is the beginning of a long journey through complicated technology standards and policy rules. If its vision is realized, consumers, businesses, and governments all have a lot to gain. It will only succeed, however, with meaningful engagement from all stakeholders. We are eager to see the Strategy’s implementation plan and hope the Strategy leads to a productive partnership.
[Harris is President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology]
benton.org/node/55671 | Department of Commerce
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WHAT'S NEXT ON PRIVACY?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
New bills and discussion about the recent Epsilon data breach have made privacy a popular talking point on the Hill. But a lot of politics stands between the talk and actual movement on legislation. Four major privacy proposals have been floated on the Hill this session. In February, Reps Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Jackie Speier (D-CA) each introduced privacy legislation. Earlier this week, Sens John Kerry (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ) and Reps Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and Jim Matheson (D-UT) offered privacy bills for each chamber. The privacy bills have some key differences. Stearns’s bill promotes industry self-regulation and requires companies to notify consumers about privacy policies and data use. The bill from Sens Kerry and McCain encourages self-regulation but also requires an opt-in measure to share sensitive personal information, or information that could harm a person if released, depending on the situation. Rush’s reintroduced bill requires companies to provide an opt-out option before they can share data with other companies. Speier’s privacy package includes the only proposed legislation with a do-not-track measure; the other bill is aimed at protecting financial information. Having bipartisan bills in the House and Senate is a key step forward, said Justin Brookman, a privacy expert from the Center for Democracy and Technology. That at least gives this week’s bills a chance to move along, he said. Even that, though, might not be enough.
benton.org/node/55669 | Washington Post
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   Industry urges better cooperation from government on cyber threats

CYBERSECURITY COOPERATION
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
The government should have a standard protocol for when to alert the private sector to cybersecurity threats and a standard process for sharing that information without revealing classified secrets, the leader of a financial services industry group told the House Homeland Security panel on cybersecurity. While the infrastructure is in place for the government and industry to work together on cybersecurity, the private sector often is kept in the dark too long because federal officials are wary of revealing information about ongoing investigations, said Jane Carlin, chairwoman of the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council. "What we're recommending is a documented protocol," she said, "a regularized and repeatable process for deciding when to disclose a threat to the financial community rather than making it up each time ... Let's inject some science here. How do we balance the importance of an ongoing investigation with the public policy effects of [firms'] ongoing exposure [to a security threat]?" FSSCC, which was created shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, acts as the financial community's clearinghouse for cyber threat information and as a liaison with government cybersecurity offices.
benton.org/node/55649 | nextgov
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FBI CLOSES ONLINE POKER SITES
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Nathaniel Popper]
The founders of the three largest online poker sites were indicted in what could serve as a death blow to the industry. Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and a number of their affiliates were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court. Two of the defendants were arrested in Utah and Nevada. Federal agents are searching for the others. Prosecutors are seeking to immediately shut down the sites and to eventually send the executives to jail and to recover $3 billion from the companies. On April 15, Full Tilt Poker’s site displayed a message explaining that “this domain name has been seized by the FBI pursuant to an Arrest Warrant.”
benton.org/node/55668 | Los Angeles Times
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CDD OPPOSES AT&T DEAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
The government should consider protecting consumers from location-based mobile ads as part of its review of AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, according to a letter from the Center for Digital Democracy. The consumer advocate argues the merger would give the combined entity access to a wealth of information about users' locations and mobile browsing habits that the firm could then use to target advertisements without consumers' consent. "By combining both the subscriber and 'mobile Web' actions of its 130 million subscribers, a combined AT&T and T-Mobile will be able to harvest and act upon deep insights gleaned from their users' behaviors, location, spending patterns, and social actions," wrote executive director Jeff Chester. "While mobile marketing practices raise concerns from others in the industry, we believe that the specific practices of AT&T, in light of the its proposed T-Mobile deal, should be scrutinized and addressed by policymakers," Chester added, pointing to AT&T's use of geo-targeting and other location-based mobile marketing techniques.
benton.org/node/55666 | Hill, The | Broadcasting&Cable | MediaPost
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EAVESDROPPING PHONES
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Mike Elgan]
Cellphone users say they want more privacy, and app makers are listening. No, they're not listening to user requests. They're literally listening to the sounds in your office, kitchen, living room and bedroom. A new class of smartphone app has emerged that uses the microphone built into your phone as a covert listening device -- a "bug," in common parlance. But according to app makers, it's not a bug. It's a feature! The apps use ambient sounds to figure out what you're paying attention to. It's the next best thing to reading your mind.
benton.org/node/55679 | ComputerWorld
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

GENACHOWSKI AT NAB
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's speech at the National Association of Broadcasters convention this week will not be long remembered. If his purpose was to build some support for his incentive auction plan from among his attentive audience of station owners and manager, then I would have to say that the speech was not only unmemorable, but also a failure. Going into the breakfast speech, broadcasters were highly skeptical of his plan, figuring that one way or another it would ultimately diminish their over-the-air signals, which they see as crucial in the increasingly wireless, mobile media world. Coming out, they were still highly skeptical and grumpy — the watery scrambled eggs and tepid coffee not helping anyone’s mood. The establishment broadcasters who control the NAB and intend to hang on to their spectrum are chiefly worried about what will happen to them after the FCC auctions off the spectrum of weaker stations and repacks the band. “My concern is not so much with the auction as it is having sufficient prospective language in [authorizing legislation] as to repacking so our signals are not degraded, our opportunities aren't diminished and our costs don't go up,” said NAB President Gordon Smith.
benton.org/node/55664 | TVNewsCheck
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SPRINT OPPOSES AT&T DEAL
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Adam Satariano, Greg Bensinger]
Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse said AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile USA poses a “serious threat” to industry innovation. “We just cannot let this happen,” Hesse said. “If the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger is allowed to go forward, it can also push the wireless industry from competition to duopoly.” Hesse, whose company is the third-largest U.S. wireless provider, said the merger would put control of 80 percent of the wireless industry revenue into the hands of the two carriers, the combined T-Mobile-AT&T and Verizon Wireless. He said regulators should consider what impact the merger will have on consumer prices as well as innovation. The CEO, who has starred in Sprint’s television commercials, reiterated comments made by the company’s vice president of government affairs last month. The merger could restrict access to device makers among smaller wireless companies, said Hesse. With the buying power of the two largest wireless companies, “they could restrict access to some of the cool devices,” he said.
benton.org/node/55663 | Bloomberg
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WEEKLY RECAP
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
Although we try not to play favorites, Headlines, like you, has sources and authors we love to turn to help make sense of the latest developments in communications and, especially, telecommunications policy. GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham is one of those people for us. Our April 15 daily newsletter bore the title of one of Higginbotham's latest pieces -- "Everything You Need to Know About the Fight for TV Spectrum." This debate has been one of the hottest topics of late and this past week especially with the broadcast industry meeting in Las Vegas for its annual convention. Higginbotham does a great job in her piece of identifying what the issue is, who the players are, and what's at stake. In addition, Higginbotham's colleague, Om Malik, sat down with Pradeep Sindhu, co-founder of Juniper Networks. Sindhu believes (and many agree) that the rise of mobility, or “anywhere computing,” is going to change the whole notion of information infrastructure. Most of us want “to consume information and information services anytime, anywhere, with no limitations, and preferably in the same way across all devices,” he points out. Sindhu argues that we shouldn't distinguish between a wired or a wireless network, for in the future the network traffic is going to be more unpredictable, with demand coming from any client device, from any app at anytime. As our readers well know (we hope), the National Broadband Plan and President Barack Obama are strongly committed to identifying and freeing up more spectrum to provide mobile broadband services. The move is meant to provide some more competition both within the wireless industry and between wireless and wireline Internet service providers -- and reduce the cost of providing broadband services in rural areas. A big part of the debate is figuring out where the needed spectrum will come from.
benton.org/node/55631 | Benton Foundation
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TELCEL FINED
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Mexico’s anti-trust commission has hit billionaire Carlos Slim’s cellphone subsidiary with a 12 billion peso ($1 billion) fine. The Federal Competition Commission said the cellphone subsidiary, Telcel, engaged in monopolistic practices associated with call terminations, America Movil said in a filing with the Mexican stock exchange. The company said it is studying the fine and all options for appeal. America Movil is the largest provider of wireless service in Latin America with 225 million subscribers. Its 2009 revenue totaled $30 billion.
benton.org/node/55683 | Associated Press
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

CBO SCORES BROADBAND BILL
[SOURCE: Congressional Budget Office, AUTHOR: Susan Willie, Daniel Hoople]
H.R. 1343 would require the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) to promptly terminate certain grant awards if the agency determines that award recipients are engaged in wasteful or fraudulent activities or have not met performance expectations. The bill also would require each agency, upon receiving notification of material noncompliance with award terms or improper usage of award funds, to determine whether the award should be terminated and to notify the Congress of any terminated awards. Both agencies are required under current law to promptly terminate grants for wasteful or fraudulent spending or for failure to meet specific performance milestones. In addition, the Pay-It-Back-Act (Public Law 111-203) requires agencies to promptly return to the Treasury any funds awarded under ARRA that are terminated. Thus, restating those requirements, as provided in H.R. 1343, would not affect federal spending or revenues.
Based on information from the agencies, CBO estimates that implementing the new reporting requirements in H.R. 1343 would have no significant effect on spending subject to appropriation. Enacting H.R. 1343 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
benton.org/node/55635 | Congressional Budget Office
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DEFINING BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer, AUTHOR: Jeff Gelles]
Broadband is a surprisingly hard-to-define Internet service that so many consumers covet for faster access, whatever their needs, and that borders on a national obsession as we fret about competing with technology leaders in Europe and Asia. What exactly is "good broadband"? That's the $50-a-month question -- or the $100, $150, or $200 question. And the answer remains as oddly fuzzy today as when the term emerged in the 1990s and pretty much meant "faster than the usual dial-up." Even the National Broadband Plan, which sets goals for hooking up the whole nation to this essential telecommunications service, doesn't exactly define broadband. What do leading Internet service providers promise and actually deliver? And what level of broadband do you really need? Answers to those questions are harder to come by, which is one reason the Federal Communications Commission jumped into the fray this week, seeking public comment on how to help consumers understand the "need for speed" when they choose an Internet provider. In the next few weeks, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to publish results from a broadband service study of 10,000 U.S. households conducted for it by SamKnows.com and designed to find whether consumers are getting what they expect.
Here's five tips to help you understand broadband speed needs: 1) Some uses are data hogs. 2) Speed isn't the only concern -- another key factor is called latency, which measures how quickly the broadband network responds to an input. 3) What you're promised by your Internet service provider may not be what you get. 4) Your ISP may not be to blame. 5) Sharing service slows your speed.
benton.org/node/55637 | Philadelphia Inquirer
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NC ANTI-MUNI BROADBAND
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
At least six cities in North Carolina have passed resolutions against cable-backed state legislation that would hamstring new municipal broadband projects. The dissenters include Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Raleigh, Momeyer, Asheville, Rockingham, and Bladenville. All oppose House of Representatives Bill H129 and its equivalent in the Senate, Bill 87. The proposed laws, both titled "Level Playing Field/Local Government Competition" bills, would bar new municipal ISPs from selling broadband to consumers in neighboring cities or pricing their services too low. The legislation has passed in the House.
benton.org/node/55661 | Ars Technica
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IPV4 WELL RUNS DRY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Iljitsch van Beijnum]
The Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), which is the organization responsible for distributing IP addresses in most of Asia, Australia, and the Pacific, announced that on April 15, it reached its final /8 block of IPv4 addresses. This cryptic announcement means that APNIC's supply of IPv4 addresses has been exhausted, and since the global pool of IPv4 addresses was previously exhausted, IPv4 addresses are no longer available in the APNIC region as they were before—basically, "to each according to his needs." However, APNIC set aside one block of 16,777,216 addresses for distribution under a different regime: every network operator may obtain exactly one delegation of 1024 out of that block.
benton.org/node/55658 | Ars Technica
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EU PROBE ON TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Stanley Pignal, Andrew Parker]
Regulators are to launch the first pan-European investigation into telecoms companies’ controversial data traffic management practices, in an attempt to safeguard network neutrality principles. European regulators will scrutinize whether fixed-line phone and mobile operators are giving consumers enough information about their traffic management policies, which can slow down customers’ Internet connections. The European Commission accepts some traffic management is necessary to avoid congestion on operators’ networks. Operators are dealing with an explosion of data traffic, partly because of bandwidth-hungry video services, such as Google’s YouTube and the BBC iPlayer. But Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner responsible for the EU digital agenda, is on April 19 expected to announce the regulatory investigation and warn it could result in new rules to safeguard net neutrality.
benton.org/node/55695 | Financial Times
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KIDS AND MEDIA

KIDS' IN-APP PURCHASES
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Chris Foresman]
Garen Meguerian and a team of lawyers are taking Apple to task for "inducing" children to spend hundreds of dollars of their parents' money on in-app game purchases. Meguerian filed a class-action lawsuit this week in California acknowledging that Apple has already addressed the problem, but saying that the company continues to unfairly profit from sales of virtual "smurfberries" and "fish bucks." The issue at hand is related to games that rely on a "freemium" business model, giving away the game for free on the App Store and relying on in-app purchases of virtual currency, extra levels, or other add-ons as a revenue stream. Parents ran into problems with this model when some games, ostensibly geared toward kids (such as Smurfs' Village or Tap Fish), relied on in-app purchases of in-game virtual currency to do many tasks. For instance, players in Smurfs' Village can buy bundles of "smurfberries" -- a whole wagon-full runs $99.99 -- to trade for plants to farm or materials to build a Smurf hut. Tap Fish players can buy "fish bucks" to buy new exotic fish, food, or other virtual aquarium accoutrements. Making in-app purchases normally requires an iTunes Store password, but older versions of iOS offered a 15-minute window after entering your password that allowed users to make additional purchases without another password prompt. Some parents entered their passwords so a child could download a "free" game from the App Store, only to discover that their kids ended up making hundreds of dollars of in-app purchases without their knowledge. And if the parent shared the iTunes password to avoid the minor hassle of entering it themselves, children could make in-app purchases with reckless abandon—all which ended up being charged to parents' credit cards or PayPal accounts. While Meguerian's class-action suit explicitly acknowledges Apple's remedies, it also seems to suggest that Apple is complicit in "selling Game Currency to children." It also claims that Apple continues to sell in-app purchases to children -- though it requires a parent to hand over the iTunes Store password to do so -- "garnering millions of dollars of ill-gotten gains." Any "inducement" to buy in-app purchases seems more likely to be the culpability of an app's developers, and parents are ultimately responsible if they give out their iTunes Store passwords to their kids. But the lawsuit suggests Apple is the responsible party since it approves the apps for sale and facilitates the in-app purchase mechanism.
benton.org/node/55659 | Ars Technica | Apple Insider
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RATING VIDEO GAMES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Seth Schiesel]
The little E’s, T’s and M’s that appear on the covers of video games get there the old-fashioned way: People working for the Entertainment Software Rating Board look at the games, decide how gory, sexy or potty-mouthed they are, and bestow an age-appropriate rating accordingly. That was then. This is now. Starting on Monday the ratings board plans to begin introducing computers to the job of deciding whether a game is appropriate for Everyone, for Teens or for Mature gamers (meaning older than 16). To do this the organization has written a program designed to replicate the ingrained cultural norms and predilections of the everyday American consumer, at least when it comes to what is appropriate for children and what isn't. Faced with an explosion in the number of games being released online, the board plans to announce on Monday that the main evaluation of hundreds of games each year will be based not on direct human judgment but instead on a detailed digital questionnaire meant to gauge every subtle nuance of violence, sexuality, profanity, drug use, gambling and bodily function that could possibly offend anyone.
benton.org/node/55694 | New York Times
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TELEVISION

CABLE CARRIAGE IN THE DIGITAL TV AGE
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wayne Friedman]
Cross-channel promotion is nothing new in the still-strong cable and satellite TV distribution world. But channel-carriage promotion is another story. With growing numbers of new bandwidth-hungry HD channels, where is the endgame? Comcast's recent takeover of NBC Universal has caused immediate changes as the company looks to boost carriage of its mid-size cable channels. One newly acquired Comcast channel is Universal Sports, a modest 60 million subscriber sports network with a mix of carriage via cable, local digital TV stations, IPTV and other distributors. For the most part, Universal Sports positions itself as an Olympic sport channel. Since Comcast's takeover, there has been heavy promotion to get Universal Sports better TV household distribution. DirecTV carries Versus, but not Universal Sports. Part of this marketing plan seems to be promoting Universal Sports on the better-distributed Versus. This type of on-air promotion isn't new. No doubt when ESPN or Discovery or others were in the throes of expanding their channel rosters, similar channel-carriage promotion activity arose. But lately there has been a notable shift - as many established cable network groups slow their traditional cable network launches while pushing more Internet sites or mobile apps for TV content. The massive Comcast takeover of NBC Universal has pushed the largest U.S. cable operator to find more traditional homes for its now larger channel, including some previously underserved NBC Universal networks. Other NBC micro-cable networks, Sleuth (soon to be called Cloo) and Chiller, will probably be getting the same marketing treatment, if they haven't done so already. No doubt the days of gaining massive amounts of established cable or satellite consumers (IPTV operators have a different financial distribution position) are slowly ending. But Comcast still has obvious leverage -- and intends to use it, especially to monetize its big controlling investment in NBC. It needs to find whatever few channel positions are left as they still represent the potential biggest pool of TV advertising and consumer revenue.
benton.org/node/55651 | MediaPost
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

TECHNOLOGY AND THE 2012 ELECTION
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Mike Allen]
President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign is building a volunteer network with the audacious goal of contacting every single person who voted for him in 2008, as part of a reinvented voter outreach that will be as focused on smart phones in 2012 as it was on text messages last time. Strategists plan to customize videos and other messages for the iPhones and other mobile devices of targeted groups of voters. They also envision “virtual networks” among supporters’ friends and families, so that millions of people will feel a personal connection to the campaign. Mobilizing millions of volunteers to reconnect with as many of Obama’s 69 million past supporters as is possible, along with raising money for a re-election fight that could cost as much as $1 billion, will be the major focus this year of the campaign now getting off the ground here. President Obama himself will not begin extended barnstorming until 2012.
benton.org/node/55645 | Politico
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

RESTRICTION ON INTERNET FREEDOMS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Joseph Menn]
Governments all over the world are increasingly restricting Internet freedoms as penetration spreads and activists turn to the still-evolving medium, according to a comprehensive analysis of practices in 37 nations. The report to be released April 18 in the US found that some countries imposed their first political controls on Internet content in the past two years, while those that had already restricted access redoubled their efforts with new tools and bureaucracies. The 410-page report by Freedom House, which relied primarily on researchers on the ground in the countries surveyed, was funded by the United Nations and other sources and follows up on a similar 2009 document that studied 15 nations. Nine of those 15 had worse scores for overall Internet freedom in the latest review – based on obstacles to access, limits on content, and user surveillance and repercussions – and a majority of the newly tracked countries also demonstrated negative trends. Based on points awarded for various factors, the report ranked Estonia as the most free of the 37, followed by the US, Germany, Australia and the UK. The most repressive Internet policies were found in Iran, with Burma, Cuba, China, and Tunisia coming in behind it. Iran, China, and Russia were among those covered in both surveys that displayed increased repression.
benton.org/node/55699 | Financial Times
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UAE EMAIL CURBS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Caroline Van Hasselt, Shereen Elgazzar]
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. confirmed that the United Arab Emirates will stop individuals and small businesses from using the mobile device's highly secure corporate-email services. The restriction, effective May 1, applies only to individuals and businesses with fewer than 20 subscriptions to BlackBerry Enterprise Services accounts, said a spokeswoman for the UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. The regulator didn't give a reason for its decision. Etisalat, the state-controlled telecom carrier, advised customers of the change in an email, the regulator's spokeswoman said.
benton.org/node/55697 | Wall Street Journal | Reuters
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VOA IS LOSING ITS VOICE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] China's state news agency, Xinhua, is building a broadcasting headquarters in New York's Times Square as part of Beijing's $7 billion investment in global propaganda, including a 24-hour news channel in English. Meanwhile, Congress recently held hearings on a plan for Voice of America to cut its Chinese- language news broadcasts in order to save $8 million a year. If public diplomacy helps determine which countries are on the way up and which are on the way down, U.S. actions speak louder than the broadcasts themselves. "We are in an information war, and we are losing that war," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted to Congress last month. That's the predictable result of unilateral disarmament. As China, Russia and Islamist groups have accelerated their efforts, America has been withdrawing. Reductions in VOA, including an end to Arabic-language programming in the Middle East, are especially dismaying given the leading role the broadcaster played in winning the Cold War against earlier information-suppressing ideologies.
A focus on the Web for VOA, especially reinforced with circumvention tools, makes some sense, but it's wrong to think that new media completely replace what came before. The Web is important, but radio remains an essential medium in China, where most people still don't have access even to the censored Web. Firing the journalists who create the content in languages like Mandarin undermines both Web and radio efforts. "The Chinese people are our greatest allies, and the free flow of information is our greatest weapon," says Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). This is a simple but persuasive argument for restoring planned cuts to VOA and re- engaging in the information war.
benton.org/node/55692 | Wall Street Journal
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