March 6, 2013 (Scrutinizing the Surveillance State)
“If e-mail went away this afternoon, we would all come to a stop. Hell yeah, e-mail is critical.”
-- Marcus Sachs, vice president of national security policy at Verizon Communications
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013
DHS Cybersecurity: Roles and Responsibilities to Protect the Nation's Critical Infrastructure http://benton.org/calendar/2013-03-06/
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
The Catch-22 That Prevents Us From Truly Scrutinizing the Surveillance State - op-ed
Google reveals data on secretive FBI subpoenas
More Than Gimmicks: How Obama's Tech Tools Are Shifting the Debate
CYBERSECURITY
Google Exception in Cybersecurity Order Questioned as Unwise Gap
Pentagon cyberdefenses weak, report warns
Hardening Our Defenses Against Cyberwarfare - op-ed
Good cybersecurity means better privacy - op-ed
Michigan thwarts online attacks on records [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Lawmakers look to legalize cellphone unlocking
The Broadband Engine of Economic Growth - op-ed
Verizon Is Said to Seek to Resolve Vodafone Relationship
The Progeny Waiver: Will the FCC Wipe Out Smart Grid? Save Thousands of Lives? Both? This Season on Spectrum Wars! - analysis [links to web]
Google offers searchable map of all white space spectrum in the US [links to web]
Few Good Choices for MetroPCS [links to web]
Verizon CFO: People Like Free iPhones [links to web]
Wi-Fi Alliance Brings WiGig Into the Fold [links to web]
Could a satellite company decongest American Wi-Fi and save itself in the process? [links to web]
Behind the $1,000 Apps [links to web]
RADIO/TV
TV stations ignore ad disclosure requirements - research
Sen Leahy: Broadcasters Should Be Compensated for Content Use [links to web]
Sen. Hatch Would Not Be Surprised If STELA Were Expanded [links to web]
FCC’s Rosenworcel: STELA Could Be Vehicle for Telecom Updates [links to web]
Pandora Gains Access to $14 Billion Radio Ad-Sales Market [links to web]
Nielsen to Expand TV Measurement to Seven Days, Moonves Says [links to web]
News Corp. unveils long-anticipated Fox Sports cable channel [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
Rep. Dingell Spurs FCC Toward Final Order on Ownership [links to web]
FCC’s Pai: JSA Overhaul Plan Still in Play [links to web]
Verizon Is Said to Seek to Resolve Vodafone Relationship
Few Good Choices for MetroPCS [links to web]
Remember, Facebook isn’t a platform for you to use — you are a platform for Facebook to use [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
The Broadband Engine of Economic Growth - op-ed
Comcast to Sell Prepaid Access Cards for Low-Cost Internet Program
Lawmakers Sound Sympathetic to Internet Group
Tech Companies Lobby Against Georgia Broadband Bill [links to web]
Kansas Fiber Network boosting capacity [links to web]
Facebook Study: Each Post Seen by One-Third of Friends, on Average [links to web]
PRIVACY
Study: Facebook Users More Protective Even as They Reveal More About Themselves
Web-connected cars bring privacy concerns [links to web]
Google services should not require real names: Vint Cerf [links to web]
What ed tech can learn from health care when it comes to data access [links to web]
HEALTH
Study: No negative side effects to remote telehealth [links to web]
KIDS AND MEDIA
Parental plea: Apple iPad should get more family friendly - analysis [links to web]
Video Games May Aid Children With Dyslexia [links to web]
News Corp. Has a Tablet for Schools [links to web]
JOURNALISM
A Disappointing Move by the Washington Post [links to web]
Newspapers Raise Online Prices, Offer Less Free Access [links to web]
LABOR
More Americans Working Remotely [links to web]
Apps Are Creating New Jobs… But Are Also Replacing Workers
POLICYMAKERS
Lawmakers Sound Sympathetic to Internet Group
BUDGET
Sequestration Will Require Patience at FCC, FTC
AGENDA
Cybersecurity Double Header Teed Up in House, Senate [links to web]
House to hold hearing on public safety network [links to web]
Senate to hold FCC oversight hearing [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
EU fines Microsoft €561m for pact breach
UK heads Europe’s Internet usage [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
SCRUTINIZING THE SURVEILLANCE STATE
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Ryan Calo]
[Commentary] The Supreme Court issued its opinion in Clapper v. Amnesty International, a challenge to the surveillance law that afflicts our crazy times. Section 1881a of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) as amended provides in relevant part that our government may monitor certain communications by non-Americans located abroad subject to review by (secretive) courts, but without establishing probable cause or furnishing much in the way of details. The government must still comply with the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures and, generally speaking, requires probable cause and a detailed game plan (particularity) to eavesdrop on citizens. This is a small comfort to foreigners. Of course, the Fourth Amendment does apply to the Americans that foreigners talk to on the phone or by email. A coalition of American journalists, attorneys, and nonprofits challenged FISA on the basis that the government is very likely monitoring their communications with non-Americans located abroad in violation, they claim, of statutory and constitutional law. The members of the coalition could not know for certain they were being monitored because under FISA, the government does not have to tell them. But given who they were talking to, and how often, the coalition assumed the government was listening is on at least some of their conversations. In a five-four decision written by Justice Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court dismissed the collation's challenge to FISA for lack of standing. The doctrine of standing says that the parties before the court must have been injured in fact, and not merely speculating as to some possible harm. Which generally makes sense: you want the people who really have a stake in the outcome to litigate the case. Here, however, no one knows who has that stake because no one knows which Americans, if any, are being spied upon. The coalition could not prove that any single communication had been intercepted under the authority of FISA, or that their burdensome practice of leaving the country just to talk to non-American sources and clients in confidence was in fact prudence or paranoia. Put another way, the coalition could not challenge our secret surveillance laws because they are secret. There is no one who can complain of his or her rights having been violated, because anyone's whose rights have been violated doesn't know it. That's the catch when it comes to assessing the legality of the government's secret activities.
benton.org/node/147073 | Atlantic, The
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GOOGLE AND THE FBI
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Google revealed statistics about the number of secretive national security requests for user data it receives every year from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The company said that for each of the past four years, it has received fewer than one thousand of the requests, known as National Security Letters. Those requests covered data on between 1,000 and 1,999 user accounts, except for 2010, when the requests covered between 2,000 and 2,999 accounts. Google said the requests only cover subscriber information, such as the names of the sender and receiver of an email. The company said it does not provide the contents of emails, search histories, YouTube videos or user IP addresses. Richard Salgado, Google's director of law enforcement and information security, said the company worked with government officials to provide greater insight into the process. Salgado said the company had to provide numerical ranges instead of exact figures to address the concerns raised by the FBI, the Justice Department and other agencies that exact numbers could reveal information about sensitive investigations. Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the number of National Security Letters was not surprising but the fact that Google released them at all was "unprecedented."
benton.org/node/147086 | Hill, The
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OBAMA TECH TOOLS
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Nancy Scola]
The Obama Administration's fluffy not-quite-press engagements -- not just the We the People petition site, but also things like its Google Hangouts -- keep nudging conversations. And for all the fuss over the goofy White House response to request that the federal government build its own Death Star, there's something bigger at work. In a recent article titled "Obama, the Puppet Master," Politico's Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei argued the White House has "taken old tricks for shaping coverage" and "put them on steroids," bypassing the traditional press -- and, by implication, accountability. But that framing doesn't fully capture what's actually going on. Partly by design (i.e., the self-locking of the Obama Administration into public participation) and partly a product of the fact that people who mix it up online and who work in government both lean nerdy, we're witnessing the White House's digital platforms draw attention to obscure, often intensely geeky issues and turn them into major policy issues.
benton.org/node/147028 | Atlantic, The
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CYBERSECURITY
GOOGLE AND CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Eric Engleman]
Telecommunications companies want the Obama Administration to rethink a decision that may exempt Google’s Gmail, Apple’s iPhone software and Microsoft’s Windows from an executive order on cybersecurity. The Feb. 12 order says the government can’t designate “commercial information technology products or consumer information technology services” as critical U.S. infrastructure targeted for voluntary computer security standards. “If e-mail went away this afternoon, we would all come to a stop,” said Marcus Sachs, vice president of national security policy at Verizon Communications, the second-largest U.S. phone company. “Hell yeah, e-mail is critical.” Technologies used in personal computers, software and the Internet “are the lifeblood of cyberspace,” Sachs said. “If you exclude that right up front, you take off the table the very people who are creating the products and services that are vulnerable.” Obama’s order is aimed at areas such as power grids, telecommunications and pipelines. The goal is to protect “systems and assets whose incapacitation from a cyber incident would have catastrophic national security and economic consequences,” White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in an e-mail. “It is not about Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat.”
benton.org/node/147101 | Bloomberg
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CYBERSECURITY REPORT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
A new report for the Pentagon concludes that the nation’s military is unprepared for a full-scale cyber-conflict with a top-tier adversary and must ramp up its offensive prowess. The unclassified version of the study by the Defense Science Board also urges the intelligence community to boost its collection on leading nations’ cyber-capabilities and maintain the threat of a nuclear strike as a deterrent to a major cyberattack. The 138-page report by the panel of civilian and government experts bluntly states that, despite numerous Pentagon actions to parry sophisticated attacks by other countries, efforts are “fragmented” and the Defense Department “is not prepared to defend against this threat.” The report lays out a scenario in which cyberattacks in conjunction with conventional warfare damaged the ability of U.S. forces to respond, creating confusion on the battlefield and weakening traditional defenses.
benton.org/node/147087 | Washington Post | read the report
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DEFENSES AGAINST CYBERWARFARE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Rep Michael McCaul (R-TX)]
[Commentary] Advances in technology that connect utilities, industries and information in real time have changed the nature of the threats facing the nation. Digital networks could be used as a conduit to gas lines, power grids and transportation systems to silently deliver a devastating cyberattack to the US. The Department of Homeland Security and the Obama administration have made progress in promoting information-sharing. But the executive branch lacks constitutional authority possessed by Congress to provide the necessary liability protections that industry needs to freely and systematically share cyberthreat information with the federal government. To thwart attacks, we have to see and connect the dots. Congress has a responsibility to establish the statutory processes necessary to solidify and encourage this participation. Additionally, Congress must build on the administration's efforts in a way that promotes U.S. commerce while not hindering its expansion and innovation. The public sector and privately owned companies that make up the country's critical infrastructure are capable of handling this challenge—and we must aid them in creating lines of communication with the civilian entities involved in making the American economy and infrastructure work. The House Committee on Homeland Security is working with all stakeholders and colleagues in Congress to foster consensus on necessary, bipartisan cybersecurity legislation. Threats to the U.S. homeland are evolving, both in the real and virtual worlds, and so too must the defenses evolve. Congress needs to act: The threat is real, and this time we have to see it coming.
[Rep McCaul is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee]
benton.org/node/147121 | Wall Street Journal
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CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: Steve Largent, Rick Boucher]
[Commentary] The debate on cybersecurity has produced a sideshow centered around the belief that added security means a reduction in privacy. Such views are nonsense. Quite simply, digital privacy cannot exist without cybersecurity. Weak security equals weak privacy. Want better privacy? Raise your security game to prevent hackers from stealing private data. Let the experts from the private sector and government communicate with each other so when they see threats, they can alert others and work together to create a solution. Despite this common-sense connection, a seemingly never-ending debate drags on about how our nation can improve its cybersecurity. There is lots of talk, but little action to support privacy's enabler. That could change if Congress passes The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and the President signs it into law. CISPA passed the House (248-168) about a year ago, and since then has been the subject of considerable discussion, with no discernible progress.
[Steve Largent is president and CEO of CTIA-The Wireless Association, a lobbying group representing the interests of the telecommunications industry. Boucher is head of the government strategies practice at the law firm Sidley Austin.]
benton.org/node/146997 | CNNMoney
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
CELLPHONE UNLOCKING BILLS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Numerous lawmakers, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), said that they want to pass legislation to legalize cellphone unlocking. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) was the first to introduce a bill on the topic, formally offering the Wireless Device Independence Act. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who chairs the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, said she plans to introduce her own bill this week. “Consumers should be free to choose the phone and service that best fits their needs and their budgets," Sen Klobuchar said. Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Jared Polis (D-CO) also said during a panel discussion on Capitol Hill that they would support legislation to legalize the practice.
benton.org/node/147102 | Hill, The | Sen Klobuchar
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BROADBAND AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski]
[Commentary] As Washington continues to wrangle over raising revenue and cutting spending, let's not forget a crucial third element for reining in the deficit: economic growth. To sustain long-term economic health, America needs growth engines, areas of the economy that hold real promise of major expansion. Few sectors have more job-creating innovation potential than broadband, particularly mobile broadband. Starting with the development of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan in 2009, developing innovative policies to free up spectrum for broadband has been one of the FCC's highest priorities. Three new spectrum policy hold big potential. First, incentive auctions. Second, a new generation of unlicensed spectrum. Third, spectrum sharing. Each of these proposals has been contentious and will require hard work to implement. But inaction will undermine U.S. competitiveness. Keeping discussions focused on solving problems, and on facts and data, will best ensure that policies pioneered in the U.S. are first implemented in the U.S.—so that innovation, private investment and jobs follow.
benton.org/node/147123 | Wall Street Journal
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RADIO/TV
TV DISCLOSURE REQUIRMENTS
[SOURCE: Sunlight Foundation, AUTHOR: Jacob Fenton]
A decade after a landmark campaign finance reform law mandated that TV stations collect the names of board members or executive officers of independent groups running political ads for federal candidates or any "national legislative issue of public importance," records show broadcasters often ignore the rules. Spot checks by the Sunlight Foundation found numerous instances where political advertisers did not provide information required by the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (also known as the McCain-Feingold law after its authors, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI). These requirements have become particularly important in the wake of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which gave rise to shadowy outside political groups organized as "social welfare" non-profits and therefore not required to disclose their leadership to the Federal Election Commission. Public tax filings with this information often don't arrive until years later. As a result, the disclosures that McCain-Feingold requires advertisers to make at television stations have become the only means of determining who is behind the nonprofit groups that pumped more than $300 million into the 2012 campaign. But the Federal Communications Commission, which is in charge of enforcing the law, so far has not taken action against stations that appear to have flouted it.
benton.org/node/147022 | Sunlight Foundation
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OWNERSHIP
VERIZON-VODAFONE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Jeffrey McCracken, David Welch, Jonathan Browning]
Verizon Communications is working to resolve its relationship with Vodafone Group Plc this year, having weighed options that range from ending its wireless venture with its European ally to a full merger of the two phone companies, said people familiar with the situation. The U.S. and U.K. mobile-phone operators discussed a full combination as recently as December, said two of the people, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Those talks stumbled over disagreements on leadership and headquarters location, making a buyout or partial sale of Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in the Verizon Wireless subsidiary a likelier outcome, the people said. That stake is worth about $115 billion, according to analysts. Verizon is eager to take full control of the unit this year, giving the New York-based company greater influence over its most profitable division, according to the people. Vodafone has raised concerns about valuation and how to use any proceeds from a sale, they said. The U.K. company has explored possible uses for the funds such as making acquisitions in Europe, instead of just returning proceeds to shareholders, one of the people said. Such a deal would tighten Verizon’s control over a wireless business whose growth has outpaced U.S. rivals’.
benton.org/node/147036 | Bloomberg
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
OPPORTUNITY CARDS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
Comcast in the second half of 2013 plans to introduce prepaid “Opportunity Cards” to let not-for-profit organizations, businesses and others buy up to a year of Internet Essentials service for low-income families eligible under the program. In addition, Comcast has expanded the eligibility criteria to include families with home-schooled kids and those with students in private and parochial schools. That will make nearly 200,000 additional families eligible for Internet Essentials in Comcast’s service area, bringing the total to nearly 2.6 million eligible families, the company estimates. Comcast is required to offer Internet Essentials -- which costs $9.95 per month (plus tax) for a 3 Mbps downstream and 768 Kbps upstream connection -- through the end of the 2013-14 school year under the terms of the Federal Communications Commission’s approval of its takeover of NBCUniversal.
benton.org/node/147074 | Multichannel News
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PRIVACY
PROTECTIVE FACEBOOK USERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Somini Sengupta]
Facebook users became much more protective about who sees sensitive information about them, even as they were urged to share more about themselves on the social network, according to an unusual seven-year study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. The study followed the privacy settings of roughly 5,000 Facebook users who were part of the university network on Facebook between 2005 and 2011. It is among the first longitudinal efforts aimed at gauging how Facebook users try to protect their information. The study showed how over those years, Facebook made changes that elicited increasing amounts of data. For example, the social network tripled the data fields its users could fill out. It introduced Timeline in 2011, encouraging users to fill in much more personal history, including whether they were expecting a baby or had acquired a new car. Its diverse applications offered users the opportunity to share what news articles and books they read. And it let them “tag” one another, effectively allowing one user to post information about a Facebook “friend.” But even as Facebook encouraged more sharing, users became less likely to reveal to strangers certain pieces of sensitive, fine-grained personal information like dates of birth and what high school they attended, the survey found. There was a similar decline in users revealing their phone numbers and instant-messaging addresses to others in the university network who were not their Facebook “friends.”
benton.org/node/147049 | New York Times
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LABOR
APP JOBS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Greg Bensinger, Jessica Lessin, Anton Troianovski]
Smartphones and tablets—which typically have built-in cameras, Internet connections and global-positioning systems—enable just about anyone to be a roving merchant or courier. The proliferation of jobs tied to mobile apps recalls the early days of the Internet in the 1990s, when Americans realized they could sell goods to customers from their desktop computers. Though data on the size of the app economy for nondevelopers are scarce, venture capitalists say interest in mobile marketplaces is growing.
Apps may be creating new jobs for developers and marketers. But around the edges of the rest of the economy, they're also starting to become a substitute for people who earn a paycheck. Businesses often say their main goal in developing smartphone applications is to make things easier for customers and to build brand loyalty. Yet they're finding it doesn't take much effort to turn the smartphones carried by most Americans into payment terminals or data-entry forms. As a result, Americans increasingly are becoming their own bank tellers, loan officers, insurance adjusters, checkout clerks, restaurant order takers, citrus-crop inspectors and mall concierges.
benton.org/node/147117 | Wall Street Journal | Part II
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POLICYMAKERS
LAWMAKERS AND THE INTERNET INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
In a sign that Internet giants will help drive the agenda in Washington, more than half a dozen lawmakers representing both sides of the aisle today paid homage to the $8 trillion annual Internet industry -- a part of the economy no lawmaker wants to disrupt, let alone upset. Some of Congress' biggest names, including House minority whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House oversight chairman Darrell Issa (D-CA), either praised the Internet economy or connected their pet issues to the Internet during a set of panels sponsored by The Internet Association. It was a remarkable show of influence for a new association. Formed late last year, the group counts among its members web giants such as Google and Facebook. Both companies have upped their lobbying game, bending the ears of Congress. Google last year spent nearly $16.5 million on such efforts, a 70 percent increase from 2011. In the same period, Facebook's lobbying spending jumped 196 percent to nearly $4 million.
benton.org/node/147079 | AdWeek
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BUDGET
SEQUESTRATION, THE FCC AND THE FTC
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
Despite the rhetoric in Washington, no one really knows what effect the $85 billion in automatic spending cuts will have on the economy, consumers and business in general. But it's hard to believe that advertisers, media and telecommunications companies won't notice some differences at the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, agencies that have jurisdiction over their businesses. Post-sequestration, the best advice for companies that do business with the FCC and FTC is to have some patience. Reports are bound to take longer and decisions are bound to drag on. The FCC, which is already nearly three years late on updating media ownership rules, called the $17 million in cuts to its $342 million budget "very significant." Though no layoffs or furloughs of staff are anticipated, the FCC said staff is already the lowest it has been in nearly 30 years. The Federal Trade Commission, which has jurisdiction over consumer protection and deceptive ad enforcement, is facing a $16 million cut to its $314 million budget. In its statement, the agency said it has made strategic decisions that have positioned it to be able to "sustain sequestration cuts" such as reshaping its workforce through voluntary early buyouts in order to "absorb these reductions."
benton.org/node/147098 | AdWeek
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
EU FINES MICROSOFT
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Alex Barker, Richard Waters, Bede McCarthy]
Microsoft was fined €561 million ($732 million) by Brussels over its failure to offer Windows users a choice of Internet browser in breach of a high-profile competition agreement with European regulators. The European fine represents an unprecedented penalty against a company for failing to stick to a voluntary pact with antitrust regulators, and had been seen as a test of how vigorously Joaquín Almunia, EU competition commissioner, would seek to enforce such settlements. The penalty brings the overall fines imposed on Microsoft by European antitrust regulators during the past decade to €2.26 billion. The rare penalty came as it was reported that the US software group was also fighting Danish tax authorities over a claim of up to $1 billion, including penalties for late payment of taxes, that reach back nearly a decade.
benton.org/node/147108 | Financial Times | NYTimes
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