1. Monthly archive
  2. July 2015

July 2015

Facebook Considering Feature Update To Prevent Spread Of Misinformation

Many of Facebook's 1.44 billion users turn to the social network for their news, but there's a little quirk with how it handles headlines. A feature has long existed on the social media platform that allows individuals to completely alter the text of an article's headline and sub-headline when posting it onto their profile or News Feed. A spokesperson for Facebook said that the feature was introduced in 2011 to allow individuals to fix fields that did not display correctly. At the time, Facebook didn't always produce the correct headlines, sub-headlines or images when a link was posted, so a user needed to be able to edit them.

But there's a pretty major downside. Because anyone can edit a headline, it's easy to misrepresent the news and a publication's intent. That means confusion or, worse, the spread of false information. Asked about the potential for headlines to be distorted, the company said that an update to this feature may be coming. "We’ve improved our automatic rendering technology so that most of the time, the link sharing preview does generate a title and description that accurately reflect what people want to share," a spokeswoman said. "As a result, we’re considering changing this feature to better align with how people share links today and to help ensure that publishers’ content is not misrepresented,” she said.

Journalists Want Transparency, But Not Right Away

It didn't take long for journalists to criticize the flaw -- for them -- in the federal government's new pilot program on making public all responses to Freedom of Information Act requests. It didn't take much longer for open government advocates to suggest the reporters were putting their interests ahead of the public's. "Get this," tweeted Erik Wemple, media critic at The Washington Post,"Federal government is implementing a FOIA reform that could actually hurt journos." Former journalist Lisette Garcia, an open government activist who now runs the FOIA Resource Center in Washington (DC), wasn't impressed with the argument against the pilot program. "Any media outlet seeking delays to protect scoops shows it cares more about profits than about the communities they purport to inform," she said. "On the basis of this position alone, any media outlet lobbying for an embargo carveout should be denied FOIA fee waivers going forward since the basis for the waiver is their promise to disseminate widely and rapidly," Garcia said. "What could be faster than right now?"

The bottom line is that under the FOIA statute, journalists don't have to be treated differently. "The 'equal access to all' policy is most welcome by the FOIA Resource Center," Garcia said. "Any editor who disagrees is apparently unfamiliar with judicial precedent establishing that, in America, there is no proprietary interest in facts and sweat of the brow will only take you so far. If you want to be best, from now on, you'll need to be first and correct, not just the most clever." In 2016, when the pilot program comes to an end, the Justice Department and the federal FOIA ombudsman at the Office of Government Information Services will have to decide where the public interest lies. "Make it public, I say," tweeted Charles Ornstein, an investigative journalist at ProPublica. "Open government is open government."

How the Smartphone Era Led to the Death of Open Standards

[Commentary] We can thank the near universal adoption of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for the explosion of devices that can talk to each other, no wires required. The dream of being able to control our worlds from a smartphone (or smartwatch) makes progress with every new smart lock, fitness wearable, food freshness monitor, and car status tracker. But the dream is incomplete. What we’re evolving towards is a sea full of islands -- gadgets that can communicate back to a smartphone but have little awareness of each other. There have been several attempts to bridge them, including APIs, a few hubs aimed at enthusiasts, and the service IFTTT. But overall, connectivity remains fractured, and there's no reason to think that an industry-wide standard will fix things anytime soon.

We’re too early in the development of Internet of Things standards to known what impact Apple’s and Google’s initiatives will have. But if smartphones define the post-PC era, the Internet of Things may come to define a more disparate, decentralized post-smartphone era. Smartphones will still play a role -- just as PCs continue to matter -- but it wouldn’t be a central one from which the dominant companies can dictate standards. That would give industry groups the opportunity to build bridges between at least some of the islands that the smartphone era is creating.

[Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research]

July 14, 2015 (Campaign Seeks FCC Action on Broadband)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2015

Today’s House Communications Subcommittee hearing, "Promoting Broadband Infrastructure Investment", has been postponed: https://www.benton.org/calendar


INTERNET/BROADBAND
   'Competify' Campaign Seeks FCC Action on Broadband
   Here’s how much Comcast is charging for its answer to Google Fiber [links to web]
   Comcast’s 2Gbps Internet costs $300 a month with $1,000 startup fees [links to web]

PRIVACY/SECURITY
   New proposal would strike at web’s anonymity
   It’s not just OPM: Cybersecurity across the federal government is pretty awful [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Accusing Amazon of Antitrust Violations, Authors and Booksellers Demand Inquiry

LABOR
   In economic address, Hillary Clinton calls out 'gig' economy

TELECOM
   Because landlines are dying, VoIP providers must sell 24-hour batteries [links to web]
   FCC's Robocall Rules Could Affect Media Marketing, Customer Support [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Is this the end of the phone subsidy?
   Consumers prefer Wi-Fi calling, survey finds [links to web]
   US Leads in 4G Wireless Networks, but Speeds Are Just Middling [links to web]
   Nearly Half of Smartphone Users Can't Imagine Life Without It [links to web]

TELEVISION/BROADCASTING
   A Broadcaster's Guide to Washington Issues - TVNewsCheck analysis [links to web]
   Moffett: Customers to drop cable TV subscriptions at even faster rate in Q2 [links to web]

CONTENT
   Facebook Instant Articles Just Don’t Add Up for Publishers - Technology Review op-ed [links to web]
   The Real Threat Posed by Powerful Computers analysis [links to web]
   Content Rights Continue to Be Biggest Obstacle to Broadband TV Momentum [links to web]
   Do weaker copyrights really increase economic growth? - AEI op-ed [links to web]

COURT CASE
   SCOTUS move fuels uncertainty for tech, groups say

ELECTIONS & MEDIA
   NY Times stands by Ted Cruz decision [links to web]

ADVERTISING
   AOL's Latest Goodie For Advertisers Is Weather-Based Analytics [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   Putting the public into public media membership - Nieman Lab analysis
   Facebook Instant Articles Just Don’t Add Up for Publishers - Technology Review op-ed [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   The latest security law illustrates the Chinese government’s love-hate relationship with the Internet - analysis

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

'COMPETIFY' CAMPAIGN SEEKS FCC ACTION ON BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
"Competify," a campaign by a coalition of competitive telecommunications, information processing and public advocacy groups and companies seeking to sway the Federal Communications Commission and other policy makers on key broadband issues, debuted on July 13. The initial group includes the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee, Broadband Coalition, BT (the company formerly known as British Telecom), Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), COMPTEL, Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Engine, Level 3, Public Knowledge, Sprint and XO. While cable TV and the huge telephone companies are not mentioned by name on the new website or in an ad in The New York Times unveiling the campaign, it is clear that these major system providers are the target of the new group's wrath. The announcement characterized the current market condition as "a chronic disease" affecting the entire information economy. It urged the FCC to move forward aggressively "on its critical work to address the scourge of high broadband prices and anticompetitive behavior by advancing meaningful broadband competition."
"The broadband economy pays at least $10 billion dollars each year in overcharges to a few huge companies that control access to America’s critical broadband infrastructure," according to the coalition's announcement. "These profits of over 100 percent come at the expense of the rest of the economy: driving up prices, stifling innovation, and dragging down speeds and deployment of both wireless and wireline broadband." Although its initial focus is on FCC actions, Competify is also expected to take its message to Capitol Hill and to other policy makers.
benton.org/headlines/competify-campaign-seeks-fcc-action-broadband | Multichannel News | Public Knowledge
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PRIVACY/SECURITY

NEW PROPOSAL WOULD STRIKE AT WEB'S ANONYMITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
Privacy advocates, public interest groups and even some celebrities are raising alarms about a proposal that could limit the ability of some website owners to disguise themselves. The issue has caught fire over the past few months as an obscure organization that manages the Internet's domain name system was inundated with comments about a proposal that could bar commercial websites from using proxies to register their web addresses. Advocates argue anonymity is a key feature of free speech online, and removing that protection from people who create a website for commercial purposes could open vulnerable populations up to abuse. “Whatever the interest in unmasking an anonymous speaker, free speech interests demand the preservation of opportunities for anonymous speech,” Public Knowledge, the Open Technology Institute and the Center for Democracy and Technology argued in joint public comments. Individuals and businesses are currently allowed to hide their identity, physical location and other personal contact information behind proxies in the public “WHOIS” directory that stores information online about the owners of every registered website domain name. Proxies can be used by anyone registering a domain, from a lawmaker gearing up for a presidential run who does not want to tip off the press, to a blogger posting unpopular views online. The proxy service comes standard with many of the major domain registrars like GoDaddy. The organization that coordinates the entire back end of the Internet, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), just finished seeking comment to see if it should cut off that proxy service for websites that conduct “financial transactions for commercial purpose.”
benton.org/headlines/new-proposal-would-strike-webs-anonymity | Hill, The
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OWNERSHIP

AUTHORS, BOOKSELLERS DEMAN INQUIRY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Streitfeld]
A large chunk of the literary establishment is calling Amazon a bully and a monopolist. Five years after Amazon secretly asked regulators to investigate leading publishers — a case that ended up reinforcing the e-commerce company’s clout — groups representing thousands of authors, agents and independent booksellers are asking the United States Department of Justice to examine Amazon for antitrust violations. Perhaps stealing a page from Amazon, which often promotes policies that would benefit it by talking about what customers want, the groups said their concerns were more about freedom of expression and a healthy culture than about themselves. The Authors Guild, the American Booksellers Association, the Association of Authors’ Representatives and Authors United said in letters and statements being sent to the Justice Department that “Amazon has used its dominance in ways that we believe harm the interests of America’s readers, impoverish the book industry as a whole, damage the careers of (and generate fear among) many authors, and impede the free flow of ideas in our society.”
benton.org/headlines/accusing-amazon-antitrust-violations-authors-and-booksellers-demand-inquiry | New York Times | Washington Post
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LABOR

IN ECONOMIC ADDRESS, HILLARY CLINTON CALLS OUT 'GIG' ECONOMY
[SOURCE: CNBC, AUTHOR: Kate Rogers]
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton laid out her economic agenda in New York City. She focused on ways to lift American workers and called out the sharing economy as a potential factor in dampened wage growth. The sharing economy -- bolstered by high-flying start-ups including Uber, Airbnb and Lyft -- allows individuals to share products and services like offering homes and apartments for rent, or driving passengers to destinations. "Many Americans are making extra money renting out a spare room, designing a website ... even driving their own car. This on demand or so called 'gig' economy is creating exciting opportunities and unleashing innovation, but it's also raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future," Clinton said. Republican presidential candidates are knocking Hillary Clinton for her remarks. Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) came out with the sharpest barb, saying the country “shouldn’t take advice on the sharing economy from someone who has been driven around in a limo for 30 years,” referring to Clinton’s revelation in 2014 that she hadn’t driven a car since 1996. Former Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R-FL) campaign released a statement saying, “Secretary Clinton’s antiquated proposals protect the special interests that want to stifle American ingenuity and 21st Century companies like Uber that are creating jobs.”
benton.org/headlines/economic-address-hillary-clinton-calls-out-gig-economy | CNBC | The Hill
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

CELL PHONE SUBSIDIES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
For years, smartphone shopping has gone something like this: Pick the latest phone, pay a one-time fee of $200 for it, and agree to a monthly rate for calls, texts and data. Consumers were getting what seemed like a massive discount on a new device that really cost roughly $650 in exchange for signing a two-year contract. But AT&T has recently made a series of small changes to herd customers away from these agreements. In their place are plans that eliminate the price break off the price tag of the phone — and spread that cost over 12, 18 or 24 months. And — in a twist that will test the skills of even the most budget-conscious customers — the company offers a set of different discounts depending on which of 10 data plans you choose. The more data you buy, the bigger the savings, of course. Confused? You’re probably not alone. In general, Mike Gikas, an editor of the non-profit Consumer Reports, called this type of billing — which AT&T has labeled “Next” — a “good trend” for consumers. Many people will see their bills stay the same or go down because of the discounts on data. But, he added, the complexity of these bills, could “force customers to do things that are counterintuitive.”
benton.org/headlines/end-phone-subsidy | Washington Post
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COURT CASE

SCOTUS MOVE FUELS UNCERTAINTY FOR TECH, GROUPS SAY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: David McCabe]
The Supreme Court’s decision to not weigh in on a copyright fight between Google and Oracle could have severe implications for future software development, say public interest groups. The court late in June declined to hear Google’s appeal of a ruling favorable to Oracle. A district court found for Google, but that ruling was overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Google appealed to the Supreme Court -- which declined to hear the case. The court asked the White House to weigh in on the case because it involved copyrights, which could involve the Administration. The White House, in its filing, told the justices not to hear the case and instead send it back to the lower courts. “It’s difficult for copyright lawyers to understand sort of the boundaries of what is copyrightable,” said Evan Engstrom, the policy director at startup advocacy group Engine, which filed a brief supporting Google. He said it is even harder “for programmers to understand what you’re allow to repurpose and use,” and that the Supreme Court has added to the uncertainty. Others argue that the effects are overstated, in part because Federal Circuit court rulings lack significant power as precedents. Software developers, they say, also appreciate being able to build on other people’s work and would be unlikely to enforce copyright protection en masse against their peers. Still, it is possible that the decision to let the Federal Circuit’s ruling stand could trigger new copyright infringement lawsuits related to APIs. Charles Duan, the Director of Public Knowledge’s Patent Reform Project, said he worried that uncertainty in the courts -- where there are some older rulings that conflict with the Federal Circuit’s decision -- might lead to a fractured software landscape.
benton.org/headlines/scotus-move-fuels-uncertainty-tech-groups-say | Hill, The
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JOURNALISM

PUTTING THE PUBLIC INTO PUBLIC MEDIA MEMBERSHIP
[SOURCE: Nieman Lab, AUTHOR: Melody Kramer]
[Commentary] Summer 2014, public media consultant Mark Fuerst interviewed 40 front-line development professionals at public media stations. Fuerst noted that the people he interviewed expressed concerns about the continued effectiveness of their ability to raise money over time. Two-thirds of the membership directors at radio-only licensees reported that both incoming pledge drive calls and online pledge had declined. Six of the 15 radio-only licensees reported a decline of over 10 percent. These trends, coupled with continuing changes in patterns in public radio consumption, demand new approaches to thinking about the sustainability of the current membership model. What, then, is the alternative? How can we encourage people to become invested in the future of public media, both as listeners and as members? In this report, I describe the results of a multi-method effort to detail an alternative membership model for public media stations. This model is based not on the pledge drive (or on cultivating sustaining donors or large donors, as many stations seek to do), but on building an infrastructure that allows community members to contribute to their stations in a variety of ways, including non-financial means. It takes as its starting point the understanding that building relationships with potential donors leads to their sustained support -- in the form of time, money, and advocacy on behalf of the station.
benton.org/headlines/putting-public-public-media-membership | Nieman Lab
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

CHINESE GOVERNMENT LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Quartz, AUTHOR: Josh Horwitz]
The People’s Republic of China Cybersecurity Law, which was published during the week of July 7, directs a number of decrees at entities providing “critical information infrastructure.” The term is never defined, as is often the case in Chinese law. But it likely refers to any tech company of a certain scale and with lots of user data -- think big tech companies like Apple, Huawei, Baidu, and Uber. Many of the provisions in the draft law, which has yet to formally pass, order tech companies to provide basic protections for users, like not selling data to other companies without their knowledge and not knowingly distributing malware. Other sections show how the government will continue to exert a tight grip on China’s Internet companies. These include measures that give the state the power to cut off the Internet to “protect national security,” as well as provisions that require users to register for services with their real names and compel companies to store user data inside China. None of the provisions will come as a surprise to anyone who is familiar with China’s Internet industry. But what makes this draft law significant is its rhetoric. The phrase “national security” is carefully chosen. By co-opting this phrase the Chinese government is sending a signal that hacking, privacy, and censorship are matters of the highest political priority. This ensures that restrictions will remain in place for a long time. It also brings the web into a broader push to introduce stronger controls on a wide variety of industries in the name of national security.
benton.org/headlines/latest-security-law-illustrates-chinese-governments-love-hate-relationship-internet | Quartz
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Accusing Amazon of Antitrust Violations, Authors and Booksellers Demand Inquiry

A large chunk of the literary establishment is calling Amazon a bully and a monopolist.

Five years after Amazon secretly asked regulators to investigate leading publishers — a case that ended up reinforcing the e-commerce company’s clout — groups representing thousands of authors, agents and independent booksellers are asking the United States Department of Justice to examine Amazon for antitrust violations. Perhaps stealing a page from Amazon, which often promotes policies that would benefit it by talking about what customers want, the groups said their concerns were more about freedom of expression and a healthy culture than about themselves.

The Authors Guild, the American Booksellers Association, the Association of Authors’ Representatives and Authors United said in letters and statements being sent to the Justice Department that “Amazon has used its dominance in ways that we believe harm the interests of America’s readers, impoverish the book industry as a whole, damage the careers of (and generate fear among) many authors, and impede the free flow of ideas in our society.”

Is this the end of the phone subsidy?

For years, smartphone shopping has gone something like this: Pick the latest phone, pay a one-time fee of $200 for it, and agree to a monthly rate for calls, texts and data. Consumers were getting what seemed like a massive discount on a new device that really cost roughly $650 in exchange for signing a two-year contract.

But AT&T has recently made a series of small changes to herd customers away from these agreements. In their place are plans that eliminate the price break off the price tag of the phone — and spread that cost over 12, 18 or 24 months. And — in a twist that will test the skills of even the most budget-conscious customers — the company offers a set of different discounts depending on which of 10 data plans you choose. The more data you buy, the bigger the savings, of course.

Confused? You’re probably not alone. In general, Mike Gikas, an editor of the non-profit Consumer Reports, called this type of billing — which AT&T has labeled “Next” — a “good trend” for consumers. Many people will see their bills stay the same or go down because of the discounts on data. But, he added, the complexity of these bills, could “force customers to do things that are counterintuitive.”

Because landlines are dying, VoIP providers must sell 24-hour batteries

As phone providers like AT&T and Verizon seek to phase out copper telephone networks in favor of fiber- and wireless-based VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services, the Federal Communications Commission must consider whether to require home phones to work during power outages. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has decided what the requirement should be -- carriers will have to offer 24-hour backup systems, but they'll be able to charge consumers for the batteries. Chairman Wheeler circulated his proposal to fellow commissioners on July 10 and will put it to a vote on August 6. If it's approved in its current form, VoIP providers will have to offer 8-hour backup systems immediately and 24-hour backups within three years.

The new rules would apply not just to legacy voice providers with copper networks, but to any home VoIP service, such as those offered by cable companies. Maintaining 911 service during long power outages is one of the main goals. There shouldn't be any technical limitations that would prevent implementation. Verizon already sells its fiber customers a $40 battery that can power voice service (either VoIP or traditional landline service over fiber) for "up to 8 hours" during an electric outage.

In economic address, Hillary Clinton calls out 'gig' economy

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton laid out her economic agenda in New York City. She focused on ways to lift American workers and called out the sharing economy as a potential factor in dampened wage growth. The sharing economy -- bolstered by high-flying start-ups including Uber, Airbnb and Lyft -- allows individuals to share products and services like offering homes and apartments for rent, or driving passengers to destinations. "Many Americans are making extra money renting out a spare room, designing a website ... even driving their own car. This on demand or so called 'gig' economy is creating exciting opportunities and unleashing innovation, but it's also raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future," Clinton said.

Republican presidential candidates are knocking Hillary Clinton for her remarks. Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) came out with the sharpest barb, saying the country “shouldn’t take advice on the sharing economy from someone who has been driven around in a limo for 30 years,” referring to Clinton’s revelation in 2014 that she hadn’t driven a car since 1996. Former Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R-FL) campaign released a statement saying, “Secretary Clinton’s antiquated proposals protect the special interests that want to stifle American ingenuity and 21st Century companies like Uber that are creating jobs.”

NY Times stands by Ted Cruz decision

The New York Times is standing by its decision to omit Sen Ted Cruz's (R-TX) new memoir from its best-seller list on the grounds that sales were driven by "strategic bulk purchases," despite the fact that both HarperCollins and Amazon say there is no evidence for that argument. "The notion that we would manipulate the best-seller list to exclude books for political reasons is simply ludicrous. Conservative authors have routinely ranked high on our lists -- Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, most recently Ann Coulter, just for a few examples," said Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy.

"We have also ranked policy books and memoirs in the past by Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, among many others." "I can't speak to the statements by Amazon or Harper Collins -- though obviously publishers are always trying to get their authors on our list -- but we are confident in our conclusion about the sales patterns for the [Sen] Cruz book for the week in question." Murphy continued, "Our system is designed to detect anomalies and patterns that are typical of attempts to manipulate the rankings," Murphy said. "We've been doing this for a long time and we apply our standards consistently, across the board. The goal is to give Times readers our best assessment of what books are broadly popular at any given time."

Content Rights Continue to Be Biggest Obstacle to Broadband TV Momentum

Broadband and video service providers alike are increasingly looking to streaming content services as a viable video service option. We characterize these growing streaming video services as broadband TV. They may involve over-the-top (OTT) type services, or could be streaming video across a closed managed broadband network, not unlike traditional IPTV. What broadband TV brings to service providers is a much lower cost video service option because it doesn’t require a full blown video headend, nor does it require expensive traditional set-top-boxes in the home.

Dascom Systems Group is a systems integrator for broadband and video service providers, building and integrating the systems to deliver broadband TV services. Kris Apfelbacher, director of video solutions for Dascom shared some valuable insight into the growing deployment of broadband TV. One issue that continues to be a challenge for growing broadband TV momentum is content licensing rights. “What we’ve learned though is that the content operators still kind of hold the keys to the car on exactly what they’ll . . . allow you to do with their channels,” said Apfelbacher. “We can make the streaming TV, the quality is there, the type of authentication and stream encryption to mimic a traditional pay-TV service are there, it’s really just the content operators getting a little more comfortable with that type of a solution.”

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