September 2015

INTERNET/BROADBAND/TELECOMMUNICATIONS

FCC PRICING RULES ON INTERNET LINES SPARK INDUSTRY PROTEST
[SOURCE: Morning Consult, AUTHOR: Amir Nasr]
Lobbyists for major phone and Internet providers are telling the Federal Communications Commission that its proposal to curtail the price of high-grade network lines will temper large companies’ willingness to invest. In August, the agency voted 3-2 along party lines for a proposal to regulate telecommunications companies’ transition from old copper lines to higher quality fiber lines. The proposed rules would obligate companies with existing fiber facilities -- generally legacy companies like Verizon or AT&T -- to sell replacement fiber services to their copper-using competitors at regulated rates. The regulations are aimed at keeping prices from going too high. But some argue that they could negatively impact how, or even if, bigger companies invest in their own networks. “The mere consideration of these and other new regulations has decelerated investment,” said Bruce Mehlman, co-chairman at the Internet Innovation Alliance, an advocacy group for broadband issues. “We’ve seen a deceleration of investments because of regulations.” The FCC’s price restrictions on fiber sales would be temporary, according to the proposed rule. They would only be in effect until the FCC finishes its broader assessment of price regulations on telephone and Internet lines. The FCC has been analyzing the market to see whether regulators need to impose new regulations to allow smaller providers to compete on a level playing field.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-pricing-rules-internet-lines-spark-industry-protest | Morning Consult
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VERIZON SAYS CWA CREATED A FALSE IMPRESSION OF THE STATE OF ITS COPPER NETWORK
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Sean Buckley]
Verizon has fired back at the Communications Workers of America's (CWA) claims that it has turned its back on its existing copper networks in its wireline region. In a Federal Communications Commission filing, Verizon said that the CWA misinterpreted a statement it made in a July letter to the FCC about how much it invests on its copper network. "As we explained in that letter, Verizon takes reasonable steps to ensure its copper network remains healthy and, contrary to CWA's suggestions, has not engaged in widespread 'de facto' retirement of copper," Verizon said. "As part of that discussion, we wrote that Verizon since 2008 has spent more than $200 million on its copper network. CWA has seized on that comment, taken it out of context, and tried to use it to create the false impression that this was all of the money that Verizon has spent to keep copper in service." Verizon contends that the "more than $200 million" it referenced does not relate to all of the capital dollars the company has made in maintaining its copper network.
benton.org/headlines/verizon-says-cwa-created-false-impression-state-its-copper-network | Fierce
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CHINA-U.S.

CHINA'S PRESIDENT COURT US CEOS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shira Ovide, Jeremy Page]
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the US set off a tug of war between optimism about commercial relations between the US and China and fear that China isn’t doing enough to open its doors to foreign companies or combat cybercrime. In front of some of the top executives of both countries -- including Apple's Tim Cook and Amazon's Jeff Bezos -- Presdient Xi and other Chinese officials continued their push to highlight the scope of business opportunities in China. President Xi also pledged to address US concerns that China isn’t moving fast enough to ease restrictions on foreign investment, while playing down tensions in other areas ahead of his summit with President Barack Obama on Sept 25. “China will open up still wider to the outside world. Without reform there will be no driving force,” President Xi said. American business executives and Obama Administration officials expressed doubts about President Xi’s commitment.
benton.org/headlines/chinas-president-courts-us-ceos | Wall Street Journal
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EDUCATION

DIGITAL EQUITY BILL TARGETS 'HOMEWORK GAP'
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Laura Devaney]
New legislation introduced in Congress would support “innovative strategies and methods to increase out-of-school access to digital learning resources” in an effort to boost both student and educator engagement. The Digital Learning Equity Act of 2015, introduced by Rep Peter Welch (D-VT) and co-sponsored by Rep David McKinley (R-WV), would call for a national study on what is known as the “Homework Gap” and would support pilot programs to extend digital learning opportunities for students when they are not in the classroom. The proposed legislation received support across the ed-tech industry after it was announced. In a joint letter to legislators, the National School Boards Association, along with a number of other education and ed-tech groups, said the bill will “help provide students and their families with equitable access to the Internet at home to support family engagement in their child’s education and will allow students to accomplish essential tasks such as completing their homework, applying for colleges and seeking post-graduation employment.”
benton.org/headlines/digital-equity-bill-targets-homework-gap | eSchool News
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RESPONDING TO THE HOMEWORK GAP
[SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Max Lewontin]
As schools increasingly use online resources and other technology in the classroom, the burden for students without high-speed Internet access at home is particularly intense, often leaving them unable to complete the required assignments. Known as the “homework gap,” the issue has been drawing particular attention from federal regulators, with Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel calling it “the cruelest part of the digital divide.” “When you bring technology into the classroom, you can do the lessons in the classroom, but to the extent that students become familiar with the material -- it has to be done outside of school,” says Deven Carlson, a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma. Now, Congress has stepped in, with two lawmakers introducing a bill that would call for a national study on the issue, which has a particularly large scale impact on low-income and black and Hispanic students. Prof. Carlson says a push for universal broadband access – which has been a long term priority for the Obama Administration – could have a large scale impact on how teachers are able to interact with students, as well as how they prepare for college and careers increasingly reliant on digital technology.
benton.org/headlines/why-homework-gap-may-pave-way-universal-internet-access-schools | Christian Science Monitor
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ELECTION 2016

WHAT'S BUSH GOT AGAINST NET NEUTRALITY, ANYWAY?
[SOURCE: Quartz, AUTHOR: Tim Fernholz]
[Commentary] John Ellis Bush, the former Florida governor contending for the Republican presidential nomination, says he’d repeal a raft of government rules on taking office. In particular, Bush says network neutrality is a bad idea. His opposition comes couched in the language used by cable companies that oppose net neutrality: He argues that the rules will kill investment in the industry, noting that two tiny broadband companies have “declared under penalty of perjury” they must cut back under the rule. Presidential politics has turned an argument over market structure between competing business interests -- reductively, those that build and maintain the internet’s physical infrastructure, and those that make the software that runs on that infrastructure -- into a fight between the political parties, with Democrats backing the net neutrality rules. When Jeb Bush argues that all of President Barack Obama’s rules “cost” Americans $1.9 trillion a year, it’s worth remembering that the number under his brother’s administration was $1.75 trillion -- and that the oft-questioned estimate he relies on doesn’t even attempt to take into account any of the benefits of regulation. The Office of Management and Budget’s latest estimate of the net benefit of regulations passed during the Obama Administration is $200 billion.
benton.org/headlines/whats-jeb-bush-got-against-net-neutrality-anyway | Quartz
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PRIVACY

IAPP-EY ANNUAL PRIVACY GOVERNANCE REPORT 2015
[SOURCE: International Association of Privacy Professionals, AUTHOR: Press release]
The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and EY endeavored to survey a broad spectrum of organizations across the globe to document the stage of privacy governance. They found that privacy professionals earn well, are trained in law, business and technology, influence a broad swath of departments across their organizations and are increasingly part of strategic management teams. At the same time, privacy programs clamor for additional resources and seek more sophisticated and efficient technological tools to monitor, manage and protect data flows in their organizations.The data, via nearly 800 completed surveys, reveal several important trends, including that government programs report low budgets and staff shortages and a focus on compliance and prevention of data loss. Government privacy officers regularly deploy privacy impact assessments and interact with records management departments.
benton.org/headlines/international-association-privacy-professionals-ey-annual-privacy-governance-report-2015 | International Association of Privacy Professionals | IAPP-EY Report
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ADVERTISING

THE REAL BATTLE OVER AD-BLOCKING IS BETWEEN BIG TECH AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA
[SOURCE: Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Dan Kennedy]
[Commentary] The stakes in the raging battle over ad-blocking software are high -- but they're not quite what you might think. Essentially, it comes down to this: publishers that rely on web advertising are helping to drive revenue to Apple's archenemy, Google, which controls much of the infrastructure for online ads. Block those ads and those publishers are more likely to run into the warm embrace of Apple, whose new Apple News platform provides a nice, safe, closed environment with ads that can't be blocked. And Apple gets a 30 percent cut. So why not come up with a different kind of blocker -- a piece of software that informs you when you're about to access a website that fails to follow some agreed-upon list of best practices regarding privacy and user experience? Such an arrangement may be the best way to preserve independent media on the open web. Users would be able to protect themselves from abusive adware without freeloading. And web publishers who see their traffic drop might decide it's time to change their ways.
[Dan Kennedy is an associate professor in the School of Journalism at Northeastern University]
benton.org/headlines/real-battle-over-ad-blocking-between-big-tech-and-independent-media | Huffington Post
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

UN REPORT: URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO COMBAT ONLINE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN & GIRLS
[SOURCE: International Telecommunication Union, AUTHOR: Press release]
A new report released by the United Nations Broadband Commission reveals that almost three quarters of women online have been exposed to some form of cyber violence, and urges governments and industry to work harder and more effectively together to better protect the growing number of women and girls who are victims of online threats and harassment. The report notes that despite the rapidly growing number of women experiencing online violence, only 26 percent of law enforcement agencies in the 86 countries surveyed are taking appropriate action. Entitled ‘Combatting Online Violence Against Women & Girls: A Worldwide Wake-Up Call’, the report was released at an event at United Nations Headquarters in New York by the Commission’s Working Group on Gender, which is co-Chaired by UNDP Administrator, Helen Clark, and UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Without concerted global action to curb the various escalating forms of online violence, an unprecedented surge of ‘cyber violence against women and girls (cyber VAWG)’ could run rampant and significantly impede the uptake of broadband by women everywhere, the report contends. It notes that cyber VAWG already exists in many forms, including online harassment, public shaming, the desire to inflict physical harm, sexual assaults, murders and induced suicides.
benton.org/headlines/un-report-urgent-action-needed-combat-online-violence-against-women-girls | International Telecommunication Union | Washington Post
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INTERNET.ORG BACKLASH
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Newley Purnell, Resty Woro Yuniar]
Facebook has encountered unexpected criticism to its bold initiative to bring free Internet access to the world’s four billion people who don’t have it, and to increase connectivity among those with limited access. Former users say Internet.org is providing truncated access to websites, thwarting the principles of network neutrality—the view that Internet providers shouldn’t be able to dictate consumer access to websites. While some applaud the Internet initiative, Facebook is dealing with a backlash from users in some of its fastest-growing markets like Indonesia and India, which are key to its future expansion. The criticism about the initiative has placed Facebook in an awkward position. The social network along with other tech companies like Amazon and Twitter are members of the US industry group Internet Association, which advocates for net neutrality, among other issues. In markets like Indonesia and India, critics say Facebook is more interested in controlling which websites users can tap into than in ensuring free Internet access.
benton.org/headlines/facebooks-free-internet-access-program-developing-countries-provokes-backlash | Wall Street Journal
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September 2015

What the FCC can learn from the Volkswagen scandal

Weekly Digest

Robbie's Round-Up (September 21-25, 2015)

September 25, 2015 (Digital Learning Equity Act)

Postal Service Failed to Protect Personal Data in Mail Surveillance, Report Says

Facebook’s Free Internet Access Program in Developing Countries Provokes Backlash

Breaking Down The Millennial Generation: A typology of young news consumers

Why 'homework gap' may pave way for universal Internet access in schools

Republican ‘Super PACs’ Turn to TV Ads for High-Stakes Primaries

Hillary Clinton Email Inquiry Weighs if Aides Erred at ‘Send’

FCC Commissioner O'Rielly Drafts a Pirate Radio Policy and Enforcement Statement