BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016
Today's Events:
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Justice Department Seeks to Force Apple to Extract Data From About 12 Other iPhones
Apple-FBI Fight Asks: Is Code Protected as Free Speech?
Phone companies silent on Apple debate over privacy and security
Rep Ted Lieu asks the FBI to drop its legal attack on Apple [links to GovernemntHealthIT]
Apple's case for encryption [links to USAToday]
Encryption's tight grip on tech devices [links to Los Angeles Times]
Undermining Encryption Could Break The Economy [links to Internet Infrastructure Coalition]
Apple’s Evolution Into a Privacy Hard-Liner [links to Wall Street Journal]
Why The FBI Chose To Try The Apple Encryption Case In The Media [links to Benton summary]
Protests in 50 cities at Apple Stores & FBI [links to Benton summary]
See if You Can Decipher Bill Gates’s Take on Apple-FBI Standoff [links to Revere Digital]
The real reason half of America supports the FBI over Apple - analysis [links to Benton summary]
Poll Finds Encryption Isn’t Widely Used [links to Morning Consult]
Facebook Is Making a Map of Everyone in the World [links to Benton summary]
Research Finds Half of Used Smartphones Have Personal Data [links to telecompetitor]
SURVEILLANCE
Google, Facebook Considering Brazil's Spy-Proof Link to Europe
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Internet for all now - The Hill op-ed
Huntsville’s Model for Google Fiber Is the Future of Broadband
Tech bills head toward markups [links to Benton summary]
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is Paying Off - White House press release [links to Benton summary]
USDA Investments in Rural Opportunity - press release [links to Benton summary]
Broadband Key to Smart Cities - Commerce Dept press release [links to Benton summary]
Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas to Showcase AT&T Smart Cities Framework [links to telecompetitor]
Net Neutrality vs. Net Reality - Holman Jenkins Jr op-ed [links to Benton summary]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
LPTV Threatens to Sue to Block Spectrum Auction
Does the FCC Want to Postpone the Incentive Auction? - CommLawBlog [links to Benton summary]
Remarks of FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel at the Mobile World Congress - speech [links to Benton summary]
Researchers create super-efficient Wi-Fi [links to Ars Technica]
ASUS case suggests 6 things to watch for in the Internet of Things - press release [links to Benton summary]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Op-ed: It's About Human Rights: Social Media Platforms Must Safeguard Citizen-Generated Content [links to Huffington Post]
Why States Have to Learn From Digital Disruptors - HuffPo op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Report Suggest Divide Between Government and Customers It Serves [links to nextgov]
U.S. to Further Scour Social Media Use of Visa and Asylum Seekers [links to New York Times]
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Tracking the money in the election battleground [links to Center for Public Integrity]
As News Media Changes, Bernie Sanders’s Critique Remains Constant [links to Benton summary]
ADVERTISING
Rep DeLauro introduces Responsibility in Drug Advertising Act [links to AdAge]
New York Times Might Ban Users Who Use Ad-Blockers. 'This Stuff is Not Made for Free' [links to AdWeek]
Data Drives Political Advertisers to Buy More Cable TV Than Ever [links to AdAge]
More Advertisers Using TV Data for Digital Video [links to Benton summary]
Google And Yahoo's Feud With Ad-Blocking Company Goes "Nuclear" [links to Fast Company]
BROADCASTING
Remarks of FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly Before the National Association of Broadcasters' State Leadership Conference - speech [links to Benton summary]
TELECOM
The Road to Nowhere: Regulatory Implications of the FCC's Special Access Data Request - analysis [links to Benton summary]
C'Mon FCC, Take Your Thumb off the Scale - AT&T [links to Benton summary]
Verizon faces probe of falling poles, sagging cables, and infested cabinets [links to Benton summary]
CHILDREN & MEDIA
Silicon Valley's economic divide starts in preschool [links to American Public Media]
JOURNALISM
New York Times Might Ban Users Who Use Ad-Blockers. 'This Stuff is Not Made for Free' [links to AdWeek]
New York Times hires three David Carr fellows [links to Washington Post]
DIVERSITY
One statistic that sums up Hollywood’s diversity problem [links to Vox]
FCC REFORM
Neutrality is a great idea. The FCC should try it. - AEI op-ed [links to Benton summary]
COMPANY NEWS
How Leslie Moonves continues to guide CBS to the top of the TV industry [links to Los Angeles Times]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Broad support for Internet freedom around the world
Google, Facebook Considering Brazil's Spy-Proof Link to Europe
Privacy International: European companies sold powerful surveillance technology to Egypt [links to Verge, The]
European Tech Scene Begins to Feel Silicon Valley’s Woes [links to New York Times]
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SECURITY/PRIVACY
JUSTICE DEPT SEEKS TO FORCE APPLE TO EXTRACT DATA FROM ABOUT 12 OTHER IPHONES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Devlin Barrett]
The Justice Department is pursuing court orders to make Apple help investigators extract data from iPhones in about a dozen undisclosed cases around the country, in disputes similar to the current battle over a terrorist’s locked phone, according to a newly-unsealed court document. The other phones are evidence in cases where prosecutors have sought, as in the San Bernardino (CA) terror case, to use an 18th-century law called the All Writs Act to compel the company to help them bypass the passcode security feature of phones that may hold evidence, according to a letter from Apple which was unsealed in Brooklyn federal court Feb 23. The letter, written from an Apple lawyer to a federal judge, lists the locations of those phone cases: Four in Illinois, three in New York, two in California, two in Ohio, and one in Massachusetts. The letter doesn't describe the specific types of criminal investigations related to those phones, but people familiar with them said they don't involve terrorism cases.
benton.org/headlines/justice-department-seeks-force-apple-extract-data-about-12-other-iphones | Wall Street Journal
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CODE AS SPEECH
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Adam Satariano]
Is software merely a set of instructions, telling a computer what to do? Or is it a unique, creative work that expresses a point of view and is protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution? The answers to these questions get to a key part of the legal fight between Apple and the US government. Apple is expected to argue in federal court that code should be protected as speech. The company is fighting a government order requiring it to write software to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple views that as a violation of its philosophy. Just as the government can’t make a journalist write a story on its behalf, according to this view, it can’t force Apple to write an operating system with weaker security. “That’s a fundamental First Amendment problem because it can’t compel speech,” said David Rivkin, a constitutional litigator at BakerHostetler.
benton.org/headlines/apple-fbi-fight-asks-code-protected-free-speech | Bloomberg
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PHONE COMPANIES SILENT ON APPLE DEBATE OVER PRIVACY AND SECURITY
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Marco della Cava, Mike Snider]
Apple's stand-off with the government over hacking into an iPhone used by a San Bernardino (CA) shooter has everyone from tech titans to average citizens taking sides. Just not the nation's cellular carriers. AT&T, T-Mobile and others are expressing their position on the unfolding privacy drama in carefully neutral statements — if at all. AT&T has released a statement asking for "legal clarity," noting that many existing telecommunications laws were crafted in a pre-cell phone era. The company's concluding comment seems, if broadly, to cast its lot with one arm of the government: "In a democracy, it is the elected representatives of the people, in this case the Congress, who should decide the proper balance between public safety and personal privacy.” Normally outspoken T-Mobile CEO John Legere took a diplomatic stance during an interview, acknowledging that Apple CEO Tim Cook was "in a really, really difficult spot. I mean obviously what we have got is an unheralded situation where he’s being requested to help authorities deal with the security of the device...We will see where it goes. I wouldn’t know how to advise him. But I understand both sides of the issue. I think it’s groundbreaking." Sprint and Verizon have not released statements on the debacle, and did not respond to requests for comment. The tone is a significant contrast with the big consumer tech companies and their top execs, several of whom have clearly and loudly thrown their support behind Apple.
benton.org/headlines/phone-companies-silent-apple-debate-over-privacy-and-security | USAToday
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SURVEILLANCE
GOOGLE, FACEBOOK CONSIDERING BRAZIL'S SPY-PROOF LINK TO EUROPE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Rodrigo Orihuela]
Google and Facebook are among companies interested in using a $250 million submarine cable that will link Brazil directly to Europe as part of the South American country’s attempts to avoid US electronic espionage, according to Brazilian Communications Minister Andre Figueiredo. The cable is expected to be operational in late 2017 and “should be funded by the commercialization of its traffic," Figueiredo said. State-owned Telecomunicacoes Brasileiras SA, known as Telebras, “is already marketing the cable to the European Union and companies such as Google and Facebook, which have shown interest in it." Brazil announced the construction of the link in 2015 as part of its push to increase phone and Internet security in the aftermath of the 2013 revelations that the US National Security Agency had monitored President Dilma Rousseff’s communications.
benton.org/headlines/google-facebook-considering-brazils-spy-proof-link-europe | Bloomberg
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
INTERNET FOR ALL NOW
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sunne Wright McPeak]
[Commentary] Rarely is there a moment in time when just five people hold in their hands the destiny of millions, but such is the case for the Federal Communications Commission. In the next few weeks, the five commissioners will decide on a Broadband Lifeline Program and the corporate consolidation application by Charter Communications to acquire Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Hanging in the balance is whether or not more than one fifth of America’s poorest and most disadvantaged populations will be able to get online and participate in the digital economy. Will the FCC take bold steps to make the Internet affordable for low-income Americans? If the administration wants to get everyone online, the FCC must encourage broadband companies to partner with community organizations, schools and libraries to accelerate broadband adoption through outreach, digital literacy training, acquisition of affordable computing devices and assistance with signing up for service. While federal law may restrict subsidies to the Internet service companies themselves and not allow direct payment for outreach and digital literacy, the program can be designed to foster and reward sincere company-community partnerships, which will be even more financially feasible if most customers pay something for Lifeline. The $67 million Charter-TWC-BHN corporate consolidation is the last opportunity in this administration for a company to step up with tangible public benefits in a mega merger. New Charter will be the second-largest Internet provider in the nation with 19 million subscribers in 40 states. The FCC needs to send a clear message and strong signal that only the five commissioners can do: Internet for all now.
[McPeak is the president and CEO of the California Emerging Technology Fund and former secretary of the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency.]
benton.org/headlines/internet-all-now | Hill, The
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HUNTSVILLE'S MODEL FOR GOOGLE FIBER IS THE FUTURE OF BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Vice, AUTHOR: Kari Paul]
The city of Huntsville (AL) wanted a company to provide it gigabit fiber Internet so badly, it went and built most of the physical infrastructure for the high-speed network itself. Feb 22, that effort was rewarded when Google announced that Huntsville would become the next Google Fiber city. In nearly every city offering Google Fiber thus far (with the exception of Provo (UT)), Google has built the fiber network from scratch and has been the sole provider. But in Huntsville, a city of 180,000 with a high concentration of tech companies, Google will be just another customer utilizing the fiber infrastructure for high-speed internet that the city announced in 2014. Most cities with existing fiber infrastructure have agreements with major telecommunication businesses that prohibit the city from using it to wire homes, giving existing telecom companies the chance to create local monopolies. Cities usually agree to this because telecom companies will agree to provide free or cheap connections to municipal offices in exchange for exclusivity. Huntsville’s agreement is a signal that this model might be beginning to change. “This is the first time Google has done it, and it’s a pretty big precedent for this approach,” said Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “It’s certainly the largest city we’ve seen something like this.”
benton.org/headlines/huntsvilles-model-google-fiber-future-broadband | Vice
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
LPTV THREATENS TO SUE TO BLOCK SPECTRUM AUCTION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Low Power Television (LPTV) operator Latina Broadcasters of Daytona Beach has asked the Federal Communications Commission to either stay its Feb 12 decision not to let the broadcaster participate in the incentive auction, or alternately delay the incentive auction, scheduled to launch March 29. It has given the FCC until Feb 24 to make a decision, after which it says it will go to court to try and get reinstated or block the auction. Latina was eligible to upgrade to Class A status (which would have made eligible for a potential multimillion dollar payout or channel protection in the repack if it did not win), but missed the deadline for upgrading according to the FCC, which declined its request that it be allowed to participate--the FCC had made an exception in at least one other case, but the commission said that was based on a a different set of facts. In an emergency motion for a stay filed Feb. 22 with the FCC, Latina said the FCC was wrong to exclude it; that it would suffer irreparable harm without a stay; and that the FCC had discriminated against it by excluding its WDYB but making an exception for another station. Latina said that given the short period between the FCC's Feb. 12 order denying its participation and the start of the auction, it would consider the petition denied if the FCC did not take any action by Feb. 24 and would then go to court to try and get into the auction. The broadcaster said the FCC had indicated WDYB was eligible for the auction up until the Feb. 12 decision that it was not.
benton.org/headlines/lptv-threatens-sue-block-spectrum-auction | Multichannel News
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
BROAD SUPPORT FOR INTERNET FREEDOM AROUND THE WORLD
[SOURCE: Pew Internet and American Life Project, AUTHOR: Richard Wike]
In a relatively short period of time, the Internet has become an influential arena for public debates about political and social issues. And around the world, many consider free expression in cyberspace to be a fundamental right. Majorities in 32 of 38 countries surveyed by Pew Research Center in 2015 believe that allowing people to use the Internet without government censorship is important. And in 20 countries, at least 80% hold this view. Moreover, across the nations polled, a median of 50% say freedom on the Internet is very important. Support for Internet freedom is especially strong in Argentina (71% very important), the US, Germany and Spain (each 69%), and Chile (68%). In many countries, young people, those with more years of education and high-income respondents tend to place a higher value on internet freedom. Even though support for Internet freedom is common around the globe, it is not as strong as support for other fundamental aspects of democracy. Across the 38 countries in our study, larger percentages of people say religious freedom (median of 74%), gender equality (65%), honest and competitive elections (61%), free speech (56%) and media freedom (55%) are very important. However, the findings suggest that as access to the Internet continues to spread globally, demands for freedom in cyberspace may grow as well. Countries in which a large share of the public reports using the Internet also tend to have greater levels of support for Internet freedom.
benton.org/headlines/broad-support-internet-freedom-around-world | Pew Internet and American Life Project
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