February 2016

INTERNET/BROADBAND

FCC CHAIRMAN WHEELER ON DIGITAL EQUITY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
The title of this morning’s Sesame Workshop report gets it exactly right: “Opportunity for All.” It reminds us that the struggle for digital equity is part of the struggle to uphold our most fundamental American values. We can do better. We must do better. One way we will do better is by retooling the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline program. A modernized Lifeline allows participants the opportunity to move to the other side of the digital divide, eventually erasing the line between Internet haves and have-nots. So the first principle of Lifeline reform is allowing the program to support both fixed and mobile broadband service. Promoting adoption of broadband goes hand-in-hand with efforts to ensure access. The ConnectHome initiative is the laudable result. Moving forward, when we talk about digital equity, we need to remember that we’re talking a key part of the answer to many of our nation’s greatest challenges – issues like income inequality, job creation, economic growth, US competitiveness. The stakes couldn’t be much higher. That’s why the FCC won’t let our foot off the gas in our efforts to promote opportunity and prosperity through communications technology. And that’s why we all need to continue working together to expand the benefits of broadband to all Americans.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-wheeler-digital-equity | Federal Communications Commission
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

DATA CAPS AND VULNERABLE POPULATIONS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kathleen Watson]
[Commentary] Today, most Internet service providers (ISPs) have implemented some form of a data cap. These caps limit the amount of access a consumer has to data before they are charged surplus fees or cut off from the network. Although there is little clarity as to why such caps are necessary, their unintended consequences could be disastrous for vulnerable populations. There are many well-documented economic and competitive concerns about data caps. Caps are not popular with consumers, nor are they an effective means of managing network congestion. In fact, when one Comcast engineer was asked why the company’s caps had been set at current levels he responded that he had “no idea,” as he was involved only in the technological aspects of the company, not “business policy.” This open admission that there is no technological necessity for data caps goes to show that ISPs’ decisions to implement caps is primarily driven by profit.
[Katie Watson is a Policy Analysis Intern at the Benton Foundation, and a senior at the University of Virginia. She will be graduating this spring with dual degrees in Media Studies and Foreign Affairs with concentrations in Media, Policy, and Ethics and Asian Studies.]
https://www.benton.org/blog/data-caps-and-vulnerable-populations
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

T-MOBILE TO FCC: 'TREAD LIGHTLY'
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
T-Mobile is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to "tread lightly" as the agency looks into a series of video offerings that have raised network neutrality concerns among advocates. The mobile carrier has been at the center of the debate recently with its new Binge On video program, which exempts certain video from customers' monthly data caps but also reduces the download speeds of all video. "The commission has to tread lightly," said Kathleen Ham, who head's T-Mobile's government affairs. "And certainly more lightly than for the wired world in the wireless space — when there is so much experimentation happening, so much differentiation happening. And a lot of it customers responding to. We do have to be transparent about it. We have to make sure the customer has choices, but I think it is wise to tread lightly in this environment when there is so much going on." During an event hosted by the Open Technology Institute, Ham said conversations were ongoing with the commission. The FCC has sent letters and been meeting with multiple mobile carriers to try and understand similar programs that exempt certain Internet traffic from data caps — a business model known as zero-rating.
benton.org/headlines/t-mobile-fcc-tread-lightly | Hill, The
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

THE FCC BROADBAND REPORT YOU DIDN’T HEAR ABOUT
[SOURCE: National Cable and Telecommunications Association, AUTHOR: Steve Morris]
If you follow broadband policy, you probably know that the Federal Communications Commission recently released its annual Broadband Progress Report (often referred to as the Section 706 Report) in which it concludes (erroneously) that broadband is not being deployed in a reasonable and timely manner. But did you hear about the other broadband report issued by the FCC during the week of Jan 25, the one demonstrating how deployment and performance of broadband in the United States is far outpacing European broadband? Didn’t think so. Given all the negative commentary from the FCC majority on the state of deployment in the US, you could be forgiven for thinking that the US would not fare well in the international comparison. But in fact the FCC’s international report demonstrates that American broadband performance is well ahead of our friends in Europe. Based on the comparison to European broadband, the FCC’s conclusion that deployment in the US is not reasonable and timely is hard to fathom. It does not seem too much to ask that the FCC take its own factual findings seriously rather than continuing to perpetuate the fiction that American broadband is languishing.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-broadband-report-you-didnt-hear-about | National Cable and Telecommunications Association
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

"AT&T IS THE VILLAIN"
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
A Republican state senator in Tennessee is fed up with AT&T and other private Internet service providers that are trying to stop the spread of municipal broadband. "We're talking about AT&T," TN State Sen Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) said at a rally of business owners, residents, and local officials in the state Capitol. "They're the most powerful lobbying organization in this state by far... Don't fall for the argument that this is a free market versus government battle. It is not. AT&T is the villain here, and so are the other people and cable." The battle over municipal broadband in Chattanooga (TN) and surrounding towns is among the most prominent nationwide. Tennessee state law has prevented the Chattanooga electric utility—which also provides broadband—from expanding to adjacent communities that lack fast, cheap Internet access. Chattanooga petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to preempt that state law, and the FCC granted the request, using its authority to promote competition in local markets by removing barriers to infrastructure investment.
benton.org/headlines/att-villain-city-broadband-fight-says-tn-state-sen | Ars Technica
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

CONTENT

FACEBOOK CENSORSHIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
[SOURCE: CNN Money, AUTHOR: Sara O'Brien]
Drone strikes and labia surgery. On the surface, they don't appear to have much in common. But when people tried to post stories about these topics on Facebook, they were blocked. "The content you're trying to share includes a link that our security systems detected to be unsafe," read one notification. What gives? That's what nonprofit OnlineCensorship.org is trying to understand. "We decided that in order to bring more transparency, we'd need to collect the data ourselves," said Jillian York, cofounder of OnlineCensorship.org. The site, which launched in its current form in November, aims to be a platform for reporting censorship on social media. People can submit screenshots of posts that they feel have been "erroneously or unjustly" removed from six of the most popular social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+ and Flickr. As part of the submission -- which can be done anonymously -- users answer questions about their age and why they think the content was censored. Since November, there have been more than 200 submissions. Facebook, for example, prohibits nudity, hate speech or graphic images that glorify violence. It has also banned the private sale of guns and drugs. But a post about bullfighting? The company banned it -- then backpedaled. It also banned a post from a woman in Turkey critiquing Charlie Hebdo.
benton.org/headlines/facebook-censorship-under-microscope | CNN Money
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

DIVERSITY

APPLE INVESTOR PRESSES FOR DIVERSITY AMONG SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND DIRECTORS
[SOURCE: Open MIC, AUTHOR: Press release]
Apple investors are being asked to approve a shareholder proposal which would require the company to adopt an “accelerated recruitment policy” to increase racial and ethnic diversity among senior executives and its board. The proposal will be presented and voted on at Apple’s annual meeting in Cupertino (CA) on Feb 26. It cites Apple’s “diminutive level of diversity and its painstakingly slow implementation” of initiatives aimed at correcting the diversity problem at senior levels. According to data filed by Apple with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2015, of the company’s 103 executive and senior management positions, 3.9% were Black, 1% Hispanic/Latino, 11.7% Asian and 83.5% White. Six of the eight Apple directors are white. The shareholder proposal was filed by individual investor Tony Maldonado, London-based Executive Creative Director of IGRP | Insignia Entertainment, who says he decided to become personally involved with the diversity issue after talking with his teenage son about potential career paths for aspiring executives in the tech industry. Maldonado’s son noted the lack of top-level diversity at Apple.
benton.org/headlines/apple-investor-presses-diversity-among-senior-management-and-directors | Open MIC
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

ELECTION 2016

2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Gottfried, Michael Barthel, Elisa Shearer, Amy Mitchell]
News and information about the contentious 2016 presidential election is permeating the American public, according to a new survey of 3,760 U.S. adults by Pew Research Center. About nine-in-ten U.S. adults (91%) learned about the election in the past week from at least one of 11 types of sources asked about, ranging from television to digital to radio to print. This is true even among younger Americans, as 83% of 18- to 29-year-olds report learning about the presidential election from at least one stream of information, according to the survey conducted Jan. 18-27, 2016, using Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel. This high level of learning about the 2016 presidential candidates and campaigns is consistent with recent research that has shown strong interest in this election, even more so than at the same point in the previous two presidential elections. Americans are divided, though, in the type of sources they find most helpful for that news and information.
benton.org/headlines/2016-presidential-campaign-news-event-thats-hard-miss | Pew Research Center
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

SANDERS GETTING MORE COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Max Ehrenfreund]
Early in the presidential campaign, television news outlets largely ignored Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT), instead focusing on his rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton. His supporters saw this disparate treatment as just more evidence of systematic bias in the media -- especially when compared with the attention broadcast and cable anchors have lavished on Republican Donald Trump. Since the beginning of the year, however, Sen Sanders and Clinton have received nearly equal time on television, although Clinton still retains a slight advantage. The media's attention to Sen Sanders came suddenly, after months in which Sanders's poll numbers had been gradually improving. The polling and the attention from the media feed into each other. Political scientists argue that attention from the media is one of the most important factors driving candidates' poll numbers. At the same time, if Sanders's numbers keep improving the Democratic race will get more interesting. The contest has long been considered a lock for Clinton, but viewers might pay more attention to it if the outcome is in doubt. In that case, stations would cover the race more closely.
benton.org/headlines/sen-sanders-getting-more-time-tv-news | Washington Post
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

Benton

Search

Benton

Daily Digest

Analysis

February 2016

Technology in Education: An Overview

I don’t care how you do it. Someone has to fix the cable box.

Megyn Kelly of Fox News Signs Book Deal

Fox News’s Megyn Kelly: Words like ‘bimbo’ empower Internet misogynists

Weekly Digest

Updates on Broadband Subsidies, and a New Safe Harbor Deal

February 5, 2016 (Digital Equity)

Data Caps and Vulnerable Populations

The 2016 Presidential Campaign – a News Event That’s Hard to Miss

Sen Sanders is getting more time on TV news

Classified Data Found in Personal Email of Colin Powell and Aides to Condoleezza Rice