March 2016

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2016
Today's Event: From the Telegraph to the Smartphone, ITIF discussion: https://www.benton.org/node/235099
The Lifeline from Digital Desert to Digital Opportunity - Benton Foundation
Mother Mary Angelica, Who Founded Catholic TV Network, Dies at 92

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   Justice Department to withdraw legal action against Apple
   Encryption Is a Luxury
   Trump: US is 'obsolete' in cybersecurity [links to Benton summary]
   American Tech Giants Face Fight in Europe Over Encrypted Data [links to Benton summary]
   Black caucus treads carefully into Apple-FBI fight [links to Benton summary]
   Congress may block state laws mandating access to encrypted devices [links to Benton summary]
   Op-Ed: Safe Harbor: Activists conflate privacy and cybersecurity [links to American Enterprise Institute]

SURVEILLANCE
   Mass surveillance silences minority opinions, according to study

NET NEUTRALITY
   Zero-Rating Harms Poor People, Public Interest Groups Tell FCC
   Netflix Throttling: What (If Anything) Will the FCC Do? - telecompetitor analysis
   Netflix, you got some splainin' to do [links to CNET]

OWNERSHIP
   Byron Allen Asks FCC to Vet Comcast-NBCU Condition
   Why Charter Succeeded With FCC Where Comcast Failed - Broadcasting & Cable op-ed
   Japan's NTT Data to acquire Dell's IT unit for $3.1 billion [links to USAToday]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Google: FCC's Vacant Channel Proposal Has Minimal Effect
   Commissioner Pai Announces Agenda for April 6 Field Hearing on Contraband Cellphones - press release [links to Benton summary]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   FCC Bashing on Multiple Fronts [links to Benton summary]
   Experts: Broadband Key to Boosting Higher Ed Access for Poor [links to Benton summary]
   Rural Healthcare's Broadband Gap Widens - [links to Benton summary]
   It's still a mistake to rent a cable modem [links to USAToday]
   Google Fiber Pushes Ahead in Salt Lake City (UT) [links to Multichannel News]

LIFELINE
   FCC faces pressure on Lifeline [links to Benton summary]
   Experts: Broadband Key to Boosting Higher Ed Access for Poor [links to Benton summary]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   The state has lost control: tech firms now run western politics - The Guardian op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   Workforce Disrupted: Major Changes Ahead for Public-Sector IT Workforces [links to Government Technology]

ELECTIONS & MEDIA
   Trump: US is 'obsolete' in cybersecurity [links to Benton summary]
   Why the Media Have Been Greasing Trump’s Wheels - HuffPo op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   My Shared Shame: The Media Helped Make Trump -Nicholas Kristof, NYT[links to Benton summary

CONTENT/TELEVISION
   Mother Mary Angelica, Who Founded Catholic TV Network, Dies at 92 [links to Benton summary]
   Nielsen Shaves 2.5% Off Cable Networks, Erosion Appears To Be Accelerating [links to MediaPost]
   Nielsen Data Point to Cord Shaving [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   Reports say binge-viewing creates depression in viewers [links to Multichannel News]
   Netflix is coming for your kids [links to Washington Post]

JOURNALISM
   Rieder: An evangelist for newspapers [links to USAToday]
   Once on the verge of leaving journalism, a Montana reporter launches a nonprofit news outlet [links to Columbia Journalism Review]

HEALTH
   FTC Staff Comment: Alaska Legislature Should Consider Potential Benefits to Consumers of Expanding Access to Telehealth Services [links to Federal Trade Commission]
   Rural Healthcare's Broadband Gap Widens - [links to Benton summary]

COMPANY NEWS
   John Legere credits his 'sad' life for T-Mobile's turnaround [links to CNNMoney]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   American Tech Giants Face Fight in Europe Over Encrypted Data [links to Benton summary]

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SECURITY/PRIVACY

DOJ TO WITHDRAW LEGAL ACTION AGAINST APPLE
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Kevin Johnson, Jon Swartz]
The Justice Department is expected to withdraw from its legal action against Apple, as soon as March 28, as an outside method to bypass the locking function of a San Bernardino (CA) terrorist’s phone has proved successful, a federal law enforcement official said. The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said the method brought to the FBI earlier in March by an unidentified entity allows investigators to crack the security function without erasing contents of the iPhone used by Syed Farook, who with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the December mass shooting that left 14 dead. March 28's withdrawal would culminate six weeks of building tensions. The foes were poised to exchange legal body blows in a court room in Riverside (CA) during the week of March 21 before the Justice Department belatedly asked for — and was granted — a postponement. Since a federal magistrate in California in mid-February ordered the company to assist the FBI in gaining access to San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook's seized iPhone, the legal filings and rhetoric between the world’s most valuable technology company and one of the largest crime-fighting organizations in the world had sharpened into verbal vitriol.
benton.org/headlines/justice-department-withdraw-legal-action-against-apple | USAToday
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ENCRYPTION IS A LUXURY
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Kaveh Waddell]
In 2015, a team of technology experts warned against giving law enforcement special access to encrypted communications. They explained that this special access would “undermine and reverse” the technology industry’s efforts to bolster digital security. The landmark paper addressed a conflict between technology companies and the government that had been brewing for some time. And when Apple and the FBI faced off in court seven months later, computer experts and civil-rights groups rushed to defend Apple as it resisted a federal judge’s order to circumvent its own security features. The experts said that cooperating with law enforcement would put smartphone users at increased risk of snooping from hackers and the government.That’s certainly true for the tens of millions of iPhone users in the United States, whose devices currently protect their data with strong encryption: A concession to the government’s push for special access to encrypted data would be a tangible step backward for those users’ privacy. But for many of the remaining American smartphone users, strong data encryption was never really an option. Most Android phones don’t encrypt the data that’s stored on the device, and many come with messaging services that don’t encrypt data that’s sent back and forth between devices.
benton.org/headlines/encryption-luxury | Atlantic, The
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SURVEILLANCE

MASS SURVEILLANCE SILENCES MINORITY OPINIONS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Karen Turner]
A new study shows that knowledge of government surveillance causes people to self-censor their dissenting opinions online. The research offers a sobering look at the oft-touted "democratizing" effect of social media and Internet access that bolsters minority opinion. The study, published in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, studied the effects of subtle reminders of mass surveillance on its subjects. The majority of participants reacted by suppressing opinions that they perceived to be in the minority. This research illustrates the silencing effect of participants’ dissenting opinions in the wake of widespread knowledge of government surveillance, as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013. The “spiral of silence” is a well-researched phenomenon in which people suppress unpopular opinions to fit in and avoid social isolation. It has been looked at in the context of social media and the echo-chamber effect, in which we tailor our opinions to fit the online activity of our Facebook and Twitter friends. But this study adds a new layer by explicitly examining how government surveillance affects self-censorship.
benton.org/headlines/mass-surveillance-silences-minority-opinions-according-study | Washington Post | Read the Study
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NET NEUTRALITY

ZERO-RATING HARMS POOR PEOPLE, PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS TELL FCC
[SOURCE: Vice, AUTHOR: Sam Gustin]\
The nation’s largest Internet service providers are undermining US open Internet rules, threatening free speech, and disproportionately harming poor people by using a controversial industry practice called “zero-rating,” a coalition of public interest groups wrote in a letter to federal regulators on March 28. Companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T use zero-rating, which refers to a variety of practices that exempt certain services from monthly data caps, to undercut “the spirit and the text” of federal rules designed to protect network neutrality, the groups wrote. The letter, which was signed by the Center for Media Justice, the Open Technology Institute, Free Press, and dozens of other groups, increases the pressure on the Federal Communications Commission to address zero-rating, which has become the latest battlefront in the decade-long war between policymakers, industry giants, and consumer advocates over how best to ensure Internet openness. Zero-rated plans “distort competition, thwart innovation, threaten free speech, and restrict consumer choice—all harms the rules were meant to prevent,” the groups wrote. “These harms tend to fall disproportionately on low ­income communities and communities of color, who tend to rely on mobile networks as their primary or exclusive means of access to the Internet.” The groups point the finger at several industry giants, including AT&T, which offers a "sponsored data plan” that allows wireless customers to access certain services that don’t count against monthly data limits; T-Mobile and its "Binge On" plan, which exempts some video services from data caps, while counting others against the monthly limits; and Comcast, which exempts its "Stream TV" service from monthly data caps, while counting rival services against the limit.
benton.org/headlines/zero-rating-harms-poor-people-public-interest-groups-tell-fcc | Vice | Broadcasting & Cable | Read the Letter
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NETFLIX THROTTLING
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
Just when disputes between broadband providers and content providers about content delivery and network neutrality seemed to be over, along came the revelation about Netflix throttling of traffic to wireless customers of AT&T and Verizon. The big question now is how the Federal Communications Commission is likely to respond, or whether it will respond at all, to the Netflix throttling revelations. When the commission imposed net neutrality guidelines early in 2015, it noted that the guidelines applied only to broadband providers – and some stakeholders argue that the commission simply may not have the authority to impose similar guidelines on content providers such as Netflix, which are sometimes known as “edge providers.” Where Netflix may be on shakier ground, however, is with regard to transparency and disclosure requirements. Reportedly, neither AT&T nor Verizon nor customers of either company were advised that Netflix was using a lower data rate for AT&T and Verizon customers. The NetCompetition e-forum author argued that Netflix could be in violation of FTC fair business rules by secretly throttling users’ streaming rates. If nothing else, the FCC may need to rethink how it investigates net neutrality complaints. “Until now, the expectation was if there was traffic throttling detected on the network, it was presumed to be the work of an ISP,” notes NetCompetition. “Now the FCC knows that is not necessarily true. “Now when an edge platform seeks to accuse an ISP of a net neutrality violation, the FCC’s investigation should responsibly cast a wider net than before we learned of Netflix’ duplicity, and investigate if an edge provider has been throttling or blocking the Internet traffic in question.”
benton.org/headlines/netflix-throttling-what-if-anything-will-fcc-do | telecompetitor
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OWNERSHIP

BYRON ALLEN ASKS FCC TO VET COMCAST-NBCU CONDITION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios, Inc. (ESI) and The National Association of African American-Owned Media (NAAAOM) took the latest shot in its ongoing battle with Comcast over carriage of minority-owned and targeted networks. That came in the form of a petition to the Federal Communications Commission asking it to investigate what they called Comcast's "failed" promise, codified in a condition of the merger with NBC Universal, to add majority-controlled African American-owned media networks. They want the FCC to do a critical and detailed investigation into Comcast's claims of compliance, suggesting the conclusion will be that Comcast had not and that it will impose "penalties commensurate with the seriousness of its misconduct." The petition takes aim at the nets Comcast has added, saying the company has not supplied sufficient information to determine whether they are indeed majority owned and controlled, and suggesting they are not. ESI also claims Comcast never negotiated in good faith for its content. The two networks Comcast added per the initial part of its condition were Aspire and Revolt. ESI was passed over, but the petition says that move was inexplicable, saying that while ESI meets the criteria for an independent, minority-owned net, the other two do not. The main point they are trying to make is that white-owned network programming contracts need to be publicly reviewed. They say that while Comcast is spending $10 billion per year on licensing cable nets, Magic Johnson's Aspire does not receive licensing fees from Comcast, which ESI says is discriminatory. It also takes aim at what it says is the FCC's failure to enforce the memorandum of understanding (MOU) requiring addition of the networks and says Commission Mignon Clyburn should be "leading the charge" on that oversight, given that she had said when the merger was approved that she would be “watching closely with my large megaphone in my hand.”
benton.org/headlines/byron-allen-asks-fcc-vet-comcast-nbcu-condition | Broadcasting&Cable | TVNewsCheck
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WHY CHARTER SUCCEEDED WITH FCC WHERE COMCAST FAILED
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Adonis Hoffman]
[Commentary] Abandon all hope ye who enter here" is written above the gates of hell in Dante's Inferno. And for many broadcasters, multichannel video programming distributors, and telecommunication companies, it might as well be inscribed above the Federal Communications Commission's Portals. In The Divine Comedy, there are nine circles of suffering for unrepentant souls—limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. Here in Washington, there are just as many layers of suffering. For any company seeking regulatory redemption, merger review can be a painful and protracted purge. Just ask Comcast. The FCC has all but approved Charter Communications' $56 billion merger with Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Brighthouse Systems, which will make it the nation's second largest cable company behind Comcast. This is no small feat. We all remember that it was Charter's initial bid to buy TWC in 2014 that spawned Comcast's move on TWC for $45 billion. That deal failed when Comcast abandoned the effort in the face of well-organized opposition. Thus, Charter should be applauded for its adroit ambulation through the Portals to close a very big deal. So why did it succeed? There are a few reasons, but none more telling than that it was willing and able to make a deal with the devil. In other words, Charter did anything and everything necessary to keep its merger intact, including co-opting critics, kowtowing to threats, and making promises that will be hard to keep. But then again, facing a $2 billion breakup penalty can bring urgency and creativity to even the stodgiest companies.
[Adonis Hoffman is Chairman of Business in the Public Interest and adjunct professor in Communication, Culture & Technology at Georgetown University]
benton.org/headlines/why-charter-succeeded-fcc-where-comcast-failed | Broadcasting&Cable
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

GOOGLE: FCC'S VACANT CHANNEL PROPOSAL HAS MINIMAL EFFECT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission's vacant-channel proceeding will have minimal impact on Low Power Television (LPTV) and translators in the post incentive auction repack while it advances the FCC's goal of expanding wireless broadband. That is according to Austin Schlick, director, communications law, for Google and former FCC general counsel in a filing at the FCC March 25. The FCC has yet to finalize a proposal to reserve for unlicensed use at least one channel in every market where there is a channel vacant. Schlick says the proposal, which Google strongly backs, would "advance broadband deployment, support innovation, and spur economic growth." Google says it ran 75,000 simulations in five test markets and that, for the typical viewer, in the "vast majority of scenarios," no station will be affected, period, and only a small effect where it has any. Google says four of the five markets were chosen for their "worst case" impacts of large numbers of LPTVs and translators. The National Association of Broadcasters has argued that reserving spectrum for unlicensed prioritizes that use over the licensed LPTVs and translators not protected in the auction repack will have adverse impacts on stations and viewers and will not allow that spectrum to be used for innovative new broadcast services or stations. It argues that the harms are "real and concrete" and the benefits "speculative." Google says NAB's predictions of adverse effects are incorrect.
benton.org/headlines/google-fccs-vacant-channel-proposal-has-minimal-effect | Broadcasting&Cable
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