BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016
View Today's Events on Our Calendar: https://www.benton.org/node/239754
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Sen Ted Cruz Takes Aim at Municipal Broadband, Cuba
Google to FCC: Privacy Pledge Unnecessary
Letter of Credit Concerns Delay FCC Rural Broadband Experiments [links to Benton summary]
CONTENT
FTC Extends Probe Into Google’s Android
SECURITY/PRIVACY
FBI Plans to Keep Apple iPhone-Hacking Method Secret
Lawmakers demand briefings on cell network security flaw [links to Benton summary]
Baltimore Judge rules in favor of “likely guilty” murder suspect found via stingray [links to Ars Technica]
Study Reveals Security Is The Biggest Barrier to Cloud Adoption [links to Government Technology]
Encryption Fight: How Many Times Can The Government Cry Wolf? [links to Benton summary]
Encryption debate proves technology is not magic [links to Brookings]
CHARTER-TWC
Reactions to Charter-Time Warner Cable Merger Approval [links to Benton summary]
The Charter-Time Warner Merger Would Create a New Internet Giant - analysis [links to Benton summary]
Time Warner Cable’s bad behavior helped Charter win merger approval - ars technica analysis [links to Benton summary]
TELEVISION
ATSC 3.0 the Focus at Annual Broadcast Television Conference [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Turner Taps Canvs to Measure Emotions of TV Audience [links to Multichannel News]
Comcast rejects accusation that it hasn't met FCC diversity guidelines [links to Benton summary]
AT&T: FCC Fighting Old Set-Top War [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
How Television Has Become the Newest New Media - AdWeek op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Op-Ed: Programmatic TV 101: The multi-billion-dollar ad tech that’s transforming television [links to Revere Digital]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act (CSEA) Annual Progress Report for 2015 - NTIA [links to Benton summary]
Lawmakers demand briefings on cell network security flaw [links to Benton summary]
T-Mobile shows that being the un-carrier doesn’t have to mean being unprofitable [links to Revere Digital]
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
A Wider Ideological Gap Between More and Less Educated Adults - Pew research [links to Benton summary]
Anger is a business - Vox op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Snapchat is fighting to legalize ballot selfies [links to Verge, The]
A Silicon Valley-led third party is not going to restore faith in government [links to Revere Digital]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Campaign Legal Center Pushes FCC for Enhanced Ad Disclosure
Google, Ford, and Uber just created a giant lobbying group for self-driving cars [links to Verge, The]
ADVERTISING
Campaign Legal Center Pushes FCC for Enhanced Ad Disclosure
Facebook and Google are winning the political ad race. Here’s Twitter’s plan to catch up. [links to Benton summary]
JOURNALISM
White House Correspondents' Association 2016 award winners [links to Politico]
Politico Will Lose Its Co-Founder and 4 Others [links to New York Times]
COMPANY NEWS
Wawa and Comcast Team Up to Deliver Free Wi-Fi at More than 700 East Coast Locations [links to Comcast]
Verizon Network Function Virtualization Plan [links to Benton summary]
EDUCATION
Top business leaders, 27 governors, urge Congress to boost computer science education [links to Benton summary]
Students as Digital Creators - CoSN report [links to Benton summary]
DIVERSITY
Comcast rejects accusation that it hasn't met FCC diversity guidelines [links to Benton summary]
Researchers explain how stereotypes keep girls out of computer science classes - WaPo op-ed [links to Benton summary]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Canada Is Considering Spying on Kids to Stop Cyberbullying [links to Vice]
Disney streaming service is reportedly halted by Chinese regulators [links to Los Angeles Times]
For Journalists In Russia, 'No One Really Knows What Is Allowed [links to NPR]
back to top
INTERNET/BROADBAND
SEN CRUZ TAKES AIM AT MUNI BROADBAND AND CUBA
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
GOP presidential candidate Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) wants Congress to block the Federal Communications Commission from preempting state laws related to government provision of Internet access services or loosening communications restrictions on Cuba. That is according to a copy of a raft of proposed amendments to a couple of FCC-related bills being marked up in the Senate Commerce Committee April 27. On the FCC Process Reform Act, Sen Cruz and Sen Deb Fischer (R-NE) are jointly proposing the amendment to rein the FCC's preemption of state laws limiting municipal broadband buildouts. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler says those laws are pushed by incumbents to prevent price and service competition. The FCC has stepped in to preempt state laws in Tennessee and North Carolina, and is currently in a court battle over that decision. Sen Cruz's amendment, "prohibits the FCC form preventing states from implementing laws relating to provision of broadband Internet access service by state and local governments." Sen Cruz is also looking to bulk up the FCC Reauthorization Act of 2016 (S 2644) with a couple of amendments targeted at Administration efforts to ease restrictions on Cuba. The first would overturn the FCC's order removing Cuba from the "exclusion list." Sen Cruz also wants to block the FCC from launching a Cuba-related rulemaking about "certain nondiscrimination requirements relating to Cuba.
benton.org/headlines/sen-ted-cruz-takes-aim-municipal-broadband-cuba | Broadcasting&Cable
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
GOOGLE TO FCC: PRIVACY PLEDGE UNNECESSARY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Google is taking issue with the Federal Communications Commission's proposal to have third parties, like Google, voluntarily adhere to cable-like customer privacy rules in exchange for getting access to cable operator set-top content. That was a quid pro quo proposed in FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's set-top box "unlocking" proposal, which Google supports. But in comments filed at the FCC, Google said: "Imposing new privacy rules specifically directed to a new generation of devices and applications is unnecessary given the comprehensive scope of the [Federal Trade Commission] Act and state privacy laws." Despite those FTC and state options, the FCC has had separate customer network proprietary information (CPNI) rules, and still does, on cable's care and handling of customer information like, say, what VOD fare they are paying for. But Google says the FTC, states and private litigants (courts) will make sure that navigation devices will "honor the commitments they make in their privacy policies." "Although limitations on the FCC's jurisdiction under Sec. 629 of the Communications Act prevent it from applying the rules that apply to 'cable operators' and 'satellite carriers' to suppliers of devices, the FCC can work closely with the FTC to ensure that consumers are protected if device providers fail to live up to their privacy obligations."
benton.org/headlines/google-fcc-privacy-pledge-unnecessary | Broadcasting&Cable
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
CONTENT
FTC EXTENDS PROBE INTO GOOGLE'S ANDROID
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jack Nicas, Brent Kendall]
Apparently, Federal Trade Commission staffers have met with companies in recent months to examine industry concerns that Alphabet’s Google abuses the dominance of its Android smartphone software, extending a probe that began in 2015. The FTC is examining issues similar to European regulators, who recently charged Google with improperly using Android’s status as the world’s most popular smartphone operating system to force device makers and wireless carriers to favor Google’s search engine and other services. Indeed, the FTC is hoping to access some of the evidence behind European regulators’ case, apparently. Google and the FTC declined to comment. The FTC began looking at Android in 2015 amid complaints from app developers and other tech firms that Google flexes its Android muscles unfairly. FTC staffers have recently met with and requested data from at least two companies, a signal the probe is progressing and the commission is gathering additional information. The investigation isn’t necessarily a sign the FTC believes Google has done anything improper. Commission investigators have reached no conclusions, and it is too early to say whether the probe could lead to legal action, apparently.
benton.org/headlines/ftc-extends-probe-googles-android | Wall Street Journal
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
SECURITY/PRIVACY
FBI PLANS TO KEEP APPLE IPHONE-HACKING METHOD SECRET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Devlin Barrett]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to tell the White House it knows so little about the hacking tool that was used to open a terrorist’s iPhone that it doesn’t make sense to launch an internal government review about whether to share the hacking method with Apple. The decision, and the technical and bureaucratic justification behind it, would likely keep Apple in the dark about whatever security gap exists on certain models of the company’s phones, apparently. At issue is a hacking tool FBI director James Comey has said cost the government more than $1 million that was used to open the locked iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook. The agency is preparing to send a formal notification to the White House in the coming days saying that while the agency bought the hacking tool from the third party, officials aren’t familiar with the underlying code that runs it, apparently. Because of that, the FBI plans to tell the White House, its agents aren’t aware of a software vulnerability that should be reported to the Vulnerabilities Equities Process panel, an interagency group that decides whether to notify software makers of security weaknesses, these people said.
benton.org/headlines/fbi-plans-keep-apple-iphone-hacking-method-secret | Wall Street Journal
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
CLC PUSHES FOR ENHANCED DISCLOSURE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Campaign Legal Center says the Federal Communications Commission is failing to do its job, and in the process failing the American people, by not launching a rulemaking to tighten disclosure requirements for TV and radio political ads. In the wake of the Citizens United decision allowing corporations and unions to fund campaign electioneering ads (for or against a candidate) the center has been pushing the FCC to require broadcasters to identify the actual funders of SuperPACs, rather than PAC officials, when they air the ads. The rules as the FCC has interpreted them do not require such enhanced disclosures. CLC has filed complaints over allegedly insufficient disclosures, but the FCC's Media Bureau has not seen it CLC's way. In a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, CLC policy director Meredith McGehee says TV viewers are ill-served and misinformed by political ads, and lays the blame "squarely" on the FCC. "First, the FCC has refused to move forward on updating the regulations implementing the sponsorship identification requirements in Section 3171 of the Communications Act, which spells out the on-air disclosure requirements for sponsorship identification. Second, the Commission has allowed its Media Bureau’s misinterpretation of existing sponsorship identification requirements to stand. As a result, television viewers across the country are not accurately informed of the true identities of those sponsoring political advertisements."
benton.org/headlines/campaign-legal-center-pushes-fcc-enhanced-ad-disclosure | Broadcasting&Cable
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
