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  2. June 2016

June 2016

Leadership Conference Targets Anti-Lifeline Bill

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights sent a letter to House members June 20, asking them to vote against the End Taxpayer Funded Cell Phones Act of 2016 (HR 5525). "Passage of HR 5525 would undercut both the goals of the Lifeline program and the principles for Lifeline modernization supported by our members and a wide range of other consumer and public interest organizations," the conference said on behalf of its some 200 members. The bill, which was introduced by Rep Austin Scott (R-GA), would prevent the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline subsidy from being used for wireless phone or broadband service. It has also been proposed as an amendment to an FCC budget bill, so could get two chances to make it into law. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has scheduled a vote for the evening of June 21 on the bill under suspension of the rules, a procedural shortcut that requires a two-thirds majority.

The FCC is migrating the Lifeline phone subsidy to broadband, including mobile broadband, but has gotten pushback from Republicans who argue there is too much waste, fraud and abuse in the program, including in the funding of cell phones. "Prohibiting the use of mobile devices in Lifeline would be a counter-productive measure that would reduce the likelihood that low-income people could reestablish financial stability," the conference said in its letter. "As we demonstrated in our comments to the Federal Communications Commission on this matter, it is evident from marketplace choices that mobile services have been a particularly important choice for people of color and low-income people. Moreover, access to mobile services align with important anti-poverty programs."

How billionaires, corporations and secretive governments curtail press freedom

[Commentary] The issue of press freedom is far bigger than Donald Trump and Peter Thiel, The Post and Gawker, or left and right. Press freedom is fundamentally an issue of power — of enabling those who don’t have it to hold those who do accountable — and it transcends partisan politics. There is a long history of struggle between journalists and powerful figures in both parties, which is why the fight to defend the free press should unite Americans of all political stripes. Indeed, President Barack Obama's presidency has been defined in part by the White House’s troubling secrecy and lack of transparency. “On media rights generally, the Obama Administration hasn’t walked its talk,” The Post’s Margaret Sullivan recently wrote. “It has set new records for stonewalling or rejecting Freedom of Information requests. And it has used an obscure federal act to prosecute leakers.”

Meanwhile, amid 2014’s heated protests in Ferguson (MO), several reporters were arrested and assaulted by police for committing the apparent crime of journalism. An informed public is vital to our democracy. But we will never be truly informed unless we fight for the media’s ability to hold those with power accountable — from corporations to the government to billionaire presidential candidates — without fearing the repercussions. That’s the only way to achieve what then-Rep. John E. Moss (D-A), the primary author of the Freedom of Information Act a half-century ago, identified as the inherent goal of the right to a free press: protecting the public’s right to know. America cannot be great again without leaders who understand the importance of a free press and who are committed to ensuring that, as Madison put it, “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.”

Digital Communities Special Report: The Ideal Digital City

With urban areas continuing to grow at a substantial rate — from 30 percent of the world’s population in 1930 to a projected 66 percent by 2050, according to the United Nations — getting the urban experience right has become paramount. To help understand the building blocks to a successful digital city, The Digital Communities Special Report looks at five key technologies — broadband, open data, GIS, CRM and analytics — and provides a window into how they are helping city governments cope with economic, educational and societal demands.

The good news is that these essential technologies are getting cheaper, faster and better all the time. But technologies like these still cost money, need talent to run them and are dependent on the right policies if they are going to succeed. In other words, digital cities need smart thinking in order to work. Part one of this series examines the importance of broadband as a critical infrastructure and the challenges cities face in reaching universal adoption.

A Conversation With Cablevision’s New Owner

A Q&A with Dexter Goei, chairman and chief executive of Altice USA.

The European telecommunications operator Altice completed its $17.7 billion deal for Cablevision, its second major acquisition in a year and a step toward its goal of becoming a leading cable and broadband Internet provider in the United States. In an interview, Dexter Goei, chairman and chief executive of Altice USA, talked about the company’s plans and how, despite the many regulations recently aimed at the cable and broadband industry, he is not scared off. He was asked, "It would seem like this is a bad time to invest in the United States market if you read statements from cable firms. They complain about too much regulation from the Federal Communications Commission." He responded, "It’s too early to tell if we have a strong point of view on any issues. These are, as you may suspect, in other markets we are in. On net neutrality, we have the same directives in Europe that are percolating. On the all-vid, or set-top box proposal, this is a very US type of issue that we aren’t smart enough around today. We don’t have that issue today in other markets."

There’s a new tool to take down terrorism images online. But social media companies are wary of it.

President Barack Obama suggested that extremist information spread online inspired a Florida man to commit the deadliest mass shooting in US history at a gay nightclub in Orlando — the latest in a long line of terrorist attacks in which Islamist propaganda played some role in radicalizing the assailant. Now a Dartmouth College researcher and a nonprofit group say they have created a technology that can help Internet companies instantly detect images and videos generated by terrorists and their supporters and remove them from their platforms.

It is, they say, a way to cleanse popular online sites of gory videos and propaganda from the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and Daesh, that can serve to incite and inspire people to commit acts of violence. “If you could search out the beheading videos, or the picture of the ISIS fighter all in black carrying the Daesh flag across the sands of Syria, if you could do it with video and audio, you’d be doing something big,” said Mark Wallace, chief executive of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a nonpartisan policy group. “I believe it’s a game-changer." The White House has signaled its support. But a number of major social media companies are wary of the idea. They say there is no clear consensus in the United States, and globally, as to what constitutes a terrorist image, and they might end up expunging material posted by researchers or media organizations. And, they say, once a database is created, governments around the world will place additional data requests on them — and some countries’ will probably demand the removal of legitimate political content under the guise of fighting terrorism.

How an Archive of the Internet Could Change History

Building an archive has always required asking a couple of simple but thorny questions: What will we save and how? Whose stories are the most important and why? In theory, the Internet already functions as a kind of archive: Any document, video or photo can in principle remain there indefinitely, available to be viewed by anyone with a connection. But in reality, things disappear constantly. Search engines like Google continually trawl for pages to organize and index for retrieval, but they can’t catch everything. And as the web evolves, it becomes harder to preserve. It is estimated that 75 percent of all websites are inactive, and domains are abandoned every day. Links can rot when sites disappear, images vanish when servers go offline and fluctuations in economic tides and social trends can wipe out entire ecosystems. (Look up a blog post from a decade ago and see how many of the images, media or links still work.) Tumblr and even Twitter may eventually end up ancient internet history because of their financial instability.

History is not neutral or synonymous with truth, but the Internet affords us a newfound vantage on the totality of passing time — the profound implications of which we are just now beginning to grasp.

Why Apple can take a bigger stand against Trump than its rivals

Whatever happens at the Republican National Convention in July, one thing is clear: It won’t be brought to you by Apple. The firm won’t be providing any funding or support for the convention, according to news reports. Apple has been more outspoken on public policy issues than many of its peers in Silicon Valley. A report from Politico said that its latest move is because of the rhetoric of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Many of Trump's positions, particularly on immigration, clash with the political stances of tech firms. Apple, which declined to comment on the reports, is arguably in a unique position among tech companies to take big political stands. Not only does its size insulate it against some backlash, but it is also protected because expressing political opinions does little damage to the reputation of its products. That's not true for many other tech titans.

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