BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2016
Today’s interesting agenda https://www.benton.org/calendar/2016-06-16
MORE ON NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Why US ruling could be a 'conversation starter' in global net neutrality debate - analysis
The net neutrality court decision, in plain English [links to Washington Post]
Network neutrality decision likely won't go to Supreme Court
Is This the End of the Road for Net Neutrality? Not if Industry Can Help It
How President Obama helped reshape Internet rules
Providing Internet access isn’t speech - op-ed
Saving the Internet from the whims of service providers [links to Los Angeles Times editorial]
MoffettNathanson: Net neutrality ruling could temper the pursuit of Yahoo by Verizon, AT&T [links to Fierce]
MORE INTERNET/BROADBAND
Senate Commerce Committee approves net neutrality exemption bill for small providers
New Insights into the Emerging Internet of Things - NTIA
Can the Internet of Things help renew Rust Belt cities? - Brookings [links to Benton summary]
3 Ways Ohio Cities Overcame Telecommunication Companies to Set Up Broadband Networks [links to Benton summary]
JOURNALISM
State of the News Media 2016 - Pew research
Could It Be Sunny In Philadelphia? - Knight Foundation
Why the news isn’t what it used to be [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Trump: no media bans in White House [links to Politico]
Univision journalists to Trump: 'Reinstate The Washington Post's press credentials' [links to Politico]
Here’s what President Trump’s war on the media might look like [links to Washington Post]
How Donald Trump Tends His Media Blacklist [links to New York Times editorial]
Karl Rove: Trump Can’t Win From a TV Studio [links to Wall Street Journal]
Jimmy Carter calls for return to publicly financed elections [links to Washington Post]
PRIVACY/SECURITY
House eyes new chance to reform surveillance [links to Benton summary]
FBI says utility pole surveillance cam locations must be kept secret [links to Benton summary]
Hacker admits he gave military members’ data to the Islamic State [links to Washington Post]
Here's why companies leave you in the dark about hacks for months [links to Los Angeles Times]
OWNERSHIP
LinkedIn may just be the beginning of mega-acquisitions for Silicon Valley [links to Quartz]
CONTENT
Does Facebook Really Need Journalism? Not as much as journalism needs Facebook [links to Atlantic, The]
YouTube Stars Form New Guild To Give Creators A Stronger Voice [links to Fast Company]
TELEVISION/RADIO
FCC Must Proceed: Don’t Let Congress Stop the Clock on Unlocking the Box [links to Public Knowledge]
Rep Cramer (R-ND) Hammers Set-Top Plan on House Floor [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
PBS, NPR: FCC Reporting Requirement Is Illegal [links to Benton summary]
GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS
IT Modernization Plan is Not ‘Get It and Forget It’ Money [links to nextgov]
How Do States Fill Cybersecurity Positions? [links to Government Technology]
The US government wants privacy pros: Time to act on it [links to International Association of Privacy Professionals]
SATELLITES
FCC Report to Congress as Required by the Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunication (ORBIT) Act [links to Federal Communications Commission]
POLICYMAKERS
FCC Announces Renewal of Consumer Advisory Committee and Solicits Applications - public notice [links to Benton summary]
COMPANY NEWS
How Apple Taught the World to Smartphone [links to Benton summary]
Comcast, NCTC Agreement Paves Way for DOCSIS 3.1 [links to Benton summary]
AT&T brings Wi-Fi calling to Android [links to Verge, The]
This company claims Google stole the balloon Wi-Fi tech behind Project Loon [links to Verge, The]
Can Netflix Survive in the New World It Created? [links to Benton summary]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Does mobile telephony spur growth? Evidence from Indian states [links to Telecommunications Policy]
How Technology Is Affecting The Refugee Crisis [links to International Telecommunication Union]
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MORE ON NETWORK NEUTRALITY
A GLOBAL DEBATE
[SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Max Lewontin]
The network neutrality decision issued by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirms the Federal Communications Commission’s rules just as Europe is finalizing net neutrality regulations of its own. “I think it’s a significant victory for net neutrality. I don’t know that other countries have been waiting for the US, in some respects the issue has been pushed much further in other countries,” says James Grimmelmann, a law professor at the University of Maryland who studies the internet and legal issues. “What this does is it clear the way for the FCC to deal with the actual hard questions, the hard things that they would like to do in terms of innovative services,” he adds, mentioning changes in smart-home technology and Internet of Things devices. The decision frees the FCC to tackle a variety of related issues. One is concerns about zero rating, a practice where companies exempt data from counting against a users’ cap on data use, such as T-Mobile’s BingeOn, which offers unlimited video streaming. When it banned Facebook’s Free Basics service, India’s telecom regulator explicitly pointed to net neutrality concerns. But, in the US, says Professor Grimmelmann, “I think it’s tricky, it’s very easy to build the coalition and the case for anti-blocking rules and it’s very easy to take the general ‘treat-all traffic-alike’ as a rule and a slogan. But when you get in the weeds of [questions] about T-Mobile and BingeOn, it’s harder to say if that’s a violation of network neutrality.” A second concern is online privacy.
benton.org/headlines/why-us-ruling-could-be-conversation-starter-global-net-neutrality-debate | Christian Science Monitor
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NET NEUTRALITY DECISION WON’T GO TO SUPREME COURT
[SOURCE: Center for Public Integrity, AUTHOR: Oghene Oyiborhoro]
It is unlikely that the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s ruling upholding network neutrality regulations will see a Supreme Court review, leaving advocates of an open Internet with a historic victory say legal experts on both sides of the debate. Reed Hundt, Federal Communications Commission Chairman during the Clinton administration, said the dissenting opinion — written by Judge Stephen Williams, who was appointed to the court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 — supports the argument that the FCC has the authority to reclassify internet service as a utility, making it unlikely that the Supreme Court will take up the issue. “I agree with the majority that the Commission’s reclassification of broadband Internet as a telecommunications service may not run afoul of any statutory dictate in the Telecommunications Act,” wrote Williams, who concurred in part and dissented in part. He argued, however, the FCC failed to properly justify why it was reclassifying internet services, saying “its explanation of the policy is watery thin and self-contradictory.” Hundt said the FCC decision settled the matters of law and is among the top victories in the FCC’s history. “SCOTUS does not take up a case unless there is a split in lower courts,” said Matt Wood, policy director at Free Press, an advocacy group that supported the net neutrality rules. John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge, which also supported the FCC’s net neutrality rules, agreed. There is “no legal question for the court to take up,” he said. Even Christopher Yoo, a telecommunications law scholar at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Law who submitted an amicus brief in support of the Internet providers’ argument to strike down the rules, agreed that an appeal would likely be unsuccessful.
benton.org/headlines/network-neutrality-decision-likely-wont-go-supreme-court | Center for Public Integrity | ISPs get ready to take case to Supreme Court
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IS THIS THE END OF THE ROAD FOR NET NEUTRALITY? NOT IF INDUSTRY CAN HELP IT
[SOURCE: Morning Consult, AUTHOR: Amir Nasr]
Industry players are suggesting there’s another decade of legal challenges ahead on the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 network neutrality rules after a federal court upheld the controversial regulations. Internet service providers and tech lobbying groups are calling for various forms of legal action to fight the open Internet regulations. Some are calling for the full US District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rehear the case, while others are already looking ahead to a Supreme Court showdown. “We have always expected this issue to be decided by the Supreme Court, and we look forward to participating in that appeal,” said AT&T Inc. Senior Executive Vice President David McAtee.
benton.org/headlines/end-road-net-neutrality-not-if-industry-can-help-it | Morning Consult
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PRESIDENT OBAMA HELPED SHAPE NET NEUTRALITY RULES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
Days after a crushing midterm defeat in which Democrats lost their Senate majority, President Barack Obama released a video that endeared him to Silicon Valley and millions of internet activists. The video, released while President Obama was traveling in Asia, made the case for the Federal Communications Commission to adopt the strongest possible rules to ensure a free Internet. President Obama said regulators needed to take steps to prevent broadband companies from slowing down or even blocking content. He also rejected calls for a “fast lane” that would have allowed some content providers to pay for faster speeds. It was a crucial moment in the fight for net neutrality and a pivotal one for President Obama, who showed that even after a second midterm shellacking, he wasn’t done taking action. Twenty months later, those rules received a major validation when the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld them entirely. The decision ensures that President Obama will go down in history as solidifying some of the strongest US regulations written to police the conduct of internet service providers. “Historians will do the measuring,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), an early proponent of the strong rules. “I’m saying that it is part of his legacy. This is the most transformative tool in the history of our country. And he understood what it represented and what was needed to keep it that way.” It won’t end the controversy surrounding those actions, however.
benton.org/headlines/how-president-obama-helped-reshape-internet-rules | Hill, The
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PROVIDING INTERNET ACCESS ISN’T SPEECH
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Stuart Benjamin]
[Commentary] Mere transmission of speech doesn’t implicate the First Amendment, for broadband providers or FedEx. A contrary argument means that Ma Bell, with the best lawyers money could buy, missed a winning constitutional argument against its telephone networks being treated as common carriers — they were transmitting speech! The DC Circuit was persuaded that, when broadband providers are simply transmitting, they are not speaking. I obviously think the D.C. Circuit was right, but I want to emphasize the breadth of the counter-argument. If all transmission of bits is subject to heightened judicial scrutiny (as it would be under First Amendment jurisprudence), then judges would routinely invalidate regulation of a huge and growing range of activity in our increasingly digitized world. Arguments for and against purely economic regulation should be made on their own terms, not by invoking unmoored notions of what speech entails.
[Benjamin is the Douglas B. Maggs Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Research, and co-director of the Center for Innovation Policy at Duke Law School. He served as a consultant to the FCC in the net neutrality proceeding and worked on the order and its legal defense]
benton.org/headlines/providing-internet-access-isnt-speech | Washington Post
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MORE INTERNET/BROADBAND
SEN COMMERCE CMTE APPROVES NET NEUTRALITY EXEMPTION BILL FOR SMALL PROVIDERS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: David McCabe]
The Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill to exempt small Internet service providers from rules included in sweeping network neutrality regulations approved in 2015. The legislation would exempt providers with 250,000 or fewer subscribers from transparency rules that are part of the regulations, which were approved by the Federal Communications Commission last February. A version of the law passed the House without objection in March.
More broadly, the rules are meant to protect net neutrality — the idea that all traffic on the web should be treated in the same way. The agency banned Internet providers from blocking or slowing certain content or providing better speeds to services that paid them. The legislation approved June 15 doesn't exempt small providers from those rules, but rather transparency measures elsewhere in the regulations.
benton.org/headlines/senate-commerce-committee-approves-net-neutrality-exemption-bill-small-providers | Hill, The
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NEW INSIGHTS INTO THE EMERGING INTERNET OF THINGS
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Rafi Goldberg, Travis Hall]
From Internet-connected fitness bands and watches to security systems and thermostats, Americans are beginning to use Internet-connected devices, appliances, and objects that are part of a growing category of technology known as the Internet of Things (IoT). The latest computer and Internet use data collected for National Telecommunications and Information Administration shows that the number of Americans using IoT devices is still small. But we are seeing an interesting snapshot of early adopters. These new insights into how Americans are utilizing IoT are drawn from data collected in July 2015 as part of our Computer and Internet Use Supplement to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. As we previously noted in April, few Americans—just 1 percent—reported using a wearable, Internet-connected device, such as a fitness band or watch, as of July 2015. While the market for this type of device is clearly in its early stages, we found notable differences between early adopters of wearable technology and the population as a whole (see Figure 1). Unsurprisingly, wearable device users exhibited many characteristics associated with higher levels of computer and Internet use. Wearable device users tended to have higher education and family income levels compared with all Americans, and they were more likely to live in metropolitan areas.
benton.org/headlines/new-insights-emerging-internet-things | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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JOURNALISM
STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA 2016
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: Amy Mitchell, Jesse Holcomb]
Five Key Takeaways from Pew Research Center's State of the News Media 2016 report:
1) In 2015, the newspaper sector had perhaps the worst year since the recession and its immediate aftermath. Average weekday newspaper circulation, print and digital combined, fell another 7% in 2015, the greatest decline since 2010.
2) Digital ad spending went up 20% last year, and mobile advertising now tops desktop, but journalism organizations have not been the primary beneficiaries. There was explosive growth in mobile advertising,
3) In contrast to newspapers’ troubles and digital’s rise, local television news revenue is relatively steady at $18.6 billion – at least for now.
4) Driven in part by a highly competitive presidential primary season, cable news saw its viewership jump 8%, to an average of 3.1 million viewers in prime time.
5) Podcasting continues to experience audience growth – though this includes both those podcasts focused on news and those looking at other subjects.
benton.org/headlines/state-news-media-2016 | Amy Mitchell | Pew Fact Tank | B&C | The Hill
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COULD IT BE SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA?
[SOURCE: Knight Foundation, AUTHOR: Tim Griggs]
The Philadelphia Media Network—the serious broadsheet Inquirer, scrappy tabloid Daily News and digital hub Philly. com—has been the poster child for newspaper ownership turmoil over the past decade. A half-dozen separate owners have shepherded a half-dozen separate strategies, all while the business for major metro papers, including those in Philadelphia, was facing dramatic digital disruption and revenue declines. Enter Gerry Lenfest, a local cable network owner-turned-major philanthropist, who found himself as the sole owner looking for a better path forward. In January, the 85-year-old Lenfest announced a complex nonprofit/for-profit hybrid structure he believes will give PMN a fighting chance, both at survival after he’s gone and at helping to solve the news industry’s shared challenges. While PMN is complex and still in an early stage, potential lessons can be learned about its component parts that could be applicable for other newspaper owners, publishers and funders.
benton.org/headlines/could-it-be-sunny-philadelphia | Knight Foundation | USA Today
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