You’re reading the Benton Foundation’s Weekly Round-up, a recap of the biggest (or most overlooked) telecommunications stories of the week. The round-up is delivered via e-mail each Friday; to get your own copy, subscribe at www.benton.org/user/register
Robbie’s Round-Up for the Week of July 25-29, 2016
Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence (R-IN) said the Trump campaign is having conversations about lifting the blacklist it has applied to certain media outlets.
Speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt, Gov Pence defended his own history of dealing with the news media, saying he authored legislation while in Congress to help protect journalists’ confidential sources. “We’re going to have those conversations internally and I fully expect in the next 100 days we’re going to continue to be available to the media, whether they’re fair or unfair," Gov Pence said. The Trump campaign has blacklisted certain outlets, including Politico, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and others, from attending his events because of what he considers unfair coverage. CNN’s Chris Cuomo said he is blacklisted from the Trump campaign “because of how we conduct our interviews.”
Trump may be the Republican nominee, but the Republican National Committee refuses to get involved or even comment on Trump’s treatment of the news media, instead diverting all questions to the campaign.
Industry groups have filed petitions asking for an en banc rehearing of the DC Circuit Court’s decision to uphold the FCC’s Open Internet rules. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said, “It comes as no surprise that the big dogs have challenged the three-judge panel’s decision. We are confident that the full court will agree with the panel’s affirmation of the FCC’s clear authority to enact its strong Open Internet rules, the reasoned decision-making upon which they are based, and the adequacy of the record from which they were developed.”
Twice broadband providers have looked to the DC Circuit to stop net neutrality rules. Twice they have been told that a Title II based framework is the correct way to have strong rules and the FCC is empowered by Congress to do so. Now these trade groups are asking the DC Circuit yet again. There is broad consensus support for strong net neutrality rules, making this just another doomed attempt for trade groups to ignore millions of Americans. It’s time for these trade groups to move on -- net neutrality is here to stay.
These requests for en banc review are sour grapes from industry dead-enders who are determined to dismantle the FCC’s successful Net Neutrality rules in spite of their many failed attempts to do so. The D.C. Circuit was abundantly clear when it upheld the FCC last month. The court found that the FCC had acted on its well-defined authority to prevent internet service providers from unfairly interfering with our communications. The D.C. Circuit deferred to the FCC’s determination that its authority to do so stands on bedrock communications law. And the judges recognized the vital role the open internet plays in our society. The broadband industry has been doing just fine since the FCC adopted the Open Internet Order a year and a half ago. Not one of the industry’s doom-and-gloom predictions has come true. The order didn’t dampen investment or revenues for broadband providers, and internet users have added confidence that their rights to connect and communicate are protected. Last-ditch efforts like these petitions are unlikely to succeed. Big phone and cable companies obviously have plenty of money to waste on high-priced lawyers. But they should give up their foolish quest to overturn rules that benefit internet users.
Facebook must provide refunds for purchases made in apps and games by children should they or their parents request it, a California court has ruled.
The decision means that hundreds of thousands of people across the US could legally claim back money from the social network. It’s the culmination of a class action lawsuit brought against the social network in February 2012 by two children and their parents over purchases of the discontinued virtual currency Facebook Credits, now known as Facebook Payments, made using the parents’ credit cards. The currency was designed as a site-wide form of payment for virtual goods within games like Farmville and Bejeweled.
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