October 2016

“When the company that controls the pipes, so to speak, owns this very, very large content provider, it can cause a whole bunch of different horribles for consumers.”
-- Sen Al Franken (D-MN).

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for HALLOWEEN!!!!! (2!! – We still believe!)

Today's Event-- Have a Happy Halloween!

ELECTIONS 2016
   FBI to take new ‘investigative steps’ on Clinton e-mails
   Senate Judiciary Chairman Grassley Wants FBI Briefing on Clinton Probe [links to Hill, The]
   Justice officials warned FBI that Comey’s decision to update Congress was not consistent with department policy [links to Washington Post]
   Video: Here’s what we know about the latest Clinton email controversy [links to Washington Post]
   Op-ed: Was it legal for the FBI to expand the Weiner email search to target Hillary Clinton’s emails? [links to Washington Post]
   Justice Department Obtains Warrant to Review Clinton Aide’s Emails [links to New York Times]
   Hillary Clinton Team Questions FBI Director’s Motive [links to Wall Street Journal]
   FBI in Internal Feud Over Hillary Clinton Probe [links to Wall Street Journal]
   FBI agents waited weeks to tell Comey about emails possibly relevant to Clinton probe [links to Washington Post]
   Official: FBI agents knew for weeks about emails’ existence [links to Associated Press]
   Op-ed: On Clinton Emails, Did the F.B.I. Director Abuse His Power? [links to New York Times]
   JH Snider: Explaining the Media’s Double Standard in Covering Clinton’s Email Practices [links to Huffington Post]
   RNC: New FBI review of Clinton emails 'stunning development' [links to Benton summary]
   Biden: Clinton struggled with email story because she's been 'battered' [links to Hill, The]
   Why the establishment was blindsided by Donald Trump - WaPo op-ed
   NYT executive editor: CNN and Fox News are 'bad for democracy'
   Facebook launches guide for voters
   How worried should we be about election hacking? [links to Verge, The]
   Fox News has never been as vulnerable as it is right now. Enter Trump TV? - Vox analysis [links to Benton summary]
   How Facebook, Twitter silence conservative voices online - The Hill op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   Hillary’s big money machine steams toward Election Day [links to Benton summary]
   Mike Pence’s airplane scare is a reminder of why protective press pools matter [links to Benton summary]
   American Bar Association to publish controversial report on Trump being a ‘libel bully’ [links to Washington Post]

OWNERSHIP
   CenturyLink to buy Level 3 in $34 billion telecom tie-up

AT&T/TIME WARNER
   Seeking Ownership of Both the Information and the Superhighway - analysis
   Sen Markey: FCC Should Review AT&T-Time Warner Deal
   Reps. Pallone, Eshoo Push for AT&T/Time Warner Hearing [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   AT&T, Time Warner and the Death of Privacy - Democracy Now!
   AT&T/Time Warner: The Case Against Monster Bell - Craig Aaron op-ed
   Block this mega merger: Opposing view - Craig Aaron, Dana Floberg op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   Are our merger analysis methods well suited to tackle AT&T / Time Warner? - AEI op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   The $85 Billion Question: Will the FCC Review the AT&T-Time Warner Deal? [links to Benton summary]
   The AT&T-Time Warner Merger: A Match Built on Hope [links to Benton summary]
   AT&T and Time Warner hope to break the cycle of failed mergers [links to Benton summary]
   Regulators could freeze AT&T's $85 billion plan to buy Time Warner [links to Benton summary]
   AT&T-TW Not A Big Deal, BUT DirecTV Now Is [links to TVNewsCheck]
   Media consolidation and what that means for you and me [links to Marketplace]
   Media’s Odd Couple: Proudly Freewheeling HBO and Buttoned-Up AT&T [links to New York Times]
   Meet America’s Least Likely Media Mogul: AT&T Boss Randall Stephenson [links to Wall Street Journal]
   Michael Wolff: Business theory behind AT&T-Time Warner deal is twisted [links to USAToday]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   FCC Triennial Report to Congress: Open Internet Order Was Pro-Small Business
   FCC Backs FTC's Challenge to Ninth Circuit Ruling
   Advancing Local Broadband Access - International City/County Management Association op-ed
   Frontier’s supplemental CAF-II funding request faces protests from Comcast, Charter [links to Benton summary]
   Alphabet CFO: Google Fiber ‘Very Committed to Growth’ in Existing 1-Gig Cities [links to Multichannel News]
   AT&T takes swipe at Google Fiber’s buildout woes, touts its community outreach approach [links to Benton summary]
   Google Fiber Pauses - But No One Else Should - Institute for Local Self-Reliance [links to Benton summary]
   Salvaging Google Fiber's Achievements - ars technica op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   AT&T Aims to Quadruple Speeds for Businesses with 400G Ethernet Data Trials [links to telecompetitor]
   FTTH Satisfaction: Only Safe Streets Beats Out Quality Broadband for Choosing Where to Live [links to Benton summary]

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   How John Podesta’s email got hacked, and how to not let it happen to you [links to Vox]
   Association of National Advertisers Vows To Fight 'Misguided' Broadband Privacy Rules [links to MediaPost]
   Orin Kerr: The Fourth Amendment and email preservation letters [links to Washington Post]
   Diversity, Cybersecurity and the Future of Libraries: Day 2 Recap From Educause [links to EdSurge]
   The Future of Privacy Is Plausible Deniability - The Atlantic analysis [links to Benton summary]
   Christopher Mims: America Isn’t Ready for a Cyberattack [links to Wall Street Journal]
   Google researchers build networks that invent their own encryption [links to Christian Science Monitor]

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   18-year-old arrested in cyberattack on Ariz. 911 system [links to Benton summary]

ADVERTISING
   Facebook Lets Advertisers Exclude Users by Race
   How Facebook’s Ad Tool Fails to Protect Civil Rights [links to Benton summary]
   Telecoms’ Ambitions on Targeted Ads Seen Curbed by FCC’s New Privacy Rules [links to New York Times]
   Consumer And Governmental Affairs Bureau Seeks Comment On Petitions Concerning The Commission's Rule On Opt-Out Notices On Fax Advertisements - public notice [links to Benton summary]

TELEVISION
   Moffett: DirecTV ‘Playing a Dangerous Game’ With OTT-TV Service [links to Multichannel News]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   AT&T Launches IoT Pilot Using LTE-M — So What is LTE-M? [links to Benton summary]

CONTENT
   3 important ways online shopping will be different this holiday season [links to Washington Post]

EDUCATION
   The 4-Letter Word You Need to Know—and How Teachers and Administrators Can Embrace Data Literacy [links to EdSurge]
   U.S. Dept. of Ed. Unveils Free Online Tool for Rapid Evaluation of Edtech Products [links to EdSurge]

JOURNALISM
   Changing the media’s notions of failure and success - CJR op-ed [links to Benton summary]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Commerce Sec Penny Pritzker Delivers Opening Remarks at Commerce Data Advisory Council (CDAC) Meeting - speech [links to Benton summary]
   President Obama Brought Silicon Valley to Washington [links to Benton summary]
   3 Reasons Some Local Governments are Eschewing Big Tech Vendors for Startups [links to Government Technology]

COMPANY NEWS
   Alphabet Brings in Veteran Fixer Jonathan Rosenberg to Rework Fiber Division [links to Bloomberg]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Uber loses right to classify drivers as freelance in the UK [links to Verge, The]
   Facebook Told to Stop Exploiting WhatsApp Data During EU Probe [links to Bloomberg]
   UK mobile networks should allow national roaming, say MPs [links to Guardian, The]
   The Stakes Are Rising in Google’s Antitrust Fight With Europe [links to New York Times]

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ELECTIONS 2016

FBI TO TAKE NEW 'INVESTIGATIVE STEPS' ON CLINTON E-MAILS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Rosalind Helderman]
Newly discovered emails found on a computer seized during an investigation of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner thrust the controversy over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server back into the presidential campaign less than two weeks before the election. Officials said the discovery prompted a surprise announcement by FBI Director James B. Comey that the agency would once again be examining emails related to Clinton’s time as secretary of state. In a letter to lawmakers, Comey said the FBI would take “appropriate investigative steps” to determine whether the newly discovered emails contain classified information and to assess whether they are relevant to the Clinton server probe. The emails, numbering more than 1,000, were found on a computer used by both Weiner and his wife, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The correspondence included emails between Abedin and Clinton. “I’m confident whatever [the emails] are will not change the conclusion reached in July,” said Clinton. “Therefore, it’s imperative that the bureau explain this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay.” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta called it “extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election.” Officials familiar with the inquiry said it was too early to assess the significance of the newly discovered emails. It is possible, they said, that some or all of the correspondence is duplicative of the emails that were already turned over and examined by the FBI.
benton.org/headlines/fbi-take-new-investigative-steps-clinton-e-mails | Washington Post | NPR | The Hill | Vox
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WHY ESTABLISHMENT WAS BLINDSIDED BY TRUMP
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Danielle Allen]
[Commentary] If you are reading this sentence, you participate in a minority cultural practice. You get your news by reading traditional newspapers, whether in print or online. Let some facts sink in. Barely more than a decade ago, the majority of Americans with a high school degree or above were daily readers of traditional print newspapers and their news sites. This is no longer true. Now, at best, about 40 percent of American adults “often” get their news from newspapers and their websites. In contrast, roughly 60 percent often get their news from television. Of course, television has dominated since the era of the broadcast big three. What’s new is reading’s precipitous decline. The country’s conversational universe has split between those who primarily get their news by reading and those who primarily depend on watching and listening. I say primarily because of course few people are exclusively in one camp or the other, and many of us also participate in circulating news via social media. But where we spend most of our time matters. On that we are split. Understanding American public opinion now means discerning three things: what the conversation sounds like on TV and radio, what it sounds like in traditional text-based journalism, and how these two conversations differ. Understanding our political dynamics means spotting how those streams do or don’t mingle, and tracking the eddies, riptides and surf storms their convergences generate. In this campaign, we haven’t seen a silent majority suddenly awoken. Instead, we’ve seen a coming-of-age of a vocal minority that was nearly invisible to another vocal minority, the community of readers of traditional text-based journalism, a community dominated by the professional classes. Over the past nine months, these two minorities have been battling for the country’s soul.
[Danielle Allen is a political theorist at Harvard University]
benton.org/headlines/why-establishment-was-blindsided-donald-trump-1 | Washington Post
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NYT EXECUTIVE EDITOR: CNN AND FOX NEWS ARE 'BAD FOR DEMOCRACY'
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Kelsey Sutton]
New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet took aim at CNN and Fox News for their coverage of the presidential race, calling the cable news channels' coverage of this election cycle “ridiculous” and “bad for democracy and those institutions.” “This mix of entertainment and news, and news masquerading as entertainment, is kind of funny except that we now have a guy who is a product of that world nominated as Republican presidential nominee,” Baquet said. Baquet called CNN’s decision to hire Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski “outrageous,” and criticized Fox News for what Baquet said was pandering to a partisan audience. “Fox News at its heart is not a journalistic institution,” he said. “Megyn Kelly is a great journalist, Chris Wallace is a great journalist, but it is some weird mix of a little bit of journalism, a little bit of entertainment, a little bit of pandering to a particular audience … I don’t think Roger Ailes will go down as one of the great journalists of his time.” Baquet also defended the Times’ coverage of Trump. The Times raised eyebrows earlier this election cycle when it flatly called Trump’s statements about President Barack Obama’s birthplace a “lie," and the Republican candidate has regularly criticized the Times' political coverage, and even threatened to sue. “I am not opposed to his presidency, that is not my job,” Baquet said. “But my job is not to beat around the bush when a candidate lies.”
benton.org/headlines/nyt-executive-editor-cnn-and-fox-news-are-bad-democracy | Politico
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FACEBOOK LAUNCHES GUIDE FOR VOTERS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: David McCabe]
Facebook rolled out a ballot guide aimed at preparing people for the voting booth, the company’s latest effort at civic engagement. The feature allows users to scroll through and get more information about the candidates and ballot issues they’ll see when they go to vote. What users see on the guide is what they'll see on their ballot, according to Facebook. “We’re interested in offering people a space that’s separate from News Feed where they can prepare for that they’re going to do in the ballot box,” said Jeremy Galen, a product marketing manager with the company. A user can scroll through to see all the candidates for a given office and choose to see their position on the issue, assuming the candidate has uploaded that information to their Facebook page. They can also see other users who have endorsed the candidate. The website serves information on the presidential race first, followed by down-ballot races and ballot questions. The order in which candidates are presented on the page is randomized. The information comes from the Center for Technology and Civic Life, a nonprofit group. Users can favorite a candidate they plan to support, an action they can either keep to themselves or share with friends. That data will be discarded 60 days after Election Day, the company said, and will not be used for any advertising purposes.
benton.org/headlines/facebook-launches-guide-voters | Hill, The | Facebook | Vox
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OWNERSHIP

CENTURYLINK – LEVEL 3
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Adam Samson]
CenturyLink will buy Level 3 Communications, which runs infrastructure that allows businesses connect to the internet, in a $34 billion deal. The tie-up with Level 3 will provide CenturyLink, which has historically focused on phone networks, the ability to increase its fibre-optic capacity, something that is especially important as it works to bring broadband internet to rural areas. “The digital economy relies on broadband connectivity, and together with Level 3 we will have one of the most robust fiber network and high-speed data services companies in the world,” said Glen Post, CenturyLink’s chief executive.
benton.org/headlines/centurylink-buy-level-3-34-billion-telecom-tie | Financial Times
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AT&T/TIME WARNER

OWNING THE INFORMATION AND THE HIGHWAY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jim Rutenberg]
[Commentary] On the face of it, there is something Strangelovian about the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner. A company that controls the signal to the wireless devices of more than 130 million people, and to televisions in some 25 million households, buys a major movie studio and one of the biggest collections of cable channels in the country — potentially attaining a dominant position from which to control the information flow to a large percentage of Americans. A cultural-political Doomsday Machine is born. Mass media hegemony, or some such, follows. Or does it? Like a lot of news consumers, I’ve been struggling to get my head around this deal, which would give AT&T control of the Warner Bros. movie studio and cable networks including CNN, HBO and TBS. It would be gargantuan, carrying an $85 billion price tag. And it would further concentrate media ownership into a few powerful hands, playing to fears of a big corporate media takeover of the wild and woolly web, which has been so central to this year’s great political upheaval. But it’s all very fuzzy. What is it about this proposed merger that has both the left and the right, on the presidential trail and on Capitol Hill, so suspicious of it, if not downright opposed? Are the stakes really so high and the potential damage so great? “When the company that controls the pipes, so to speak, owns this very, very large content provider, it can cause a whole bunch of different horribles for consumers,” said Sen Al Franken (D-MN).
benton.org/headlines/seeking-ownership-both-information-and-superhighway | New York Times
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SEN MARKEY: FCC SHOULD REVIEW ATT-TIME WARNER DEAL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) says the Federal Communications Commission should get to review the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger. "[T]he FCC is our telecommunications cop on the beat, and we need it to ensure that marketplace actions don’t harm consumers, stifle innovation, or reduce competition," he said. There has been talk that the companies might be able to avoid an FCC review by spinning off a TV station and some satellite licenses, which would mean the Department of Justice would review for antitrust issues, though likely with FCC input anyway. But Sen Markey says the deal "demands" a review by both parties. “A review by the FCC would help prevent pay-TV gatekeepers from favoring their own content providers, and blocking minority, diverse, and independent programmers from reaching America's living rooms," he said, echoing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's arguments for various regulatory efforts. "A review by the FCC would help ensure that Americans can continue to enjoy watching all the content that should be available to them, and that their right to privacy is maintained even when technologies change.” Sen Markey did not say he opposed, or supported, the deal. But he did say that an FCC review would give it a chance to either "apply pro-consumer, pro-competition conditions if the acquisition is not in the public interest or halt it altogether."
benton.org/headlines/sen-markey-fcc-should-review-att-time-warner-deal | Broadcasting&Cable
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ATT, TIME WARNER AND THE DEATH OF PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Democracy Now, AUTHOR: Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan]
[Commentary] A problem that AT&T presents, that would only be exacerbated by the merger, is the potential to invade the privacy of its millions of customers. In 2006, AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein revealed that the company was secretly sharing all of its customers’ metadata with the National Security Agency. Klein, who installed the fiber-splitting hardware in a secret room at the main AT&T facility in San Francisco, had his whistleblowing allegations confirmed several years later by Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks. While that dragnet surveillance program was supposedly shut down in 2011, a similar surveillance program still exists. It’s called “Project Hemisphere.” It was exposed by The New York Times in 2013, with substantiating documents just revealed this week in The Daily Beast. In “Project Hemisphere,” AT&T sells metadata to law enforcement, under the aegis of the so-called war on drugs. A police agency sends in a request for all the data related to a particular person or telephone number, and, for a major fee and without a subpoena, AT&T delivers a sophisticated data set, that can, according to The Daily Beast, “determine where a target is located, with whom he speaks, and potentially why.” Where you go, what you watch, text and share, with whom you speak, all your Internet searches and preferences, all gathered and “vertically integrated,” sold to police and perhaps, in the future, to any number of AT&T’s corporate customers. We can’t know if Alexander Graham Bell envisioned this brave new digital world when he invented the telephone. But this is the future that is fast approaching, unless people rise up and stop this merger.
benton.org/headlines/att-time-warner-and-death-privacy | Democracy Now
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THE CASE AGAINST MONSTER BELL
[SOURCE: Moyers and Company, AUTHOR: Craig Aaron]
[Commentary] This merger is ginormous. It would put the nation’s largest multichannel video provider (thanks to newly acquired DirecTV), the second-largest wireless company and the third-largest broadband provider under the same corporate umbrella as HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT and the Warner Bros. movie studio. Forget Ma Bell. This is Monster Bell.
AT&T Can’t Be Trusted: For years and through multiple merger proceedings, AT&T has promised to expand high-speed broadband and failed to deliver, only to resurrect the same promises when it’s ready to make another deal. AT&T’s list of lies and chicanery is too long to reprint here.
More Than Just a Merger: It’s important to recognize just how much the political landscape has shifted. There is deep popular distrust of the rigged system that AT&T/Time Warner represents and broad bipartisan frustration with the failure of merger after merger to deliver any public benefits.
Is there really enough popular and political will to stand up to AT&T’s lobbying juggernaut and block this deal? Stranger things have happened.
[Craig Aaron is the president and CEO of Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund]
benton.org/headlines/atttime-warner-case-against-monster-bell | Moyers and Company
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

FCC: OPEN INTERNET ORDER WAS PRO-SMALL BUSINESS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission released "Section 257 Triennial Report to Congress Identifying and Eliminating Market Entry Barriers For Entrepreneurs and other Small Businesses." The FCC under Chairman Tom Wheeler says it has created "unprecedented opportunities for new and diverse media voices to find audiences," primarily through Open Internet policies like Title II reclassification of Internet service providers. The FCC was asked by Congress to give a status report every three years and to make recommendations for legislative changes that would further the goals of "1) diversity of media voices, 2) vigorous economic competition, 3) technological advancement, and 4) promotion of the public convenience and necessity." One of the changes the FCC is looking for, while Congress is asking, is more time to investigate complaints, saying that the current one-year statute of limitations should be tripled to three years, arguing that would "strengthen its ability to enforce its rules, "including its activities to protect small businesses." While it says it has acted on numerous fronts, the most important has been "the development of an open, interconnected broadband ecosystem that has given small firms access to marketing and production capabilities that were once available only to large and established firms." "Our Open Internet Order protects entrepreneurs and small businesses’ free and open access to the Internet, enabling innovation without permission," said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. "We all know the stories of young entrepreneurs who used the open Internet to start companies in dorm-rooms and garages that would eventually topple incumbents to become world-leading companies. But fast, fair, and open networks don’t just offer a platform to build web-based companies, they also help small brick-and-mortar businesses grow." The report argues that high-speed access has "radically" lowered small business entry costs, and has also "taken action to create new opportunities for small companies to acquire crucial inputs such as wireless spectrum and broadcast licenses" and has "reduced paperwork requirements for small firms."
benton.org/headlines/fcc-triennial-report-congress-open-internet-order-was-pro-small-business | Broadcasting&Cable | Read the report
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FCC BACKS FTC'S CHALLENGE TO NINTH CIRCUIT RULING
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission lawyers agree a recent court decision could threaten the privacy partnership between the FCC and Federal Trade Commission necessitated by the reclassification of Internet service providers as Title II common carriers. The FCC filed an amicus brief with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit supporting the FTC’s challenge of a ruling by a three-judge panel of that court that calls into question the FTC's ability to protect the privacy of web user's data or determine how it can be shared by edge providers—Google, Facebook. The FCC said the FTC had made a "compelling case" for an en banc (full court) rehearing. Courts do not frequently grant such requests but could win this case given the regulatory gap the decision appears to create. The filing, which was made before the FCC’s Oct 27 vote on its new rules, pointed out that vote was coming and that rules did not apply to edge privacy, including websites owned by broadband providers. "By restricting the FTC’s authority over non-common-carrier offerings of entities that also provide common carrier services, the panel’s decision creates uncertainty regarding the agencies’ collaborative efforts to protect the public interest, and potentially undermines those efforts," the FCC said. That is because the FCC and FTC have to take a sort of Jack Spratt approach given the bifurcated authority over ISPs and edge providers. For instance, the FCC regulates Google Fiber sub data privacy, while the FTC regulates Google search engine surfer data privacy, with different regimes and levels of protection for each.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-backs-ftcs-challenge-ninth-circuit-ruling | Broadcasting&Cable
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ADVANCING LOCAL BROADBAND ACCESS
[SOURCE: International City/County Management Association, AUTHOR: Lindsey Frost, Michael Baskin, Jelani Newton]
[Commentary] The value of a broadband network goes beyond speed and is maximized when it is built to meet a community’s specific needs, match its values, and bridge its divides. Local government leaders can draw upon the work of those who have gone before, tapping into peer-pioneering cities and global supports from nonprofit organizations. As people increasingly rely on the Internet not only for their work and education but also for everyday activities, it is easy to take this invaluable resource for granted. One in 10 Americans, however, does not have access to high-speed Internet, as reported in 2016 by the Federal Communications Commission. In rural communities, 39 percent of the population lacks high-speed Internet access. Understanding the significant impact that Internet access has on education, economic opportunity, and quality of life, stakeholders at all levels of government and across private and nonprofit sectors have been working to close the gaps in access. In the movement to expand reliable high-speed Internet access to all, managers and local governments have an important role to play in assessing and addressing the unique needs of their communities. This role can include providing network access where the private market does not, convening public and private stakeholders to create or expand networks, and removing barriers to access by offering subsidies and digital literacy training.
[Lindsey Frost is program director, Mozilla's Gigabit Hive Initiative, Mountain View, California. Michael Baskin is chief policy officer, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Jelani Newton is director of survey research, ICMA, Washington, D.C.]
benton.org/headlines/advancing-local-broadband-access | International City/County Management Association
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ADVERTISING

FACEBOOK LETS ADVERTISERS EXCLUDE USERS BY RACE
[SOURCE: ProPublica, AUTHOR: Julia Angwin, Terry Parris]
Imagine if, during the Jim Crow era, a newspaper offered advertisers the option of placing ads only in copies that went to white readers. That’s basically what Facebook is doing nowadays. The ubiquitous social network not only allows advertisers to target users by their interests or background, it also gives advertisers the ability to exclude specific groups it calls “Ethnic Affinities.” Ads that exclude people based on race, gender and other sensitive factors are prohibited by federal law in housing and employment. The ad we purchased was targeted to Facebook members who were house hunting and excluded anyone with an “affinity” for African-American, Asian-American or Hispanic people. When we showed Facebook’s racial exclusion options to a prominent civil rights lawyer John Relman, he gasped and said, “This is horrifying. This is massively illegal. This is about as blatant a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act as one can find.”
benton.org/headlines/facebook-lets-advertisers-exclude-users-race | ProPublica
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