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December 2016

Applications Filed for the Transfer of Control of Level 3 Communications to CenturyLink

CenturyLink and Level 3 Communications filed a series of applications seeking approval to transfer control to CenturyLink of various licenses and authorizations held by operating subsidiaries of Level 3. Applicants filed a supplement to their application on December 19, 2016. Pursuant to this Transaction, if approved, CenturyLink will acquire control of Level 3 and indirect control of Level 3’s operating subsidiaries. Petitions to Deny the applications are due at the FCC by January 23, 2017. Opposition to those petitions are due February 7, 2017.

Incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Walden Continues Staff Announcements for Committee

Rep Greg Walden (R-OR), incoming Chairman of the House Commerce Committee, continued staff announcements for the 115th Congress. Chairman Walden announced earlier in Dec that Mike Bloomquist, Karen Christian, Peter Kielty, and Paul Edattel will continue to serve the committee.
Today’s staff announcements include:

Jen Barblan, Chief Counsel, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations: Barblan will serve as Chief Counsel for the Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations. She has served as a counsel to the subcommittee since October 2015. Barblan previously spent time as a Senior Counsel at the Committee on Oversight & Government Reform and in private practice.

Paul Edattel, Chief Counsel, Subcommittee on Health: As previously announced, Edattel will continue to serve as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on Health. Edattel started with the committee in 2011 and has served as Chief Health Counsel since 2016, after serving Speaker John Boehner as his Health Policy Advisor. Edattel also served as a Legislative Director in the House of Representatives before joining the committee.

David Redl, Chief Counsel, Subcommittee on Communications and Technology: Redl will continue serving as Chief Counsel for the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. He has served in that role since 2013, previously serving the committee as Counsel from 2011 to 2013. Prior to joining the committee, Redl held several positions in the private sector.

Tom Wheeler: The open internet's unlikely defender

Tom Wheeler wasn't expected to be a hero of the open internet. But that's how the outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairman will be remembered when he leaves his office in January.

In 2015, Chairman Wheeler, a telecom-lobbyist-turned-regulator, pushed through a set of sweeping network neutrality rules that reclassified internet service providers as public utilities. He's also protected consumer privacy by championing stringent regulations, enhanced affordable broadband for low-income families and advocated for competition. "Rather than be the lapdog of industry some feared (or hoped for), Tom Wheeler proved himself to be the most ferocious watchdog for consumers and competition in nearly two decades," said Harold Feld, senior vice president for Public Knowledge. Last week, Chairman Wheeler, 70, gave notice that he will step down on January 20, when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Fellow Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who wasn't reconfirmed, will leave when her term ends on December 31. When the dust settles, the agency will have a 2-1 Republican majority, putting Chairman Wheeler's legacy in jeopardy.

Delieverign Great digital Government in the Trump Era

[Commentary] As we transition to the Trump administration, some experts are forecasting an uncertain future for federal digital services. Spending projections on citizen engagement technologies appear flat at best, cyber concerns surround the launch of every new digital initiative, and early predictions indicate the new administration will likely pursue a buy vs. build approach.

Despite these challenges, the bottom line is that citizen service demands and expectations are on the rise. The average American will be about 38 years old midway through President-elect Donald Trump’s 4-year term, which means federal agencies will be delivering services to digital experts—people who have used the internet since middle school. Faxing forms might as well be a foreign language to these folks. So how can agencies transform how digital services are delivered and meet the rising and constantly changing expectations of citizens in this new climate?

[Angela Fultz Nordstrom is vice president of NIC Inc.]

2016: A Big Year for Telecom M&A

2016 was a big year for telecommunications mergers and acquisitions. Telecompetitor covered more than two dozen mergers and acquisitions in 2016 and they involved numerous facets of the industry. Here’s a summary of key trends and how they are reshaping the communications service provider playing field:

The biggest changes occurred in the cable industry, where the desire to obtain increased scale spurred a mega-merger that brought three of the nation’s largest cable providers into a single entity. The operations of Charter, Time Warner Cable and Bright House are now combined into a single entity under the Charter name, and they are the number three video provider in the market (behind AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast).
France-based Altice also has been acquiring cable properties in the US. In 2016, it acquired Cablevision after previously acquiring Suddenlink.
After purchasing DirecTV in 2015, AT&T is now pursuing the acquisition of Time Warner with the goal of acquiring content to support its video and other media offerings.
Verizon made plans to acquire XO Communications in order to obtain the competitive carrier’s spectrum licenses, which Verizon plans to use to support 5G wireless service.
Meanwhile, CenturyLink’s 2016 acquisition strategy was focused on gaining scale in the enterprise market. The company’s plan to acquire Level 3 Communications, announced in October, will make the combined company number two in the enterprise market, behind AT&T.
Although not known primarily as a communications provider, Google entered that market when it began deploying its gigabit fiber-to-the-home service in select markets several years ago. Google’s acquisition of wireless Internet service provider WebPass, completed in October, indicated the Internet giant is still interested in the service provider market, but that it is likely to shift toward a broadband wireless strategy.

Sen Daines secures expansion of wireless broadband to rural Montana

Sen Steve Daines (R-MT) secured the expansion of wireless broadband access in rural Montana. The Federal Communications Commission provided final regulatory approval for T-Mobile to provide 4G LTE service to areas covering over one million people in Montana and Wyoming. “Montanans know all too well the feeling of seeing your call dropped, pressing send on text messages that will never get sent in the rural parts of our state,” Sen Daines stated. “Today’s announcement that T-Mobile will be able to expand their coverage to the under-served part of our state is great news for connectivity and the safety of Montanans on our roadways.” “T-Mobile is grateful to Senator Daines and the FCC for giving us the opportunity to expand broadband across Montana,” said Kathleen Ham, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for T-Mobile.

Sen Daines met with T-Mobile CEO John Legere in his Washington, D.C. office on November 30, 2016. The FCC's approval follows a letter Sen Daines sent to the FCC, urging it to take action on T-Mobile’s plan to offer expanded service.

President Obama just made it much harder for President-elect Trump to build his “Muslim registry”

For nine years, from 2002 to 2011, a version of one of Donald Trump’s most extreme proposals was standard US government policy: requiring certain people in the US on visas from Muslim-majority countries to register with the government. President Barack Obama suspended the program in 2011 — after years of complaints by civil rights groups that the program targeted Muslims and wasn’t effective in preventing terrorism. But it had never been fully dismantled — it was still sitting around for the Trump administration to dust off. Until now.

On Dec 22, the Department of Homeland Security published a regulation that would totally get rid of the National Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) — forcing the Trump administration to take the time to create something new, and giving civil rights groups an opportunity to stop them. The regulation goes into effect Friday, December 22, well before President Trump is inaugurated. So when his administration takes office — if it’s serious about finding a way to register people from Muslim-majority countries in the US — it’s going to have to find another way to do it.

A new year brings new opportunities to drive broadband investment in growth.

As 2016 comes to a close, this is a time of both reflection and looking ahead. At Verizon, we could not be prouder of the work our dedicated teams have accomplished over the past 12 months to improve our customers’ experience. From introducing new services like LTE Advanced on our next gen network, to providing more mobile content to our customers with go90, to expanding Verizon’s position in exciting new technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things, telematics and smart communities; it’s been an exciting year.

The next Congress and incoming Administration have an opportunity to modernize the nation’s antiquated communications laws in ways that will better protect consumers, foster innovation and encourage market competition across the Internet ecosystem. Today’s rigid laws and regulations built around legacy services must give way to new, more flexible approaches that are more aligned to the realities of the converged digital marketplace. Rather than relying on outdated technology-specific regulations, we need a modernized legal framework with broad parameters that is tailored to promote competition and protect consumers in today’s ever-changing environment.

December 22, 2016 (Welcome to the Dawn Of A New Unified Republican Government)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2016


TRANSITION
   'Dawn Of A New Unified Republican Government' Coming in 2017 [links to National Public Radio]
   The New Democratic Mix on Senate Commerce Committee
   Alternative perspectives on technology policy in the Trump administration - Brookings analysis
   How Tech Leaders Should Engage With Trump in 2017 - Fast Company op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   Trump names Carl Icahn as special adviser on regulatory reform [links to Hill, The]
   Rep. Sensenbrenner Urges President-elect Trump to Maintain Intelligence Cooperation Between the U.S. and EU [links to House of Representatives]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Net Neutrality Rollback Under Trump Will Face Hurdles
   For new infrastructure, apply Republican approach to power and communications - Reed Hundt op-ed

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   Law Enforcement's Use of Facial Recognition Technology Is Racially Biased and Threatens Our First Amendment Rights - Free Press
   Netflix's Twitter account hacked [links to Hill, The]
   Amazon Echo Privacy: Is Alexa listening to everything you say? [links to Benton summary]
   Sen Franken (D-MN) Doesn't Hail Uber Privacy Update [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   US State Police Have Spent Millions on Israeli Phone Cracking Tech [links to Vice]
   Sean Vitka: What some lawmakers still don't get about encryption [links to Christian Science Monitor]
   Could US-Russia feud over hacks lead to digital detente? [links to Christian Science Monitor]

CONTENT
   Fake News: A New Name For An Old Problem - HuffPo editorial [links to Benton summary]
   Fake News Stories – Is It Possible to Stop Them? [links to Technology Academics Policy]
   YouTube's stars gripe as Facebook shakes up digital video [links to USAToday]
   For Millions of Immigrants, a Common Language: WhatsApp [links to Benton summary]
   Virtual Reality Can Leave You With an Existential Hangover [links to Atlantic, The]
   Mossberg: My tech report card for 2016 [links to Vox]
   Tom Sydnor: Let’s reject the latest panicky argument for regulating internet speech [links to American Enterprise Institute]

JOURNALISM
   TV stations fight ‘sea of sameness’ with experimental local news [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
   Kara Swisher: In 2017, journalists ‘have to be tougher on everybody.’ [links to Vox]

OWNERSHIP
   Windstream-EarthLink Merger Clears Antitrust Hurdle
   What could happen to Yahoo if Verizon backs away from its $4.8 billion deal [links to Benton summary]

TELECOM
   Verizon wants to switch copper retirement notifications from paper to electronic copies [links to Benton summary]
   Proposed telecom arbitration ban is bad law and bad policy - AEI op-ed [links to Benton summary]

ELECTIONS
   Cybersecurity firm finds evidence that Russian military unit was behind DNC hack [links to Washington Post]
   How pollsters could use social media data to improve election forecasts - WaPo op-ed [links to Benton summary]

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
   This Is What Resisting Looks Like [links to Free Press]

DIVERSITY
   Discrimination by algorithm: scientists devise test to detect AI bias [links to Guardian, The]
   How to curb online harassment? Technology, law and advocacy can help. - WaPo op-ed [links to Benton summary]

TELEVISION
   What America Watched in 2016 [links to Vulture]

PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS
   After failing to strike a new deal, Nokia is suing Apple for patent infringement [links to Benton summary]
   New York stops the litigious sprawl of pre-1972 sound copyrights [links to Ars Technica]

RESEARCH
   16 striking findings from 2016 - Pew research
   Facebook inks research deal with 17 universities [links to Benton summary]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   How virtual reality could help Congress understand the issues [links to Hill, The]

POLICYMAKERS
   US privacy board in disarray before Trump takes office
   Farewell to the most polarized Congress in more than 100 years! [links to Washington Post]

COMPANY NEWS
   Zuckerberg: "Facebook is a new kind of platform. It's not a traditional technology company. It's not a traditional media company." [links to USAToday]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Canada declares ‘high-speed’ internet essential for quality of life
   Superfast broadband to reach 600,000 more rural homes in UK
   Foreign firewalls have no standing — open internet makes for a free world - The Hill op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   Tech groups warn against EU copyright rule
   Snap sets up an office in China, where Snapchat is banned [links to Verge, The]
   Who is Working to Address Gender Digital Divide? The Importance of Mapping [links to International Telecommunication Union]

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TRANSITION

THE NEW DEMOCRATIC MIX ON SENATE COMMERCE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Li Zhou]
The Senate Commerce Committee is adding a few new Democratic faces, according to a list released by incoming-Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Here’s a rundown of who’s staying and going, assuming the full Democratic Caucus ratifies the moves next month:
Staying : Ranking Member Bill Nelson (FL), Maria Cantwell (WA), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Brian Schatz (HI), Ed Markey (MA), Cory Booker (NJ), Tom Udall (NM) and Gary Peters (MI).
Leaving: Joe Manchin (WV) and Claire McCaskill (MO).
New: Tammy Baldwin (WI) and Sens.-elect Tammy Duckworth (IL), Maggie Hassan (NH) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV).
benton.org/headlines/new-democratic-mix-senate-commerce-committee | Politico
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ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON TECH POLICY IN TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
[SOURCE: Brookings, AUTHOR: Stuart Brotman, Robin Lewis, Nicol Turner-Lee, Niam Yaraghi]
Come Jan 20, President-elect Donald Trump will have the opportunity to continue or suspend many of the technology-focused initiatives begun by President Barack Obama. These programs included expanding broadband access, training workers for jobs in STEM fields, and building supercomputers, among others. Brookings experts Stuart N. Brotman, Robin Lewis, Nicol Turner-Lee, and Niam Yaraghi weigh in on what direction technology policy will take in the Trump administration, and how it might react to future technology change.
Expanding Broadband Access: The incoming administration has expressed its intent to lead its policy priorities with an aggressive infrastructure plan. Referring to the infrastructure goals as a “golden opportunity for accelerated economic growth,” the new leadership plans to rejuvenate the domestic economy by spurring more targeted private investments and creating and recovering jobs. Under what will seemingly be a pro-business, nonregulated market, the threat of broadband “overbuild” looms, bringing new meaning to the cliche “if you build it, will they come.” Whereas technology overbuilds have often led to increased competition in certain markets and lowered consumer prices, an oversaturated broadband market can also create network redundancies, faster depreciation of assets, and decreased consumer demand. Managing supply and demand of broadband services should be at the core of the new administration’s efforts. With unbridled supply, the marketplace will be ripe for competitive offerings and differentiated services, including free or unlimited data plans. Smart digital inclusion plans and programs with clear goals and outcomes should be prioritized to narrow the gap among those who haven’t adopted broadband into their daily lives. Increased investments in digital literacy training, especially within community anchor institutions (e.g., libraries and schools) can cultivate more interest and use. In sum, the new administration’s efforts to expand and maximize infrastructure must equally address the demand for these and other emerging services so that when it’s built, they will indeed come.
benton.org/headlines/alternative-perspectives-technology-policy-trump-administration | Brookings
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

NET NEUTRALITY ROLLBACK UNDER TRUMP WILL FACE HURDLES
[SOURCE: Morning Consult, AUTHOR: Brendan Bordelon]
As Republicans prepare to take over the Federal Communications Commission in 2017, don’t expect them to make a quick, clean break with the agency’s 2015 network neutrality rule. Two commission officials said that procedural hurdles and related programs may make scrapping the Open Internet order more complicated than GOP rhetoric suggests. The commission is still required to issue a proposed rule, which typically takes months to craft, and the comment period spans about two months. Political precedent will weigh in. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai will likely be acting chairman starting on Jan 20, and he will have to balance any desire to move quickly on Title II with some deference to the administration’s pick for chairman. That nomination could take months to finalize. Perhaps most importantly, the two commission officials separately noted that a rule to roll back net neutrality could face scrutiny in the courts. A federal appeals court upheld the net neutrality rule in June, and the decision relied on evidence of how the broadband market changed over the previous 10 years, making it difficult for Republicans to argue for a rollback now.
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-rollback-under-trump-will-face-hurdles | Morning Consult
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FOR NEW INFRASTRUCTURE
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Reed Hundt]
[Commentary] The incoming Trump administration and the new Republican Congress seem interested in providing tax advantages and new debt availability for infrastructure spending. But project developers will need revenue to pay off debt. So the infrastructure has to generate income. To pay back debt and guarantee that infrastructure spending is productive, projects need user fees. The problem is that more than 90% of transportation infrastructure is publicly owned, publicly funded and used for free. Without revenue prospects, private sector developers are not going to enter the business of rebuilding most roads, bridges, tunnels, sewers, water systems, and dams. On the other hand, almost all 21st century infrastructure is privately owned, funded by users through various fees and charges, and ripe for huge new private spending. To really make America great, the new administration and Congress should make the tax advantages and finance benefits for infrastructure applicable to the 21st century infrastructures of power and communications.
[Reed Hundt is the CEO of Coalition for Green Capital and a former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission]
benton.org/headlines/new-infrastructure-apply-republican-approach-power-and-communications | Medium
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OWNERSHIP

WINDSTREAM-EARTHLINK MERGER CLEARS ANTITRUST HURDLE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission have given a clean antitrust review bill of health to the proposed $1.1 billion merger of Internet service providers Windstream and EarthLink. The deal was listed among those that had been granted early termination of their Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust reviews. Those are conducted by either the Justice Department or Federal Trade Commission—they never say which reviewed a deal when granting early termination, but Justice usually handles telecom transactions. Early termination means they are done with the review and are not suggesting that the merger be blocked or are suing to insure that certain conditions are applied. The Federal Communications Commission will also need to sign off, but that process will take a while longer. The FCC opened its review docket on the deal Dec. 2 and reply comments are not due until Dec. 23, so there will likely be no decision before early next year. The companies signaled they did not expect the deal to be able to close until first quarter 2017. The companies announced Nov. 7 they had reached a deal for an all-stock deal of $1.1 billion, including debt.
benton.org/headlines/windstream-earthlink-merger-clears-antitrust-hurdle | Broadcasting&Cable
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

USE OF FACIAL RECOGNITION TECH
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Sandra Fulton]
[Commentary] Recently, a broad coalition of civil rights, civil liberties, privacy and immigrant-rights groups met with representatives from the FBI and Justice Department to demand more transparency around the use of an increasingly popular law enforcement tool: facial recognition technology. The meeting was in response to a recent report from the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology that found that law enforcement agencies across the country are adding this technology to their arsenal of investigatory tools. While the report found that the practice affects over 117 million people, agencies across the board have failed to put in place safeguards to protect our privacy. Worse yet, while the technology potentially threatens the rights of everyone in America, the report uncovered damning racial biases within the systems.
benton.org/headlines/law-enforcements-use-facial-recognition-technology-racially-biased-and-threatens-our-first | Free Press
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RESEARCH

16 STRIKING FINDINGS FROM 2016
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: Abigail Geiger]
Every year, we publish a collection of facts about the important events, issues and trends we documented in our wide-ranging research over the past 12 months. In 2016, Pew Research Center examined an array of topics in America – from immigration to the growing divide between Republicans and Democrats – as well as many from around the globe. Here are 16 of our most striking findings.
13) Americans’ pathways to news are changing, and mobile news is on the rise. Almost four-in-ten Americans (38%) often get news online today, behind only television (57%); radio (25%) and print newspapers (20%) trail both. Within the digital realm, mobile news consumption is rising rapidly: The proportion of Americans who ever get news on a mobile device has gone up from 54% in 2013 to 72% today. And among people who get news on both mobile and desktop, 56% prefer mobile.
14) Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform among Americans. Today, about eight-in-ten online Americans (79%) use Facebook, more than double the share that uses Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or LinkedIn. About three-quarters (76%) of Americans who use Facebook now report that they visit the site on a daily basis – up from 70% in 2015.
benton.org/headlines/16-striking-findings-2016 | Pew Research Center
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POLICYMAKERS

PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES OVERSIGHT BOARD
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Tami Abdollah]
The five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board in disarray just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. It will have only two remaining members as of Jan. 7 — and zero Democrats, even though it is required to operate as an independent, bipartisan agency. The vacancies mean it will lack the minimum three members required to conduct business and can work only on ongoing projects. Trump would have to nominate new members who would have to be confirmed by the Senate. Jim Dempsey, a Democrat, will leave the board Jan. 3 because for months the Senate has not confirmed his re-nomination by President Barack Barack Obama. And former US Judge Patricia Wald, the only other Democrat, informed the White House this month that she intends to retire effective Jan. 7. The board also will lose its executive director, Sharon Bradford Franklin, who apparently plans to step down before Trump's presidency. One of the board's two remaining Republicans, Rachel Brand, whose term officially expires in January, could continue through March. If Trump were to move forward with any board nomination, she may continue through the end of the year. Should Brand leave, Republican Elisebeth Collins would become the last board member; her term ends in January 2020.
benton.org/headlines/us-privacy-board-disarray-trump-takes-office | Associated Press
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

CANADA DECLARES BROADBAND ACCESS ESSENTIAL
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: James Vincent]
Canada has recognized the obvious and declared high-speed broadband internet access a “basic telecommunications service” that every citizen should be able to access. Previously, only landline telephone services had received this designation from the country’s national telecoms regulator, CRTC, and the change is supported by a government investment package of up to $750 million to wire up rural areas. “The future of our economy, our prosperity and our society — indeed, the future of every citizen — requires us to set ambitious goals, and to get on with connecting all Canadians for the 21st century," said CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais. “These goals are ambitious. They will not be easy to achieve and they will cost money. But we have no choice.” As part of declaring broadband a “basic” or essential service, the CRTC has also set new goals for download and upload speeds. For fixed broadband services, all citizens should have the option of unlimited data with speeds of at least 50 megabits per second for downloads and 10 megabits per second for uploads — a tenfold increase of previous targets set in 2011. The goals for mobile coverage are less ambitious, and simply call for “access to the latest mobile wireless technology” in cities and major transport corridors. The CRTC estimates that some two million Canadian households, or 18 percent of the population, do not currently have access to their desired speeds.
benton.org/headlines/canada-declares-high-speed-internet-essential-quality-life | Verge, The
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RURAL BROADBAND IN UK
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Nic Fildes]
The British government is aiming to connect an extra 600,000 homes in rural areas to superfast broadband, after BT released almost £300 million of funds back into a scheme designed to address the gap between speeds available in the countryside and in cities. The original subsidies provided by the government to BT to roll out superfast broadband — of speeds of at least 24 Mbps — to rural areas included clawback mechanisms if take-up was better than expected. The cash was described as a “windfall” by the government, which was criticised during the early stages of the Broadband Delivery UK project for handing all the contracts to BT and being unclear about when specific regions would benefit and how the costs would be shared.
benton.org/headlines/superfast-broadband-reach-600000-more-rural-homes-uk | Financial Times
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TECH GROUPS WARN AGAINST EU COPYRIGHT RULE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
Tech trade groups penned a letter to US regulators warning against a European Union copyright proposal. “The Commission’s Proposal on copyright in the Digital Single Market risks undermining trans-Atlantic commerce and internet openness,” the groups wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and US Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman. The letter's signatories included the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Consumer Technology Association (CTA), Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and the Internet Association (IA) — groups that represent a number of major tech companies such as Google parent Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook. At issue is an EU measure that would require internet companies to create content filtering software to detect copyright material. But the tech groups say the proposal breaks from established international standards and wrongly put liability for copyright violations on internet companies instead of those who actually publish copyrighted material on their platforms. The letter argues that the content filters are expensive to maintain, citing the $60 million YouTube has reportedly spent on the technology.
benton.org/headlines/tech-groups-warn-against-eu-copyright-rule | Hill, The | read the letter
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