February 2017

COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY

TRUMP: 'REAL STORY' OF FLYNN RESIGNATION IS ILLEGAL LEAKS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ben Kamisar]
President Donald Trump said the “real story” of national security adviser Michael Flynn’s resignation was “illegal leaks,” rather than reports Flynn misled senior White House officials about his conversations with Russia. "The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal with N.Korea etc?" President Trump tweeted. The White House announced Flynn's resignation Feb 13, the culmination of weeks of controversy surrounding alleged communications with Russia.
benton.org/headlines/trump-real-story-flynn-resignation-illegal-leaks | Hill, The
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HOUSE INTELLIGENCE PANEL WON'T INVESTIGATE FLYNN, WILL PROBE LEAKS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jonathan Easley]
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) says he won’t open an investigation into President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, citing executive privilege. But the committee will investigate who leaked the story that led to Flynn’s resignation and why Trump's national security adviser was being recorded. Democrats are demanding an investigation into the matter, which ties into their suspicions about the Trump administration’s alleged close ties to Moscow. But House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said his committee will not investigate Flynn, and Nunes, the Intelligence chairman, followed suit. Chairman Nunes said he is more concerned “that you have an American citizen who had his phone calls recorded.” Chairman Nunes will investigate how the story was exposed, he said.
benton.org/headlines/chairman-house-intel-panel-wont-investigate-flynn-will-probe-leaks | Hill, The | Washington Post
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LEAKS OR ESPIONAGE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sydney Ember]
In the hours since Michael Flynn resigned as national security adviser, two narratives have emerged. One, embraced by many in the traditional legacy media, centered on what Flynn had done that led to his resignation: discussed sanctions against Russia in a conversation with the Russian ambassador, and then misled Vice President Mike Pence about it. The other, which developed among the more right-leaning news media, focused on the leaks from Washington that had put pressure on Flynn to step aside, and whether these leaks were intended to damage President Donald Trump. One narrative holds Flynn, and others who knew about his discussions, accountable. The other portrays Flynn more as a victim. Which narrative does President Trump ascribe to? He attributed Flynn’s resignation to “illegal leaks.” It is not unusual for news media to promote different story angles. And the division between left-leaning and right-leaning news organizations is certainly not new. But the rift between the mainstream media and more partisan news organizations has grown starker in the nearly four weeks since President Trump took office, reflecting a widening political and ideological rift.
benton.org/headlines/divided-media-michael-flynn-patriotic-leaks-or-political-espionage | New York Times
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TRUMP STAFFERS USING APP THAT DELETES THEIR MESSAGES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
Trump Administration staffers are reportedly communicating by using an encrypted messaging app that erases messages shortly after they have been received. The Washington Post reported that officials were using the app, called Confide, to avoid being caught talking to the media, as President Trump moves to crack down on leaks. The Post report followed a report from Axios recently that reported Confide had become a favorite app for Republican staffers. Staffers may also be concerned about being hacked after high-profile cyber attacks on Democratic groups during the election. "We do see a spike in across the board metrics when there is a major news cycle about the vulnerability of digital communications," Jon Brod, Confide’s president, told Axios. The reports raise questions though about the possible violation of federal records keeping laws that require certain government employees to use their official email address for communications. “The whole f---ing campaign was about Hillary's emails and now Trump's team is violating the Presidential Records Act by using Confide,” tweeted former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor.
benton.org/headlines/trump-staffers-using-app-deletes-their-messages-report | Hill, The | Washington Post
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ETHICS OFFICE CALLS ON WH TO DISCIPLINE CONWAY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jonathan Easley]
The director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) says White House counselor Kellyanne Conway misused her official position by hawking Ivanka Trump’s product line on TV and is recommending that the White House discipline her for it. “Under the present circumstances, there is strong reason to believe that Ms. Conway has violated the Standards of Conduct Act and that disciplinary action is warranted,” OGE director Walter Schaub wrote in a Feb 14 letter to White House legal counselor Stefan Passantino. Schaub asked the White House to respond by Feb. 28 with the results of its investigation and any disciplinary action it may decide to take.
benton.org/headlines/ethics-office-calls-white-house-discipline-conway | Hill, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

LETTER TO PAI OVER LIFELINE PROGRAM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
Democratic Reps are hammering Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai over his decision to cut nine companies from a program that provides subsidized internet service to low-income people. Forty-one Reps, including Reps Ro Khanna (D-CA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Ron Kind (D-WI), signed a letter saying that Chairman Pai’s move would hurt poor communities. “Your action will hurt those in our country that need the most help,” they wrote. “Your arbitrary decision will hurt poor children and widen the digital divide.” The House letter follows one sent on Feb 10 from 15 Democratic Sens that also blasted the decision. House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) blasted the decision earlier in Feb, calling it a “baseless action.”
benton.org/headlines/41-democratic-reps-write-fcc-chairman-pai-over-lifeilne-program | Hill, The | read the letter | The Verge
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DROPPING LIFELINE
[SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute, AUTHOR: Mark Jamison]
[Commentary] What would happen if the US Department of Energy decided to help low-income households afford solar power by giving money to companies which report that they lease solar panels to these households? In all likelihood, fraud would be a difficult and costly problem, and solar companies would benefit more than the households. Despite the obvious flaws of a system where companies receive money based upon their service claims, this is essentially how the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline program works: Telecommunications companies receive money based upon how many households they claim as Lifeline customers. There is a better way — a direct subsidy would be more beneficial to low-income households. If the Lifeline program were ended at the federal level, states would likely need to change their systems as well. That would be complicated, but it is time to get telephone companies and telephone regulators out of the business of public assistance, leaving it to government agencies that are designed to be experts in that field.
[Jamison the director and Gunter Professor of the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida. He is also part of the Trump Administration’s FCC Transition team]
benton.org/headlines/help-poor-dropping-lifeline | American Enterprise Institute
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CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS BACK TRUMP'S PLAN TO KILL NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: The Intercept, AUTHOR: Lee Fang]
Leading Civil Rights groups who for many years have been heavily bankrolled by the telecommunications industry are signaling their support for Donald Trump’s promised rollback of the Obama administration’s network neutrality rules, which prevent internet service providers from prioritizing some content providers over others. In a little-noticed joint letter released recently, the NAACP, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, OCA (formerly known as the Organization for Chinese Americans), the National Urban League, and other civil rights organizations sharply criticized the “jurisdictional and classification problems that plagued the last FCC” — a reference to the legal mechanism used by the Obama administration to accomplish net neutrality. Instead of classifying broadband as a public utility, the letter states, open internet rules should be written by statute. What does that mean? It means the Republican-led Congress should take control of the process — the precise approach that is favored by industry.
benton.org/headlines/civil-rights-groups-funded-telecoms-back-donald-trumps-plan-kill-net-neutrality | Intercept, The | read the letter
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MO BILL WOULD CONDITION ON MUNI BROADBAND BUILDOUTS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A hearing is scheduled for Feb 14 in the Missouri State Senate Local Government and Elections Committee on a bill that would put new conditions on municipal broadband buildouts. The telecom-backed bill would require a feasibility study before any local government could expand broadband infrastructure and any such expansion would have to be approved by a majority of voters. The bill would also prevent a municipality from cross-subsidizing their service with other revenues if they offered the service in competition with a private provider, and could not use any funds unless the voters approved them. In addition, any subdivision of a municipality wishing to use the service would have to pay "fair market value" and the service could not get preferential access to rights-of-way. Any private provider or other party providing a competitive service that believes the government is violating any of those provisions can sue. Commercial ISPs have long argued that municipalities should not be able to overbuild them with public funds, and that those overbuilds will leave, and have left, taxpayers holding the bag when and if the projects prove unsustainable. Municipal broadband backer, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, calls it another attempt by entrenched "monopoly" providers and their lobbyists to protect themselves.
benton.org/headlines/missouri-bill-would-condition-muni-broadband-buildouts | Multichannel News
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JOURNALISM

SNOWDEN PROTECTING REPORTERS FROM SPIES
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Andy Greenberg]
Nearly four years after his leaks, Edward Snowden has focused the next phase of his career on solving that very specific instance of the panopticon problem: how to protect reporters and the people who feed them informa¬tion in an era of eroding privacy—without requiring them to have an National Security Agency analyst’s expertise in encryption or to exile them¬selves to Moscow. “Watch the journalists and you’ll find their sources,” Snowden says. “So how do we preserve that con¬fidentiality in this new world, when it’s more important than ever?” Since early in 2016, Snowden has quietly served as president of a small San Francisco–based nonprofit called the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Its mission: to equip the media to do its job at a time when state-¬sponsored hackers and government surveillance threaten investigative reporting in ways Woodward and Bernstein never imagined. “Newsrooms don’t have the bud¬get, the sophistication, or the skills to defend them¬selves in the current environment,” says Snowden. “We’re trying to provide a few niche tools to make the game a little more fair.”
benton.org/headlines/edward-snowdens-new-job-protecting-reporters-spies | Wired
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

BLACKBURN AIMS TO REVOKE BROADBAND PRIVACY RULES
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says she is readying a push to revoke the Federal Communications Commission's broadband privacy rules. Chairman Blackburn said she believes lawmakers can use the Congressional Review Act to rescind the new privacy rules. Those rules, passed by a 3-2 vote last October, require broadband carriers to obtain consumers' opt-in consent before drawing on their data for ad targeting. "I think using the CRA is fine," Chairman Blackburn said. "We are working with the Senate to make sure we can do that." She added that she could move forward with the initiative as early as the week of Feb 13. Her comments come several weeks after more than a dozen conservative and libertarian groups asked lawmakers to revoke the rules under the Congressional Review Act -- a rarely used 1996 law that allows federal lawmakers to overturn recent agency decisions. Chairman Blackburn also downplayed concerns that revoking the FCC's rules would leave broadband providers without any oversight when it comes to privacy, due to their status as common carriers. The Federal Trade Commission, which typically enforces privacy standards, isn't authorized to prosecute common carriers. "I would think there would be a way to work through that so that you don't have a gap in oversight," Chairman Blackburn said. She didn't elaborate further.
benton.org/headlines/house-communications-subcommittee-chair-blackburn-aims-revoke-broadband-privacy-rules | MediaPost
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THE NEED FOR A DIGITAL GENEVA CONVENTION
[SOURCE: Microsoft, AUTHOR: Brad Smith]
Just as the Fourth Geneva Convention has long protected civilians in times of war, we now need a Digital Geneva Convention that will commit governments to protecting civilians from nation-state attacks in times of peace. And just as the Fourth Geneva Convention recognized that the protection of civilians required the active involvement of the Red Cross, protection against nation-state cyberattacks requires the active assistance of technology companies. The tech sector plays a unique role as the internet’s first responders, and we therefore should commit ourselves to collective action that will make the internet a safer place, affirming a role as a neutral Digital Switzerland that assists customers everywhere and retains the world’s trust.
benton.org/headlines/need-digital-geneva-convention | Microsoft | USA Today
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CONTENT

THE GREAT UNBUNDLING HAS SPUN INTO REVERSE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeremy Philips]
[Commentary] The internet promised to be the great unbundler. The evisceration of distribution costs would free consumers from paying for cable television channels they never watched, allowing them to bypass cable monopolies and pay only for the shows they wanted. But paradoxically, the same forces that allowed classified ads and news to be so easily separated also drastically increased the economic rationale for bundling across the board. Consumers merely have swapped one bundle for another (or often, several). There are more than 65 million subscribers to cheaper “over the top” packages provided by Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Sling TV and others (even excluding Amazon Prime Video). One does not always think of all of these as “bundles” because these services do not consistently categorize their content using the commonplace TV channel taxonomy. However, their aggregation of shows looks more and more like a traditional cable bundle. We are in the age of the great rebundling, when firms use packages of services as a way to increase their scale advantage and thus deepen the moat around their businesses.
[Jeremy G. Philips is a general partner at Spark Capital and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School.]
benton.org/headlines/dont-look-now-great-unbundling-has-spun-reverse | New York Times
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POLICYMAKERS

MEET THE MAN WHO'LL DISMANTLE NET NEUTRALITY WITH A SMILE
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai often goes out of his way to be nice. He always has a kind word for colleagues, even when they stand on the opposite side of the aisles. "He made the chairman's life miserable," said Gigi Sohn, a former adviser to the previous head, Tom Wheeler, in reference to their constant ideological clashes. "But I like him. Everyone likes him." This nice guy is no pushover, though. The 44-year-old chairman has already introduced a number of programs and steered the FCC in a different direction from his predecessor. And he's still gearing up for his biggest move: the takedown of many of the regulations that protect net neutrality, the concept that all internet traffic must be treated as equal. Supporters of the regulations say loosening the rules will only tighten the control that broadband and wireless companies wield today, likely resulting in higher prices for consumers and fewer choices in services. "He's a great guy to have a beer with," Sohn said. "But don't be fooled. He's in favor of dismantling net neutrality and other consumer-friendly policies, and he'll do it with a smile."
benton.org/headlines/meet-man-wholl-dismantle-net-neutrality-smile | C-Net|News.com
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Analysis

February 2017

Mass entertainment in the digital age is still about blockbusters, not endless choice

Interview with Microsoft founder Bill Gates

February 15, 2007 (Leaks and Lifeline)

Help the poor by dropping Lifeline

Divided Media on Michael Flynn: Patriotic Leaks or Political Espionage

Commentary: Can Donald Trump turn Voice of America into his own private megaphone?

What Are Your Rights if Border Agents Want to Search Your Phone?

Google’s chief business officer: 'We have to take the fake news problem very, very seriously’

India’s satellite launch breaks record – and could bring big benefits for humanity

Millions Need the Broadband Program the FCC Just Put on Hold