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  2. March 2017

March 2017

Trump's FCC is out to kill your small business

[Commentary] If network neutrality goes away, you’ll almost certainly start paying more for all the many Internet-based services you depend on in your small business – VoIP (voice over Internet service), international calls, document storage, online payroll, e-mail newsletter service, your website hosting and credit-card processing. The reality is the Internet is now a critical backbone of our economy. It’s likely as critical to your business as electricity. For many companies, the Internet is now even more important than telephone services. It is appropriate to require Internet service providers, like electric companies, treat all customers equally in terms of quality of service.

So use your small business voice and let Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, the FCC, and your senators and representatives know that you want – you need – to keep net neutrality for your small business.

[Rhonda Abrams is the author of “Entrepreneurship: A Real-World Approach,”]

Under Ajit Pai’s FCC, mobile ISPs can charge tolls to bypass data caps

The Federal Communications Commission recently gave mobile carriers the green light to expand zero-rating, a method of favoring online content by exempting it from data caps. At the same time, carriers have been competing to offer the best unlimited data plans—and without data caps, there’s no need for zero-rating. But that doesn’t mean zero-rating and similar free data offers are over and done with, because many customers are still going to buy cheaper, limited data plans.

AT&T and Verizon seemed reluctant to make unlimited data plans widely available until they faced competitive pressure to do so. Those two carriers have created new sources of revenue by seeking payments from companies that want to bypass data caps in order to reach more customers. AT&T and Verizon have also made their own video services more attractive by exempting them from caps. You can expect that to continue despite the rise of unlimited data and possibly accelerate because the FCC’s new Republican leadership intends to allow both paid and unpaid data cap exemptions.

Racial Justice Leaders Mark the Two-Year Anniversary of the Net Neutrality Rules

Feb 26 was the two-year anniversary of the FCC’s Open Internet Order, the monumental victory that enshrined Net Neutrality principles in strong rules backed by Title II legal authority. On Feb 27, a coalition of racial justice leaders and open internet champions held a briefing to celebrate this important milestone — and to gear up for the fights ahead. As Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron noted, the story of winning Net Neutrality is the story of millions of people showing up to push policymakers in DC to do the right thing.

But some elected officials didn’t need pushing. Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA) understood from the first how important the open internet is for Black and Latinx communities in particular. “The Internet and social media have empowered individuals and communities all across this country to organize and mobilize in unprecedented numbers,” she said. “You have to ask yourself, who would benefit [from] any attempt to roll back internet freedoms?”

White House rebuffs ethics office recommendation to discipline Kellyanne Conway over clothing line endorsement

The White House Counsel's Office has concluded that senior adviser Kellyanne Conway acted “inadvertently” when she endorsed Ivanka Trump's clothing line, rebuffing a recommendation by the top federal ethics official that she be disciplined for an apparent violation of federal rules. Stefan C. Passantino, who handles White House ethics issues as deputy counsel to President Trump, wrote in a letter that his office concluded Conway was speaking in a “light, offhand manner” when she touted the Ivanka Trump line during a Feb. 9 appearance on “Fox & Friends.” At the time, she was addressing efforts by activists to persuade retailers such as Nordstrom to drop Ivanka Trump-branded items. “We concluded that Ms. Conway acted inadvertently and is highly unlikely to do so again,” Passantino wrote to Walter M. Schaub, Jr., director of the Office of Government Ethics, adding that Conway made the comments “without nefarious motive or intent to benefit personally.”

Passantino said he met with Conway and advised her that her remarks “implicated the prohibition on using one's official position to endorse any product or service.” “Ms. Conway has acknowledged her understanding of the Standards and has reiterated her commitment to abiding by them in the future,” he added.

ABC News president: 'We’ve expressed our concerns' to White House over transparency

ABC News President James Goldston has pledged to “stand with our colleagues who cover the White House" and "protest” if the White House does not operate with transparency, he said in response to a petition imploring the broadcasting company to take a stand over the White House’s decision to exclude news organizations from a press gaggle Feb 27. “We’ve expressed our concerns to the White House that it operates in a way that’s open, transparent and fair,” Goldston said. “And we will continue to stand with our colleagues who cover the White House and to protest when any government official fails to live up to those standards.”

Earlier, Goldston received a petition signed by more than 230 former ABC News executives, correspondents, producers and other former staffers calling on him to refuse to take part in White House briefings if news organizations are barred from attending.

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