BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, MAY 1, 2017
World Press Freedom Day https://www.benton.org/calendar/2017-04-30--P1W
PRIVACY/SECURITY
NSA Halts Collection of Americans’ Emails About Foreign Targets
Google Data Privacy Fight Hinges on Cloud Storage Tech [links to Benton summary]
The uproar over Unroll.me selling user data to Uber shows most people don't understand ad-based business models - op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Unlocking the Power of NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework [links to nextgov]
Amid groundswell in cybersecurity courses, novel UMD seminar permits students to hack campus network [links to Baltimore Sun]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Looking Ahead to the Connect America Fund Phase II Auction - op-ed
FCC's Pai Backs Congressional Clarification on Internet Authority
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Here’s What Comes Next in the Fight to Save Net Neutrality
FCC Invokes Internet Freedom While Trying to Kill It - NY Times editorial
Cities Take a Stand Against the FCC's Proposed Net Neutrality Rollback [links to Government Technology]
Ajit Pai Is Siding With the Oligarchy — and Misleading Trump’s Base - Susan Crawford op-ed
Trump FCC’s Plan to End Net Neutrality Rests on Alternative Facts and Empty Promises - op-ed
Net Neutrality Violations: A Brief History - press release [links to Benton summary]
FCC Chairman's Attacks on Free Press Don't Change the Facts - press release [links to Benton summary]
Annotated Version of FCC Chairman Pai’s Speech on Rolling Back Open Internet Protections [links to Medium]
The Main Argument for Rolling Back Net Neutrality Is Pretty Shaky - analysis
Net neutrality: No way to run an industry - op-ed
Can We Prevent Another Net Neutrality Groundhog Day? - editorial
New York City Believes in a Free and Open Internet [links to Medium]
Where we stand on Net Neutrality [links to Verizon]
The Real Debate Over The Open Internet - AT&T press release [links to Benton summary]
Scott Cleland: FCC Chairman Pai’s Brilliant Title II Net Neutrality Checkmate Strategy [links to Precursor]
EDUCATION
E-Rate Gets Rural Schools Online. Will It Survive President Trump's FCC?
SHLB Expresses Concern With USAC Request for Information on Special Construction Costs for Fiber Installation
TELECOM
FCC Chairman Pai Statement On Robocall Strike Force Report [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Robocall Strike Force issues progress report on call-blocking efforts. Most consumers still don’t have access to effective call-blocking protection. [links to Consumers Union]
OWNERSHIP
Sinclair, 21st Century Fox in partnership with Blackstone Group, and Nexstar are all circling Tribune, one of the nation’s largest owners of local TV stations [links to Wall Street Journal]
JOURNALISM
President Trump offers his own rating of media's '100 days' [links to Hill, The]
Vice President Pence: Media ignoring facts and 'spreading that fake news' [links to Hill, The]
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus: 'We've looked at' changing libel laws [links to Hill, The]
Why President Trump desperately needs to keep conservative media outlets on his side - analysis [links to Benton summary]
By The Numbers: 100 Days In, A Look At The Trump Administration's Conflicted Relationship With The Media [links to Media Matters for America]
What the Press Still Doesn’t Get About Trump - op-eds [links to Benton summary]
In 100-day interviews, President Trump again proves his mastery of the news cycle [links to Washington Post]
Searching for News: The Flint water crisis [links to Benton summary]
Dan Rather’s Second Coming [links to Politico]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
How much cellular and Wi-Fi data are smartphone users consuming, and with which apps? The Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint Q1 2017 breakdown [links to Fierce]
CONTENT
Why are populists winning online? Social media reinforces their anti-establishment message [links to Brookings]
Editorial: As more people rely on social media for news, they also show signs of greater skill in media literacy – and more responsibility in not passing along fake news [links to Christian Science Monitor]
POLICYMAKERS
FCC Names Jean Kiddoo, Hillary Denigro To Oversee Post-Incentive Auction Transition - press release [links to Benton summary]
Association of National Advertisers to President Trump: Fill FTC Vacancies [links to Multichannel News]
LOBBYING
Christopher Dodd to Step Down as Top Lobbyist at Motion Picture Association of America; Former Ambassador Charles Rivkin takes reins [links to New York Times]
Microsoft hires former FTC Commissioner Julie Brill [links to Hill, The]
Charter’s Tom Rutledge Reelected Chairman of NCTA Board - press release [links to Benton summary]
COMPANY NEWS
Federal probe of Fox News expands [links to CNN]
Fox News' critics ask: Is Bill Shine the Man Who Knew Too Much? [links to CNN]
Craig Moffettt: Comcast Doesn't Seem To Need or Want to Merge [links to Multichannel News]
Craig Moffett: Comcast might be having second thoughts about entering the wireless business [links to Fierce]
Tech companies may have a public-image issue in political battleground states [links to Vox]
NBCUniversal Is Building Its Own Children’s Channel, Universal Kids [links to New York Times]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
How the State of Russian Media Becomes the State of International Media
Murdochs’ TV Deal in Britain Hinges on 3 Words: ‘Fit and Proper’
Google launches servers in Cuba to speed up YouTube and search [links to CNN]
A relational and resource-based model of household Internet adoption in isolated communities in Chile [links to Telecommunications Policy]
back to top
PRIVACY/SECURITY
NSA HALTS COLLECTION OF AMERICANS’ EMAILS ABOUT FOREIGN TARGETS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage]
The National Security Agency has halted one of the most disputed practices of its warrantless wiretapping program: collecting Americans’ emails and texts to and from people overseas that mention foreigners targeted for surveillance, according to officials familiar with the matter. National security officials have argued that such surveillance is lawful and helpful in identifying people who might have links to terrorism, espionage or otherwise are targeted for intelligence-gathering. The fact that the sender of such a message would know an email address or phone number associated with a surveillance target is grounds for suspicion, these officials argued. The decision is a major development in American surveillance policy. It brings to an end a once-secret form of wiretapping that privacy advocates have argued overstepped the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches — even though the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court upheld it as lawful — because the government was intercepting communications based on what they say, rather than who sent or received them.
benton.org/headlines/nsa-halts-collection-americans-emails-about-foreign-targets | New York Times | The Atlantic | New America
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
INTERNET/BROADBAND
CONNECT AMERICA AUCTION
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Carol Mattey]
[Commentary] Under the new Trump Administration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved quickly to take concrete steps to advance parts of Chairman Pai’s digital empowerment agenda to advance broadband across America. In February, the FCC voted to adopt rules for the upcoming Mobility Fund Phase II auction and the Connect America Fund Phase II auction. More recently, the Chairman established a Task Force to oversee the two auctions, signaling that these auctions are a priority for the agency. That’s progress – but the real question is – what needs to happen next to have successful auctions for these universal service subsidies? The Connect America Phase II auction will focus on two discrete areas of the country – 1) areas where the incumbent telephone company declined an earlier offer of universal service subsidies, and 2) areas that are deemed extremely costly to serve, based on a FCC-developed cost model. The nearly $200 million in annual funding over a ten-year term – almost $2 billion overall – is far below the amount calculated by the model to serve these areas using fiber technology, but support levels could be significantly lower to the extent winning bidders can leverage existing assets or deploy alternative technologies.
https://www.benton.org/blog/looking-ahead-connect-america-fund-phase-ii-...
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
CONGRESSIONAL CLARIFICATION OF BROADBAND CLASSIFICATION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In an interview with Breitbart, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai was asked about fellow Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly's argument that Congress needs to "enshrine free Internet principles in law" to resolve the ongoing "political uncertainty." Chairman Pai agreed: “I think the best solution would be for Congress to tell us what they want the rules of the road to be for the FCC and the country when it comes to the digital world," he said. "Part of the problem is that we are consistently looking at 1934 laws and 1996 laws then we try to shoehorn our modern marketplace to some of those paradigms that frankly we didn’t anticipate a marketplace as dynamic as the internet. I really think that Congress, ideally looking at all the opinions, and all the constituencies they can come to a consensus. Because again as Commissioner O’Rielly pointed out we don’t want the regulatory winds to keep shifting every four or eight years we want to provide some level of consistency to the marketplace so that consumers and companies alike can enjoy the digital revolution.”
benton.org/headlines/fccs-pai-backs-congressional-clarification-internet-authority | Broadcasting&Cable
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
HERE’S WHAT COMES NEXT
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Klint Finley]
Once Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s notice of proposed rulemaking is approved, which is likely to happen at the FCC’s open meeting May 18, the public will have 60 days to file comments. Then people will have another 30 days to respond to the comments. The FCC’s staff will then have to turn all that feedback into a final order that commissioners will vote on. That process could take months, but based on Pai’s eagerness to re-reclassify broadband providers, you can expect action on that sooner than later. Senior FCC officials told reporters during a press call that they won’t necessarily be swayed by public opinion. The call for comments is not, they said, a public opinion poll. Fair enough: Sometimes federal agencies have to make unpopular decisions. And if the FCC does vote to scrap net neutrality, it could be a very unpopular decision indeed. Despite growing polarization, a poll conducted by the University of Delaware found that the majority of both Democratic and Republican voters support some form of net neutrality protections. Net neutrality advocates may have better luck in court than the FCC. Federal agencies must explain sudden policy reversals. If the courts decide that the FCC has acted in an arbitrary or capricious manner, the Title II reversal could be struck down. FCC staff, however, say they are confident that won’t happen. Pai has offered up data suggesting that companies are spending less money building and maintaining their broadband networks as a result of the Title II reclassification, which they believe should be enough to satisfy any legal challenge. Whether those controversial investment stats will be enough to sway the courts remains to be seen.
benton.org/headlines/heres-what-comes-next-fight-save-net-neutrality | Wired
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
KILLING INTERNET FREEDOM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] If the Federal Communications Commission, which has a 2-to-1 Republican majority, approves Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal, there will be little stopping the broadband industry from squelching competition, limiting consumer choice and raising prices. The previous FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, helped put the rules current Chairman Pai is attacking in place in 2015, and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld them. Large telecommunications companies have been raking in profits in recent years. And they have been making multibillion-dollar acquisitions — not something you see from an industry that is withering from senseless regulations. Charter spent more than $65 billion last year to buy Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. AT&T bought DirecTV for $48.5 billion in 2015 and is trying to buy Time Warner, the media company, for $85 billion. Not only is Pai’s lament for the broadband industry based on alternative facts, it misses the bigger point. Net neutrality is meant to benefit the internet and the economy broadly, not just the broadband industry. That means the commission ought to consider the impact the regulations have on consumers and businesses. In particular, the commission has a responsibility to protect people with few or no choices; most Americans have access to just one or two companies for residential service and just four big operators for wireless.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-invokes-internet-freedom-while-trying-kill-it | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
PAI IS SIDING WITH THE OLIGARCHY
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai wants to characterize this battle as one between “the people” (who love the internet) and “the government” (which, in his view, has been bossing “the people” around). But he’s missing a giant piece of the puzzle. There are actually three players on the battlefield, not two: the people, the government, and particularly powerful private individuals. The whole idea behind the democratic enterprise is to keep the triangle balanced: not too strong a government, not too powerful a group of oligarchs, and plenty of opportunity for individuals. Chairman Pai is putting his thumb decidedly on the scale in favor of the oligarchs, and it’s a risky move.
[Susan Crawford is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School]
benton.org/headlines/ajit-pai-siding-oligarchy-and-misleading-trumps-base | Medium
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
PAI NN PLAN RESTS ON ALTERNATIVE FACTS AND EMPTY PROMISES
[SOURCE: The American Prospect, AUTHOR: Craig Aaron]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai plans to fast-track a proposal for the agency’s May meeting that would undermine this strong legal standing and undo the network neutrality rules completely. Chairman Pai wants internet users to believe that he supports the “principle” of net neutrality, just not the Title II authority on which the rules rest. But that’s nonsense: It’s like saying you like free speech but just aren’t a fan of the First Amendment. Whether the issue is the environment, health care, or worker safety, President Donald Trump and his lackeys like Pai manufacture data and lie about the downsides to disguise their real goals: taking away crucial protections and successful policies. The attack on net neutrality is no different. Consider Pai’s other justification for launching this attack on internet users: the utterly false and repeatedly debunked claim that the FCC rules are dampening investment. In the two years since the FCC's 2015 vote, the industry has actually seen an explosion in over-the-top video competition as well as a dramatic increase in next-generation broadband-network deployment. Nobody will be fooled by Pai’s destructive plan or the empty promises of telecom executives. But millions of people will have to rise up again to stop it.
[Craig Aaron has led Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund since 2011.]
benton.org/headlines/trump-fccs-plan-end-net-neutrality-rests-alternative-facts-and-empty-promises | American Prospect, The
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
MAIN ARGUMENT AGAINST NN IS SHAKY
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Mark Sullivan]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s central argument for eliminating network neutrality rules, which he introduced with a plan to “reverse the mistake” of the Obama-era regulations, is that doing so will fire up investment in broadband networks. But that prediction is very optimistic, say experts who warn that his proposal could very well do little or nothing to stimulate such investment. Chairman Pai’s central argument is that [the Title II] net neutrality rules had the immediate effect of slowing down investment in broadband networks. He said the internet was already working fine before the FCC stepped in to impose unnecessary regulations for purely political reasons. “While investment in broadband infrastructure has certainly dwindled in recent years, the impact that net neutrality regulation has had is very much open to debate,” says Dan Hays, global tech, media, and telecom lead at PwC’s Strategy& group. “In fact, it’s quite plausible that growth in market penetration of broadband services, coupled with acceleration of industry consolidation over the past few years, have more to do with reduced spending, despite the pleas of network operators,” Hays says. The subtext here is that investors in telecommunication companies, as a rule, detest massive new capital expenditure spending on network infrastructure. Combining with other networks is one way to avoid doing so.
benton.org/headlines/main-argument-rolling-back-net-neutrality-pretty-shaky | Fast Company
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
NET NEUTRALITY: NO WAY TO RUN AN INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute, AUTHOR: Gus Hurwitz]
[Commentary] Needless to say, regularly rewriting the rules that govern one of the largest industries in the economy isn’t a good way to run an industry. Unfortunately, it’s not within the current commission’s power to adopt rules that will likely constrain a future commission. But by returning to a more neutral baseline approach to internet regulation, Chairman Pai is creating an opportunity for Congress or the courts to step in and put an end to the destructive, yet largely meaningless, generational fight over “net neutrality.”...The most important thing that Chairman Pai’s proposal does is to tidy up the net neutrality mess and deliver it to Congress. His proposal reverses the most extreme aspects of the 2015 rules — Title II reclassification in particular — and leaves the direction of substantive rules open. He has reestablished what has long been considered the neutral baseline of agency authority. Now it’s Congress’s turn.
[Gus Hurwitz is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law]
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-no-way-run-industry | American Enterprise Institute
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
NET NEUTRALITY GROUNDHOG DAY
[SOURCE: Technology Policy Institute, AUTHOR: Scott Wallsten]
The near-instantaneous response by supporters and opponents of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai’s proposal to roll back the Open Internet Order highlights two points. First, despite the hyperventilating and hand-wringing, this proposal surprised nobody. Everybody who follows the issue knew the moment Donald Trump won the presidential election that this day would come. Second, the arguments on both sides have all been made. Many times. The FCC as an agency has a commitment problem. The fault does not rest with Chairman Pai, past-Chairman Wheeler, or any other commissioner. The difficulty of making credible long-term regulatory commitments exists across agencies and around the globe, has been studied extensively, and has no easy solution. New administrations will always have different sets of beliefs and agendas. One mechanism intended to help overcome the commitment problem is the presence of independent, expert agencies. In principle, an agency’s independence from short-term political pressures allows it to make decisions in a more technocratic nature. The more controversial the issue, however, the more difficult it will be for the agency to maintain its independence. Net neutrality seems to have become so controversial and so politicized that it is practically impossible for any Commission to credibly claim that its approach will survive beyond its own tenure. The net neutrality issue has been with us for over a century in different guises and is unlikely to be resolved fully, possibly ever. But consumers and industry need the FCC to be able to commit to at least a general approach for regulating the Internet. The way to do it is by creating more analytical hurdles for the FCC to overcome in order to make changes and for Congress to set some principles for the FCC to follow.
benton.org/headlines/can-we-prevent-another-net-neutrality-groundhog-day | Technology Policy Institute
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
EDUCATION
E-RATE SURVIVE TRUMP'S FCC?
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Steven Melendez]
Earlier in 2017, AZ officials announced a plan they say could harness more than $100 million in federal funds to bring broadband internet connections to schools and libraries across the state. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, appointed in January to head the agency by President Trump, has generally spoken in favor of the E-Rate system. “Regarding E-rate, Chairman Pai strongly supports the program,” an FCC spokesman wrote. But the FCC retracted the largely favorable January report shortly after Pai’s appointment, and it remains to be seen whether he will seek to make changes to the E-Rate rules approved under his Democratic predecessor, and what effects that may have on the program. Whether E-Rate will continue in its current form under the Trump administration and the Republican-led FCC is still an open question. Some conservatives have spoken out against the E-Rate program altogether; a 2015 set of budget recommendations from the conservative Heritage Foundation advocated phasing out the program.
benton.org/headlines/e-rate-gets-rural-schools-online-will-it-survive-president-trumps-fcc | Fast Company
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
SHLB ERATE LETTER
[SOURCE: Schools Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition, AUTHOR: John Windhausen Jr]
The Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband Coalition filed a letter on April 27, 2017 to express concern with the recent set of inquiries sent by Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to over 100 E-rate applicants seeking support for special construction costs for fiber installation. SHLB said the questions ask for information irrelevant to determining whether an application meets E-rate requirements and suggests new limitations on funding that were not contained in the 2014 E-rate Modernization Orders, the Federal Communications Commission’s rules or USAC’s training materials. SHLB encouraged the FCC and USAC to maintain the existing policies adopted in 2014 that promote competition and cost-effective fiber options for schools and libraries.
benton.org/headlines/shlb-expresses-concern-usac-request-information-special-construction-costs-fiber | Schools Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
STORIES FROM ABROAD
RUSSIAN MEDIA
[SOURCE: Foreign Policy, AUTHOR: Emily Tamkin]
It was a bad week for the reports on freedom of the media in Russia. Reporters Without Borders released its 2017 world press freedom index. Russia came in at 148, after such bastions of independent media as South Sudan and Thailand. A Ukrainian human rights delegation briefed the Helsinki Commission on the case of Oleg Sentsov — a Ukrainian filmmaker imprisoned in a Siberian penal colony for his opposition to the annexation of Crimea — and abuses of Ukrainian journalists and creative professionals more broadly. Freedom House unveiled its Freedom of the Press 2017 report. That report gives Russia partial credit for the world’s 13-year low in press freedom. “Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia has been a trailblazer in globalizing state propaganda. It continues to leverage pro-Kremlin reporting around the world,” the report states. The three taken in tandem tell a story — one in which violence against journalists in Russia and the region is connected to violence against journalism around the world.
benton.org/headlines/how-state-russian-media-becomes-state-international-media | Foreign Policy
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
MURDOCK TV DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jim Rutenberg]
“Fit and proper” is that so-perfectly British standard by which regulators decide whether a company should be allowed to gain and retain broadcast licenses. It’s based on the premise that those who control news, information and entertainment options on television and radio should be held to high ethical standards, and that doing so determines “the kind of country we are,” as Jane Bonham-Carter, a member of Parliament, recently put it. Understanding just how important the Sky deal (complete ownership of the popular and highly profitable Sky satellite and cable network) would be for the Murdochs’ personal and global ambitions, and the complications that “fit and proper” could present to them, is vital to understanding the head-spinning developments at Fox News these past few months.
benton.org/headlines/murdochs-tv-deal-britain-hinges-3-words-fit-and-proper | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
