May 2017

COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY

RUSSIANS AND TRUMP CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman, Matt Apuzzo]
In the summer of 2016, American spies collected information revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence. The conversations focused on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time, and Michael Flynn, a retired general who was advising Trump, the officials said. Both men had indirect ties to Russian officials, who appeared confident that each could be used to help shape Trump’s opinions on Russia. Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Gen Flynn. Others discussed leveraging their ties to Viktor Yanukovych, the deposed president of Ukraine living in exile in Russia, who at one time had worked closely with Manafort. The intelligence was among the clues — which also included information about direct communications between Trump’s advisers and Russian officials — that American officials received in 2016 as they began investigating Russian attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of Trump’s associates were assisting Moscow in the effort. Details of the conversations, some of which have not been previously reported, add to an increasing understanding of the alarm inside the American government about the Russian disruption campaign.
benton.org/headlines/top-russian-officials-discussed-how-influence-trump-aides-last-summer | New York Times
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY

WHAT’S IN THE NPRM?
[SOURCE: Vox, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
[Commentary] The first half of the Federal Communications Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) sets out the FCC majority’s proposal for reversing classification of broadband internet access services as “telecommunications services” governed by Title II of the Communications Act. Among other things, this section discusses the effect this reversal would have on the FCC’s ability to enforce its privacy laws and implement its Lifeline program, which provides a subsidy to low-income households for broadband. The second half purports to “re-evaluate” the existing net neutrality rules, the mechanisms that enforce them and any legal authority (other than Title II) that could be used to support them. The FCC majority proposes to eliminate the “general conduct standard,” which prohibits ISP practices that “unreasonably interfere or unreasonably disadvantage” the ability of consumers to access the online content and services of their choosing, and the ability of online content and service providers to freely access customers. With regard to the remaining rules (no blocking, no throttling, no paid prioritization, transparency), the majority doesn’t make firm proposals on whether to retain or repeal them. Instead, it asks questions about whether the rules are even necessary.
benton.org/headlines/breaking-down-fccs-proposal-destroy-net-neutrality | Vox
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DELIBERATE MISREPRESENTATION
[SOURCE: Tech Crunch, AUTHOR: Devin Coldewey]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom notice of proposed rulemaking states: “Whether posting on social media or drafting a blog, a broadband Internet user is able to generate and make available information online. Whether reading a newspaper’s website or browsing the results from a search engine, a broadband Internet user is able to acquire and retrieve information online… In short, broadband Internet access service appears to offer its users the “capability” to perform each and every one of the functions listed in the definition — and accordingly appears to be an information service by the definition. We seek comment on analysis.” Let’s just run down the obvious objections:
First, most broadband providers simply don’t offer the services listed.
Second, broadband providers often aren’t even aware what information they are transmitting, because it is encrypted.
Third, most services that are in fact offered by the ISP, such as DNS lookup, error pages, caching and routing, all have to do with reasonable network management — the work of getting packets from one place to another properly.
benton.org/headlines/fccs-case-against-net-neutrality-rests-deliberate-misrepresentation-how-internet-works | Tech Crunch
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BUSINESSES FAVOR RULES
[SOURCE: International Business Times, AUTHOR: AJ Dellinger]
Not all small broadband Internet access service providers are on board with the idea of repealing current net neutrality protections. Dane Jasper, the CEO of Sonic, a large, independent ISP in California, said “incumbents will have a real advantage over new market entrants in the internet marketplace" if current rules are changed, which would create “a duopoly where consumers have only one or two choices when selecting an Internet provider as a result.” Jasper said the reclassification of ISPs as common carriers under Title II “has not impacted Sonic’s investment in infrastructure or our ability to serve customers.” “Only bigger carriers have enough subscribers to force content providers to pay additional fees,” Jasper said, “which is why these bigger carriers support the roll back of net neutrality regulations, while smaller ISPs support rules in favor of an open Internet.” Service providers aren’t the only type of business to take into account when considering the effects of net neutrality. Edge providers — including websites, internet services, content providers — are all equally affected by how the internet is regulated. More than 1,000 such companies have signed on to an open letter to the FCC encouraging the commission to keep intact the Title II classification. The letter includes signatures from startups, investors and entrepreneurial support organizations in all 50 states.
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-debate-businesses-favor-rules-despite-fcc-chairman-pais-claims | International Business Times
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DON’T FREAK
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Mike Godwin, Tom Struble]
[Commentary] President Barack Obama made it seem as if Title II is the only way to protect the free and open internet, and the result was 2015’s comprehensive regulatory order enshrining net neutrality. But some critics of the 2015 order insist that the Federal Communications Commission could have used more limited approaches that might have relied primarily on Title I or on Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. They’ve argued that Title II classification is both bad policy and bad law, but so far, the 2015 order has survived its challenges in federal court. Now FCC Chairman Pai—who had served as a Republican commissioner for four years during Obama’s presidency—has proposed new rules that would roll back the 2015 order and reverse broadband classification under Title II. Of course, rolling back the 2015 framework also could mean that broadband providers feel more freedom under the FCC’s rules to block, throttle, or prioritize services—something that ISPs could certainly use unfairly. But revisiting the 2015 rules may also enable providers to do the kind of “reasonable network management” that President Obama mentioned, like allocating more bandwidth to video streaming services or lower latency for Voice over Internet Protocol services. Some advocates see the reversal of the Title II classification as a threat to the very possibility of net neutrality. But the fact is that even when the Democrats held a majority of seats on the commission during Chairman Tom Wheeler’s chairmanship and before, there was some widespread belief at the commission that net neutrality might be achieved through non–Title II approaches—until President Obama urged the commission to use Title II instead. What’s more, Chairman Pai says he welcomes public input and wants to build a bipartisan consensus—like the one that has informed commission policy since at least the Clinton era—about how to deal with net neutrality issues. Pai also insists that he has been “pretty consistent about my view that I favor a free and open internet.” Some critics of the latest move may dismiss Pai’s statements as empty rhetoric, but dismissing the invitation to contribute to this new proceeding will only hurt the debate over the future of net neutrality.
[Mike Godwin is a senior fellow with the R Street Institute. Tom Struble is a technology policy manager with the R Street Institute.]
benton.org/headlines/dont-freak-out-about-fccs-new-approach-net-neutrality | Slate
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MORE INTERNET/BROADBAND

BROADBAND PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Joanne Hovis, Marc Schulhof, Jim Baller, Ashley Stelfox]
It is an era of unprecedented interest in broadband as a platform of economic and community development. Advanced communications networks are increasingly recognized as a growing engine for economic activity, democratic participation, healthcare, and education. Local governments, in particular, increasingly embrace opportunities to develop next-generation broadband in their communities—and to reap the many benefits that broadband will deliver to their residents and businesses. Emerging public–private partnership (P3) models present a promising alternative to the traditional “municipal broadband” or “middle mile” models for the many communities that lack the capital or expertise to deploy and operate fiber networks, or to act as Internet service providers (ISPs) on their own. These models include: 1) Public facilitation of private investment, 2) Public funding and private execution, and 2) Shared investment and risk.
https://www.benton.org/sites/default/files/partnerships.pdf
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MUNICIPAL FIBER
[SOURCE: University of Pennsylvania, AUTHOR: Christopher Yoo, Timothy Pfenninger]
The authors conducted an analysis of every municipal fiber project in the United States based on the authoritative documentation issued by the cities, specifically the official legal disclosures filed with securities regulators when issuing municipal bonds and their audited financial statements. We identified 88 municipal fiber projects. Of these only 20 of them report the financial results of their broadband operations separately from the financial results of their electric power operations. We then apply the conventional tools of financial analysis to determine the likelihood that municipal fiber projects will remain solvent. Specifically, we focus on Net Present Value (NPV), which provides a more accurate picture of the cash flowing into and out of an organization than do analyses based on a project’s operating profits and losses. We also take a closer look at seven projects that either have been successful or have received substantial publicity: Bristol, Tennessee; Vernon, California; Chattanooga, Tennessee; UTOPIA, Utah; Burlington, Vermont; Lafayette, Louisiana; and Wilson, North Carolina. An examination of the NPV covering the five-year period from 2010 to 2014 reveals that of the 20 municipal projects that report the financial results of their broadband operations separately, 11 generated negative cash flow. Unless these projects substantially improve their performance, they will not be able to cover the costs of current operations, let alone generate sufficient cash to retire the debt incurred to build the project. For the nine projects that are cash-flow positive, seven would need more than sixty years to break even. Only two generated sufficient cash to be on track to pay off the debt incurred within the estimated useful life of a broadband network, which is typically projected to be 30 to 40 years. One of the two success stories is an industrial city with few residents that is unlikely to serve as a model for other cities to emulate.
benton.org/headlines/municipal-fiber-united-states-empirical-assessment-financial-performance | University of Pennsylvania
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CLEVELAND BROADBAND CONSUMERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Daryl Parks, the attorney representing "Cleveland Broadband Consumers" claiming AT&T is "redlining" service in Cleveland and elsewhere, is pledging to open a multi-front legal attack on the company, including raising questions about its fitness for the multi-billion-dollar contract to manage FirstNet. AT&T has said it does not redline and continues to invest in wired and wireless broadband in Cleveland and elsewhere, but Parks is not persuaded. Parks has sent a letter to AT&T and its board warning that "in the near future" he plans to certify a class for a class action lawsuit, bring a formal redlining complaint at the FCC, and "raise with the nation’s governors the issue of AT&T’s suitability to manage the emergency communications service FirstNet, given the urgency of providing service to low-income communities by first responders in disasters such as Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina and Sandy."
benton.org/headlines/cleveland-broadband-consumers-pledges-multi-front-campaign-against-att | Broadcasting&Cable
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JOURNALISM

MY MEDIA VS THE MEDIA
[SOURCE: Media Insight Project, AUTHOR: ]
For years, studies have shown Americans’ trust in the news media is steadily declining. In recent months, the rise of so-called fake news and the rhetoric of President Donald Trump about journalists being “the enemy of the people” have made the question of trust in a free press an even more prominent issue facing the country. At the same time, data show that over the past decade, people have been consuming more news than ever. How are we to explain the apparent paradox? New research suggests public attitudes about the news media are more complex and nuanced than many traditional studies indicate, with attitudes varying markedly depending on what media people are asked about. The findings show that on many fronts, Americans are skeptical of “the news media” in the abstract, but generally trust the news they themselves rely on. And most people mention traditional or mainstream news sources as the ones they turn to.
benton.org/headlines/my-media-versus-media-trust-news-depends-which-news-media-you-mean | Media Insight Project
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May 2017

Eli Pariser Predicted the Future. Now He Can’t Escape It.

Social media fills vacuum left by China’s ‘hollowed out’ press

May 25, 2017 (Influence)

The Emerging World of Broadband Public–Private Partnerships: A Business Strategy and Legal Guide

Top Russian Officials Discussed How to Influence Trump Aides Last Summer

Rep John Conyers calls for investigation into Sec Sessions

Why is telecommunications taxed like a sin?

Telco-Backed Politician Wants to Restore Privacy Rules She Helped Kill

Your Data Is Way More Exposed Than You Realize

Lawmakers Seek Deutsche Bank Details on Russia Trades, Trump Loans