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  2. May 2017

May 2017

New America
May 25, 2017
9:30 am - 11:00 am
https://www.newamerica.org/oti/events/crypto-wars-20-european-front/

Participants

Kevin Bankston
Director, New America's Open Technology Institute

Amie Stepanovich
U.S. Policy Manager, Access Now

Ashley S. Deeks
Associate Professor and Senior Fellow, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia School of Law

Bijan Madhani
Senior Policy Counsel, Computer & Communications Agency

Moderator

Andi Wilson
Policy Analyst, New America’s Open Technology Institute

Additional panelists to be announced.


Wireless Infrastructure Association
May 22-25, 2017
Orlando, Florida
http://wirelessinfrastructureshow.com/


Google now knows when its users go to the store and buy stuff

Google will begin using data from billions of credit and debit card transactions — including card numbers, purchase amounts and time stamps — to solve the advertising juggernaut’s long-standing quest to prove that online ads prompt consumers to make purchases in brick-and-mortar stores. The advance, which enables Google to tell retailers how many sales they created through their digital ad campaigns, is a step toward what industry insiders have long described as the “holy grail” of digital advertising. If effective, the program could help persuade marketers to choose Google’s services over the television advertising that still gobbles up the lion’s share of retailers’ ad budgets. “Google — and also Facebook — believe that in order to get digital dollars from advertisers who are still primarily spending on TV, they need to prove that digital works,” said Amit Jain, chief executive of Bridg, a digital advertising startup that matches online to offline behavior.

FCC Chairman Announces Monteith Will Serve As Wireline Bureau Chief

Federal Communications Commission Ajit Pai announced that the agency has chosen Kris Anne Monteith to serve as chief of its Wireline Competition Bureau, continuing the work she has been doing as acting chief.

“The FCC and the American people are lucky to have someone as skilled and dedicated as Kris leading this important arm of the agency,” said Chairman Pai. “The FCC has a vital role to play in clearing the way for broadband investment across America and in helping spur deployment where it lags behind. I am grateful that Kris has agreed to continue to lead our talented team of dedicated professionals in furthering these important goals.”

The Wireline Competition Bureau helps lead the agency’s work on Chairman Pai’s top policy priority: closing the digital divide by encouraging investment in broadband infrastructure. It works to protect consumers, foster competition, and ensure that all Americans have access to robust, affordable broadband and voice services. Its programs help ensure access to affordable communications for schools, libraries, health care providers, and rural and low-income consumers.

Monteith has held several senior leadership positions within the FCC in her 20 years with the agency. She has served as acting chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau as well as chief of the Enforcement Bureau. She has been a deputy chief in the Wireline Competition Bureau she now leads, as well as the Media Bureau and the policy division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Before joining the Commission in 1997, Monteith practiced telecommunications law with McDermott, Will, and Emery and Keller and Heckman in Washington, D.C. She received her J.D. from the George Washington University and her B.A. from the University of Colorado.

Google Fiber Lifts Off in Huntsville

Huntsville (Alabama) — aka Rocket City — is truly a place on the rise. Nationally known for its strong science and technology presence, Huntsville is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. and quickly becoming a destination for diverse, creative and entrepreneurial minds. We are proud to announce Google Fiber is officially lifting off in Rocket City. As of this morning, customers in North Huntsville can sign up for Google Fiber’s superfast Internet, TV and phone service. Residents and small business owners in this part of the city now have access to Google Fiber’s superfast Internet. We’re excited to bring our service to more and more Huntsvillians, so be sure to sign up at fiber.google.com/cities/huntsville to be among the first to receive updates and future announcements. Residents in North Huntsville can now sign up for the Fiber 1000 + TV, Fiber 1000, Fiber 100 or Fiber 100 + TV. Customers can also add a Fiber Phone to any of these packages, providing a great voice experience with all of the features of Google Voice, including very low international calling rates.

May 23, 2017 (Pushback)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2017

Today’s events:

  • The Future of the Internet in a Post-Internet Regulation World
  • Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom


COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY
   President Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence
   Senators Seek Hearing on Fake News, Trump Media Hostility
   Trump Aides Pressing for More Restraint on Twitter [links to Benton summary]
   Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross praises the lack of protest in a country where it’s punishable by death [links to Washington Post]
   The media is taking a beating on Trump’s foreign trip [links to Washington Post]
   Sara Netanyahu tells Melania Trump: ‘The media hate us but people love us’ also [links to Hill, The]
   The real threat of phony leaks [links to Washington Post]
   Joe Lieberman atop FBI would be a First Amendment disaster [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
   Sean Hannity: Congress should investigate Seth Rich conspiracy to clear President Trump [links to Washington Post]
   How social media filter bubbles and algorithms influence the election [links to Benton summary]
   Speaker Ryan-allied group launches $2M ad campaign ahead of healthcare CBO score [links to Hill, The]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   These are the arguments against net neutrality — and why they’re wrong - analysis
   Reclassification and Investment: An Analysis of Free Press’ “It’s Working” Report - George Ford analysis
   Ensuring every community in America has access to high-quality broadband - SHLB Coalition op-ed

OWNERSHIP
   Sinclair, Tribune CEOs Push Advantage of Sizing Up [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   What a potential T-Mobile-Sprint merger means for you [links to Benton summary]
   $2.3B Wave Broadband Acquisition by RCN Will Create Sixth Largest Cable Broadband Operator [links to Benton summary]

CONTENT
   Revealed: Facebook's internal rulebook on sex, terrorism and violence
   Why Facebook’s censorship problem may not get any better any time soon [links to Washington Post]

PRIVACY
   Sen. Warner Seeks FTC Answers on Questionable Internet-Connected Toys [links to Broadcasting&Cable]

SECURITY
   More Evidence Points to North Korea in Ransomware Attack [links to New York Times]
   Federal Computers Dodge Global Malware Attack ... This Time [links to National Public Radio]

BUDGET
   Trump's Final Budget Again Tries to Zero Out CPB, NEA [links to Broadcasting&Cable]

ACCESSIBILITY
   FCC Announces Entities Certified To Participate In The National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program For 12 States [links to Federal Communications Commission]

TELECOM
   Recommendation of FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee regarding unwanted calls [links to Federal Communications Commission]

TRANSPORTATION
   Pittsburgh Welcomed Uber’s Driverless Car Experiment. Not Anymore. [links to New York Times]

JOURNALISM
   Monica Lewinsky: Roger Ailes’s Dream Was My Nightmare [links to New York Times]
   Wired’s New Editor in Chief on Why Tech Reporting Is More Important Than Ever [links to AdWeek]

PATENTS
   Supreme Court Ruling Could Hinder ‘Patent Trolls’ [links to New York Times]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   How social media filter bubbles and algorithms influence the election [links to Benton summary]

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COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY

TRUMP PUSH BACK
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima]
President Donald Trump asked two of the nation’s top intelligence officials in March to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government, according to current and former officials. President Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election. Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be inappropriate, according to two current and two former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications with the President. President Trump sought the assistance of Coats and Rogers after FBI Director James Comey told the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the FBI was investigating “the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.” Trump’s conversation with Rogers was documented contemporaneously in an internal memo written by a senior NSA official, according to the officials. It is unclear if a similar memo was prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to document Trump’s conversation with Coats. Officials said such memos could be made available to both the special counsel now overseeing the Russia investigation and congressional investigators, who might explore whether Trump sought to impede the FBI’s work.
benton.org/headlines/president-trump-asked-intelligence-chiefs-push-back-against-fbi-collusion-probe-after | Washington Post
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SENATORS SEEK HEARING
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sens Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Tom Udall (D-NM) have asked the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the state of the media. The senators cited Trump Administration hostility toward the press, plus the proliferation of "fake news," for wanting the committee to hold the hearing—they said the last committee hearing on the state of journalism was in 2009 and that a new look was needed to "refresh the record." “The journalism industry is grappling with a changing media landscape: from the changing dynamics of how people access news, to changing financial calculations, to the proliferation of so-called ‘fake news’ (both actual disinformation campaigns and the use of the term to slander legitimate news reporting), to a challenging relationship between news media and the Executive branch,” the senators wrote in a letter to Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) “There have been a series of recent incidents in which hostility has been exercised against members of the press by members of the Administration, including just last week when a reporter was allegedly manhandled and threatened by security guards after a news conference at the Federal Communications Commission headquarters.”
benton.org/headlines/senators-seek-hearing-fake-news-trump-media-hostility | Broadcasting&Cable
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

NET NEUTRALITY ARGUMENTS
[SOURCE: Tech Crunch, AUTHOR: Devin Coldewey]
1. Title II is a depression-era rule intended for regulating the AT&T/Ma Bell monopoly. TL;DR: A law from another time, yes, but a strong one that’s been updated
2. The 1996 Telecommunications act says the internet should be unfettered by state or federal regulation. TL;DR: It was “fettered” for years and did great — plus, that part of the law isn’t law, and it’s about porn
3. The rules have discouraged investment. TL;DR: No company claims this and the numbers are inconclusive at best
4. It stifles small businesses with reporting and restrictions. TL;DR: Potentially, but there are already allowances for this
5. The “general conduct rule” is vague and open-ended. TL;DR: So change it
6. We’re not trying to remove net neutrality rules, just Title II. TL;DR: Removing the rules is literally in the proposal
7. The rules work without Title II anyway. TL;DR: Nope, we tried this already
8. The internet wasn’t broken before 2015 and ISPs don’t block or throttle. TL;DR: It remained unbroken because of constant vigilance, not because ISPs didn’t try
benton.org/headlines/these-are-arguments-against-net-neutrality-and-why-theyre-wrong | Tech Crunch
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ANALYSIS OF FREE PRESS REPORT
[SOURCE: Phoenix Center, AUTHOR: George Ford]
Free Press recently released a report on the capital expenditures of broadband service providers entitled, It’s Working: How the Internet Access and Online Video Markets are Thriving in the Title II Era. The Free Press Report, authored by S. Derek Turner, claims that capital spending by Broadband Service Providers (“BSPs”) “accelerated” following the Federal Communications Commission’s reclassification of broadband Internet access connections as a Title II common carrier telecommunications service in its 2015 Open Internet Order, increasing by 5.3 percent between 2013-2014 and 2015-2016. The Internet Alliance, a trade group representing the interests of companies supporting reclassification, appears to use the Free Press’ data to support the same claim. Free Press’ analysis, as usual, fails to meet the most basic of professional standards, and involves nothing more than the adding up of nominal total capital expenditures for a sample of BSPs and comparing the sums between two periods. Such simple-minded analysis is incapable of measuring the effect of a policy change. The relevant question is not whether capital spending rises or falls in any given year or pair of years, but whether such expenditures are below the levels they would have been “but for” the regulatory intervention. To answer that question, we need a counterfactual. That is, if absent a regulatory intervention capital spending was scheduled to rise by 10 percent next year (the counterfactual), but rises by only 5 percent due to an intervention, the intervention reduces investment despite the fact expenditures were higher. Unlike recent research finding sizable harmful effects from reclassification, the Free Press Report offers no counterfactual, so their Report adds nothing serious to the analysis of Net Neutrality and reclassification.
benton.org/headlines/reclassification-and-investment-analysis-free-press-its-working-report | Phoenix Center
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BROADBAND FOR EVERY COMMUNITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: John Windhausen]
[Commentary] Broadband infrastructure legislation has been building momentum in recent weeks. Several bills have been introduced, Infrastructure Week created a buzz, and the Trump administration says that an infrastructure plan will be released soon. What does this all mean for America’s invisible broadband infrastructure and our digital future? There are many solutions to broadband deployment – tax credits, direct funding, public-private partnerships, state matching, “Dig Once,” etc. No one solution is the answer. Connecting Americans coast to coast requires coordination and a combination of funding and best practices. Broadband is a bipartisan issue, and Republicans and Democrats are both developing proposals to connect our nation. Now is the time to GO, to LIFT, and to ACT to build future-proof networks that will boost our nation into the digital age.
[John Windhausen is the Executive Director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition]
benton.org/headlines/ensuring-every-community-america-has-access-high-quality-broadband | Hill, The
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CONTENT

FACEBOOK’S RULEBOOK
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Nick Hopkins]
Facebook’s secret rules and guidelines for deciding what its 2 billion users can post on the site are revealed for the first time in a Guardian investigation that will fuel the global debate about the role and ethics of the social media giant. The Guardian has seen more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts that give unprecedented insight into the blueprints Facebook has used to moderate issues such as violence, hate speech, terrorism, pornography, racism and self-harm. The Facebook Files give the first view of the codes and rules formulated by the site, which is under huge political pressure in Europe and the US. They illustrate difficulties faced by executives scrabbling to react to new challenges such as “revenge porn” – and the challenges for moderators, who say they are overwhelmed by the volume of work, which means they often have “just 10 seconds” to make a decision. “Facebook cannot keep control of its content,” said one source. “It has grown too big, too quickly.” Many moderators are said to have concerns about the inconsistency and peculiar nature of some of the policies. Those on sexual content, for example, are said to be the most complex and confusing.
benton.org/headlines/revealed-facebooks-internal-rulebook-sex-terrorism-and-violence | Guardian, The
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President Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence

President Donald Trump asked two of the nation’s top intelligence officials in March to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government, according to current and former officials.

President Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election. Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be inappropriate, according to two current and two former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications with the President. President Trump sought the assistance of Coats and Rogers after FBI Director James Comey told the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the FBI was investigating “the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”

Trump’s conversation with Rogers was documented contemporaneously in an internal memo written by a senior NSA official, according to the officials. It is unclear if a similar memo was prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to document Trump’s conversation with Coats. Officials said such memos could be made available to both the special counsel now overseeing the Russia investigation and congressional investigators, who might explore whether Trump sought to impede the FBI’s work.

Revealed: Facebook's internal rulebook on sex, terrorism and violence

Facebook’s secret rules and guidelines for deciding what its 2 billion users can post on the site are revealed for the first time in a Guardian investigation that will fuel the global debate about the role and ethics of the social media giant. The Guardian has seen more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts that give unprecedented insight into the blueprints Facebook has used to moderate issues such as violence, hate speech, terrorism, pornography, racism and self-harm. The Facebook Files give the first view of the codes and rules formulated by the site, which is under huge political pressure in Europe and the US. They illustrate difficulties faced by executives scrabbling to react to new challenges such as “revenge porn” – and the challenges for moderators, who say they are overwhelmed by the volume of work, which means they often have “just 10 seconds” to make a decision. “Facebook cannot keep control of its content,” said one source. “It has grown too big, too quickly.” Many moderators are said to have concerns about the inconsistency and peculiar nature of some of the policies. Those on sexual content, for example, are said to be the most complex and confusing.

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