1. Monthly archive
  2. May 2017

May 2017

Senator Harris (D-CA) Statement on FCC Vote to Repeal Net Neutrality

Nearly fifty years ago, California researchers embarked on a bold experiment to devise an interoperable computer network. Today, that network is the internet. It is an engine of unprecedented innovation and creativity, in California and throughout the world. The genius of the internet is that it enables entrepreneurship on a level playing field. That openness is particularly important for historically disadvantaged communities. On the internet, anyone can become an overnight sensation based on the quality of their work, regardless of their gender, the color of their skin, who they love, or where they were born. As a Senator, I will fight to protect the net neutrality rules. I intend to submit my comments to the Federal Communications Commission urging that it retain the net neutrality rules. I urge all Americans to add their voices to this important conversation.

FCC Is Honoring Fake Anti-Net Neutrality Rants Left By Bots

Conservative commenters have complained that pro-network neutrality groups, including internet startups, online civil liberties organizations, and Last Week Tonight host John Oliver, have encouraged people to comment on the Federal Communications Commission’s site. But these advocates support leaving personalized comments, and there’s no evidence any of them have instructed supporters to file comments under anyone else’s name.

The FCC didn’t respond to repeated requests to specifically say whether it would filter out the astroturfed comments. Speaking to reporters after announcing a step toward rolling back existing net neutrality protections, FCC Chair Ajit Pai admitted “a tension between having an open process where it’s easy to comment and preventing questionable comments from being filed.” “Generally speaking, this agency has erred on the side of openness,” he said. Chairman Pai said the agency wouldn’t consider comments with obviously fake names, like Wonder Woman and Joseph Stalin, but declined to go further. Reached for comment after Pai’s statement, an FCC official declined to comment specifically on astroturfed comments.

Rep Blackburn bill would extend privacy rules to Google & Facebook

House Communications Subcommittee Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced a bill that would apply privacy rules to internet service providers like AT&T and Comcast and web companies such as Google and Facebook. The bill would require the companies to get their users' permission before sharing their sensitive information, including web-browsing history, with advertisers.

Chairman Blackburn's proposal differs from the FCC's rules (which she voted to overturn) in two important ways: 1) The legislation would also apply to web companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Snap — known as "edge providers" — which were not subject to the FCC's rules. 2) The Federal Trade Commission (as opposed to the FCC) would be the enforcer of the rules. They would require internet providers and the web firms to make users opt-in to the sharing of "sensitive information" such as the content of communications, "precise" location data and web-browsing and app-usage history, with some exceptions.

President Trump weighs downsizing Spicer’s public role

Apparently, President Donald Trump is considering scaling back White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s public role, as President Trump also weighs a broader shakeup of his communications shop in the wake of several scandals. The press secretary, who has turned into a household name over the past five months and garnered sky-high television ratings for his daily press briefings, has also drawn the ire of the president. He is no longer expected to do a daily, on-camera briefing after President Trump’s foreign trip, which begins May 19.

Roger Ailes: The Man Who Mined a Divided America

Before Donald Trump rode the anger of forgotten (white) America to an “America First” presidency, before Breitbart News became a “platform for the alt-right” and before there were “alternative facts” and dueling versions of reality, Roger Ailes saw a divided country but an undivided news media. And he set out to change it.

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