July 2017

July 18, 2017 (The People Speak on #NetNeutrality)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2017

COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
   Outgoing Ethics Chief: US Is ‘Close to a Laughingstock’
   Ethics watchdog to release Mar-a-Lago visitor logs [links to Hill, The]
   The threat now lurking behind Trump’s media-slamming tweets
   White House lawyer didn't sign off on president’s tweet about Trump Jr. meeting [links to Hill, The]
   Rep Biggs: Media has 'Pavlovian' response to mention of Russia [links to Benton summary]
   6 defenses of Donald Trump Jr.’s Russia meeting — each more dubious than the last [links to Washington Post]

MORE INTERNET/BROADBAND
   NATOA Announces Recipients of 2017 Community Broadband Awards for Outstanding Broadband Endeavors - press release
   Chairman Pai's Response to Members of Congress Regarding Rural Broadband [links to Federal Communications Commission]
   Altice USA Expands 1-Gig in 4 Markets [links to Mutlichannel News]

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   Federal court rejects challenge to national security data requests
   US to Create Independent Military Cyber Command
   The Dark Side of That Personality Quiz You Just Took
   Why it took more than a week to resolve the Verizon data leak [links to Benton summary]
   The Scary Reason Companies Like Verizon Keep Blowing Your Digital Privacy [links to Benton summary]
   Op-Ed: How a US and Russian Cybersecurity Partnership Could Work [links to nextgov]
   To battle hackers, IBM wants to encrypt the world [links to Benton summary]
   Hackers Take Aim at Trump Hotels and Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos [links to nextgov]
   Hacked dating site Ashley Madison agrees to pay $11m to US-based users [links to Guardian, The]
   38 Governors Make Cybersecurity Pledge [links to Minnesota Public Radio]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   FCC Announces Preliminary Reimbursable Cost Estimate for the Post-Auction Broadcast Transition - press release [links to Benton summary]
   AT&T, Verizon, FCC and the rest: These charts show who controls the nation’s licensed millimeter-wave spectrum [links to Fierce]
    The FCC Re-Tweaks the Equipment Authorization Rules [links to CommLawBlog]
   AT&T Rural Fixed Wireless Deployment Expands to Mississippi [links to AT&T]

CONTENT
DirecTV Now, HBO have livestream meltdowns during 'Game of Thrones' premiere [links to Fierce]
Google’s Quantum Computing Push Opens New Front in Cloud Battle [links to Bloomberg]

OWNERSHIP
Sinclair taking perilous political path with Boris Epshteyn - Baltimore Sun [links to Benton summary]
Sexual harassment at Fox News: Murdochs overhaul culture with eyes on Sky [links to USAToday]

ADVERTISING
Ad spending on mobile video will reach $18 billion next year, surpassing desktop [links to Vox]

JOURNALISM
   WaPo: The White House wanted the media to defend it against the media [links to Washington Post]
   Trump Bump for President’s Media Archenemies Eludes Local Papers [links to Bloomberg]
   Trump Jr Russian Collusion: One story, two narratives at Fox News [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
   Journalists must enlighten, not just inform, in a world darkened by Trump - CJR op-ed [links to Benton summary]

LABOR
   Employee headcount: Sizing up AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream’s working ranks [links to Fierce]
   AT&T, CWA West approve tentative labor agreement with mediator's help [links to Fierce]
   Tech Workers Brace For Seattle's Plan to 'Tax The Rich' [links to NPR]

DIVERSITY
Jodie Whittaker Becomes First Woman Cast as the Doctor in 'Doctor Who' [links to Multichannel News]

FTC REFORM
Acting FTC Chairman Ohlhausen Announces Internal Process Reforms: Reducing Burdens and Improving Transparency in Agency Investigations [links to Federal Trade Commission]

POLICYMAKERS
FCC to Accept Applications for Fall 2018 Honors Program; Application Window Runs from July 17 to September 11 [links to Federal Communications Commission]

COMPANY NEWS
Google Fiber Loses Chief Executive Officer After Five Months [links to Benton summary]
As its losses and debt grow, can Frontier remain a player in the phone business? [links to Los Angeles Times]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   UAE orchestrated hacking of Qatari government sites, sparking regional upheaval, according to U.S. intelligence officials [links to Washington Post]
   Spreading fake news becomes standard practice for governments across the world [links to Benton summary]
   UK to implement age-verification system for adult content sites [links to Ars Technica]
   Qualcomm Faces Fines After Losing Court Bid in EU Probe [links to Bloomberg]
   Alleged Russian Election Meddling Mirrors Tactics in Eastern Europe [links to Morning Consult]
   Australia and Cybersecurity: No, the laws of Australia don’t override the laws of mathematics [links to Brookings]

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NET NEUTRALITY

THE PEOPLE SPEAK
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Michael Copps]
The people’s verdict is in. A slew of recent polls make clear that most Americans, nearly 80%, support keeping the network neutrality rules that are the foundation of an open internet. These are the rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission in 2015, under the leadership of then-chairman Tom Wheeler, that keep the big Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon from determining your internet experience, because they’d rather do that themselves than let you do it. Net neutrality rules prohibit blocking or throttling content. And they keep ISPs from favoring their affiliates, corporate friends, and those who can afford sky-high broadband prices with fast lanes on the net, while the rest of us are told to travel in the slow lane.
benton.org/headlines/people-speak | Benton Foundation
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ISPS CLOSING ARGUMENTS AGAINST NN
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
As the period for filing public comments on the Federal Communications Commission's plans to roll back network neutrality regulations comes to a close, telecommunications companies are submitting their final arguments. On July 17, the last day to submit comments, firms such as Comcast, AT&T and trade associations representing the telecommunications industry filed statements in support of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s “Restoring Internet Freedom” proposal to scrap the net neutrality rules the agency approved in 2015. In their comments, telecommunications companies reiterated their claim that they don’t do the things net neutrality rules were designed to protect against — blocking or slowing down certain types of content and websites — and that public utility style regulations aren’t necessary.
benton.org/headlines/broadband-companies-make-closing-arguments-against-net-neutrality | Hill, The
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ON NN, WHERE DO WE GOT FROM HERE?
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
If the Federal Communications Commission does dismantle Title II network neutrality rules, what happens next? Consumer advocates and other proponents could launch a legal challenge, tying the issue up in court for years -- perhaps until after the current administration. Or companies could push Congress to pass its own law and take the power out of the commission. But here's where things get tricky. Court cases can drag on and legislation is certain to involve compromises. Denelle Dixon, chief business and legal officer for Mozilla, says the fight to keep the internet free and open is too important to not push forward. But she admits it may not turn out exactly as she would like. "Legislation by its nature is complicated and never plays out the way you expect," she said. "One side doesn't always win...In a perfect world, we'd like to see the rules that exist today remain. But the reality is that we have an FCC chairman who is set on dismantling them and at some point we need to engage with legislators."
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-fight-where-do-we-go-here | C-Net|News.com
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WASHINGTON, NN, AND A POTENTIAL RESOLUTION
[SOURCE: Morning Consult, AUTHOR: Daniel Sepulveda]
[Commentary] I support network neutrality and the rules as the Obama Federal Communications Commission Democratic majority promulgated. But I recognize that there may be benefits to consumers, particularly low-income consumers and the public interest that might warrant exemptions to strict network neutrality rules. We would all be better off if Congress could agree on what those rules and exceptions should look like, but repealing Title II protections will not help us get there. Much like you have seen the FCC privacy rules replaced with nothing, having polarized the parties, and made deliberation toward compromise more difficult, the repeal of Title II rules will do the same thing....Repealing network neutrality protections without replacing them with something that has bipartisan support at the same time will poison the environment for potential philosophical resolution and compromise to the detriment of network operators, internet innovators and consumers alike.
[Daniel Sepulveda served as ambassador, deputy assistant secretary, and coordinator for communications and information policy at the State Department from 2013 through Jan. 20, 2017]
benton.org/headlines/washington-network-neutrality-and-potential-resolution | Morning Consult
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WYDEN CRITICIZES PAI ON NN
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) accused Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai of mischaracterizing his position from nearly two decades ago to justify the agency’s repeal of network neutrality rules. In a comment filed to the net neutrality docket at the FCC, Sen Wyden said that Chairman Pai was being “willfully ignorant” when he cited a letter that the Oregon Democrat wrote in 1998 arguing against the reclassification of internet service providers (ISP) as telecommunications companies, which, in 2015, became the legal framework for the net neutrality rules. “The internet and internet access service today both are wildly different than they were in 1998,” Sen Wyden wrote in the filing. “Back then, large numbers of consumers were starting to take advantage of the whole internet, rather than just a walled-garden service." "The key difference, however, was that in 1998 consumers largely accessed the internet through third-party ISPs like AOL, or Prodigy, and those consumers used the infrastructure of the common carrier telephone system to connect to that third-party ISP,” he continued.
benton.org/headlines/sen-wyden-accuses-chairman-pai-being-willfully-ignorant-net-neutrality | Hill, The
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PK NN COMMENTS
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Ryan Clough]
As Public Knowledge’s comprehensive filing of more than 100 pages makes abundantly clear, Chairman Pai’s proposal would remove consumer protections the Federal Communications Commission has explicitly and repeatedly identified as critical to protecting broadband subscribers. It would for the first time explicitly make cable companies the gatekeepers of the internet. To attempt such a dramatic change of policy without even acknowledging the over 20 years of FCC past practice chronicled in these comments is the definition of arbitrary and capricious -- and leaves Pai’s proposal highly vulnerable to reversal in the courts. Twice opponents of Title II have pitched their alternate history of ‘light touch regulation’ to the D.C. Circuit in an effort to overturn the FCC’s existing net neutrality rules. Twice the D.C. Circuit has flatly rejected it. Chairman Pai apparently thinks that the third time will prove the charm. Hopefully, Chairman Pai will reconsider his unpopular plan to strip away net neutrality and critical consumer protections.
benton.org/headlines/public-knowledge-files-fcc-comments-preserve-net-neutrality-rules | Public Knowledge
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WHAT THE ECONOMISTS SAY
[SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute, AUTHOR: Mark Jamison]
[Commentary] Recently a small group of economists (I was one) summarized the economic research on network neutrality and Title II. Limiting ourselves to economics articles in the top 300 journals and that used explicit economic models, we reviewed the answers to four basic questions:
How would regulations restricting ISPs from offering enhanced network features, such as fast lanes, to content providers affect (a) total welfare, (b) network investment, and (c) the variety of content on the internet and content provider investment? (Note: “Total welfare” is value that consumers receive from what they purchase minus the cost of providing the products.)
How would prohibitions on network termination fees affect total welfare?
How would prohibiting ISPs from blocking content affect total welfare?
Are ISPs like the telecom companies for which Congress wrote Title II?
Here is what we found, but in my own words. 1) The effects of restricting enhanced network features on welfare, ISP investment, and content depend on market conditions. 2) It appears that termination fees could be harmful when ISPs compete for providing access to content providers and an ISP would charge content providers that do not directly connect with the ISP. Otherwise, termination fees are helpful. 3) Blocking is harmful. 4) Economic research today supports the idea that internet services are quite important but has not found that ISPs have the monopoly power contemplated when Title II was created.
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-what-economics-says | American Enterprise Institute
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MORE INTERNET/BROADBAND

NATOA WINNERS
[SOURCE: National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, AUTHOR: Press release]
The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) Board of Directors announced the recipients of NATOA’s 2017 Community Broadband Awards. Since 2007, NATOA has been recognizing exceptional leaders and innovative programs that champion community interests in broadband deployment and adoption in local communities nationwide. Recipients will receive their awards at NATOA’s 37th Annual Conference, to be held in Seattle (WA) from September 11 – 14 at the Grand Hyatt Seattle. The 2017 Community Broadband Award recipients are:
Community Broadband Hero of the Year: Danna MacKenzie, Executive Director, State of Minnesota Office of Broadband Development
Community Broadband Project of the Year: Longmont Power & Communications, Longmont, CO
Community Broadband Strategic Plan of the Year: Seattle, WA “Strategic Plan for Facilitating Equitable Access to Wireless Broadband”
Community Broadband Digital Equity Project of the Year: Seattle, WA “Technology Matching Fund”
Community Broadband Innovative Partnership of the Year: Garrett County, MD & Declaration Networks Group, Inc.
benton.org/headlines/natoa-announces-recipients-2017-community-broadband-awards-outstanding-broadband-endeavors | National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors
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COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY

OUTGOING ETHICS CHIEF
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lipton, Nicholas Fandos]
Actions by President Trump and his administration have created a historic ethics crisis, the departing head of the Office of Government Ethics said. He called for major changes in federal law to expand the power and reach of the oversight office and combat the threat. Walter M. Shaub Jr., who is resigning as the federal government’s top ethics watchdog on July 18, said the Trump administration had flouted or directly challenged long-accepted norms in a way that threatened to undermine the United States’ ethical standards, which have been admired around the world. “It’s hard for the United States to pursue international anticorruption and ethics initiatives when we’re not even keeping our own side of the street clean. It affects our credibility,” Shaub said in a two-hour interview this past weekend — a weekend Mr. Trump let the world know he was spending at a family-owned golf club that was being paid to host the U.S. Women’s Open tournament. “I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point.” Shaub called for nearly a dozen legal changes to strengthen the federal ethics system: changes that, in many cases, he had not considered necessary before Mr. Trump’s election. Every other president since the 1970s, Republican or Democrat, worked closely with the ethics office, he said.
benton.org/headlines/outgoing-ethics-chief-us-close-laughingstock | New York Times
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THREAT BEHIND LURKING TRUMPS MEDIA-SLAMMING TWEETS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Callum Borchers]
President Donald Trump on July 16 slammed the media on Twitter before spending the afternoon at one of his golf courses and tuning in to Fox News in the evening. Here's what President Trump posted, in case you missed it: "HillaryClinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate & delete 33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?" "With all of its phony unnamed sources & highly slanted & even fraudulent reporting, #Fake News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country!" "The ABC/Washington Post Poll, even though almost 40% is not bad at this time, was just about the most inaccurate poll around election time!" Complaints about polls and unnamed sources are standard fare from President Trump, but the president's team is plotting new, targeted attacks. In a report last week on the White House's response to news about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer was this nugget from The Post's Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker: “A handful of Republican operatives close to the White House are scrambling to Trump Jr.’s defense and have begun what could be an extensive campaign to try to discredit some of the journalists who have been reporting on the matter. Their plan, as one member of the team described it, is to research the reporters’ previous work, in some cases going back years, and to exploit any mistakes or perceived biases. They intend to demand corrections, trumpet errors on social media and feed them to conservative outlets, such as Fox News.”
benton.org/headlines/threat-now-lurking-behind-trumps-media-slamming-tweets | Washington Post | more from WaPo
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

FED COURT REJECTS CHALLENGE TO NATIONAL SEC DATA REQUESTS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Joe Uchill]
The Federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that gag orders issued with warrant-like national security letters do not violate the First Amendment. National security letters serve the same functions as a warrant but do not require judicial oversight. They are frequently used to solicit digital data from telecom companies and are frequently accompanied by nondisclosure orders barring the companies from informing customers that law enforcement has harvested their data. Credo Mobile and CloudFlare, a cybersecurity firm, received a total of five national security letters between 2011 and 2013 and sued, arguing they had a First Amendment right to notify customers. In 2013, District Judge Susan Illston ruled that the letters were unconstitutional, but stayed her decision and later reversed it in 2016 once lawmakers added additional civil liberties protections. The appeals court upheld Illston's amended opinion, agreeing that civil liberties safeguards in place — including notifying recipients the letters could be challenged in court — were adequate. "The nondisclosure requirement in the NSL law therefore does not run afoul of the First Amendment," wrote Judge Sandra Ikuta in the decision.
benton.org/headlines/federal-court-rejects-challenge-national-security-data-requests | Hill, The
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US TO CREATE INDEPENDENT MILITARY CYBER COMMAND
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Lolita Baldor]
After months of delay, the Trump Administration is finalizing plans to revamp the nation's military command for defensive and offensive cyber operations in hopes of intensifying America's ability to wage cyberwar against the Islamic State group and other foes, according to US officials. Under the plans, US Cyber Command would eventually be split off from the intelligence-focused National Security Agency. Details are still being worked out, but officials say they expect a decision and announcement in the coming weeks. The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter so requested anonymity. The goal, they said, is to give US Cyber Command more autonomy, freeing it from any constraints that stem from working alongside the NSA, which is responsible for monitoring and collecting telephone, internet and other intelligence data from around the world - a responsibility that can sometimes clash with military operations against enemy forces.
benton.org/headlines/us-create-independent-military-cyber-command | Associated Press
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DARK SIDE OF PERSONALITY QUIZZES
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Paul Bisceglio]
Personality quizzes have some sort of perennial appeal. Facebook newsfeeds are filled with BuzzFeed quizzes and other oddball questionnaires that tell you which city you should actually live in, which ousted Arab Spring ruler you are, and which Hogwarts house you belong in. But these new online quizzes have a dark edge that their analog predecessors didn’t. In the wake of the US election, a secretive data firm hired by Donald Trump’s campaign boasted that it has been using quizzes for years to gather personal information about millions of voters. Its goal: the creation of digital profiles that can predict—and possibly exploit—Americans’ values, anxieties, and political leanings. Whether this firm, Cambridge Analytica, has actually used predictive profiles to influence people isn’t certain; reports suggest it hasn’t, at least not directly. But the company’s methods nonetheless expose the growing scale of personality analysis online—and the dangers that come with it. On the internet, anything you do is like taking a personality quiz: Everywhere you click reveals something about you. And you’re not the only one who sees the results.
benton.org/headlines/dark-side-personality-quiz-you-just-took | Atlantic, The
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July 2017

Why diversity matters in the modern video games industry

State hackers 'probably compromised' energy sector, says leaked GCHQ memo

Atlanta and Toronto are the new top markets for tech jobs

July 18, 2017 (The People Speak on #NetNeutrality)

Net neutrality: What the economics says

Google Fiber Loses Chief Executive Officer After Five Months

As its losses and debt grow, can Frontier remain a player in the phone business?

FCC Denies motion of the National Hispanic Media Coalition for extension of time to file comments in the Restoring Internet Freedom proceeding

Broadband companies make closing arguments against net neutrality

FTC staff backs net neutrality rollback