BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2017
COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
Justice Department walks back demand for information on anti-Trump website
Speech in America is fast, cheap and out of control - LA Times op-ed
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Who Owns the Internet?
Incompas asks FCC to open up cable and internet competition for apartment buildings
When it Comes to High-Speed Broadband Infrastructure, Rural America Could Really Use an FDR - In These Times op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Grande Communications Announces Expansion Of 1 Gigabit Internet To San Antonio, Texas [links to telecompetitor]
NET NEUTRALITY
Public-Interest Groups urge FCC to release net neutrality complaints
Unlike FCC, FTC cannot protect net neutrality - The Hill op-ed
Loosening internet regs a boon to business, public - USA Today op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Free Press Supporters Are Fueling the Fight - press release [links to Benton summary]
Debunking Edge Competition Myth Predicate in FCC Title II Broadband Order [links to Precursor]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Privacy Conversation at 2017 TPI Aspen Forum [links to Benton summary]
Orin Kerr: No warrants for a suspect’s entire Facebook account, appellate court hints [links to Washington Post]
Spyware backdoor prompts Google to pull 500 apps with >100m downloads [links to Ars Technica]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Sen Wyden voted against intel authorization over WikiLeaks denouncement [links to Hill, The]
NYC Mayor De Blasio used personal e-mail for official NYC business [links to New York Times]
House Speaker Ryan: I wish President Trump would tweet less [links to Hill, The]
CONTENT
One reason extremists rely on YouTube? No transcripts. [links to Washington Post]
Why It's So Hard to Define What Online Hate Speech Is [links to Benton summary]
A new study says more teens than expected are leaving Facebook for Instagram and Snapchat [links to Vox]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Verizon’s good unlimited data plan is now three bad unlimited plans [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
Democratic Reps Seek to Eliminate UHF Discount
Public Knowledge Welcomes Brazilian Antitrust Watchdog Arguments Against AT&T-Time Warner Merger [links to Public Knowledge]
JOURNALISM
Univision Says Lawsuit Over Deadspin Story Intended to Scare Journalists [links to Benton summary]
Medium will now pay writers based on how many claps they get [links to Verge, The]
Think The New York Times And Fox Covered Bannon Differently? Yes And No. [links to Huffington Post]
Peggy Noonan joins NBC, MSNBC as political contributor [links to Hill, The]
From Talk to Action in Charlotte - Free Press press release [links to Benton summary]
Fox's Carl Cameron announces retirement [links to Hill, The]
When the government is one of your paper’s biggest advertisers [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
POLICYMAKERS
Members resign from White House council on infrastructure security [links to Hill, The]
DIVERSITY
How sexism in tech is affecting the female pipeline [links to CNN]
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COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
DOJ WALKS BACK DEMAND FOR INFO ON ANTI-TRUMP WEBSITE
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Colin Lecher]
After controversy over a broad search warrant that could have identified visitors to an anti-Trump website, the Justice Department says it’s scaling back a demand for information from hosting service DreamHost. Recently, DreamHost disclosed that it was involved in a legal dispute with the department over access to records on the website “disruptj20.org,” which organized protests tied to Donald Trump’s inauguration. In a legal filing Aug 22, the Justice Department argues that the warrant was proper, but also says DreamHost has since brought up information that was previously “unknown.” In light of that, it has offered to carve out information demanded in the warrant, specifically pledging to not request information like HTTP logs tied to IP addresses. The DOJ says it is only looking for information related to criminal activity on the site, and says that “the government is focused on the use of the Website to organize, to plan, and to effect a criminal act — that is, a riot.” Peaceful protestors, the government argues, are not the targets of the warrant.
benton.org/headlines/justice-department-walks-back-demand-information-anti-trump-website | Verge, The
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SPEECH IN AMERICA IS FAST, CHEAP, AND OUT OF CONTROL
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Richard Hasen]
[Commentary] The rise of what we might call “cheap speech” has fundamentally altered both how we communicate and the nature of our politics, endangering the health of our democracy. The path back to a more normal political scene will not be easy. In the old days, just a handful of TV networks controlled the airwaves, and newspapers served as gatekeepers for news and opinion content. A big debate back in the 1980s and earlier was how to enable free expression for those who did not own or work for a media company and wanted to get a message out. It seems cheap speech, despite its undeniable benefits, has come with a steep price for our democracy.
[Richard L. Hasen is the Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at UC Irvine]
benton.org/headlines/speech-america-fast-cheap-and-out-control | Los Angeles Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
WHO OWNS THE INTERNET?
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Kolbert]
Journalists, congressional committees, and a special counsel are probing the details of what happened during the 2016 election. But two new books contend that the large lines of the problem are already clear. As in the eighteen-seventies, we are in the midst of a technological revolution that has altered the flow of information. Now, as then, just a few companies have taken control, and this concentration of power—which Americans have acquiesced to without ever really intending to, simply by clicking away—is subverting our democracy.
benton.org/headlines/who-owns-internet | New Yorker
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INCOMPAS ASKS FCC TO OPEN UP COMPETITION FOR APTS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
A trade association is asking the Federal Communications Commission to give apartment building tenants more choices when it comes to internet and cable providers. Incompas, which lobbies on behalf of smaller service providers, said the FCC should take up a new rule that would effectively ban rental property owners from giving preferential treatment to certain companies. While it’s illegal to prevent apartment building tenants from signing up with the service provider of their choice, landlords have a lot of leeway to ensure that only certain providers have access to their properties. In some cases they also have an incentive to favor one provider over another. Property owners are allowed to enter into revenue-sharing agreements with companies like AT&T and Comcast, for instance, which provide kickbacks whenever their tenants sign up for service. “It’s time for the FCC to set the 30 percent of Americans living in apartment and condo buildings free from broadband monopoly control,” said Incompas CEO Chip Pickering. “They should not be forced to pay more for slower speeds when new broadband competition is knocking on the front door."
benton.org/headlines/incompas-asks-fcc-open-cable-and-internet-competition-apartment-buildings | Hill, The
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NET NEUTRALITY
GROUPS URGE FCC TO RELEASE NN COMPLAINTS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
Public interest groups opposed to the repeal of network neutrality rules are asking the Federal Communications Commission to release a trove of documents in an effort to keep the rules in place. Sixteen groups signed a letter urging the FCC to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request for tens of thousands of complaints that have been filed since the net neutrality rules were implemented in 2015. They also called for the FCC to delay its repeal of the rules, which require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally, until the complaints have been released and reviewed. “It is disturbing that the FCC has apparently failed to review documents that are in its exclusive possession prior to crafting [a notice of proposed rulemaking] to repeal the very rules that established these enforceable mechanisms to redress consumer harms,” the letter reads. The letter was signed by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Common Cause.
benton.org/headlines/public-interest-groups-urge-fcc-release-net-neutrality-complaints | Hill, The
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UNLIKE FCC, FTC CANNOT PROTECT NN
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Anant Raut]
[Commentary] To distract you while they smother network neutrality, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and acting Federal Trade Commission Chair Maureen Ohlhausen have offered confident assurances that the FTC can step into the role abdicated by the FCC and protect net neutrality with its antitrust and consumer protection enforcement authority. It sounds plausible (plus most people aren’t entirely sure what the FTC does), so you nod along, but don’t fall for it; it’s a ruse. The FTC would be far more limited in how it can protect net neutrality, because:
1) The FTC is prohibited from enforcing its laws against common carriers, like telephone companies
2) The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has broadly interpreted that law to mean that the FTC can’t act against even the non-telephonic services of telephone companies, like broadband
3) Even if the 9th Circuit decision gets reversed, the FTC can’t use antitrust law to protect individual websites and content providers
4) It’s doubtful whether net neutrality could be enforced through the FTC’s other enforcement tool, consumer protection laws
[Anant Raut is the former counsel to the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, as well as a former FTC attorney. He is currently a visiting fellow at Public Knowledge]
benton.org/headlines/unlike-fcc-ftc-cannot-protect-net-neutrality | Hill, The
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OWNERSHIP
DEMOCRATIC REPS SEEK TO ELIMINATE UHF DISCOUNT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Reps David Price (D-NC) and Jared Huffman (D-CA) have collected more than a half dozen co-sponsors for a bill that would eliminate the Federal Communications Commission's UHF discount, which would in turn make it tougher for Sinclair Broadcasting and Tribune Media to merge. Co-sponsors of the Local and Independent Television Protection Act include by Reps Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Jackie Speier (D-CA). The bill "requires the FCC to act within 90 days to permanently end the UHF discount; and grandfathers any stations owned prior to Sept. 26, 2013," as the FCC had when it eliminated the discount under previous chairman Tom Wheeler, who has weighed in from his post-FCC perch to say the FCC was bending the rules to benefit Sinclair.
benton.org/headlines/democratic-reps-seek-eliminate-uhf-discount | Broadcasting&Cable
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