September 2017

COMMUNICATIONS AND DEMOCRACY

KUSHNER USE OF PERSONAL EMAIL NO MINOR ERRO
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Norman Eisen, Anne Weismann]
[Commentary] The new revelations of widespread use of personal e-mail for official business by Jared Kushner and five other White House advisers are no minor indiscretion. Rather, they represent the latest episode in a critical systems failure in the Trump presidency — one that strikes at the heart of our democracy. At issue is the Presidential Records Act, a post-Watergate statute Congress enacted to establish public ownership of presidential (and vice-presidential) records. It obligates the White House and those who work there to preserve all records relating to their official duties. Despite these legal requirements, the first eight months of President Trump’s administration have been marked by stories of deleted presidential tweets, by the use within the White House of messaging applications that destroy the contents of messages as soon as they are read, and now by White House staff using personal e-mail accounts to conduct government business. It is now up to the courts to hold the president accountable to those he governs by affirming his and his staff’s obligations to maintain and preserve records. Our democracy itself is at stake.
[Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and served as chief White House ethics lawyer for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2011. Anne Weismann is chief FOIA counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington]
benton.org/headlines/kushners-use-personal-e-mail-no-minor-error | Washington Post
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PRESIDENT TRUMP ACCUSING FACEBOOK OF BEING 'ANTI-TRUMP'
[SOURCE: Vox, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
President Donald Trump charged that Facebook has “always” been opposed to him, suggesting it is part of a network of “collusion” along with national newspapers and cable news networks that have covered his White House critically. President Trump did not elaborate much on his comments, but his accusations — as always, communicated by tweet — come at a time when Facebook is the target of scrutiny by congressional and federal investigators, who are probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The President tweeted, "Facebook was always anti-Trump.The Networks were always anti-Trump hence,Fake News, @nytimes(apologized) & @WaPo were anti-Trump. Collusion?..But the people were Pro-Trump! Virtually no President has accomplished what we have accomplished in the first 9 months-and economy roaring."
benton.org/headlines/president-trump-accusing-facebook-being-anti-trump | Vox | The Hill
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ELECTIONS

PROPAGANDA 2016
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Timberg]
Propaganda and other forms of “junk news” on Twitter flowed more heavily in a dozen battleground states than in the nation overall in the days immediately before and after the 2016 presidential election, suggesting that a coordinated effort targeted the most pivotal voters, researchers from Oxford University reported. The volumes of low-quality information on Twitter — much of it delivered by online “bots” and “trolls” working at the behest of unseen political actors — were strikingly heavy everywhere in the United States, said the researchers at Oxford’s Project on Computational Propaganda. They found that false, misleading and highly partisan reports were shared on Twitter at least as often as those from professional news organizations. But in 12 battleground states, including New Hampshire, Virginia and Florida, the amount of what they called “junk news” exceeded that from professional news organizations, prompting researchers to conclude that those pushing disinformation approached the job with a geographic focus in hopes of having maximum impact on the outcome of the vote. The researchers defined junk news as “propaganda and ideologically extreme, hyperpartisan, or conspiratorial political news and information.” The researchers also categorized reports from Russia and ones from WikiLeaks — which published embarrassing posts about Democrat Hillary Clinton based on a hack of her campaign chairman’s email — as “polarizing political content” for the purposes of the analysis.
benton.org/headlines/propaganda-flowed-heavily-battleground-states-around-election-study-says | Washington Post | read the study
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TWITTER AND THE ELECTION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Daisuke Wakabayashi, Scott Shane]
After a weekend when Americans took to social media to debate President Trump’s admonishment of National Football League players who do not stand for the national anthem, a network of Twitter accounts suspected of links to Russia seized on both sides of the issue with hashtags such as #boycottnfl, #standforouranthem and #takeaknee. As Twitter prepared to brief staff members of the Senate and House intelligence committees on Sept 28 for their investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, researchers from a public policy group have been following hundreds of accounts to track the continuing Russian operations to influence social media discourse and foment division in the United States. There is evidence that Twitter may have been used even more extensively than Facebook in the Russian influence campaign in 2016. In addition to Russia-linked Twitter accounts that posed as Americans, the platform was also used for large-scale automated messaging, using “bot” accounts to spread false stories and promote news articles about emails from Democratic operatives that had been obtained by Russian hackers.
benton.org/headlines/twitter-accounts-linked-russia-face-congress-over-role-election | New York Times
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FACEBOOK AND THE ELECTION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mike Isaac, Melissa Eddy]
President Donald Trump took aim at Facebook, calling the social network “anti-Trump.” But the social network insists it is pro-democracy and pro-truth — and the German election shows it. “Trump says Facebook is against him,” said Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook. “Liberals say we helped Trump. Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don’t like.” Zuckerberg expressed regret for initially appearing dismissive of his company’s potential effects on the 2016 election, saying that the topic was “too important.” But he also repeated a point he has made many times — that Facebook’s broader impact, “from giving people a voice to enabling candidates to communicate directly to helping millions of people vote,” had a much greater effect on the election than that of misinformation on the platform.
benton.org/headlines/facebook-responds-president-trump-and-positions-itself-election-ready | New York Times | Vox | Washington Post | The Guardian
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

CONSUMERS SUPPORT NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Consumer Reports, AUTHOR: James Willcox]
A new Consumer Reports survey shows that a majority of Americans favor net neutrality rules that prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking lawful online content. One main finding was that the majority of Americans—57 percent—support the current network neutrality regulations that ban ISPs from blocking or discriminating against lawful content on the internet. Sixteen percent said they opposed these regulations, while about a quarter didn't express an opinion on the topic. An even larger majority—67 percent—said that ISPs shouldn't be allowed to choose which websites, apps, or streaming services their customers can access. Almost as many—63 percent—don't think an ISP should be allowed to modify or edit content consumers try to access on the internet. When it comes to paid prioritization deals, in which ISPs can provide faster delivery of content to companies that pay a fee for it, roughly half the respondents—48 percent—said they didn't believe such practices should be permitted, while 26 percent said they should be permitted, and 26 percent expressed no opinion.
benton.org/headlines/consumers-favor-strong-network-neutrality-rules | Consumer Reports
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

HURRICANE RESPONSE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel says her agency needs to do more to help restore phone service in areas affected by the recent string of devastating hurricanes. "After Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy @FCC held hearings to address network recovery. Why won’t agency do it for Harvey, Irma & Maria?” she tweeted. “These are people struggling to make phone calls in the United States. @FCC must study networks in disaster. Stat.” Critics say the agency is responding slower than to previous hurricanes and are laying the blame on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. In 2012, the FCC announced that it would hold agency hearings within weeks of Superstorm Sandy, which battered the Northeast. “Frankly, I think Pai is worried … that hearings will point to problems the FCC needs to solve through regulation,” said Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-commissioner-rosenworcel-criticizes-agencys-hurricane-response | Hill, The
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POLICYMAKERS

PAI RESISTANCE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) took to the Senate floor to oppose the nomination of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai for a new term on the commission, citing network neutrality. Sen Cantwell said Chairman Pai had moved the FCC away from its key public service mission, including net neutrality, which she called one of the most important issues of our time. She told her colleagues that in the information age, making sure the internet remains open is key. She also said that the vote on Pai's nomination would happen on Oct. 2. She said Chairman Pai was trying to clog the arteries of one of the fastest growing economic opportunities in America. "I am not going to vote for someone who is going to clog the internet."
benton.org/headlines/sen-cantwell-speaks-out-against-pai-renomination | Broadcasting&Cable
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TIME FOR CONGRESS TO FIRE PAI
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
[Commentary] If you believe communications networks should be fast, fair, open, and affordable, you need ask your senator to vote against Ajit Pai’s reconfirmation. Now. The Senate vote on Pai is imminent. When it happens, it will be a stark referendum on the kind of communications networks and consumer protections we want to see in this country. Senators can choose a toothless Federal Communications Commission that will protect huge companies, allow them to further consolidate, charge higher prices with worsening service, and a create bigger disconnect between broadband haves and have-nots. Or, they can vote for what the FCC is supposed to do: protect consumers, promote competition, and ensure access for all Americans, including the most vulnerable. It shouldn’t be a hard decision, and what we’ve seen over the past eight months makes the stakes clear.
[Gigi Sohn served as counselor to former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler from November 2013 to December 2016. She is currently a fellow at the Open Society Foundations]
benton.org/headlines/its-time-congress-fire-fcc-chairman | Verge, The
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SENATE CONFIRMS DELRAHIM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
The Senate voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division, a vote that comes as the department considers the AT&T-Time Warner merger worth $85.4 billion. Makan Delrahim, who previously worked in Trump’s White House counsel’s office, was cleared with a 73-21 vote. Delrahim will be tasked with spearheading the administration’s antitrust agenda at a time when the issue is becoming increasingly prominent. Across the board, industries are facing increased consolidation amid rumors of mega-mergers. Sprint and T-Mobile are reportedly set to announce a merger in the coming weeks that would reduce the number of major national wireless carriers from four to three. And the AT&T-Time Warner deal has prompted criticism from Democrats who worry that it could stifle competitors and raise prices for consumers. Delrahim said in a media interview in 2016, prior to his nomination, that he doesn’t see that merger as a concern for regulators.
benton.org/headlines/senate-confirms-president-trumps-pick-doj-antitrust-division | Hill, The | Vox
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September 2017

September 25-29, 2017

Weekly Digest

What Does 'Effective Competition' Mean for Sprint/T-Mobile -- And You?

September 29, 2017 (Propaganda Flowed)

Hugh Hefner, Who Built Playboy Empire and Embodied It

Propaganda flowed heavily into battleground states around election, study says

Last month, 83 percent of U.S. protests were against President Trump

Why political protests during the national anthem are so offensive to so many

The Government Needs More Cyber Talent—But So Does Everyone Else

How Technology Has Changed News Photography Over 40 Years

Shares of US Media Companies Set for Worst Month Since 2015

Amazon’s New Echos Bring Alexa to the Bedroom and Beyond