John Eggerton

Reporters Without Borders, the group that works to protect journalists, and journalism, across the globe, has asked Facebook to abandon a news feed test it is conducting in six countries, saying the change, if implemented, would imperil many media outlets. Facebook says it is testing ways to improve its news feed, a test being conducted in Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Slovakia, Serbia, Guatemala, and Cambodia. "The goal of this test is to understand if people prefer to have separate places for personal and public content," Facebook explained.

The Federal Communications Commission has weighed in with a federal court to support Charter's challenge to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission's application of legacy Title II telecom regulations to its interconnected VoIP phone service. The case is being heard by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Minnesota. "The Minnesota PUC has adopted a blunderbuss approach to VoIP regulation that threatens to disrupt the national voice services market," the FCC's legal team says.

NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, has told the Federal Communications Commission that Sinclair's response to the commission's request for more information on how it would comply with its rules in the Tribune merger were insufficient, and without that info the deal must be denied. That came in comments to the FCC filed Nov. 2.

Attorneys general from IL, MD, MA, and RI have teamed up to ask the Federal Communications Commission to block the merger of Sinclair and Tribune. The joint filing comes at the same time the Coalition to Save Local Media was urging all the state AG's to weigh in against the deal. The AGs principal beef appears to be the size of the deal, which would create the largest TV station group in the country reaching over 70% of the national audience.

Over four dozen Democratic House members have written Sinclair President Chris Ripley asking for answers to over a dozen questions related to the proposed Tribune merger and its impact on the public interest, as well as suggesting the company commit to not raising retransmission fees for its newly acquired stations. The letter comes as the Federal Communications Commission is about to start its informal 180-day shot clock on the merger after pausing it to give the public more time to comment on Sinclair's response to the FCC's second request for info on the deal.

The House Antitrust Subcommittee took a whack at the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules Nov 1, specifically the role of antitrust law in governing broadband access provider conduct. That came as FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to circulate an order rolling back Title II classification of ISPs as early as later in Nov. It also came at about the same time that the FCC Democrats went to Capitol Hill to push back on that Pai proposal.

The Campaign Legal Center is teaming up with a pro-Trump PAC to try and force the Federal Election Commission to establish strong online ad disclosure rules. CLC has teamed up with the Take Back Action Fund (TBAF) to file an advisory opinion request with the FEC that they say requires the commission to address the issue of online ad transparency by the end of 2017. They don't want a new election cycle to rev up without the protective gear of strong disclosure. By law the FEC must respond to the request within 60 days, they said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) have circulated the draft of a bill that would speed the deployment of 5G, just one a host of moves to goose the buildout of high-speed broadband.

The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has dismissed a complaint, filed by The Word Network (TWN), that Comcast had violated a condition of its merger with NBCU, saying it had to make a prima facie case, and did not, and that digital rights are not attributable interests that create an affiliation relationship. The case was resolved by the Media Bureau under delegated authority.

Verizon gave Federal Communications Commisison Chairman Ajit Pai its side of the carriage dispute with Univision that has resulted in those networks being off Verizon pay-TV and wireless platforms. Verizon SVP Kathleen Grillo said that despite Verizon's efforts over the past two months, Univision sought unreasonable terms and price increases--more than double its current rate despite declining viewership, says Grillo.