Lauren Frayer

Acting Federal Trade Commission Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen said that the agency is “not primarily a regulator” and called for wait-and-see approach to enforcement.

She also defended the use of big data to offer consumers different prices for the same good and said she wanted manufacturers of internet-connected household devices to decide best practices among themselves. “We’re saying not ‘Let’s speculate about harm five years out,’ but ‘Is there something happening that harms consumers right now or is likely to cause harm to consumers,’” said Chairman Ohlhausen. If there is potential harm to consumers in a new technology, the FTC should not act until that harm manifests, she said: “We don’t know if that risk will materialize. It may well materialize, but a solution may materialize at the same time.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced the appointment of one Tribal representative to the FCC's Intergovernmental Advisory Committee (IAC) to bring the IAC to its full strength of 15 members. The new representative is Danae Wilson, Manager, Department of Technology Services for the Nez Perce Tribe.

On September 29, 2016, the Commission announced the reauthorization of the IAC and sought nominations for membership. The term of the previous IAC expired on July 14, 2016. On December 29, 2016 the Commission issued a Public Notice announcing the names of the members of the reauthorized IAC and soliciting nominations for an open seat for an elected or appointed Tribal representative. Additionally, by this Public Notice we announce a change of date for the first meeting of the reauthorized Intergovernmental Advisory Committee from March 16-17, 2017 to March 24, 2017.

New York City filed a lawsuit against Verizon. The city claims Verizon failed to complete a citywide fiber rollout by 2014 as required in its cable franchise agreement. Verizon disputes the city's allegations. The company says that it is not required to install fiber in front of each building. Meanwhile, nearly 1 million New York households do not have access to Verizon's fiber-based FiOS service.

Verizon says it has brought its network to 2.2 million NYC residences, while the city has an estimated 3.1 million households. The city government's complaint in the New York State Supreme Court seeks a declaration that Verizon is in breach of its obligations and an order to complete the project. The 2008 agreement, which gave Verizon a citywide cable television franchise, said Verizon must "pass all households" with its fiber-to-the-premises network by June 30, 2014. The agreement covered only cable television, but the fiber build-out also provided faster Internet speeds because the same fiber is used to deliver both services.

A group of Democratic Reps is turning to legislation to call out President Donald Trump and his White House for their history of false statements and disregarding the truth. Rep Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) introduced a resolution that calls for “opposing fake news and alternative facts.” Reps Ted Lieu (D-CA) and John Lewis (D-GA) signed on as co-sponsors. If adopted, the resolution would put the House on record as stating, “the United States should continue being a democracy, not an autocracy.” The measure establishes the sense of the House that “the president must immediately acknowledge his support of the First Amendment and express his support for United States democracy” and “White House spokespersons should not issue fake news.” “White House spokespersons who offer alternative or inaccurate facts should retract their statements immediately,” it adds.

[Commentary] President Donald Trump and some of his supporters on Capitol Hill have recently been expressing anxiety over the possibility of politically motivated surveillance and leaks by our intelligence agencies. But ironically, at the very same time they are moving to give our nation’s largest Internet telecommunications companies even more power to share their customers’ data, including with the government, without permission. Indeed, some of the most ardent critics of government surveillance — including Sen Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Sen Heller (R-NV) — are among those leading the charge to roll back rules that would prevent such abuses by companies.

[Jay Stanley is a Senior Policy Analyst at the ACLU's Project on Speech, Privacy, and Technology.]

The advertising industry is calling on Congress to eliminate the Federal Communications Commission’s privacy rules on internet providers. Six advertising trade groups on March 13 applauded Sen Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) for introducing bills last week that would roll back the rules approved in October.

“Our digital economy is the global leader, providing billions of dollars in ad-supported content and services to consumers, and the innovation and investment that have driven its success have rested on robust, consistent self-regulatory privacy standards backstopped by the Federal Trade Commission,” the groups said. “Without prompt action in Congress or at the FCC, the FCC's regulations would break with well-accepted and functioning industry practices, chilling innovation and hurting the consumers the regulation was supposed to protect.”

“If you look at the president's tweet, he said very clearly, quote, 'wire tapping' — in quotes,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said during March 13's news briefing, making air quotes with his fingers to emphasize his point. “There's been substantial discussion in several reports…There's been reports in the New York Times and the BBC and other outlets about other aspects of surveillance that have occurred. The president was very clear in his tweet that it was, you know, 'wire tapping' — that spans a whole host of surveillance types of options.” Ah, the old air-quotes defense.

According to Spicer's new argument, President Trump didn't necessarily mean wiretapping when he said “wire tapping” — and reporters should know this because he put the phrase in quotation marks. By “wire tapping,” Trump could have been referring to any one among “a whole host of surveillance types.” Obviously.

I would like to address three broad topics today: our progress towards 5G, continued universal service reform, the media landscape, and close with a look at this new era at the Federal Communications Commission and my role in it.

Knight Foundation, Democracy Fund, and the Rita Allen Foundation believe informed communities are indispensable to a healthy American democracy. We are launching an open call for ideas to address concerns about the spread of misinformation and build trust in quality journalism. Knight Foundation will run the call through the Knight Prototype Fund, which specializes in quickly developing and testing early-stage ideas.

We recognize that no single solution will fit all contexts and communities, and by prototyping we hope to quickly learn which ideas have the most potential to improve our news and media ecosystem. We’re looking for technologists, journalists, designers, teachers, researchers, and others who are eager to develop ideas to help ensure all people have access to accurate information. We understand issues of trust and misinformation are nuanced and complicated, and we are looking for ideas and collaborations that can help bring new voices and vision to these debates. We expect to award up to $1 million and for the average grant size to be $50,000. The deadline to submit your idea is 5 pm ET on April 3, 2017. Winners will be announced in June.

[Commentary] A spectre is haunting journalism—the spectre of solidarity. For ages the idea of reporters banding together against a common adversary has seemed thoroughly alien to the character of American journalists. We’re back-stabbing, iconoclastic individualists. Could the Age of Trump finally change all of that? Can—and should—journalists join with reporters from other news organizations to meet the journalistic threats posed by Trump? Or to use the phrase of political activism, should reporters “resist”?

There’s a long history of attacks on the press that cried out for collective action, especially during the dark days of McCarthyism during the 1950s. Yet the experiences of the past are instructive—even heartening. They provide a road map of sorts for the rocky terrain that lies ahead.

[Gary Weiss is a New York-based investigative journalist.]