August 3, 2017 (Cosmopolitan Bias)

INTERNET/BROADBAND

FCC CARRIES RURAL BROADBAND BATON
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Ayanna Alexander]
Bringing high-speed internet access to more of rural America is a policy goal that’s popular among Republicans and Democrats alike. But the issue isn’t moving very fast on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers from both parties, along with President Donald Trump, want to include rural broadband provisions in a larger infrastructure bill, a move that would benefit smaller wireless providers such as United States Cellular Corp. and C Spire Wireless as well as equipment companies. But infrastructure has taken a back seat so far to health-care and tax legislation in the 115th Congress. It’s unclear, at best, whether any infrastructure legislation will advance in 2017. For now, all of the action on rural broadband is at the Federal Communications Commission, where Chairman Ajit Pai has made the issue a top priority. The commission plans to vote Aug. 3 on several related initiatives. Despite the commission’s focus, however, small and rural wireless providers worry that the agency will be slow or insufficient in serving the areas that need broadband most.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-carries-rural-broadband-baton-infrastructure-plan-languishes | Bloomberg
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BROADBAND QUESTIONS FOR CPS
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Sheleen Dumas]
As the next installment of a decades-long series of data collections, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) proposes to add 66 questions to the Census Bureau’s November 2017 Current Population Survey (CPS) to gather reliable data on computer and broadband (also known as highspeed Internet) use by US households. To aid the Administration’s plan to incorporate broadband in the upcoming infrastructure initiative and ensure the digital preparedness of the nation’s current and future workforce, NTIA data will reveal consumers’ changing demand for broadband, as well as their online activities. The information may inform decisions about the scope and scale of the needed infrastructure, particularly in remote and sparsely populated areas where broadband deployment may be difficult and costly. It may also shed light on opportunities to increase digital literacy and use among Americans who currently use the Internet sparingly, if at all.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov
benton.org/headlines/computer-and-internet-use-supplement-census-bureaus-current-population-survey-0 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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LIFELINE NATIONAL VERIFIER PLAN
[SOURCE: Universal Service Administrative Company, AUTHOR: ]
The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) filed an updated version of the Lifeline National Verifier Plan, which was created in response to the Lifeline Modernization Order on January 19, 2017. USAC said the plan contains a section detailing each of ten key components, as well as an introduction and a glossary of key terms. It also contains a section responding to public comments received on its draft plan, and has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau and the Office of the Managing Director. This updated version reflects progress of the system build and its related processes.
benton.org/headlines/usac-updates-national-verifier-plan | Universal Service Administrative Company
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WHY WE DESPISE CABLE PROVIDERS
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: Sheelah Kolhatkar]
Cable providers are among the most despised businesses in the country, regularly coming in below airlines, banks, and drug companies in public-opinion polls. "Cable is essentially a monopoly now in urban areas,” said Susan Crawford, a professor at Harvard Law School and a former policy adviser to President Barack Obama on science, technology, and innovation. Internet service was deregulated during the George W. Bush Administration, with the theory that fewer rules would foster greater competition. For a time, as AT&T and Verizon started building fibre-optic networks to compete with cable Internet, there seemed to be truth to the idea. Over the past few years, however, the companies have largely abandoned those projects; according to Crawford, the capital investments required were too high. Rather than fuel vigorous competition and lower prices, the rise of these giant companies has meant that Americans are paying inflated costs for poor service.
benton.org/headlines/why-we-despise-cable-providers | New Yorker
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OWNERSHIP

MAKAN DELRAHIM
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brent Kendall]
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead antitrust enforcement at the Justice Department recently agreed to tell lawmakers if the White House tries to improperly influence any decision he makes on whether to allow AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. The commitment came in a meeting between the nominee, Makan Delrahim, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who wrote a July 24 letter memorializing the discussion. “I particularly appreciated your commitment that you will brief me, in an appropriate setting, any time the White House initiates an inappropriate communication with you or anybody in the Antitrust Division,” the senator wrote to Delrahim after the meeting. People familiar with the meeting, which also included Senate and Justice Department staffers, confirmed the exchange and said the men also generally discussed the importance of the department’s independence. They said Delrahim additionally provided assurances that officials at the White House have not sought to lobby him on AT&T. The White House and the Justice Department communicate with one another, but protocols governing those discussions seek to assure that the department can operate free from improper political intervention.
benton.org/headlines/antitrust-nominee-makan-delrahim-assured-senator-blumenthal-he-wasnt-lobbied-white-house | Wall Street Journal
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JOURNALISM

PRO-TRUMP MEDIA IS GETTING HARDER TO IGNORE
[SOURCE: Axios, AUTHOR: Neal Rothschild]
Before the tweet left President Donald Trump's fingers, alt-right digital media personality Mike Cernovich had already reported to his 323,000 followers that Reince Priebus was being replaced as chief of staff: Earlier in the week, Roger Stone, on InfoWars, claimed that John Kelly was under consideration for Priebus's job — two days before the New York Times reported it. A week prior, Cernovich reported that Priebus was planting hit pieces on new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. Days later, Scaramucci went on a vulgar rant claiming Priebus was the source of leaks in an interview with the New Yorker. But, Cernovich spearheaded the 'Pizzagate' conspiracy theory and claimed that Hillary Clinton had Parkinson's. InfoWars founder Alex Jones claimed that 9/11 and the Sandy Hook shooting were inside jobs and that President Obama was the "the global head of Al-Qaeda." Why it matters: These publishers now appear to have White House access. The fake stories make it hard to spot the true news, but for others, the true news gives credibility to the misinformation.
benton.org/headlines/pro-trump-media-getting-harder-ignore | Axios
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CONTENT

HOW FACEBOOK UNEVENLY SILENCES POSTS ABOUT DISCRIMINATION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Tracy Jan, Elizabeth Dwoskin]
In making decisions about the limits of free speech, Facebook often fails the racial, religious and sexual minorities CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to protect. The 13-year-old social network is wrestling with the hardest questions it has ever faced as the de facto arbiter of speech for the third of the world’s population that now logs on each month. In February, amid mounting concerns over Facebook’s role in the spread of violent live videos and fake news, Zuckerberg said the platform had a responsibility to “mitigate the bad” effects of the service in a more dangerous and divisive political era. In June, he officially changed Facebook’s mission from connecting the world to community-building. The company says it now ¬deletes about 288,000 hate-speech posts a month. But activists say that Facebook’s censorship standards are so unclear and biased that it is impossible to know what one can or cannot say. The result: Minority groups say they are disproportionately censored when they use the ¬social-media platform to call out racism or start dialogues. “Facebook is regulating more human speech than any government does now or ever has,” said Susan Benesch, director of the Dangerous Speech Project, a nonprofit group that researches the intersection of harmful online content and free speech. “They are like a de facto body of law, yet that law is a secret.”
benton.org/headlines/how-facebook-unevenly-silences-posts-about-discrimination-censoring-important | Washington Post
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

FIRSTNET
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Tom Jackman]
Many police officers, firefighters and paramedics carry their own smartphones to do the things their department-issued equipment can’t. But now, 16 years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, exposed the inability of American first responders to talk to each other, a nationwide cellular network called “FirstNet” is launching to give public safety employees the ability to send data, video and text to each other. When a crisis hits and cell towers are overwhelmed, calls from first responders will preempt calls made by the public. FirstNet is expected to be operational by March. Congress established the First Responder Network Authority after reports that firefighters and police officers were unable to communicate at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the idea of placing all public safety agencies on one interoperable broadband network took off after AT&T was awarded wireless spectrum that will provide the bandwidth for the project and then committed to spending $40 billion to build new facilities and provide security for it. Each state, territory and the District of Columbia must opt in to the project individually so that their public service agencies can obtain the phones or sim cards and wireless plans needed to access FirstNet.
benton.org/headlines/firstnet-broadband-network-enable-police-and-fire-responders-talk-each-other-ready-launch | Washington Post
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POLICYMAKERS

DEMOCRATIC SENS DEMAND CHANGES TO CARRS NOMINATION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
The Federal Communications Commission is one step closer to being fully staffed, but Democratic Sens are fighting Republican Sens on details for Republican nominee Brendan Carr's confirmation. During a hearing on Aug 2, members of the Senate Commerce Committee voted to approve the confirmations of Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Brendan Carr to the FCC panel of Commissioners. Current Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s reconfirmation to the FCC was also approved by lawmakers. The trio’s confirmation will proceed to a Senate-wide vote, requiring a simple majority for approval. If it passes, the Commission will be at full quorum, going from two Republicans and one Democrat to three Republicans and two Democrats. Despite advancing, Democratic Sens contested Pai and Carr’s confirmations. Some Democrats, including Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Brian Schatz (D-HI), voted against Pai’s renomination. Democrats voted along party lines against Carr’s nomination, saying that while they had no issue with Carr being nominated to his first year-and-a-half term, they did not yet want to agree to approving a second five-year term. Commerce Committee’s Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) noted Senate leaders of both parties were negotiating a deal for a final vote on the confirmations. According to Sen Nelson, the agreement would only include approval of Carr’s first year-and-a-half term. Other Democrats cited precedent as reason for pushing back against approving Carr to two terms. “We’re trying to keep the traditions of the committee intact,” Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) argued as he explained that the committee had not heard from current Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn as to whether or not she would like to be renominated.
benton.org/headlines/democratic-sens-demand-changes-fcc-republican-nominees-confirmation | Hill, The | Hearing Page | B&C
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August 3, 2017 (Cosmopolitan Bias)