Jim Vance, Washington’s longest-serving local news anchor
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JULY 24, 2017
Including Broadband in Trump’s Infrastructure Plan: Opportunities and Challenges https://www.benton.org/calendar/2017-07-24
2016 ELECTION
Attorney General Sessions discussed Trump campaign-related matters with Russian ambassador, US intelligence intercepts show
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Title II Docket Tops 10 Million Comments [links to Multichannel News]
Verizon accused of throttling Netflix and YouTube, admits to “video optimization”
Verizon Video-Throttling Allegations Show Need for Net Neutrality Rules and an FCC That Will Enforce Them [links to Free Press]
Statement on Verizon Throttling [links to Public Knowledge]
MORE INTERNET/BROADBAND
Slow Internet downloads? Look to Wi-Fi first, then blame your ISP [links to USAToday]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
FTC to Provide Additional Insights on Reasonable Data Security Practices [links to Federal Trade Commission]
Jack Karsten: Assessing trans-Atlantic data protections one year after Privacy Shield [links to Brookings]
How Cyberwarfare Makes Cold Wars Hotter [links to Wall Street Journal]
The battlefield is everywhere in the digital age [links to Financial Times]
OWNERSHIP
Should America’s Tech Giants Be Broken Up? - analysis
Podcast: The government should fight 'corporate villainy’ in tech, Senator Cory Booker says [links to Vox]
Armstrong Williams: articles maligning Sinclair represent a confusing and largely irrelevant hodge-podge of alarmist prevarication and silly partisan sniping [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Public Knowledge Welcomes Bill to Fix Lack of Reliable Music Copyright Ownership Information [links to Public Knowledge]
Intel accuses Qualcomm of trying to kill mobile chip competition [links to C-Net|News.com]
TELECOM
Public Knowledge Applauds Sen. Duckworth for Introducing Prison Phone Bill [links to Public Knowledge]
Op-ed: Remember when telephones were for talking on? [links to Wall Street Journal]
DIVERSITY
Lawmakers unveil 'Code Like a Girl Act' to close tech gender gap [links to Hill, The]
More women and minorities than ever are taking college-level computer courses in high school [links to Vox]
JOURNALISM
At Chicago Sun-Times, New Owners Vow Return to Paper’s Working-Class Roots [links to New York Times]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
CBO Scores AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act [links to Congressional Budget Office]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
President Trump still tweeting [links to Hill, The]
The clock may have just run out on the White House press corps - op-ed [links to Benton summary]
New book explores how protesters—and governments—use Internet tactics [links to Ars Technica]
OPEN GOVERNMENT
Sen Wyden blasts FCC for refusing to provide DDoS analysis
LOBBYING
Tech giants spend record amounts on lobbying under President Trump [links to CNN]
Why tech companies are spending so much to lobby the US government on tax reform [links to Vox]
Google spent the most it ever has trying to influence Washington: $6 million [links to Washington Post]
POLICYMAKERS
Sean Spicer Resigns as White House Press Secretary, Denouncing Chaos in West Wing
The new face of the White House: polished, smooth and noncombative [links to Los Angeles Times]
Scaramucci promises 'dramatic action' to stop WH leaks [links to Hill, The]
Meet Trump's new communications director [links to Hill, The]
Trump’s New Communications Director Hates Most of Trump’s Policies [links to Wired]
Dan Scavino, President Trump’s social media director, confirms plan to stay at White House [links to Hill, The]
Scaramucci took winding path but finally landed a top job with President Trump [links to Washington Post]
NRA spokeswoman questions new WH communications director's gun credentials [links to Hill, The]
White House taps new acting ethics chief, elevating general counsel over chief of staff [links to Washington Post]
Stick with Security: Insights into FTC Investigations [links to Federal Trade Commission]
COMPANY NEWS
Vice Media lays off about 60 staffers as it refocuses on video [links to Los Angeles Times]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Argentina’s Dangerous Path Toward Media and Communications Dominance [links to Public Knowledge]
Silicon Valley Giants Confront New Walls in China [links to New York Times]
BBC Women Demand Action to Close Pay Gap With Men [links to New York Times]
2016 ELECTION
SESSIONS AND RUSSIA
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller]
Russia’s ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with then-Sen Jeff Sessions (R-AL) during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general, according to current and former US officials. Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s accounts of two conversations with Sen Sessions — then a top foreign policy adviser to Republican candidate Donald Trump — were intercepted by US spy agencies, which monitor the communications of senior Russian officials in the United States and in Russia. Attorney General Sessions initially failed to disclose his contacts with Kislyak and then said that the meetings were not about the Trump campaign. One US official said that AG Sessions — who testified that he had no recollection of an April encounter — has provided “misleading” statements that are “contradicted by other evidence.” A former official said that the intelligence indicates that AG Sessions and Kislyak had “substantive” discussions on matters including Trump’s positions on Russia-related issues and prospects for US-Russia relations in a Trump administration.
benton.org/headlines/attorney-general-sessions-discussed-trump-campaign-related-matters-russian-ambassador-us | Washington Post
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY
VERIZON THROTTLING
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Verizon acknowledged using a new video optimization system but said it is part of a temporary test and that it did not affect the actual quality of video. The video optimization appears to apply both to unlimited and limited mobile plans. But some YouTube users are reporting degraded video, saying that using a VPN service can bypass the Verizon throttling. The Federal Communications Commission generally allows mobile carriers to limit video quality as long as the limitations are imposed equally across different video services despite network neutrality rules that outlaw throttling. The net neutrality rules have exceptions for network management. "We've been doing network testing over the past few days to optimize the performance of video applications on our network," said a Verizon spokesperson. "The testing should be completed shortly. The customer video experience was not affected."
benton.org/headlines/verizon-accused-throttling-netflix-and-youtube-admits-video-optimization | Ars Technica
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OWNERSHIP
BREAK TECH UP?
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Paula Dwyer]
[Commentary] Economists see market concentration as the culprit behind some of the U.S. economy’s most persistent ailments—the decline of workers’ share of national income, the rise of inequality, the decrease in business startups, the dearth of job creation, and the fall in research and development spending. Can Big Tech really be behind all that? Economists are starting to provide the evidence. David Autor, the MIT economics professor who famously showed the pernicious effects of free-trade deals on Midwestern communities, is one. A recent paper he co-wrote argues that prestigious technology brands, using the internet’s global reach, are able to push out rivals and become winner-take-all “superstar” companies. They’re highly profitable, and their lucky employees generally earn higher salaries to boot. They don’t engage in the predatory behavior of yore, such as selling goods below the cost of production to steal market share and cripple competitors. After all, the services that Facebook and Google offer are free (if you don’t consider giving up your personal data and privacy rights to be a cost). However, academics have documented how these companies employ far fewer people than the largest companies of decades past while taking a disproportionate share of national profits. As they grow and occupy a bigger part of the economy, median wages stagnate and labor’s share of gross domestic product declines. Labor’s shrinking share of output is widely implicated in the broader economic growth slowdown. In 1956 the US forced Bell Labs to license its patents to all comers. The result was a deluge of innovation (semiconductors, solar cells, lasers, cell phones, computer languages, and satellites) commercialized by new companies (Fairchild Semiconductor International, Motorola, Intel, and Texas Instruments) and the formation of Silicon Valley. Why not require the tech superstars to do the same? Who knows what forces that might unleash.
benton.org/headlines/should-americas-tech-giants-be-broken | Bloomberg
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OPEN GOVERNMENT
WYDEN BLASTS FCC
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) criticized the Federal Communications Commission for failing to turn over its internal analysis of the DDoS attacks that hit the FCC's public comment system. The FCC declined to provide its analysis of the attacks to Gizmodo, which had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request for a copy of all records related to the FCC analysis "that concluded a DDoS attack had taken place." The FCC declined the request, saying that its initial analysis on the day of the attack "did not result in written documentation." “If the FCC did suffer a DDoS attack and yet created no written materials about it, that would be deeply irresponsible and cast doubt on how the FCC could possibly prevent future attacks," said Sen Wyden. "On the other hand, if FCC is playing word games to avoid responding to FoIA requests, it would clearly violate Chairman Ajit Pai’s pledge to increase transparency at the FCC.” Sen Wyden also said that the FCC's response to the FoIA request raised "legitimate questions about whether the agency is being truthful when it claims a DDoS attack knocked its commenting system offline.” FCC Chairman Pai’s response: “The FCC has provided a written response to Congress detailing the attack, and we have never said that we have no written materials about it. Rather, the documents that were not produced in response to the FOIA request cannot be provided, among other reasons, because of security and privacy concerns.”
benton.org/headlines/sen-wyden-blasts-fcc-refusing-provide-ddos-analysis | Ars Technica
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POLICYMAKERS
SPICER RESIGNS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Glenn Thrush]
Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned after denouncing chaos in the West Wing and telling President Donald Trump he vehemently disagreed with the appointment of the New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director. After offering Scaramucci the communications job, President Trump asked Spicer to stay on as press secretary. But Spicer told President Trump that he believed the appointment of Scaramucci was a major mistake and said he was resigning, according to a person with direct knowledge of the exchange. In one of his first official acts, Mr. Scaracmucci, who founded the global investment firm SkyBridge Capital and is a Fox News contributor, joined Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Spicer’s chief deputy, in the White House briefing room and announced that she would succeed Spicer as press secretary. The resignation is a serious blow to the embattled White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, the former Republican Party chairman who brought Spicer into the West Wing despite skepticism from President Trump, who initially questioned his loyalty. Scaramucci described his relationship with Priebus as brotherly where they “rough each other up.” He called Priebus a “good friend.” Senior officials, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Spicer’s top deputy, were said to be stunned by the sudden shuffle.
benton.org/headlines/sean-spicer-resigns-white-house-press-secretary-denouncing-chaos-west-wing | New York Times | WSJ | NYT-media | The Hill | Washington Post | Washington Post
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