Press Release

The Federal Communications Commission proposed a $120 million fine against an individual who apparently made almost 100 million spoofed robocalls in violation of the Truth in Caller ID Act. The law prohibits callers from deliberately falsifying caller ID information to disguise their identity with the intent to harm or defraud consumers.

Adrian Abramovich of Miami, Florida, apparently made 96 million spoofed robocalls during a three-month period. Abramovich’s operation apparently made the spoofed calls in order to trick unsuspecting consumers into answering and listening to his advertising messages. The proposed fine is based on 80,000 spoofed calls that the FCC has verified. Consumers reported receiving calls that appeared to come from local numbers but, if they answered, they heard an automated message prompting them to “Press 1” to hear about “exclusive” vacation deals from well-known travel and hospitality companies such as Marriott, Expedia, Hilton and TripAdvisor. Consumers who did press the button were then transferred to foreign call centers where live operators attempted to sell vacation packages often involving timeshares. The call centers were not affiliated with the well-known travel and hospitality companies mentioned in the recorded message.

In its continuing effort to eliminate costly and unnecessary regulations, the Federal Communications Commission proposed easing certain audit and reporting rules to better reflect the changing role of payphones in a mobile era.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) adopted by the FCC proposes to eliminate an annual audit and associated reporting requirement that in some cases reportedly costs more to undertake than the payphone compensation revenue it protects. An accompanying Order waives the audit and reporting requirements for 2017 and 2018 while the FCC weighs their permanent elimination in the future. Obligations to appropriately compensate payphone providers are not affected by today’s actions. The FCC proposes eliminating the audit and reporting requirements. As an alternative, it asks about replacing them with a less burdensome requirement such as self-certification, and seeks comment on these issues and additional reforms.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has awarded a grant to KWMU-St. Louis Public Radio to collaborate with three other public media stations to drive diversity in news coverage, audiences and staff. St. Louis Public Radio will work with KCUR-Kansas City, WNPR-Hartford and Oregon Public Broadcasting on the 27-month project that includes resources for training for newsrooms and news management, documenting the project’s process and reporting on best practices to the rest of the public media system. A St. Louis-based editor will guide the reporters based at each of the four stations in producing in-depth multimedia stories. Reporters will also contribute to their station’s daily broadcasts, produce news spots, and engage with diverse communities through events, social media, listening posts and/or podcasts. The collaboration will produce joint reporting projects for broadcast and digital distribution, and pitched for national distribution.

Members of the new Broadband Access Coalition called on the Federal Communications Commission to authorize a new, licensed, point-to-multipoint (P2MP) fixed wireless service in the underutilized 3700 - 4200 MHz spectrum band used primarily by fixed satellite services. The proposed licensing scheme and operating rules enable gigabit and near-gigabit broadband service in rural and underserved areas, and promote competition for broadband delivery among various technologies and licensees.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he intends to appoint Rosemary C. Harold to serve as chief of the Enforcement Bureau. Harold is an attorney with considerable experience both within the agency and in private practice, as well as a former journalist. Harold will be working closely with Michael Carowitz who, having served as acting bureau chief, will continue to help lead the Bureau as deputy bureau chief.

Harold rejoins the agency from Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP, where she was a partner. Prior to joining the firm in 2011, Harold was a legal advisor to then-FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell for media and broadband issues and deputy chief of the FCC’s Media Bureau. She began her career as a journalist, working as a reporter and bureau chief for the Miami Herald and an editor at C-SPAN. She earned her law degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, her master’s degree from the University of Missouri, and her bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary.

The real information problem—which we at the Hewlett Foundation are actively exploring with potential philanthropic interventions as part of our democracy reform work with the Madison Initiative—is biased news, including misinformation, disinformation and propaganda. Research shows that many citizens are psychologically predisposed to want to read biased news that reaffirms their pre-existing beliefs and tribal identities. This creates obvious pernicious incentives for commercial technology platforms that want to keep people on their sites. So, compared with fake news, biased news will be harder to address.

Polarization and hyper-partisanship remain the key concerns at Madison. However, some recent evidence calls into question the correlation between growing ideological polarization and social media, given that the most rapidly polarizing—older—demographics are the least likely users of social media. So while some actors are motivated by ideological partisanship, some are profit motivated, some seek to amplify prejudices via hate speech, and still others appear not particularly ideological, but instead most interested in shifting the balance of power domestically (or in the case of Russia globally, towards a more illiberal democracy).

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced the creation of the Global Indigenous Ambassador Program. The program establishes two Indigenous Ambassadors, to be selected from underrepresented indigenous communities. Through the inclusion of a broader and more diverse base of knowledgeable constituents, ICANN will be better equipped to support the next generation of the global Internet community.

"This is an exciting opportunity for two Indigenous Ambassadors to learn about ICANN and the At-Large community, representing the best interests of Internet end users," states Loris Taylor, President & CEO, Native Public Media. ICANN is now accepting applications for two Global Indigenous Ambassadors. Applicants must be members of unserved or underserved tribal or native communities and meet the ICANN Fellowship Program criteria. Selected participants will receive travel, hotel, and per diem for the ICANN60 Conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to be held 28 October – 3 November 2017. The deadline for submitting applications is 6 July 2017.

We are excited to announce that we have committed $1 million to a new cohort of progressive startups working at the intersection of tech, media, and politics. After receiving more than 500 applications during our “Resist and Rebuild” open call for funding (up from 100 last year!), we narrowed down the field to 14 and are delighted to be investing in the following startups:
Amplify: helping grassroots groups take action
Flippable: turning America blue by building a movement to flip states
Indivisible: building a model for how local activism can affect real change in Congress
Mijente: combining digital & offline organizing w. creative media to inspire activists
Notifica: connecting immigrants at risk of deportation with their support networks when they need them most
Online SOS: serving and supporting people experiencing online harassment
Pantsuit Nation: using storytelling to drive social and political change with a modern ability to reach a large, digitally savvy audience eager to participate in collective action
Ragtag: assembling a volunteer team of technologists, tech enthusiasts, political and community organizers, and activists to build progressive change from the ground up
Sister District: harnessing the energy of volunteers and donors in deeply blue (or red) places and channeling it to critical state races where it can make a big impact
Swing Left: helping you find and commit to supporting progressives in your closest Swing District so that you can help ensure we take back the House in 2018
Townhall Project: empowering constituents across the country to have face-to-face conversations with their elected representatives
Vigilant: building a database so you can search and monitor all of the public records data sources you need — at once
VoterCircle: building a friend-to-friend voter outreach platform that dramatically reduces the time and cost of outreach
We the Protesters / Stay Woke: establishing a community of learners, builders, and activists to create solutions to advance equity and justice in America

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the agency has chosen Tom Sullivan to serve as chief of the FCC’s International Bureau, continuing the work he has been doing as acting chief.

Prior to his appointment to acting chief, Sullivan was an associate bureau chief and the chief of staff for the bureau he now leads. He has served in a variety of positions within the International Bureau and the FCC’s Office of Managing Director. He joined the Commission in 1991 after receiving his Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1990.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai opposing the FCC’s proposal to reclassify broadband as a service under Title I of the Communications Act. Minority Leader Pelosi also requested a public hearing in San Francisco (CA) on the FCC’s harmful plan to dismantle consumer protections on the internet.

“Consumers should be able to use the internet on the device they want, using the apps and services they want without their internet provider standing in the way. I support the current rules because they are in place to protect consumers, and I oppose your efforts to eliminate them,” she wrote. "I was...dismayed to learn you are likely to disregard the millions of public comments filed in the record. The Administrative Procedures Act prohibits the FCC from disregarding comments. You have made confusing statements that you will both give less weight to comments that are not of sufficient quality, and that you will err on the side of including suspicious comments in the agency’s deliberation, even when dozens among a particular batch of comments have sworn that their name and address were used fraudulently. I therefore ask that you clarify your policy on how the agency will consider comments in the record. Finally, if you believe that online public comments are coming from 'astroturf' sources and are of questionable integrity, then you must hear directly from the public in official hearings outside of Washington, DC. "