Daily Digest 9/18/2018 (The Game is Rigged)

Benton Foundation
Table of Contents

Emergency Communications

FEMA pushes back national wireless alert test to Oct. 3  |  Reuters
The Upcoming IPAWS "Presidential Level Alert" Test Is Not A Trump Thing -- Really.  |  Harold Feld
Homeland Security Invests $11.6 Million in Grants to Organizations Countering Large-Scale Internet Outages  |  nextgov

Broadband/Internet

Repealed Net Neutrality Regulations Wouldn't Have Applied To Santa Clara County Firefighters  |  Read below  |  Fred Campbell  |  Op-Ed  |  Forbes
NCTA: FCC Shouldn't Fixate on Fixed, and Should Look at Wireless for Communications Competition  |  Multichannel News
A History of the Internet, As Told By Maps  |  Outline, The

Privacy

The Game is Rigged: Congress Invites No Consumer Privacy Advocates to its Consumer Privacy Hearing  |  Read below  |  Ernesto Falcon, India McKinney  |  Analysis  |  Electronic Frontier Foundation
Reps Cicilline (D-RI), Fortenberry (R-NE) Ask Google For Answers on Privacy Safeguards for Kids  |  House of Representatives

Wireless

5G Wireless Rekindles Decades-Old Fight Over Cellular Health Risks  |  Read below  |  Karl Bode  |  Vice
Without Sprint, T-Mobile will need 38,000 new cell sites to meet demand, analysts say  |  Fierce

Ownership

Salesforce's Marc Benioff is buying Time magazine, boosting his influence  |  Read below  |  Bloomberg
The Unlevel Playing Field of Asymmetric Competition Expectations  |  Scott Cleland

Communications & Democracy

American Democracy Is in Crisis  |  Read below  |  Hillary Clinton  |  Op-Ed  |  Atlantic, The
American Political Science Association roundup: Research on political polarization on social media and the US Congress  |  Pew Research Center
Attorney General Sessions Says Justice Dept. Has Helped Preserve Free Speech on Campuses  |  New York Times
President Trump orders DOJ to declassify Russia-related material  |  Washington Post
Federal judge denies motion to force Georgia to adopt paper ballots in midterm election  |  Washington Post

Television/Video

The Emmys Joked About TV’s Lack of Diversity, and Then Demonstrated It  |  New York Times
Almost Three Hours of Video Watched on Smartphones Weekly Per Broadband Household  |  Parks Associates
5 facts about Americans and video games  |  Pew Research Center

Policymakers

Editorial: Legislators struggle with tech. That’s why we need the Office of Technology Assessment.  |  Washington Post
Today's Top Stories

Broadband/Internet

Repealed Net Neutrality Regulations Wouldn't Have Applied To Santa Clara County Firefighters

Fred Campbell  |  Op-Ed  |  Forbes

John Kruzel at PolitiFact recently rated as “Half True” the claim that Verizon’s throttling of the data service it provided to the Santa Clara County Fire Prevention District (FPD) during the Mendocino (CA) fires demonstrated the danger of repealing the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality regulations. The claim should have been rated “Mostly False” to “Pants on Fire,” because the experts on whom Kruzel relied ignored critical facts and analysis.

His “Half True” rating was based on the so-called “general conduct” rule, which prohibited broadband internet access service (BIAS) providers from unreasonably interfering with or unreasonably disadvantaging end users’ ability to select, access and use BIAS or the content, applications, services, or devices of their choice. Kruzel concluded that the claimed risk to public safety was “partially accurate” because, had the net neutrality regulations remained in place, Santa Clara could have filed a complaint at the FCC on this basis.  The crucial question is whether a claim against Verizon would have had any merit. On this question, Kruzel deferred to the bare assertions of experts who said the FCC “at the very least” would have launched an investigation of Verizon had Santa Clara FPD filed a complaint. The experts cited by Kruzel include [Benton Foundation senior fellow] Gigi Sohn, who said the Santa Clara FPD “could have made a persuasive case” under the general conduct standard if that option were available, and Berin Szoka, President of Tech Freedom, who said the general conduct rule was so vague the FCC could have done whatever it wanted. These experts ignored critical facts and analysis indicating that Santa Clara County was an “enterprise” customer who wouldn’t have been entitled to invoke the protection of the repealed net neutrality regulations at all.

A thorough analysis of all the available facts indicates that a complaint filed by Santa Clara County under the former net neutrality regulations would likely have been dismissed by the FCC, because the County was a medium to large business using an enterprise service that was not subject to the agency’s rules, including the “general conduct” rule. 

[Fred Campbell is the director of Tech Knowledge, a Senior Policy Advisor with Wireless 20/20, and an adjunct professor in the Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law program at the Nebraska College of Law. He headed the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau at the FCC in 2007-2008, and served as Wireless Legal Advisor to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in 2005-2006.]

Privacy

The Game is Rigged: Congress Invites No Consumer Privacy Advocates to its Consumer Privacy Hearing

Ernesto Falcon, India McKinney  |  Analysis  |  Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Senate Commerce Committee is getting ready to host a much-anticipated hearing on consumer privacy—and consumer privacy groups don’t get a seat at the table. Instead, the Committee is seeking only the testimony of big tech and Internet access corporations: Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Charter Communications, Google, and Twitter. Some of these companies have spent heavily to oppose consumer privacy legislation and have never supported consumer privacy laws. They know policymakers are considering new privacy protections, and are likely to view this hearing as a chance to encourage Congress to adopt the weakest privacy protections possible—and eviscerate stronger state protections at the same time.

Wireless

5G Wireless Rekindles Decades-Old Fight Over Cellular Health Risks

Karl Bode  |  Vice

Mill Valley (CA), a city just outside of San Francisco, has unanimously voted to ban fifth-generation (5G) cellular towers, claiming that they pose a significant threat to public health. In an urgency ordinance, Mill Valley city council voted earlier in Sept to block deployments of 5G towers and small cells (smaller, lower powered cellular radios used to expand cellular coverage) in residential areas. The city council says it was motivated, in part, by locals who expressed concern about the “serious adverse health and environmental impacts caused by the microwave radiation emitted from these 4G and 5G Small Cell Towers.”  The ordinance was in response to recent Federal Communications Commission efforts to speed up 5G network deployments at the behest of wireless carriers looking to modernize their networks. While the importance of these upgrades has at times been overhyped by industry, the upgrades should ultimately provide consumers with faster, more resilient wireless networks. 

But a contentious debate over the width and breadth of cellular radiation on human health has raged since the 1980s. And while the internet is full of claims of significant risk caused by cellular radiation, numerous organizations continue to insist the scientific evidence supporting a link between cellular radiation and cancer remains unproven. “There is no scientific evidence that provides a definite answer to that question,” the CDC website states. “Some organizations recommend caution in cell phone use. More research is needed before we know if using cell phones causes health effects.”

Ownership

Salesforce's Marc Benioff is buying Time magazine, boosting his influence

Marc Benioff, the billionaire co-founder of software maker Salesforce.com Inc., is making a play to project his influence far beyond Silicon Valley with the purchase of Time magazine. The 53-year-old entrepreneur and his wife, Lynne, agreed to pay $190 million in cash to Meredith Corp. for the venerable but struggling print publication, stoking comparisons to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and his $250 million acquisition of the Washington Post in 2013. Benioff, who has long sought to burnish his image as a civic leader and is well-known in his company’s hometown of San Francisco, may gain a higher level of national visibility in his new role of media baron.  The Benioffs said they won’t be involved in day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions at the magazine and plan to keep its current leadership team in charge. 

Communications & Democracy

American Democracy Is in Crisis

Hillary Clinton  |  Op-Ed  |  Atlantic, The

In the roughly 21 months since he took the oath of office, President Donald Trump has sunk far below the already-low bar he set for himself in his ugly campaign. As I see it, there are five main fronts of this assault on our democracy. First, there is Donald Trump’s assault on the rule of law. Second, the legitimacy of our elections is in doubt. Third, the president is waging war on truth and reason. Lesley Stahl, the 60 Minutes reporter, asked Trump during his campaign why he’s always attacking the press. He said, “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.” When we can’t trust what we hear from our leaders, experts, and news sources, we lose our ability to hold people to account, solve problems, comprehend threats, judge progress, and communicate effectively with one another—all of which are crucial to a functioning democracy. Fourth, there’s Trump’s breathtaking corruption. Fifth, Trump undermines the national unity that makes democracy possible. Every generation has to fight for it, has to push us closer to that more perfect union. That time has come again.

[Hillary Rodham Clinton is a former senator from New York and served as the 67th US secretary of state]

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Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.


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