Business Insider

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says the FCC needs to ditch its network neutrality rules because they’re hindering investment. But there’s no evidence to prove Pai’s argument. In fact, the data that Pai points to doesn’t show anything close to a marked decrease in broadband investment. Instead, it shows that while broadband investment has risen and fallen a little bit over the years, it has been mostly flat since 2013.

Publishers are receiving far less money than might have been expected from placing their content on the third-party distribution platforms owned by companies including Facebook, Google, and Snapchat, according to a new report.

The report, from premium publisher trade body Digital Content Next (DCN), claims that the (mean) average premium publisher generated $7.7 million in revenue from distributing their content on third-party platforms in the first half of 2016 — equivalent to around 14% of their overall revenues in the period. On average, premium publishing companies generated $773,567 in the first half of 2016 by distributing their content on YouTube. Content published to Facebook earned an average of $560,144 in the period, Twitter generated an average of $482,788, and Snapchat generated $192,819 for each publisher in the sample.

Ann Coulter would like to chair the Federal Communications Commission under a Donald Trump presidency so she could examine some of the communications contracts held by major news outlets. "I want FCC chairman," Coulter said. "I think some of the media has just gotten very powerful and very unfair."

"And I think we should look at some of those, some of those communications contracts," she said. Asked which media outlets in particular she was speaking of, Coulter responded, "Oh, you know, the ones governed by the FCC." She then implied that Fox News could be in her crosshairs if Trump were to let her oversee the commission. "Well, if you weren’t born in America, you might not have America's best interests at heart," she said. "Maybe you shouldn't own massive amounts of media in a country you would like to overrun with cheap labor," Coulter said. "Anyone who is not born in the country who doesn't seem to give two f---- about America. Anyone who fits into that category. Anyone."

The cloud computing industry is breathing a sigh of relief. Although the US Supreme Court has declared Internet streaming startup Aereo illegal, this decision will not harm cloud computing technology, as many in that industry feared it would.

That's because SCOTUS specifically said that the ruling doesn't apply to other technologies "not before them" such as cloud computing.

The fear among other companies was that if Aereo lost, it could have unintended consequences for similar technology, such as cloud storage for songs and movies. But not only did the court say that cloud computing was not covered, it also said that there's a difference between storing files in the cloud that a consumer has already "lawfully acquired" and paying Aereo to watch broadcast TV on the Internet.

It makes a lot of sense for smartphone users to be able to add the cost of their app or music downloads to their monthly phone bill.

This method of payment is known as "carrier billing." While some app stores, notably Apple's App Store, shun it, others have embraced it.

Google has been smart in recognizing that people would find this method of payment convenient, and has moved aggressively to broker deals with wireless carriers across Europe, East Asia, and North America to make carrier billing possible on Android devices.

At last count, Android users in 21 countries can pay for Google Play goods on their phone bills: apps, music downloads, and in-app purchases.