FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Tuesday she's still reviewing the draft order and Further NPRM on contraband cellphones in correctional facilities that is slated for a vote at Thursday's commissioner's meeting. Clyburn, a former state regulator in South Carolina, said she met with a top correctional official there, plus former Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, about the problem. “I want to make sure that whatever managed system that we have in place is directly targeted to the problems that exist,” Clyburn said. “I lived next door to a community that was adversely impacted when the last system was put in place and it was too broad and it disrupted home services in a neighboring community. This is a community where my parents live -- that is not so far from them. I would not want them or anybody else in a community to be adversely impacted by any item. So I will, again, read this for a second and third time.” Clyburn said security protocols and public safety are very important to her. “We also have to keep in mind that the safety of the surrounding communities and the integrity of their phone systems are vital, too,” she said. Clyburn said she's sympathetic to arguments that prisoners and their families shouldn't have to bear the costs of systems set up to keep the devices out of correctional facilities (see 1703130062). “I do not think it would be fair for the families who are seeking rate justice to be unfairly financially burdened,” she said. “If the costs are proportional to that particular class, then we can have a conversation. But they should not, I don’t believe, compensate for overarching security protocols if indeed that cannot be directly shown to be appropriate for inmate calling.” Clyburn said some contraband cellphones have been used to facilitate crimes, but that shouldn’t drive up the cost of calling to and from correctional facilities. Clyburn spoke to reporters after speaking at a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council Lifeline event (see 1703210045).

The FCC should issue a policy statement aimed at improving deal reviews, Free State Foundation President Randolph May wrote Monday. Congressional action is needed to provide a "full measure of reform," he said, but the commission could advance the ball by issuing a policy statement that makes at least two commitments: to complete transaction reviews in timely fashion -- within 180 days "except in exceptional circumstances" -- and to refrain from imposing conditions "unless they are narrowly tailored to address harms uniquely presented" by a deal.

Facebook's efforts to combat fake news seem to be working, but several journalists said they would like to see the company publish data that shows its efforts are working. "My understanding is [the efforts are] having the desired effect, but until and unless Facebook publishes these numbers, it's hard to tell," said Alexios Mantzarlis, who leads Poynter's International Fact-Checking Network, during a Society of American Business Editors and Writers webinar on Monday fake news. Facebook, which has gotten the most attention on this issue, launched measures to fight fake news on its site (see 1611210002, 1612150035 and 1701310068). BuzzFeed News media editor Craig Silverman said the measures Facebook and Google are using could be deterring people trying to publish fake content to make money, but he would like to see some data. He defined fake news as having three components: it's completely false, created by someone who knows it's false, and done with an economic motive, whereas propaganda is typically ideologically driven. Fake news has become more prevalent in part because it's easy to launch a website and get ads, he said. Rather than take time to build an audience or niche, "if they just make stuff up and tell people what they want to hear, you can actually earn a decent amount of money," he said. Social networks, media and schools will all need to fight fake news, said Mantzarlis. He said he thinks the internet then will have more context and it will "easier to differentiate between types of information in a way that our news feed and Google searches do not really allow us to do." The Associated Press' Amy Westfeldt said AP ramped up fact checking of disputed stories and writing stories about the financial motivation of fake news and automated ads.

Consumer privacy and security issues for connected and self-driving cars will be the focus of a June 28 workshop by the FTC and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the commission in Monday news release. The event will discuss: data collection, storage, transmission, and sharing and the benefits and risks associated with it; privacy and security practices of automakers; the role of government agencies in this area; and self-regulation that might apply. Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen will provide opening remarks. The event will be at 400 7th St. SW and be webcast live.

AT&T urged the FCC to make permanent a waiver it gave Jewish community centers and carriers serving them so law enforcement authorities can trace threatening calls. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau provided an emergency temporary waiver March 3 of a rule "prohibiting terminating carriers from passing the calling party number (CPN) to the called party where a privacy request has been made by the caller," and it sought comment on making it permanent (see 1703030062). "Permanent waiver of Rule 64.1601(b) prohibiting the overriding of the caller ID privacy indicator is clearly necessary to protect the JCCs in light of the recent threats" described by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., "and is fully justified by the Commission’s rules and precedent," said AT&T comments posted Monday in docket 91-281. The telco said bureau conditions on the emergency waiver "protect any legitimate" caller privacy expectations "by preventing the disclosure of CPN information to unauthorized personnel." TDR Technology Solutions commented that recent threats to JCCs highlighted a continuing issue, and said it would prefer the FCC include all religious organizations and all schools. Because it can ensure privacy safeguards are met on only systems it manages, TDR asked that all New York State school districts be included in the waiver.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he saw broadband in action when he hit the road to the Midwest last week. Pai started the trip with an address in Pittsburgh (see 1703150020) and tweeted throughout. “I visited Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland, and Detroit. Some might not think of these as glamorous travel destinations  --  but that’s precisely why I went,” he said in a Monday blog post. Too many cities in those areas feel left behind, Pai said. “There’s a sense of hope in the places I visited, a sense driven by a determination to adjust to the changing economy and to pursue the opportunities presented by the digital age.” Pai said his road trip confirmed his top policy priority: “My primary focus at the FCC is ensuring that we use every tool in the toolbox to boost broadband deployment throughout our country. I know that consumers everywhere want better, faster, and cheaper broadband. And I know that there’s no limit to what Americans can achieve  --  from Detroit, Michigan to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Reno, Nevada  --  if they’re given the opportunity to take advantage of these next-generation networks.”

An FCC item on the federal-state joint board on jurisdictional separations of telco costs was sent to commissioners Wednesday, according to the agency's circulation list updated Friday. The item would appoint a new state member to the board, said a spokesman.

Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen is "heartened" by the support from some bar, business and conservative associations to become the permanent head of the commission, she said during a C-SPAN interview scheduled to have been televised over the weekend on The Communicators. The White House is "engaged" in nominating people to fill three empty seats on the commission, which is seen as an agency that's functioning "pretty well," she said. In the 30-minute interview, Ohlhausen also said she directed staff to think more deeply about what "substantial injury" means, citing the Vizio enforcement case (see 1702060042). She said if companies can collect "lots of little bits of nonsensitive data" to assemble a "mosaic picture" of an individual that reveals sensitive information, the FTC should be concerned. Ohlhausen also discussed being "nudged out" by the FCC's open internet order to oversee broadband internet service and what the FTC and FCC may do if the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refuses to rehear the AT&T Mobility case that the trade commission lost (see 1611020031).

Consumers Union, New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge share FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's concerns about the proposed ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard's impact on the public, representatives of those consumer advocacy groups told her Chief of Staff David Grossman. Will consumers still be able to get HDTV via ATSC 1.0, asked CU, OTI and PK, saying they agree with Clyburn that "broadcasters’ public interest obligations, including the required number of hours of video description and children’s programming, should apply independently to both the ATSC 3.0 transmission and a station’s 1.0 stream." The commissioner made the comments when voting last month on a 3.0 NPRM (see 1702230060). Consumers could benefit from TV outlets broadcasting video content to smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, the advocates said, though they worry stations could try to use leverage over retransmission consent "to coerce" pay-TV providers to carry 3.0 programming. Broadcasters mustn't be allowed to use 3.0 to "foreclose open and unlicensed public access to the vacant TV band spectrum that is not licensed and in use for free over-the-air local broadcast content," said CU, OTI and PK. Don't "allow private licensees to foreclose the spectrum commons by demanding increased restrictions on TV White Space devices to purportedly protect non-free ancillary or ATSC 3.0 data services," the three said in a filing posted Friday in docket 16-142. NAB didn't comment Friday. The association has said the transition to 3.0 would be voluntary and offer many benefits.

FY 2018 funding details for the FCC and FTC “will be provided when the full budget is released in mid-May,” a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget told us. May is when the White House said it will release a fuller plan. The administration released a slim version Thursday, which showed cuts for the Commerce Department and a wholesale axing of the CPB (see 1703160060). That budget proposal also referred to a 9.8 percent cut to “other agencies,” not naming specific ones. The OMB spokesman said these unnamed agencies wouldn't receive such a cut across the board. Congressional appropriators have discretion on how much leeway they show the administration proposal. John Holdren, who directed the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama administration, issued a statement saying the budget outline's enactment would be a setback “for U.S. leadership in science and technology.”