Social media can benefit people with disabilities, but only if online video policies keep up with technology and developers are responsive to accessibility concerns, said government officials and advocates at an FCC workshop Thursday. “Social media has been a game changer for my community,” said Julia Bascom, director of programs for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Social media helps include those with disabilities in seemingly trivial “water cooler talk,” which is actually “where a lot of networking occurs,” said Andrew Phillips, policy counsel at the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), through an interpreter. “Social media has changed the playing field."

Verizon has proved its case better than Netflix has so far in the debate on interconnection problems, some technology experts said in interviews. A review from Verizon argued that there’s no congestion on Verizon’s network and that Netflix “did not make arrangements to deliver this massive amount of traffic through connections that can handle it,” Verizon said last week in a blog post (CD July 11 p18). Last month Netflix stopped sending messages attributing video latency issues to ISPs (CD June 18 p7). Another observer questioned alleged claims that Verizon has no say in how interconnection points work. Netflix had no comment.

CTIA made its closing argument at the FCC against proposed standards for indoor location accuracy as part of revised E-911 rules. In February, amid concerns raised by commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly, the FCC proposed revised rules for all 911 calls, including for the first time standards for calls made indoors (CD Feb 21 p1). CTIA and other commenters urged the FCC to wait for a consensus solution to emerge. Comments were due Monday at the FCC in docket 07-114 and most were posted by the FCC Tuesday and Wednesday.

Comments to the FCC over net neutrality surged to more than a million Thursday, short of the passions raised by Janet Jackson’s briefly exposed breast, but still indicative of the strong feelings of those who fear a corporate takeover of the Internet and those who worry that further regulations would stifle innovation and jobs. (See separate report in this issue.) At noon, the count was 1.03 million, an agency news release said. More than 300,000 comments have flooded the agency since Monday, when the count was 677,000 comments. The record number of complaints, 1.4 million, came during the 2004 fallout when Janet Jackson’s breast was briefly exposed during a Super Bowl halftime show, FCC Senior Counsel Gigi Sohn said in a Twitter discussion Monday.

Privacy technologies are not advanced enough to properly protect data sets, and creating privacy policies remains tricky as a result, said Marjory Blumenthal, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). “The bottom line is we're not there yet,” Blumenthal said at a Software & Information Industry Association event Thursday. Data de-identification, data deletion, and notice and consent are not sufficient privacy measures, Blumenthal said.

The makeup of the FCC review team that will oversee Comcast’s proposed buy of Time Warner Cable (CD July 8 p1) seems designed to show that the commission will be taking extra care with the transaction, but doesn’t indicate the direction the regulatory approval process will take, said industry officials in recent interviews. The inclusion of Northwestern University economists William Rogerson and Shane Greenstein on the task force indicates the commission is planning a “deep dive” on Comcast/Time Warner Cable, said BakerHostetler cable attorney Gary Lutzker. It’s not unusual for the FCC to seek high-level help on such a massive, important transaction, said Fletcher Heald attorney Tom Dougherty, who handles many communications deals. Comments on such a deal are likely to be voluminous and complicated, and that requires expert staff, Dougherty said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., questioned the consolidation sweeping the industry and pointed to what they see as transformation afoot in many ways, especially in online video, during a hearing on the future of video Wednesday. But Commerce will not consider Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) reauthorization until September, following the August recess, they announced. Rockefeller and Thune are collaborating on a draft that they say may revamp video marketplace rules.

Obama administration officials reaffirmed their commitment to the multistakeholder model’s application to the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., expressed support for the multistakeholder approach, but said congressional oversight and a GAO study are necessary to clear up remaining questions about the transition’s outcome. ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) should be given a stakeholder capacity within the organization, rather than its current advisory role, said ICANN stakeholders and officials Wednesday at an Internet Governance Forum-USA event.

Comments on both sides of the net neutrality debate continued to pour in to the FCC Wednesday, before Friday’s deadline, as the number approached 1 million. The tally by noon was 905,692, an FCC spokesman said, meaning more than 200,000 comments were filed since Monday, when the agency reported 677,000 comments. Amid the deluge, the agency Tuesday extended the comment period a few days (CD July 16 p1).

As mainly content companies, a deal between 21st Century Fox and Time Warner would likely face a heavier scrutiny from antitrust agencies instead of from the FCC, some observers said in interviews Wednesday. In a news release that day, 21st Century Fox said it proposed to buy the company last month (http://bit.ly/1qg3LkH). The offer was for about $80 billion, a Wall Street Journal report said. “The Time Warner Board of Directors declined to pursue our proposal,” 21st Century Fox said. “We are not currently in any discussions with Time Warner.” A regulatory review of content companies would differ from analyses of pending pay-TV deals, like Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV, attorneys said.