Businesses entered the new year with questions about the California Consumer Privacy Act that took effect Wednesday, privacy attorneys told us this week. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) has until July to develop rules and start enforcing them, but CCPA is now law with enforcement to look back to Jan. 1.
Three Massachusetts-based sex-abuse survivor groups are drafting a letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., criticizing her bill directing a federal study of 2018 anti-sex-trafficking legislation (see 1912170041). Warren introduced the bill with Reps. Ro Khanna and Barbara Lee, both California Democrats, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. It would direct a study of the small percentage of consensual sex workers who claim a 2018 anti-sex trafficking law made their lives less safe and their trade more difficult, Living in Freedom Together (LIFT) CEO Nikki Bell told us. Some 200 survivors signed the draft letter, she said. The House version of the bill is HR-5448.
The FCC’s clarification of political file rules creates new, subjective disclosure obligations that aren’t backed up in the law, burden companies and raise First Amendment questions, said broadcasters, network affiliates and NCTA in comments posted Tuesday in docket 19-363 supporting NAB’s petition for reconsideration (see 1911180068). “This decision will harm the entire local advertising ecosystem and burden the speech of political and nonpolitical advertisers alike,” said a joint filing from Gray Television, E.W. Scripps, Meredith, Block Communications and WBOC. Transparency groups including Campaign Legal Center, Sunlight Foundation and Common Cause disagree. “Any possible burden” is “clearly outweighed by the benefits of public disclosure,” the groups said.
CES will give FCC Chairman Ajit Pai an opening to further lay out plans for commission action on the C band, industry officials said. It's the first CES since the broader launch of 5G in the U.S., and numerous federal policymakers are expected to speak. Most policymakers stayed home for the 2019 show because of the prolonged federal shutdown. Industry officials said 2020 is shaping up to be a big year for spectrum and 5G, and for Wi-Fi and unlicensed. Pai is expected to circulate a 6 GHz item, the key Wi-Fi band, most likely for the March meeting.
Leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees remain interested in continuing to pursue a broad media policy legislative revamp in 2020, after negotiations on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization language resulted in a skinny renewal measure that addressed few additional issues (see 1912190068). President Donald Trump signed the FY 2020 federal appropriations minibus bill (HR-1865) two weeks ago that contained the STELA renewal language (see 1912240001).
Strategies for getting around the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that involve the FCC splitting off deregulation items from the 2018 quadrennial review and approving them (see 1911210065) are unlikely to be successful, said experts including broadcast attorneys in interviews in December. The ruling requires the agency base changes to ownership rules on data about the rules’ effects on minority ownership, said United Church of Christ attorney Cheryl Leanz, who argued for the petitioners in Prometheus IV. “If the FCC doesn’t get the data, they don’t get to pass go.”
Odds appear slim for a settlement with all the states challenging the T-Mobile/Sprint/Dish Network deal. New York and California, the states leading the federal lawsuit, are considered least likely to settle. At a financial conference last month, T-Mobile President Mike Sievert said a settlement after closing arguments appears possible (see 1912100029).
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, welcomed Facebook’s announcement it will remove misleading platform content about the U.S. census (see 1912190059). Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said more needs to be done.
The wireless industry, CTA and drone groups told the FCC that commercial spectrum is critical to safe operation of unmanned aerial systems. Comments were due Thursday on a notice on the use of the 960-1164 MHz and 5030-5091 MHz bands by drones. Commenters also agreed on the importance of flexible-use licensing. The comments reflect unusual consensus on a spectrum issue. The FCC is seeking comment as a requirement of Section 374 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018.
A 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision this month could have implications for state political advertising disclosure rules and for the FCC’s recent clarifications of its own political file rules, said broadcast attorneys in interviews (see 1910170037). In Washington Post v. David McManus, the 4th Circuit ruled unconstitutional a Maryland law designed to combat election interference by requiring online platforms to disclose political ad buys. The 4th Circuit’s analysis could be used to challenge state and federal laws on disclosure of political ads for online platforms, and some of those rules affect broadcasters, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post. Disclosure rules aimed at online platforms in the state of Washington could create “undue burdens” for broadcasters in the state, said Washington State Association of Broadcasters President Keith Shipman.