Concerns about internet "platform" concentration should be addressed case by case under antitrust law, said speakers on a Technology Policy Institute panel Thursday. Defining the relevant market is a major challenge, and antitrust agencies should focus on addressing harms to consumers and competition by parties with market power, they said. On AT&T's proposed buy of Time Warner, George Mason University law professor and ex-FTC Commissioner Josh Wright voiced doubts about DOJ's lawsuit, and American Antitrust Institute President Diana Moss disagreed with claims the government hadn't challenged vertical deals in recent decades. She said it had, and settled mostly.
The House should move forward with legislation to combat online sex trafficking, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said at a Thursday hearing on a House bill to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Congress is confronting the “very ugly subject” of sex trafficking and “driving toward effective action,” Blackburn said. She's committed to finding the right legislative solution that gives victims "adequate recourse" (see 1711290052). Ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., hopes legislation can soon be marked up and go to the floor for a vote, a move officials told us is likely early next year.
Cable allies predict little pushback on the FCC's draft NPRM that would expand the number of notifications cable operators can email subscribers rather than mail out as hard copies. Broadcasters and MVPDs likely will back the agency's idea for ditching certified mail as the sole means of communicating carriage election choices, broadcast lawyer Jack Goodman said.
Cumulus Media’s restructuring will be a boon to the industry, and a similar restructuring of fellow radio behemoth iHeartMedia is expected soon, analysts, brokers and attorneys told us Thursday. Cumulus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York Wednesday, as expected (see 1708090069). It was telegraphed when Cumulus missed a debt payment at the start of November (see 1711030002).
Social media helped to make America meaner and coarser, said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai at The Media Institute Wednesday, saying Americans need to decide if social media is a net benefit to the country. “I don’t have an answer,” said Pai, conceding his use of social media also helped to make him a better public servant: "This unprecedented medium for collaboration and connecting people feels like it’s dividing us.”
Net neutrality advocates hope they can thwart an FCC plan to undo Title II net neutrality regulation under the Communications Act, despite Republican commissioner support for a draft order. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and others at a Public Knowledge event Wednesday sought to galvanize opposition to the draft Chairman Ajit Pai circulated for a Dec. 14 vote. "We're going to need all of your help," Markey said. "I would urge everyone to consider ways in which we can get the item removed from the December agenda," said Sarah Morris, New America's Open Technology Institute open internet policy director. "The public outcry has been incredibly strong."
Several Supreme Court justices voiced concern Wednesday during oral argument in Carpenter v. U.S. (see 1711280046) about how to ensure privacy protections in an era of advanced surveillance technologies. Justices seemed divided on what boundaries to set for government searches of cellphone location information. The case challenges the legality of the government’s search of convicted criminal Timothy Carpenter’s cellphone location information in several robberies. Representing Carpenter, American Civil Liberties Union attorney Nathan Freed Wessler said “warrantless collection” of 127 days of Carpenter’s information was illegal. Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben said court precedent supports the government.
House Communications and Digital Commerce subcommittees members interspersed expected questions and concerns Wednesday about the tech sector's data privacy policies (see 1711280059) with a debate on the extent to which the sector's activities represented another front in the battle over net neutrality rules. The joint hearing came amid rancor on and off Capitol Hill over the FCC's draft order to rescind 2015 net neutrality rules and expectations the commission will need to defend the decision in court (see 1711290032, 1711210020, 1711210041, 1711270042 and 1711270054). Lawmakers' concerns about data practices included the Equifax and Uber data breaches and content filtering.
AT&T is ready to make concessions to get DOJ approval of buying Time Warner, but not selling assets, CEO Randall Stephenson said at the Economic Club of New York Wednesday. Experts told us AT&T's proposed conditions in its reply Tuesday to Justice's lawsuit (see 1711280063) aren't aimed at DOJ but at U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of the District of Columbia, who has the case.
Time Warner is offering MVPDs seven-year licensing terms aimed at assuaging DOJ concerns about its pending takeover by AT&T, with those terms contingent on AT&T/TW closing, the telco said its docket 1:17-cv-02511 reply (in Pacer) filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It responded to Justice's lawsuit earlier this month seeking to block the deal (see 1711210005). The department didn't comment.