Of Interest

Telecom Using Veterans As Props To Demonize California's New Net Neutrality Law

Date published:
March 26, 2021
Tech Dirt
Read more about Telecom Using Veterans As Props To Demonize California's New Net Neutrality Law
The other issue, as Stanford Professor Barbara Van Schewick points out in a blog post, is that usage caps are bullshit constructs in the first place. If usage caps are pointless constructs that don't actually do anything, exempting a service from those caps is rather meaningless. Instead, there's any number of alternatives you could explore that could subsidize veteran access to these services, including giving vets a flat discount on their monthly broadband or wireless bill:
‘Dark Patterns’ in Consumer Data Privacy Garner Policy Attention

Date published:
March 25, 2021
Bloomberg Law
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The FTC’s dark patterns workshop could help make the argument for added legal authority over business practices that are seen as abusive, according to Woodrow Hartzog, a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University. Hartzog said he has advocated for Congress to modify Section 5 of the FTC Act to include oversight over abusive practices, “which would squarely address a range of dark patterns.”
Setting the Record Straight: Carriers Can Help Veterans and Comply with California’s Net Neutrality Law

By Barbara van Schewick on March 25, 2021 at 9:02 am

On Wednesday, Politico reported on a leaked email from the Department of Veterans Affairs, expressing concern that California’s net neutrality law could force some wireless providers to end a program that exempted the V.A.’s telehealth app from their customers’ data caps.

Veterans across the country and in California shouldn’t have to worry they’ll go over their data caps by talking to their doctor or mental health provider online. In fact, no American or Californian should.

But California’s net neutrality law is not the problem here. Read more about Setting the Record Straight: Carriers Can Help Veterans and Comply with California’s Net Neutrality Law

Tags:
Network Neutrality
Setting the Record Straight: Carriers Can Help Veterans and Comply with California’s Net Neutrality Law

Author(s):
Barbara van Schewick
Publication Date:
March 25, 2021
Publication Type:
Other Writing
Read more about Setting the Record Straight: Carriers Can Help Veterans and Comply with California’s Net Neutrality Law
On Wednesday, Politico reported on a leaked email from the Department of Veterans Affairs, expressing concern that California’s net neutrality law could force some wireless providers to end a program that exempted the V.A.’s telehealth app from their customers’ data caps.

Veterans across the country and in California shouldn’t have to worry they’ll go over their data caps by talking to their doctor or mental health provider online. In fact, no American or Californian should.

But California’s net neutrality law is not the problem here.
A New York Lawmaker Wants to Ban Police Use of Armed Robots

Date published:
March 18, 2021
Wired
Read more about A New York Lawmaker Wants to Ban Police Use of Armed Robots
“The goal for any kind of technology should be harm reduction and de-escalation,” says Peter Asaro, a roboticist and professor at the School of Media Studies at the New School.

“It's almost always the police officer arguing that they're defending themselves by using lethal force,” he says. “But a robot has no right to self-defense. So why would it be justified in using lethal force?”
AT&T blames net neutrality law for HBO Max counting against data caps

Date published:
March 18, 2021
Yahoo Finance
Read more about AT&T blames net neutrality law for HBO Max counting against data caps
Stanford University professor Barbara van Schewick, who has long advocated for net neutrality, also said AT&T's elimination of HBO Max zero-rating is actually a good thing for consumers. "This is a win for an open and free internet, including for competing video services and internet users," she wrote. "People should be free to choose which videos they want to watch — whether that’s Netflix, Twitch or their local church’s Sunday service, without the company they pay to get online trying to influence their choices."
AT&T lies about Calif. net neutrality law, claiming it bans “free data”

Date published:
March 18, 2021
Ars Technica
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"California's net neutrality law doesn't ban all zero-rating; it bans anti-competitive forms of zero-rating," Stanford law professor Barbara van Schewick, who supported California in its court defense of the net neutrality law, told Ars today. "The law does ban AT&T's anti-competitive scheme where it counts almost everything people do on the Internet, including watching Twitch, Netflix, and their home security cameras, against users' data caps, but doesn't count the data from AT&T's own video services."
Opinion: California’s net neutrality law just cost AT&T wireless customers a free streaming perk. That’s a good thing

Date published:
March 18, 2021
Los Angeles Times
More important, as Professor Barbara van Schewick of Stanford Law School observed in an interview, “Zero-rating only works when you have a low data cap. That creates an incentive for ISPs to keep low data caps and keep unlimited plans expensive. For example, in the European Union, ISPs that don’t zero-rate video give subscribers eight times more data for the same price than ISPs that zero-rate video.” Read more about Opinion: California’s net neutrality law just cost AT&T wireless customers a free streaming perk. That’s a good thing
AT&T Pulls Sponsored Data Due To Calif. Net Neutrality Law

Date published:
March 18, 2021
Law 360
Read more about AT&T Pulls Sponsored Data Due To Calif. Net Neutrality Law
Some Humility About Transparency

By Daphne Keller on March 19, 2021 at 3:09 am

I am a huge fan of transparency about platform content moderation. So it pains me to admit that I don’t really know what “transparency” I’m asking for. Read more about Some Humility About Transparency

Of Interest

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