Russia Today, a news channel funded by the Russian government, went off-air in the Washington market Saturday because its broadcast partner, WNVC Culpeper, Virginia, sold its spectrum in the incentive auction and distributor MHz Networks was unable to find another channel to carry the content, according to a statement on the MHz website and FCC records. “We looked at acquiring another license and to other providers for channel carriage,” said MHz President Frederick Thomas in the statement. “The former ended in too many moving pieces and the latter proved difficult for the cable systems without a must-carry broadcast partner.” The spectrum of WNVC, owned by Commonwealth Public Broadcasting, went for $57 million in the incentive auction, and the station elected to go off air, according to FCC auction results. WTOP radio in Washington reported that Russia Today has said its registration as a foreign agent led to it going off air. Russia Today, Commonwealth Public Broadcasting and MHz Networks didn’t comment.
Russia export controls and sanctions
The use of export controls and sanctions on Russia has surged since the country's invasion of Crimea in 2014, and especially its invasion of Ukraine in in February 2022. Similar export controls and sanctions have been imposed by U.S. allies, including the EU, U.K. and Japan. The following is a listing of recent articles in Export Compliance Daily on export controls and sanctions imposed on Russia:
The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is further evidence that Congress needs to tighten scrutiny surrounding online political ads, Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., argued last week (see 1803220052).
Digital piracy grew by 1.6 percent in 2017, with visits to video, music, publishing and software piracy sites hitting 300.2 billion, piracy tracking firm Muso said Wednesday. It said pirate sites hosting TV content were most visited, at 106.9 billion, followed by visits to music sites (73.9 billion) and film (53.2 billion). It said the U.S. was the country making the most visits to piracy sites, accounting for 27.9 billion, followed by Russia, India and Brazil. Muso said 53 percent of piracy happens on unlicensed streaming platforms. It said visits to pirate TV content sites were up 3.4 percent worldwide from 2016, and 96.1 percent of those sites make content available via streaming. It said consuming pirated TV content was done primarily via mobile devices, surpassing desktop for the first time. It said visits to pirate film sites was down 2.3 percent year over year, with streaming being the most popular form of consumption, over torrent sites or web download sites.
A big test of NTIA efforts to incentivize spectrum sharing between industry and federal agencies and the agencies maximizing their use of their spectrum assignments will come over the next few years with the rollout of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, said NTIA Administrator David Redl Wednesday at Satellite 2018. NTIA is looking at the 3450-3550 MHz band as a candidate for potential commercial use, Redl said (prepared remarks here). He said DOD plans to ask for money through the Spectrum Relocation Fund to study the band (see 1802260047). Redl said appropriations have been provided to study proposed reallocation of the 1300-1350 MHz band. Many think reallocation of the 1.3 GHz band is probably a top NTIA priority (see 1802230052).
House Cybersecurity Subcommittee members hammered Department of Homeland Security officials at a hearing Wednesday for failing to fill cybersecurity vacancies. One DHS official blamed the delay partly on a pay-scale system designed in the 1940s, preventing the agency from hiring top talent.
Germany is the best-prepared country for expansion of cloud-computing services, while Japan ranks second, the U.S. third and Vietnam last in a pool of 24 nations, according to BSA. BSA scored countries on data privacy; security; cybercrime; IP rights; standards and rules; promotion of free trade; and IT readiness and broadband deployment. Germany recorded an overall score of 84, Japan 82.1, the U.S. 82 and Vietnam 36.4. Russia and China ranked 21st and 22nd, respectively, with scores of 45 and 43.7.
House Communications Subcommittee members spent much of a Tuesday NTIA oversight hearing focused on the agency's spectrum management role, as expected (see 1803050053). Lawmakers also peppered Administrator David Redl with other questions about his views on the 2016 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, broadband mapping and public safety communications.
Russian agents spread social media propaganda in an attempt to divide U.S. opinion on energy issues between 2015 and 2017, said a majority staff report released by House Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, Thursday. The report said Russia spread about 9,000 posts and tweets across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in the two-year span, and Russia’s Internet Research Agency held 4,334 social media accounts. Smith suggested Russia’s energy interests in Europe were motivation for manipulating opinions about pipelines, fossil fuels, fracking, climate change and other hot-button issues. The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Washington did not comment.
FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly called Tom Wheeler's cybersecurity regulation views unhinged from the law. O'Rielly said he had ignored Wheeler's "musings, despite their inaccuracies and overall misguided perspectives," but felt compelled to call out the former chairman for "gibberish" he had "pontificated" (here) on the commission's lack of action on internet network security. "Wheeler's views reaffirm that he is unwilling to read the law and follow basic principles of statutory construction," O'Rielly blogged Wednesday. He said Wheeler is "abusing" Communications Act Section 1 (which explained the purposes for creating the FCC) by arguing it gives the commission direct "authority over all communications activity, especially cybersecurity." That reading would constitute a "massive" expansion of jurisdiction, giving the FCC "authority over 'communications by wire or radio' ... without bounds," O'Rielly said. He said the plain reading of Section 1 is as a preamble, offering a "policy statement, not actual authority." If the section gave the FCC direct authority, he said, it wouldn't need "ancillary authority" or the rest of the Act. O'Rielly said U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rulings support his view, including Comcast v. FCC (2010) on net neutrality. While respecting O'Rielly "as a patriot," Wheeler said Thursday the blog post "seems to be in keeping with Donald Trump's refusal to respond to Russia's attack on our system. Networks have always been attack vectors; that a new network has opened up a new means of attack is no surprise. What is surprising is that when our nation is under attack we decide to have law-school quibbles about language instead of stepping up and protecting the nation."
House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, demanded Thursday the Department of Homeland Security give the committee a full response to its December request for information proving federal agencies are removing Kaspersky Lab software from federal IT systems. The Moscow-based firm is under fire after reports vulnerabilities in its software enabled Russia to breach federal systems (see 1712060045). House Science originally sought response by Dec. 19. The company subsequently sought court reversal of DHS' ban (see 1712180074). The department indicated to House Science it could provide only part of the requested information because of the lawsuit. The committee still “expects a full and complete response” by Feb. 8 and “will consider use of the compulsory process to obtain the information” absent compliance, Smith wrote Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The agency didn't comment.