FOIA data suggests FCC more secretive than CIA

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 01: U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski speaks to the media on the importance of net neutrality December 1, 2010 at the headquarters of the FCC in Washington, DC. Genachowski outlined a framework for broadband internet service providers that would prohibit them from blocking or limiting lawful online content.

Πηγή: The Daily Caller

By Josh Peterson

March 21 2012

Recent data suggests that the FCC, not the nation’s intelligence leading agency, has been in at least one particular case the most secretive agency of the Obama Administration.

During a House appropriations subcommittee hearing Monday, Florida Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart noted that the FCC’s denial rate of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests was significantly higher than the rest of the federal government.

Citing publicly available information from FOIA.gov, the congressman noted that the 48 percent of FOIA requests the FCC rejected in 2010 was far higher than the CIA’s 0.7 percent rate. The National Security Agency denied 0.5 percent of requests. Homeland Security denied 0.2 percent. The rest of the government, the congressman noted, denied a collective 7.3 percent of FOIA requests during that same time.

“Why does the FCC all of a sudden have more secrets than the CIA when you’re dealing with FOIA requests?” asked Diaz-Balart during the hearing.

“Well, I am not familiar with those numbers and I haven’t heard them before, We’d be happy to look at them together with you, and try to understand the trends,” Genachowski said to the congressman. “Certainly, we recognize our obligations under FOIA and we have a team of professionals who handle FOIA requests and understand their obligations to comply and meet their obligations under law.”

Several of the requests, according to FOIA.gov’s data cited by the congressman, were denied under the justification that requests were “not reasonably described.”

“Under your watch, the FCC denied about 16.4 percent of FOIA requests based on records that were not, quote, ‘reasonably described,’” said Diaz-Balart to Genachowski.

Net Neutrality rules finalized by FCC

Πηγή: newstype
By Andrea Parrish
September 22, 2011

The Federal Communications Commission has been considering net neutrality rules for more than a year. On Sept. 23, the rules will be officially published, which would put them in effect on Nov. 20. The rules, however, are likely to be challenged in court.

The new net neutrality rules

The proposed net neutrality rules the FCC plans on publishing are essentially the same as the rules originally proposed back in December of 2010. The FCC summarizes these rules as:


First, transparency: fixed and mobile broadband providers must disclose the network management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms of their broadband services. Second, no blocking: fixed broadband providers may not block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices; mobile broadband providers may not block lawful websites, or block applications that compete with their voice or video telephony services. Third, no unreasonable discrimination: fixed broadband providers may not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic.

The rules would still allow for network providers to slow down (throttle) bandwidth for some users, or even block some applications on the web services they provide.

Lawsuits planned against net neutrality

Though no lawsuits have yet been refiled against the net neutrality regulations, several are planned. Verizon and MetroPCS Communications both originally filed lawsuits against the net neutrality rules, but the cases were thrown out of court. The judge said that plaintiffs had no standing to file the lawsuit until the rules actually affect them. That means that the rules would have to actually be in effect. Verizon has not announced a date for re-filing the lawsuit, but has indicated that the intention is to do so very soon.
Legislative action expected

Once the FCC has officially published the rules, Republican lawmakers plan on trying to overturn the FCC’s new rules. Lawmakers have expressed concern that putting new limits on broadband access or internet connection providers would put unnecessary restrictions on businesses that are trying to grow in a down economy.

What net neutrality means for customers

For customers that use the web every day, net neutrality rules will have some effect. Generally, it means that no internet connection provider in the United States can block or limit lawful connections. However, this means that the downloading of movies, grey-market gambling websites, and other not-entirely-legal connections may still be at risk of limitations. The new proposed rules also allow mobile providers to slow down connections or block certain kinds of programs if they will significantly slow down the overall connection speed for that network. The likelihood that these rules will actually go into effect on Nov. 20, however, is very low.

Sources:

Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903703604576587073700335538.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/fcc-net-neutrality-official-nov-20-lawsuits-expected-to-follow/2011/09/22/gIQARXdWoK_blog.html
ARS Technica: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/09/us-net-neutrality-rules-finalized-in-effect-november-20.ars