The FTC offered the FCC an update on its recent “Voice Cloning Challenge” and other work as commissioners consider a draft NPRM on consumer protections against AI-generated robocalls. The NPRM is set for a vote Aug. 7 (see 2407170055). “The four FTC Voice Cloning Challenge winning submissions demonstrate the potential for cutting edge technology to help mitigate risks of voice cloning in the marketplace,” an FTC filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-362 said: “They promote approaches that tap American innovation to help protect the public. The results of the Challenge also highlight that there is no single solution to this problem.”
The FCC "offers no plausible reason why Congress would have used classic disparate-treatment language to create a disparate-impact regime," a coalition of industry groups said in a reply brief to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday. The brief explained the Minnesota Telecom Alliance's challenge of the FCC's digital discrimination rules (docket 24-1179). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, NCTA, Wireless Infrastructure Association National Multifamily Housing Council, ACA Connects, Wireless ISP Association and several state telecom associations also noted that the major questions doctrine "confirms" the commission lacks "the authority to regulate non-ISPs" (see 2407080012). In a separate brief, the Legal Defense Fund, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union, Communications Workers of America and the United Church of Christ Office of Communication said that the FCC would "fail to achieve Congress's mandate" of facilitating equal access without establishing a disparate-impact liability. Section 1754 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act "also furthers the FCC’s ability to ferret out intentional discrimination," the groups said.
Most parts of the FCC’s three-year, $200 million cybersecurity pilot program for schools and libraries will become effective Aug. 29, a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register said. FCC Commissioners approved the program 3-2 in June, with Republicans Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting (see 2406060043). “The Commission seeks to address the apparent needs of schools and libraries for additional support for cybersecurity services and equipment, while evaluating the impact that providing that support would have on the USF,” the notice said.
In spite of steps taken to prevent them, cyberattack threats continue to grow, AT&T said late Thursday. “As our networks evolve, they are becoming increasingly reliant on software and cloud technologies to handle growing demands for data consumption,” the carrier said in an SEC filing: “Cyberattacks against the Company and its suppliers and vendors have occurred in the past, will continue to occur in the future and are increasing in frequency, scope and potential harm over time.” During an earnings call Wednesday, company executives discussed AT&T's massive February outage; however, human error, not a cyberattack, was the culprit (see 2407240040).
The FCC on Tuesday posted a memorandum of understanding on the collection and reporting of data from federal broadband programs that it entered in May with NTIA and the Agriculture and Treasury departments. The MOU covers data and metrics from broadband programs that the FCC and NTIA oversee, as well as USDA Rural Utilities Service-administered efforts, and Treasury’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF) and Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF). The FCC didn’t comment on the delay between the document’s date and its release. The MOU requires that the agencies share information about the projects and make nonconfidential data about the projects publicly available “using tools such as the FCC's Broadband Funding Map.” The agencies will also notify each other about Freedom of Information Act requests for the data and coordinate their responses to them, the MOU said. It expires in four years but can be renewed if all agencies mutually consent.
The U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 Brand X decision "remains binding" on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "under established principles of stare decisis as to all issues the Supreme Court decided in that case," the FCC said in a supplemental brief Friday (docket 24-7000). The court temporarily stayed the FCC's net neutrality order until Aug. 5 (see 2407120052). Brand X held that the Communications Act "gives the FCC authority to classify and regulate broadband service," the agency said. The FCC said the court "remains bound by Brand X" regardless of whether petitioners disagree with the ruling. "Insofar as petitioners now seek to forever freeze in time the former Title I approach, they are not asking the court to respect the Brand X decision under principles of stare decisis, but instead to countermand it," the FCC said. CTIA, USTelecom, NCTA, ACA Connects, the Wireless ISP Association and several state telecom associations said in a joint supplemental brief that Brand X's holding "now dooms the commission's rule." They said that the court "may not accept the commission's new, contrary conclusion that broadband is solely" a telecom service. "Even if Brand Xdid not require this court to reject the commission's argument as a matter of statutory stare decisis , it still supports petitioners' arguments that the best reading of the 1996 Act is that broadband is an information service," the coalition said.
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has received 10 million contacts since it was instituted, with text traffic representing 1.7 million of them, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Tuesday marked the two-year anniversary of the three-digit number's launch (see 2207150036). HHS said since 988’s expansion of services for Spanish speakers, LGBTQ youth and young adults, it has received 20,000 Spanish texts and chats and more than 475,000 LGBTQ youth calls, texts and chats. The Veterans Crisis Line received 1.2 million calls via 988, it noted. Nearly $1.5 billion in federal funding has gone to 988, HHS said. In a call with media, HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm said much of that funding went to states, tribes and territories for hiring crisis contact center counselors and expanding services.
The FCC Precision Agriculture Task Force will meet in person Aug. 14 at 10 a.m. at FCC headquarters, a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register said (see 2401310010). Attendees will hear updates from working group leadership and discuss the task force's executive summary for its report to the FCC about facilitating broadband deployment on agricultural land.
The FCC deactivated its disaster information reporting system (DIRS) for Hurricane Beryl at Texas' request, the agency announced Sunday. Communications providers will no longer need to report the status of cellular networks in DIRS in connection with this event. The FCC said it will continue monitoring the status of communications services and work with providers and government partners to support remaining restoration efforts in the area. The Mandatory Disaster Response Initiative remains in effect for the areas of Texas that Hurricane Beryl struck when it reached land July 8.
Roughly two in three people are aware of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, though only 23% say they are "somewhat familiar" with it, the National Alliance on Mental Illness said Monday. Three percent of Americans report they or a loved one contacted the Lifeline during a crisis, NAMI said. The data comes from 2,048 American adults surveyed in June. NAMI said that since the 988 Lifeline's July 2022 launch, it has had 10 million contacts. It said 10 states have or are implementing a per-line 988 fee that pays for Lifeline services.