Webinars — TPRC - The Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy

TPRC Webinars

TPRC will be presenting webinars to help present timely information before the September conference.

April 21, 2022, 1pm ET

“Options for USF funding reform”

Video recording herE

Presentation slides for the panelists can be accessed here: Hal Singer, Carol Mattey, Roslyn Layton

This webinar reflects on three proposals for Universal Service Fund (USF) funding reform. Over $9 billion in USF expenditure is funded through interstate and international revenues of telecommunications companies and the scope of its four programs has expanded to include broadband service for low-income Americans and those in high-cost areas. The contribution base has been shrinking while the services supported by it have been expanding.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) initiated a proceeding on the future of universal service in December 2021 there is a broad consensus that the contribution base is overburdened and iniquitous. The proposals for reform of the USF funding mechanism, include expanding the contribution base to

broadband users,
online advertisers, and
streaming service providers (‘Big Tech’)

respectively. Our three participants will speak to these three options.

Moderator: David Reed, University of Colorado Boulder

Panelists:

Carol Mattey

Carol Mattey runs Mattey Consulting LLC and is a former deputy chief at the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau. She has a doctorate in law from University of Pennsylvania, has blogged at the Benton Foundation, Brookings Institute, and Medium as well having been involved in various regulatory proceedings. She has also testified before Congress on broadband investments in rural America.

As the FCC, her primary focus was on the development and implementation of the Connect America Fund. She also supervised reforms in 2012 to the Lifeline program and the creation of the Healthcare Connect Fund. Mattey Consulting LLC provides strategic and public policy advisory services to broadband providers, governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and other entities active in the telecommunications arena, with a particular focus on universal service and broadband infrastructure deployment.

Past Webinars

June 17, 2021, 12:15pm ET

“US Cybersecurity Policy for Data Breach, Ransomware and Supply Chain: What’s Working, What Isn’t, and How to Fix It”

TPRC will feature Carole House, Director of Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation, White House National Security Council and Commissioner Brendan Carr of the FCC in remarks during its webinar on cybersecurity titled “US Cybersecurity Policy for Data Breach, Ransomware and Supply Chain: What’s Working, What Isn’t, and How to Fix It” on Thursday, June 17 at 12.15pm.

This webinar reflects on recent high profile cyberattacks in the USA which appear to be growing more frequent, more sophisticated, and more devastating. Recent ransomware attacks of JBS and Colonial have targeted critical infrastructure in the food and energy sectors. US and European governments experienced massive data breaches via a stealth attack which exploited software and credentials of Microsoft, SolarWinds, and VMWare. The panel will explore who bears responsibility to prevent and mitigate attack and whether products, services, and systems be certified to reduce risk.

Cyber policy issues are more than technical and legal matters as they implicate larger geopolitical and economic forces. Many attacks originate from state actors like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, or actors residing in those states with support or at least neutrality from the government. Of these countries, only China has a leading information technology industry whose products, services, and applications are increasingly used by Americans. US voters and policymakers are questioning the efficacy of building critical infrastructure with components from the same vendors that facilitate China’s surveillance state in addition to the plethora of imported devices which may be manufactured with backdoors and forced labor and be governed by an extraterritorial set of laws and practices antithetical to the US Constitution and its associated rights.

This event provides an overview of complex, integrated policy issues and how to support the research agenda on data breach, ransomware, and supply chain. It features remarks from leaders at the White House National Security Council, the Federal Communications Commission, and leading institutes for the study of public policy. It is followed by an overview of historical data on cyberattacks and a policy discussion.

The full list of speakers follows.

Carole House, Director of Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation, White House National Security Council (NSC)

Brendan Carr, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission

Josephine Wolff, Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity

Thomas Vartanian, Financial Technology and Regulatory Expert

Karl Grindal, School of Public Policy, Georgia Tech University

Roslyn Layton, Program Chair, TPRC49

James A. Lewis, Senior Vice President and Director of Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

May 20, 2021, 12:00 pm ET

“What Biden's First 100-Days and Proposed Infrastructure Plan Means for Broadband”

Moderator: David Reed, Scholar-in-Residence, University of Colorado-Boulder

Panelists:

Christopher Lewis, President and CEO, Public Knowledge

Randolph May, President and Founder, Free State Foundation

Nicol Turner Lee, Senior Fellow, and Director, Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution

In his first 100-days in office, President Biden has presented an ambitious infrastructure plan that includes high-speed broadband as a critical infrastructure asset. As the pandemic has demonstrated the significance of online connectivity for everyday functions, how can the plans for expanded broadband infrastructure close the digital divide, expand workforce opportunities, and ensure that the internet is affordable for all citizens? How will the nation also accelerate rural broadband deployment among the nation's most under-served? In this TPRC webinar, hear from experts that will address these, and other questions as the White House works to gain political consensus on his broad infrastructure plans.

February 3, 2021, 11:30 am ET

“International perspectives on data access, privacy, and cross-border data transfers”

Moderator: J. Scott Marcus, Bruegel

Panelists:

Maximilian Schrems, NOYB – European Center for Digital Rights
Mosi Li, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (SUIBE), China
Justin Sherman, American University Washington College of Law

Data access, privacy, and international data transfers have been very much in the news in recent months. The discussion has been particularly intense in the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom (UK), China, and the United States.

Claims to the contrary notwithstanding, data is not the “oil of the Twenty-first Century”; however, it is fair to say that data is fundamental to many aspects of a modern digital economy. For nearly all forms of artificial and machine learning, large training bases are required. For online advertising, personal data is essential for efficient targeting.

Is it possible to make more data available for beneficial use? How can this be reconciled with the need to preserve the privacy of personal data for firms and governments? What initiatives can public policy undertake in order to simplify or facilitate access to data? Do current laws and regulations interfere with the use of data to an inappropriate degree, and if so, what might be done to mitigate this interference?

For non-public data, privacy does not come into play, so expanding access tends to produce benefits that are not weighed down with disadvantages. The European Union (EU) has enacted laws to facilitate access to non-personal data, and to require governments and certain utility firms to make their data available (including via real-time application programming interfaces (APIs)) at prices not in excess of their costs in making it available. The European Commission proposed a new Data Governance Act in November 2020 to further build on this base.

International transfers of personal data are essential to a wide range of economic activities in digitally advanced countries. An important court decision in 2020 has put these transfers at risk from the EU to the United States, and potentially also to the United Kingdom. Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an adequacy decision enables the unrestricted flow of personal data to a non-EU country. With the Schrems II decision, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) invalidated the adequacy decision for an existing framework (Privacy Shield) as regards transfers of personal data to the USA, and also made clear that no change to the current mechanisms (including Standard Contractual Clauses, or SCCs) is sufficient in itself to fix the problem. The adequacy decision was overturned because the USA was felt to conduct excessive and disproportionate surveillance for national security purposes, and to provide EU persons with inadequate means of redress for improper government surveillance. Under these circumstances, how might USA-based platforms that depend on international data transfers, such as Facebook and Google, want to respond? What is the impact on EU firms that depend on transferring personal data to the USA or the UK?

The discussion in China has been different from that in the EU or the USA to date, but has also suddenly become intense. In December, the Chinese government summoned managers from leading platforms including Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan and Pinduoduo to meetings, and “read them the riot act” over concerns that those of us in the USA and the EU will quickly recognise. The concerns included predatory pricing, collusion and price fixing, “misleading or cheating consumers”, mergers and acquisitions, and illegal collection and use of consumer data. This point about the use of consumer data is our focus in this panel, and is noteworthy - there is a tendency in the West to suppose that consumer privacy is irrelevant in China, but the reality is more complex. There is an active discussion and genuine interest in consumer privacy versus the Chinese digital platforms, but the state of law is emerging and unsettled. How should we understand the new developments in China, and how might they evolve going forward?

October Webinar

“Preparing for a Research Future during Covid-19” (Video HERE)

The pandemic is impacting on the career paths of PhD students and Postdocs who face disruption and uncertainty about their academic / other professional careers.

This Panel will discuss what advice and support students and Postdocs can expect from their advisers on career advancement and research opportunities in communications, information and internet policy fields.

Moderator:
Robin Mansell, Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science

Panel:

Marjory Blumenthal, Senior Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation
Derrick Cogburn, Professor, International Communication and Development, School of International Service, and Professor, Information Technology & Analytics, Kogod School of Business, American University
Martin Weiss, Professor, School of Computing and Information, University of Pittsburgh

July Webinar

“COVID-19's LESSONS FOR ICT POLICY” (link to recorded webinar here)

Moderator:
Mark Jamison, Director, Public Utility Research Center, University of Florida and Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Panelists:
Scott Wallsten, President and Senior Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute
Roslyn Layton, Aalborg University
Eli Noam, Director, Columbia University Institute for Tele-Information

This panel will consider what the COVID-19 pandemic and the responses to it have taught us about ICT policy in the US and elsewhere. How did existing policies fare during the pandemic? What weaknesses and strengths emerged? How did regulations contribute to or relieve network stress? What did we learn about the value of ICT and the impacts of the digital divide? What regulatory actions best assisted people that might be consider unserved or under-served? How did sector and competition regulators respond to the pandemic and what were the apparent effects? How has the pandemic changed the ICT sectors?

ANTI-TRUST AND PLATFORM REGULATION (link to recorded webinar here)

Moderator, Scott Wallsten, President and Senior Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute

Panelists:
Johannes Bauer, Chairperson, Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University
Joe Kennedy, Senior Fellow, ITIF
Chris Lewis, President and CEO, Public Knowledge
Christopher Yoo, Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the founding director of the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition.
Shane Tews, Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

SEPTEMBER 25, 1-2pm ET

FACIAL RECOGNITION, LAW ENFORCEMENT & MASS SURVEILLANCE: Ethical or Unjust?

Emerging technologies, including facial recognition, have been accessed by law enforcement to solve crimes, improve efficiency and save internal resources. Yet, arguments abound around the extent to which the appropriate guardrails are being deployed in their use. What are the questions that law enforcement should be asking when deciding to use facial recognition technologies (FRT)? How can these technologies impact citizens, especially people of color who are disproportionately targeted by the police? How can policymakers, civil society and engineers work together to bring some accountability to the design, performance and implementation of FRT? These questions will be the subject of a panel discussion among experts from a variety of disciplines. Panelists will answer these questions, while debating the implications of its use. The panel will be comprised of a diverse group of scholars from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, engineering and law. The panel will also have an industry scientist who works on these products and services. The topic will be relevant to the TPRC community due to its interdisciplinary approach to the conversation. It will also share how the technical design of FRT can impact its effectiveness. The panel will also share a balance of use cases for the technology, particularly those instances where FRT can mitigate levels of harm for individuals and communities. Recognizing some of the challenges associated with data representation and FRT’s use in a fractured criminal justice system, the panel will touch upon a range of issues that confront the issues around ethics, fairness, diversity and equality in this technology.

Nicol Turner Lee, Ph.D., Fellow, Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution (moderator)

Panelists:

Fay Cobb Payton, Ph.D., Professor of IT/Analytics and University Faculty Scholar, North Carolina State University

Rashawn Ray, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology and Executive Director, Lab for Applied Social Science Research (LASSR), University of Maryland-College Park; David Rubenstein Fellow, Brookings Institution

Nashlie Sephus, Ph.D., Applied Science Manager, Amazon Web Services, Founder, The BeanPath.org

OCTOBER DATE TBD, 1-2 pm ET

THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: HOW THE PANDEMIC EXACERBATED DISPARITIES IN EDUCATION
Moderator, Jon Gant, North Carolina Central University

NOVEMBER DATE TBD, 1-2 pm ET

A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE ON INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL AND NON-PERSONAL DATA
Moderator, J. Scott Marcus, former FCC policy expert