A federal court froze assets and operations of four individuals the FTC alleged engaged in cryptocurrency scams in which they “falsely promised” participants large returns if they used digital currencies to participate. Thomas Dluca, Louis Gatto and Eric Pinkston deceptively promoted Bitcoin Funding Team and My7Network, promising participants could turn $100 of investment into $80,000 in monthly income, according to FTC filings. A fourth defendant, Scott Chandler, supported Bitcoin Funding Team and another allegedly illegal scheme, Jetcoin, said the FTC. The structures ensured that “few would benefit” from investment and a majority of investors would fail “to recoup” their initial payment, FTC said. The schemes involved digital currencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin. At the request of the FTC, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued a temporary restraining order and froze defendants’ assets until a trial decision. The commission separately Friday said it established an agency blockchain working group, which will focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain issues. “I expect that fraudsters will repurpose old schemes to capitalize on the current glamour and mystery of cryptocurrency," said acting Chief Technologist Neil Chilson. “The FTC staff will diligently apply its expertise to identify such schemes.”
It’s in the best interests of government, industry and civil society to keep the internet open and data flowing around the globe, said NTIA Administrator David Redl Wednesday at the Global Internet and Jurisdiction Conference in Ottawa. Free flow of data has resulted in widespread economic growth and educational opportunities and opened communication lines for marginalized populations, he said. It’s up to open internet advocates to “persuade those on the other side of the debate that the challenges of the free flow of data are far outweighed by the benefits,” he said.
NTIA "will discuss ... in due course" reports that Administrator David Redl promised Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, during his confirmation process last year he would pursue convening a “panel of experts to investigate options” for reversing the 2016 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition (see 1801240048), an agency spokesman said Thursday. Redl and Cruz should “look ahead to address real internet governance threats from authoritarian governments ... rather than trying to undo” the switchover, said R Street Institute Tech Policy Associate Joe Kane and Georgia Tech communication and information public policy professor Milton Mueller in a Wednesday Brookings Institution blog post responding to reports of Redl's assurances to Cruz and Lee. “It might be that Redl’s promised 'panel of experts' was a political ploy,” wrote Kane and Mueller, an active ICANN participant. “It may never materialize or, if it does, it may return a verdict consistent with his original answer at the confirmation hearing, that 'it’s very difficult to put the genie back in the bottle.'” Attempts "to reverse the transition would undermine whatever influence the U.S. has gained since it took place,” they said: “This problem is now especially acute because” of the Oct. 29-Nov. 16 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Dubai. “Authoritarian governments want nothing more than to paint the U.S. as a hypocrite that touts internet freedom while secretly grabbing the controls,” Kane and Mueller said.
NTIA Administrator David Redl reportedly promised Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, during his confirmation process last year he would pursue convening of a “panel of experts to investigate options” for reversing the 2016 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, according to documents disclosed in response to a Politico Freedom of Information Act request. The news organization reported on the documents. Redl told Cruz and Lee in written responses to their questions following his June confirmation hearing he was “interested in exploring ways” to undo the IANA transition despite being unaware of any “specific proposals” that would achieve that goal. Cruz’s longstanding concerns about Redl’s public position that the federal government couldn't undo the switchover prompted delays last year of a Senate Commerce vote on Redl (see 1706280027, 1706280061, 1708020052 and 1708160034). Cruz placed a hold on Senate action after the committee advanced Redl in October on a voice vote (see 1710040063). He subsequently lifted his hold amid assurances from Redl. Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, placed his own temporary hold on Redl's nomination amid concerns about the then-nominee's communications with Cruz (see 1710230062 and 1710300028). Schatz lifted his hold in November after Redl assured him he wouldn't reverse his publicly held position on the IANA transition (see 1711070076 and 1711080015). An industry lobbyist told us Redl's promises to Cruz and Lee were unlikely to pose a threat to ICANN's full control over IANA, noting Redl's past assurances to Schatz. Redl also subsequently promised Schatz in writing that he would continue to support multistakeholder internet governance, the lobbyist said. Cruz's office and NTIA didn't comment.
A unilateral decision by ICANN's board to suspend review of domain name stability and security practices could jeopardize the internet body's transparency and accountability, new NTIA Administrator David Redl said in a Dec. 12 letter. Board members announced the action Oct. 28, saying the review "is a critical input for ICANN in service of its mission," but it's "imperative" the community assure itself the Security, Stability and Resiliency Review "is appropriately composed and structured." NTIA accused ICANN of violating its principles of openness and participation. The suspension "appears to have been done with little notice given and no clear rationale provided," NTIA said. ICANN bylaws provide little role for the board in workings of a review team, it said. The U.S. agency said its "concerns are compounded by the fact that the review teams ... are a critical accountability tool in the post [Internet Assigned Numbers Authority] stewardship transition phase of ICANN, something all stakeholders, particularly those in the United States are watching closely." ICANN hasn't yet responded, a spokesman said this week. NTIA's concerns are shared by many ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee members, and the agency expects the multistakeholder community will act, a spokesman said Tuesday.
ICANN 61 still will take place in San Juan March 10-15 after officials visited Puerto Rico and received assurances from Gov. Ricardo Antonio Rosselló that hotels and the convention center are up and running and eager to host, the group announced Thursday.
A "tiny error" by Level 3 shut down the internet in parts of the U.S., blogged Richard Bennett, network engineer citing Wired. "Monday saw a nationwide series of outages" caused by "a misconfiguration at Level 3, an internet backbone company -- and enterprise ISP -- that underpins other big networks," Wired had reported. "Network analysts say that the misconfiguration was a routing issue that created a ripple effect, causing problems for companies like Comcast, Spectrum, Verizon, Cox and RCN across the country." Level 3, now owned by CenturyLink, said in a statement: “Our network experienced a service disruption affecting some customers with IP-based services. The disruption was caused by a configuration error. We know how important these services are to our customers. Our technicians were able to restore service within approximately 90 minutes.”
A global internet governance review is underway and a report planned, following last year's transfer of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority function from the U.S. Commerce Department to the global internet community. The review by the ICANN Customer Standing Committee, one of several entities in a new multistakeholder oversight structure, will look at whether the new governing structure enables the CSC to fulfill its role or needs amending.
The National Hispanic Media Coalition wants the FCC to extend the comment and reply deadlines for the 2015 rules and reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service NPRM, it said in a Friday news release and motion. The comments deadline for docket 17-108 is July 17 and the reply deadline is Aug. 16. As of Friday, more than 5.1 million comments have been filed. NHMC said it filed several Freedom of Information Act requests to the FCC for "evidence critical to the proceeding." Its initial May 1 FOIA request sought open internet consumer complaints filed since the 2015 order became effective and documents on the open internet ombudsperson's interactions with internet users. NHMC Director-Legal Affairs Carmen Scurato said the FCC documents would provide "essential insight" into maintaining the 2015 order. "The FCC has confirmed that there is an overwhelming amount of responsive documents, therefore the disclosure of this information must be paired with sufficient time for members of the public to review and contribute meaningful input,” she said. NHMC said the more than 47,000 consumer complaints, plus the ombudsperson documents would help answer the NPRM's questions about consumer harm, safeguards and positive impact of reclassification. The FCC didn't comment.
FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said the U.S. government's October Internet Assigned Numbers Authority oversight transition (see 1609300065 and 1610030042) failed to stop China, Russia and other countries from increasing government involvement in internet governance. O'Rielly said in April the U.S. needs to continue to play a leading role in fostering multistakeholder internet governance, saying the IANA handoff was a failed “appeasement strategy” amid policy moves and statements from the ITU, China and Russia (see 1704210062). O'Rielly again noted his concerns about China and the ITU in a new opinion piece in the New Hampshire Union Leader, saying the U.S.' “fancy strategy didn't appease anyone” already opposed to multistakeholderism. O'Rielly also cited April ITU study meetings in which Russia and several African countries sought to define OTT content providers, which he called a “veiled attempt to expand ITU jurisdiction to the internet, as well as to get its grips into popular consumer uses, such as Netflix, Skype, and WhatsApp.” The U.S. “should learn from the ICANN aftermath and redouble our efforts to quash continuous and systemic assaults on the internet by foreign governments, using all appropriate means,” O'Rielly said.