Facebook in Q3 experienced its first quarter with more than $10 billion in revenue, said CEO Mark Zuckerberg on a Wednesday earnings call. “None of that matters if our services are used in a way that doesn't bring people closer together, or if the foundation of our society is undermined by foreign interference,” he said. “I've expressed how upset I am that the Russians tried to use our tools to sow mistrust. We built these tools to help people connect and to bring us closer together, and they used them to try to undermine our values. What they did is wrong, and we are not going to stand for it.” Facebook “is doing everything we can to help the U.S. government get a complete picture of what happened,” said Zuckerberg. Efforts “sweeping across all our platforms” are aimed at identifying and eradicating fake accounts, it told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday (see 1710310061). Facebook is working with Congress “on legislation to make advertising more transparent,” said Zuckerberg. The company is “moving forward on our own to bring advertising on Facebook to an even higher standard of transparency than ads on TV or other media,” he said. It soon will “start rolling out a tool that lets you see all of the ads a page is running and also an archive" of political ads that "have run in the past,” he said. The platform has 10,000 employees “working on safety and security, and we're planning to double that to 20,000 in the next year to better enforce our community standards and review ads,” he said. “In many places, we're doubling or more our engineering efforts focused on security.” It’s also building new artificial intelligence “to detect bad content and bad actors, just like we've done with terrorist propaganda,” he said. “I am dead serious about this. And the reason I'm talking about this on our earnings call is that I've directed our teams to invest so much in security on top of the other investments we're making that it will significantly impact our profitability going forward, and I wanted our investors to hear that directly from me. I believe this will make our society stronger, and in doing so will be good for all of us over the long term. But I want to be clear about what our priority is. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.” Facebook shares closed 2.1 percent lower Thursday at $178.92.

AT&T remains confident it will close on Time Warner by year's end, despite word DOJ is considering challenging the deal, analysts said Thursday. That close could come by month's end, analyst David Barden of Bank of America emailed investors Thursday. The Wall Street Journal that day reported the agency is discussing possible settlement terms. BOA said it's standard for the agency to work along multiple fronts for merger reviews. BOA said new DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim is positioning himself to have the last word on any conditions, and the company expects any conditions to be reasonable. It said the time Delrahim is taking has to do with coming up to speed on the takeover rather than with material issues. Wells Fargo's Jennifer Fritzsche emailed investors the issue might be more about Justice increasing leverage in negotiating conditions than a serious intent to block the deal, saying the DOJ would face an "uphill battle" in court trying to block the vertical merger. If the department does push back, that might indicate horizontal mergers -- like Sprint/T-Mobile -- might not fly with the administration, Wells Fargo said. DOJ didn't comment. AT&T said when the agency reviews any transaction, "it is common and expected for both sides to prepare for all possible scenarios. For over 40 years, vertical mergers like this one have always been approved because they benefit consumers without removing any competitors from the market. While we won't comment on our discussions with DOJ, we see no reason in the law or the facts why this transaction should be an exception." Time Warner closed down 3.8 percent to $94.70. BOA said AT&T Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs Bob Quinn indicated this week DOJ wouldn't likely approve consolidation of two national wireless carriers without creation of a fourth facilities-based player, since that would likely face political and career antitrust staff opposition. BOA said an MVNO-based cable provider also wouldn't fit that bill of a facilities-based operator. AT&T didn't comment on that.

Sprint asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling that federal law doesn't pre-empt state authority to regulate non-nomadic, intrastate long-distance VoIP calls (see 1706230047). Sprint said under FCC precedent the VoIP traffic "is an 'information service' exempt from traditional common carrier regulation," whether state or federal. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June -- agreeing with a 1990 9th Circuit California v. FCC ruling -- contradicted "clear FCC policy," said a Sprint cert petition this week in Sprint Communications v. Richard W. Lozier, Jr., et al. "The court below thereby both broadened and deepened the conflict, breathing new life into what had been an outlying and outdated Ninth Circuit decision." The 8th Circuit affirmed a U.S. district court ruling siding with an Iowa Utilities Board decision requiring Sprint to pay intrastate access fees to Windstream for VoIP service. Sprint said the 8th Circuit said Windstream's state tariffs apply to the VoIP calls, even if they are an information service because an enhanced service provider exemption doesn't apply. "That holding conflicts with decades of FCC decisions establishing federal policy to the contrary," said Sprint, citing actions going back to a 1980 Computer II finding by the FCC that enhanced services weren't subject to common-carrier regulation. NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay said the Sprint petition was wrong on the facts and the law. "The FCC in order after order for 13 years has been adamant that it has not classified VoIP as either an information service or a telecommunications service," he said. "So of course this entire petition is based on the 'fact' that facilities based VoIP service is an information service -- the one legal issue the FCC insists it has not decided." He said "states, both with and without FCC concurrence, regulate some aspects of VoIP services -- imposing USF and emergency calling fees and requirements that Congress specified (and the DC Circuit confirmed in the Verizon case) can only apply to the extent a carrier is providing a 'telecommunications service.'" The FCC didn't comment Thursday. “Windstream is not surprised by Sprint’s cert filing with the US Supreme Court since Sprint appears to be intent on endless litigation in this matter,” said Deputy General Counsel Carol Keith via statement.

Cable and telco parties called on the FCC "to address abusive 8YY arbitrage caused by" a few CLECs ("8YY" designates toll-free numbers beginning with an "8"). It "would be more prudent immediately to take targeted actions to address such abusive schemes while the Commission more fully examines the appropriate treatment of legitimate 8YY traffic for compensation purposes," said a letter Wednesday in docket 01-92 from the American Cable Association, Frontier Communications, ITTA, NCTA, NTCA, Windstream and WTA. "As part of an examination into the reasonableness of 8YY rates, the Commission should carefully consider whether a bill-and-keep regime is warranted in the case of 8YY calls, as this would result in shifting costs from businesses to end-user customers."

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly backed pre-emption of localities to spur broadband deployment, citing a recent filing by Uniti Group's fiber unit. "Impossible to read this Uniti Group ex parte & not see need for @FCC preemption to facilitate broadband deployment," he tweeted Wednesday, linking to its filing in docket 17-84. Uniti "is confronting an unwieldy thicket of resistance at the local level in the form of moratoria on accessing the rights-of-way for installing wireless facilities, excessive obligations that require cash deposits in local banks, as well as cumbersome and expensive regulations regarding the type and placement of facilities in the public rights-of-way," its Monday filing said. "Challenges are multiplying as local governments tend to mirror ordinances adopted by other localities. Despite federal law to the contrary, many localities have implemented moratoria, in name or in fact, on installing small cells in the public rights-of-way. Even when local officials -- like county commissioners, city councils, staff, and attorneys -- are provided copies of relevant federal rulings prohibiting moratoria, these parties feign ignorance or express their intention to violate federal law." It attached a list of 44 jurisdictions it said implemented moratoria, and examples of local ordinances, including one from Jacksonville, Florida.

Chairman Ajit Pai told nine House Democrats in letters released Wednesday that during his chairmanship, FCC “review of any broadcast license renewal or broadcast license transfer application will not be impacted by political pressure from the Executive Branch.” House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and seven other Democrats wrote Pai in recent months about President Donald Trump's recent comments threatening to challenge NBC licenses. Trump's comments and its First Amendment implications were a dominant topic during a House Communications FCC oversight hearing last week (see 1710250050). Doyle, Pallone and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., also called on the FCC in September to investigate reports Russian government-owned radio network Sputnik broadcast propaganda over U.S. airwaves in a bid to influence elections, including the 2016 presidential contest (see 1709180054). Pai told Pallone and others he committed in March to Senate Commerce Committee Democrats “that I would inform them and the public if there were any attempt by the Executive Branch to influence my decision-making with respect to any media interests with the FCC's jurisdiction, a commitment that clearly includes broadcast license renewal and transfer applications. I am happy to expand that commitment to include informing you as well.” Pai separately told Eshoo that “the FCC under my leadership has protected and will continue to protect the First Amendment. Moreover, I have made clear that the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast.”

Entercom settled with DOJ’s Antitrust Division on divestitures for buying CBS Radio and agreed to exchanges with Beasley Broadcast, Bonneville and iHeartMedia, said a consent decree and the acquirer's release Wednesday. “In connection with the settlement with the DOJ, the agreements with iHeartMedia, Beasley and a local marketing agreement with Bonneville International announced today will clear the way for the Entercom and CBS Radio merger to move forward, pending FCC approval,” Entercom said. The radio station owner “now expects its proposed combination with CBS Radio to close as early as November 17." The consent decree requires Entercom to divest 13 radio stations in Boston, San Francisco and Sacramento to avoid anticompetitive market control. Entercom would exchange a Boston station targeted by DOJ for one owned by Beasley, and trade four stations in Boston and three stations in Seattle to iHeartMedia for six stations in Richmond, Virginia, and four stations in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Through the local marketing agreement, Bonneville will program four stations in San Francisco and four stations in Sacramento. U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia needs to approve the settlement, DOJ said. The iHeart and Beasley deals are expected to close in Q1, while the Bonneville one will begin after the Entercom transaction is consummated. The Media Bureau didn’t comment.

Comments on FCC policies on regulatory fees will be due Dec. 1, replies Dec. 18, based on expected publication in Wednesday's Federal Register.

Citizens Against Government Waste lobbied FCC Republicans on "Restoring Internet Freedom" in recent meetings. CAGW officials urged Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Brendan Carr and aides to undo Title II net neutrality regulation under the Communications Act, indicated filings (here, here) posted Tuesday in docket 17-108. They also discussed Lifeline USF, use of TV white spaces, vehicle-to-vehicle communications in the 5.9 GHz band and 5G issues, testimony and letters. CAGW made a similar presentation to Chairman Ajit Pai and an aide on Oct. 18. Verizon urged O'Rielly aides in a Thursday meeting to ensure a "national, light touch" broadband framework that isn't undermined by conflicting state and local regulation, a pitch it made recently to Pai advisers (see 1710190057). Also recently, ADT suggested the FCC use Title I ancillary authority to write net neutrality rules protecting alarm-monitoring companies. Akamai asked the FCC to "expressly clarify" that content delivery network services "differ from paid prioritization" by localizing traffic through data storage near users "in a way that is both neutral and reduces overall congestion," said a filing on a meeting with Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith and others.

The FCC Media Bureau reached a $1.5 million settlement with commonly controlled companies that used minor modification rules to move low-power TV stations from their original communities of license to bigger markets, said a consent decree Tuesday. DTV America, Tiger Eye Broadcasting, King Forward and Tiger Eye Licensing also must relinquish more than 20 licenses and modify numerous other licenses. Several pending station applications from the broadcasters will also be dismissed.