Facebook took down coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB), brigading and mass reporting operations from China, Palestine, Poland, Belarus, Vietnam, Italy and France, Meta said Wednesday in an end-of-year threat report. The report came as Facebook was the primary focus of a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on possible legislation to tighten oversight of social media companies(see 2112010058). Meta said it removed a network of accounts in Vietnam that were falsely reporting activists and other critics of the Vietnamese government in an attempt to have them removed from the platform. It said it removed a network of accounts from Italy and France that targeted medical professionals, politicians and journalists with mass harassment involving vaccinations and said it removed an array of Facebook accounts, groups, pages and Instagram accounts for CIB tied to organizations including Hamas, the Belarusian KGB and Chinese information security firm Sichuan Silence Information Technology. Meta said it's expanding its CIB archive to more researchers worldwide over the next several months.

The FCC will shutter its Fee Filer in-house electronic payment system Dec. 15, replacing it with a payment module in the commission's registration system (Cores) for paying regulatory and other fees, said a public notice Wednesday. The agency said it also will discontinue its red light display system for viewing financial standing, open bills and installment bills on the same date. Those functions are already available via Cores, it said.

The FCC's Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council VIII will hold its second meeting Dec. 15, said Friday's Federal Register. The virtual meeting will begin 1 p.m. EST.

“Organic supply” at Analog Devices was affected from some of the COVID-19 factory shutdowns in Southeast Asia “that affected much of the industry,” said CEO Vincent Roche on a call Tuesday with analysts for fiscal Q4 ended Oct. 30. Revenue in the quarter still grew 33% sequentially from fiscal Q3 ended July 31, he said. “But as we've been talking about it for the last couple of quarters, our supply has been limited and revenue really is a function of supply. So that hiccup did put a little bit of pressure on the revenue line, and you'll see that correct itself as we go forward.” The company’s fiscal 2021 “truly demonstrated the vital importance of semiconductors to the modern digital age,” said Roche. “As we enter 2022, our backlog and bookings remain robust and we continue to invest in manufacturing capacity.” The chipmaker took “decisive action to add capacity throughout the year with more than $340 million in capital expenditures,” said the CEO. “This is enabling us to better navigate the near-term supply/demand imbalance while achieving our long-term growth objectives.” In the company’s communications sector, fiscal 2021 “was an uneven year, as strength in wired was offset by weakness in the China wireless market,” said Roche. “Encouragingly, as we look to 2022, the proliferation of 5G is gaining momentum globally, especially in North America.” The company this past year introduced the industry's first software-defined radio transceiver “that includes a fully integrated digital front end,” he said. “This next generation transceiver platform enables us to defend and extend our position in traditional 5G” and emerging open radio access networks, he said.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said he's "outraged" regarding an Office of Inspector General report that some emergency broadband benefit providers were falsely claiming a child in a household attended a qualifying low-income school (see 2111220058). Carr said Tuesday he's "concerned" because he was "kept in the dark" about the report until it was made public, "even though others at the commission were read in ahead of time." The FCC "must put tighter controls in place" as the agency sets up the $14.2 billion affordable connectivity program, he said. The agency didn't comment.

T-Mobile will pay $19.5 million to settle an FCC investigation into the carrier’s June 2020 emergency 911 outage (see 2006180047), said an Enforcement Bureau order Tuesday. The consent decree requires T-Mobile to implement a compliance plan including enhanced 911 outage notices to public safety answering points that will include more information, with follow-up notices required within two hours of initial notification. The disruption, caused at first by failure of a leased fiber transport link, lasted more than 12 hours and caused complete failure of more than 23,000 911 calls, plus about 23,000 calls without location information and about 20,000 calls to PSAPs without callback information, said the bureau. “The outage revealed, and was compounded by, a temporary routing flaw in a single location and two previously undetected flaws in third-party software. Restoration was also impacted by a temporary failure of remote access to the affected transport link.” T-Mobile gets “how critical reliable connectivity is to ensure public safety and we take that responsibility very seriously," a spokesperson emailed. "Following this outage, we immediately took additional steps to further enhance our network to prevent this type of event from happening in the future. Now, with this consent decree, we are moving on from the FCC’s investigation and continuing our focus on our ongoing network build.”

Some emergency broadband benefit program providers' sales agents enroll households by "falsely claiming" the household includes a child attending a Department of Agriculture community eligibility provision (CEP) school during the eligibility verification process, said an FCC Office of Inspector General advisory Monday. The data "clearly show a number of CEP schools are grossly overrepresented in EBB household enrollments when compared to the actual student enrollment at those schools," the advisory said. OIG found nearly 50 provider retail stores listed as the home address for households and more than 2,000 households living more than 50 miles from their designated CEP school. OIG didn't identify the schools "to preserve the integrity of ongoing investigations." The Office of Managing Director directed Universal Service Administrative Co. to modify the EBB application portal to require proof of enrollment at a CEP school. The bureau is also referring bad actors to the Enforcement Bureau and recouping "improperly disbursed funds," said a public notice. Accepted documentation includes a school letter confirming enrollment or a report card, said a Wireline Bureau PN. The bureau is also requiring current EBB enrollees to confirm their CEP-based eligibility: Households that "fail to timely confirm their eligibility will be de-enrolled."

The FTC won’t “back down because corporate lobbyists are making threats,” an agency spokesperson responded to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce claiming the agency is overstepping its legal authority. Filings and letters from the chamber object to various practices under Chair Lina Khan. The chamber Friday challenged so-called “zombie voting” by ex-Commissioner Rohit Chopra, or votes counted after he left office. The business group claimed the independent agency’s decision-making is being influenced by external parties like the White House, and it questioned FTC use of civil penalty authority, as suggested by Chopra. The chamber filed more than 30 Freedom of Information Act requests seeking “detailed information" on how the agency “manipulated its rules and procedures while potentially ceding its independent agency status to political interference.” It raised concerns about commissioners unilaterally authorizing compulsory investigations, changing the rulemaking process to give Khan more control and the repeal of competition-related policy statements and merger guidelines. “The FTC just announced we are ramping up efforts to combat corporate crime and now the Chamber declares ‘war’ on the agency,” said the agency in a statement. “We are not going to back down because corporate lobbyists are making threats. We will continue to do our job and stand up for consumers, honest businesses, workers, and entrepreneurs who deserve a fair marketplace.”

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by Dec. 8, replies by Dec. 28, on implementation of the Affordable Connectivity Program, said a public notice Thursday in docket 21-450. The new program provides a $30 monthly broadband subsidy for nontribal households and retains the emergency broadband benefit program's $75 monthly subsidy for tribal households. The bureau proposes to retain EBB rules for a connected device. The effective date of the new program will be Dec. 31 as EBB won't be fully expended beforehand and a 60-day transition period for EBB enrollees begins then. The new program would retain similar rules to EBB, including those for participating providers. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act modified household eligibility to remove those that were eligible for a provider's COVID-19 program or experienced a substantial loss of income in the past year, while adding households that receive Women, Infants and Children benefits. The bureau seeks comment on whether aspects of the EBB application process should be retained or modified, and whether providers should file an election notice to participate if they're already in the EBB program. The PN seeks comment on a statutory requirement that providers "allow an eligible household to apply the affordable connectivity benefit to any internet service offering of the participating provider, at the same rates and terms available to households that are not eligible households." The bureau proposes a 30-day non-usage period requirement with 15 days for households to cure the non-usage. The PN seeks comment on whether modifications to this requirement are warranted. The infrastructure law requires that participating providers let enrollees apply the benefit to any internet service. The bureau is seeking comment on how to implement this. Staff proposes requiring providers seek affirmative consent before enrolling a household in ACP and seeks comment on whether that should be done through written consent (see 2111170066). The bureau also is seeking comments on outreach (see 2111090063). The PN seeks comment on partial reimbursement and provider disputes.

Commenters sought flexible use rules for spectrum, in replies on an FCC IoT notice of inquiry, posted Wednesday in docket 21-353. Initial comments highlighted disagreements about the need for more unlicensed versus licensed spectrum (see 2111020038). “Continuing to free up spectrum for flexible, commercial uses is the best way to ensure that the spectrum foundation for IoT remains strong,” CTA said: “Such flexible spectrum policies have been successful and have facilitated the popularity and growth of IoT.” In initial comments, carriers, satellite operators, Wi-Fi advocates and others asserted they have a strong role to play in the IoT, Cisco said. All are correct, the company said. “The IoT is a collection of diverse spectrum-based technologies and highly diverse applications that continues to be a focus of growth and revenue, and one that will have profound impacts,” Cisco said: “Facilitating multiple IoT technologies through the availability of spectrum is the best practice.” The IoT requires “licensed, lightly licensed and unlicensed spectrum,” Microsoft commented. Different uses will inevitably “gravitate” to certain bands, the company said: “For many IoT applications, the cost and availability of sufficient unlicensed spectrum for indoor use are the principal considerations. But for certain use cases, IoT over licensed spectrum will have clear advantages.” Inmarsat agreed with comments the FCC “should support the growth of IoT with flexible use policies and spectrum allocations that accommodate IoT use cases, but that do not favor a particular communications technology over another.” Flexibility “enables operators to put spectrum to its highest and best use in a dynamic marketplace,” the company said. The record “demonstrates the importance of unlicensed and shared spectrum for current and future” IoT applications, said NCTA: “A small group of commenters assert that unlicensed and shared spectrum are not secure enough for important IoT applications and that no more spectrum is needed in the near term for unlicensed or shared use. These commenters are incorrect.” Rules should “ensure maximum flexibility,” said Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute. “Extending dynamic spectrum sharing frameworks to additional bands in low-, mid- and high-frequency spectrum clearly benefits the public interest as it promotes the most efficient and effective use of the airwaves while simultaneously stimulating competitive access to a resource traditionally dominated by the largest mobile carriers.”