Europe must up its game against fake news, European Commission officials said Wednesday. The EC published guidance on how to improve the 2018 code of practice. Recommendations address shortcomings identified in a 2020 review and lessons from COVID-19 disinformation monitoring. The EC wants the code reinforced by: (1) More participation by a wider range of relevant players, such as emerging platforms and the online advertising sector. (2) Demonetization of disinformation. (3) More comprehensive coverage of current and emerging forms of manipulative behavior. (4) Enabling users to better understand and flag disinformation. (5) More fact-checking and better access to data for researchers. (6) Better monitoring of results of the industry actions. The EC urged signers to develop a transparency center. Participants have until fall to come up with a revised draft code. It's needed to make online platforms and others address “the systemic risks of their services and algorithmic amplification,” stop policing themselves alone and prevent money being made on disinformation, while preserving free speech, said Values and Transparency Vice President Vera Jourova. Google and Facebook said they're assessing the guidance and are committed to making the code a success. It “became a true asset in the fight against COVID-19 disinformation and created strong cooperation between regulators and platforms,” Facebook said. “Regionally consistent co-regulatory standards are a crucial element in maintaining an open Internet, ensuring that platforms of all sizes can operate around agreed norms,” emailed Twitter Vice President-Public Policy Sinead McSweeney. “We need platform regulation by legislation and oversight,” not voluntary codes of practice, said European Parliament Member Patrick Breyer, of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance and Germany. He's preparing the report by the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee on the EC-proposed Digital Services Act (see 2012150022).

Canada's planned 2023 auction of 250 MHz of C-band spectrum for 5G might mean incumbent user Telesat will be approached by auction bidders about clearing out sooner than the 2025 deadline, though that could be "a messy process" about spectrum not yet won and possibly revealing confidential bidding strategies, Lightshed Partners analyst Walt Piecyk wrote investors Tuesday. He said Telesat will be left with 200 MHz, but it likely needs only half that, which could be an opportunity to monetize the other 100 MHz later. He said the Innovation Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada announcement last week about the country's C-band approach seems to "set Canada’s 5G ecosystem back relative to other countries." Telesat was willing to clear the spectrum by end of 2023, so ISED setting a 2025 deadline is "a loss for the wireless operators and suppliers in Canada," he said. Canada delaying accessing the C band will drive up prices, which benefits the Canadian government, he said. Telesat said it's evaluating ISED's 3.8 GHz decision. It said ISED didn't adopt Telesat's proposal for clearing a portion of the band and auctioning that spectrum, with proceeds going to help fund Telesat's planned low earth orbit Lightspeed constellation, but it was "pleased that the decision acknowledged the important role LEO constellations can play in bridging the Digital Divide and, to this end, that the Government is in discussions with Telesat to support funding of the Lightspeed program.”

The FCC 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee meets virtually Sept. 28 at 11 a.m. EDT, said a Monday notice.

Speakers questioned whether the U.S. can completely separate from Chinese suppliers, during a webinar sponsored by Huawei Monday. “Globalization is painful but efficient,” said telecom consultant Gary Wang: “Decoupling is painful, but inefficient.” Many companies can’t stop doing business with China, he said. “There just isn’t enough manufacturing and export capacity in the rest of the world." Politicians “need to listen a lot more to the experts,” said Andrew Williamson, Huawei Technologies vice president-global government affairs. “Collectively, we really need to press a reset button and come up with global standards for cybersecurity.” China is targeting U.S. companies, Williamson said. The Chinese smartphone industry is considering adopting the Harmony operating system as an alternative to Android, and “that would be disastrous for Google,” he said. Semiconductor supply issues are likely to continue for several years, said Glenn O'Donnell, Forrester Research vice president-research director. It takes at least two years and $10 billion to build a fabrication plant, he said. “Not everything is going to come from China or not everything is going to come from the U.S.” O’Donnell said the decline in the U.S. chip industry means the nation doesn’t have the experts it needs to rebuild. “If we’re going to build up more, we need to have the talent here,” which requires government support, he said. The chip crunch is getting some FCC attention (see 2105190001).

The U.S. government should establish an international coalition to combat ransomware attacks, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President-Cyber Christopher Roberti said Friday. The chamber urged the administration and Congress to update “a national signaling strategy to communicate through diplomatic and other channels that ransomware attacks” are a priority. The chamber asked policymakers to disrupt ransomware payment systems, enhance international law enforcement resources and create a cyber response and recovery fund for cyber victims.

The European Commission should set "clear rules" for EU-U.S. data flows in line with the European Court of Justice judgment in Schrems II, the European Parliament said Thursday. Members stressed the EC "should not conclude new adequacy decisions with third countries without taking into account the implications" of EU court rulings and opinions of the European Data Protection Supervisor and board. Lawmakers criticized the Irish Data Protection Commission's decision to launch the Schrems case instead of "independently triggering enforcement procedures based on general data protection regulation rules," and the panel's "long processing times." They urged the EC to file infringement proceedings against Ireland for failing to enforce GDPR effectively, and said national privacy authorities should halt data transfers that could be accessed in bulk in the U.S. if the EC approves an adequacy decision for the country.

Inability to obtain equipment due to the chip crunch and lack of trained workers could slow replacement of Huawei and ZTE gear, the Rural Wireless Association told the FCC. “Lead times on equipment and services" in rural areas can be 8-12 months, "when they are typically 6-8 weeks,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-89. RWA noted providers have a one-year FCC deadline.

Vodafone launched 5G services in 240 cities in 10 European markets during fiscal 2021 ended March 31, reported the carrier Tuesday. It said it did so "by focusing on our core fixed and mobile connectivity. We are enhancing our products through capacity and speed upgrades, unlimited mobile plans, a distinct tiered branding hierarchy and convergent product bundles.” Vodafone in April became the first operator in Europe to launch a stand-alone 5G network, it said.

The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack exposed “obvious willful ignorance to take cybersecurity seriously,” reported ABI Research Monday. “That there is a sophisticated, organized cybercriminal market for ransomware shouldn’t be news" in the industry, it said. “This hack is a harbinger of cyberthreats to come.” Expanded connectivity brings “continuously increased threat vectors,” it said: Organizations "should always be prepared for an eventual attack, which means architecting their infrastructure so that it can continue to operate despite an ongoing attack.”

An Irish Data Protection Commission probe of Facebook data flow can proceed, the country's High Court ruled Friday. The case is "about what happened after" the July European Court of Justice ruling in Data Protection Commissioner v. Facebook Ireland Ltd. and Maximilian Schrems (Shrems II), Justice David Barniville wrote. The DPC of its own volition issued a "preliminary draft decision" in August on whether Facebook data transfers involving Europeans are lawful and whether corrective action is needed. The company challenged the decision and procedures on grounds including that they breached the general data protection regulation by failing to carry out an investigation before the draft decision was issued, and that they were an abuse of process. The 197-page decision rejected all of Facebook's challenges. The ruling "was about the process" the DPC followed, a Facebook spokesperson said. She said the company follows EU rules and relies on standard contract clauses and appropriate data safeguards to move data, and the preliminary decision "could be damaging not only to Facebook but also to users and other businesses."