By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-2-20 The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal by broadcasters and the FCC of an appeals court's rejection of the FCC's latest attempt to deregulate broadcast ownership. Back in April, broadcasters and newspaper publishers petitioned the Supreme Court to review the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-1-20 The Senate floor saw a reprise of some online political theater Thursday (Oct. 1), both in the sense that it was streamed and in the subject matter at issue. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) took to the floor to seek unanimous consent (UC) to pass legislation that would reform [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-1-20 The House Antitrust Subcommittee took on Big Tech Thursday (Oct. 1) in a hearing on potentially toughening antitrust laws to make sure they protect online competition. The subcommittee has been investigating the state of competition in digital markets since June 2019. Thursday's was the seventh and final hearing [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-1-20 The Senate Commerce Committee has voted on a bipartisan basis to subpoena the biggest of Big Tech CEOs for a hearing on how they moderate online content. That came at an executive meeting Thursday (Oct. 1). The subpoenas will go out to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Alphabet (Google) [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-1-20 Privacy and civil rights groups want some answers from Amazon over election security, or the lack of it. That came in a letter from 17 public-interest groups condemning the company for election security failures and seeking more transparency about how they have responded to breaches of election data. That [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-30-20 Thursday will be a busy day on Capitol Hill on the issue of the power of Big Tech and what, if anything, to do about it. The House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee is holding an afternoon hearing on "Proposals to Strengthen the Antitrust Laws and Restore Competition Online." Witnesses [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District in Ukraine Relief v. Gurzhiy. This is a defamation action arising from an article published on The Slavic Sacramento about the misuse of humanitarian aid donations intended for Ukrainians. The defendant, Gurzhiy, is the [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-27-20 Exiting Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly isn't going without a final push for more broadcast deregulation. O'Rielly's re-nomination was withdrawn by the president after he criticized a social media regulatory effort the president is backing, In a blog post, O'Rielly praised FCC chairman Ajit Pai's media modernization program efforts to date, [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-25-20 Tech companies are not happy with President Donald Trump's executive order (EO) prohibiting government contractors, which obviously include many tech companies, from providing diversity training that "suggests America has a racial inequality problem." In a blog post, Jason Oxman, president of ITI (the Information Technology Industry Council) said [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-24-20 The chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee wants to force Big Tech CEOs to testify for an upcoming hearing. That is according to an announcement of an executive session markup Oct. 1 dealing with that issue. While the agenda for the meeting is subject to change, according [...]