By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-17-20 California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has filed the state's opposition to the Trump Administration's request for a preliminary injunction to block California's net neutrality law from going into effect. Enforcement is "on hold," as Becerra's office points out, until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eastern District [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-17-20 The FCC oversight hearing Thursday (Sept. 17) is entitled "Trump FCC: Four Years or Lost Opportunities," but FCC chairman Ajit Pai, a lead witness in the Democrat-led House Energy & Commerce Committee Communications Subcommittee clearly doesn't see it that way. In his prepared testimony, Pai talks about the [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-17-20 The Consumer Technology Association said the Trump Administration's attempt to regulate online platforms that host third-party content would send the message to other countries that the U.S. is willing to regulate speech "if it offends the politically powerful." One of the most prominent and powerful of those would-be [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-17-20 A hearing in the House Communications Subcommittee that was advertised as a Democratic attack on (and expected Republican defense of) the FCC panned out as expected, with the Democrats using the hearing to make it clear it was also an indictment of President Trump as he seeks to [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-16-20 The Senate Commerce Committee has lined up a quartet of former Federal Trade Commissioners, including three former chairs, to talk about federal privacy legislation. The FTC has principal authority over online privacy enforcement, but that is confined to conduct that is anticompetitive or violates expressed policies on protecting [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-16-20 Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said the U.S. has to start re-imbedding its values of openness, transparency, and respect for human and civil rights into global tech standards or let China continue its march toward using new tech for authoritarian control and market domination. Warner, vice chairman of the [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-16-20 The Senate Judiciary Antitrust Committee weighed into the online advertising market Tuesday (Sept. 15) with an emphasis on the 600 pound gorilla in that space and whether it has exerted its power over anticompetitively, as critics have alleged. The tenor of the hearing was telegraphed in its clever [...]
Participated with the Reporters Committee and 49 other media organizations and outlets in a letter to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. The letter asks the Supreme Court to continue providing live audio access for the Court’s oral arguments and opinion announcements for the upcoming term as the Court is still [...]
Participated with the Reporters Committee and 63 other media organizations and outlets in a letter to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva urging the Sheriff’s Department to take immediate steps to prevent another incident like the arrest of Josie Huang, a reporter for KPCC, an NPR member station owned and operated by Southern California [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-14-20 Federal Trade Commission chairman Joseph Simons is cautioning against a rush to regulate big tech. That came in virtual remarks at the International Competition Network (ICN) annual conference. ICN is a convocation of global competition authorities. In addition to being FTC chair, Simons is former head of the [...]