By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 11-18-19 In the wake of a hearing two weeks ago on Big Tech and its ties to China, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced the National Security and Personal Data Protection Act which would attempt to stem the flow of info to that and other countries that pose [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 11-15-19 Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said that the FCC's outstanding proposal to classify over-the-top (OTT) platforms as MVPDs is the sort of "zombie" proceeding the FCC should finally kill off. O'Rielly made that proposal in a speech to the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association Thursday (Nov. 14). The FCC [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 11-14-19 Microsoft told the FCC this week it has issues with broadcasters' effort to extend their TV signals via distributed transmission systems (DTS). It's not the use of DTS, which the computer giant said definitely has upsides, but how broadcasters might be able to use it. The National [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 11-5-19 A pair of House Democrats have introduced a bill, H.H. 4978, the Online Privacy Act, that would create a privacy bill of rights and a new government agency to enforce those rights. Among those rights are the so-called "right to be forgotten," the right to no sharing [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 11-5-19 The FCC has issued the text of its decision approving the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. That came in the form of a Memorandum Opinion and Order, Declaratory Ruling, and Order of Proposed Modification.  The FCC modified some build-out requirements on Dish spectrum as part of the [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-30-19 Twitter is banning political ads on the platform, a move that has drawn a lot of attention, not all of it laudatory. Edge providers are under pressure inside the Beltway to prevent a repeat of the kind of 2016 foreign election meddling that exploited social media platforms [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-23-19 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will not launch its Libra digital currency payment system anywhere in the world unless and until it gets a sign-off from U.S. regulators. That came in prepared testimony for a Senate Financial Services Committee hearing Wednesday (Oct. 23) on Facebook's [...]

By Jessica Campisi and Chris Mills Rodrigo, The Hill, 10-17-19 Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Oct. 17 defended his company’s controversial decision of allowing politicians to post political ads with misleading or false claims on its platform, saying it’s “something we have to live with.” “People worry, and I worry deeply, too, about [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-16-19 With the dissenting vote of Democrat Geoffrey Starks joining that of Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel earlier in the day, the FCC has now voted 3-2 to approve the T-Mobile-Sprint merger. The Republican majority had voted earlier to approve, giving the deal the necessary votes, but the Democrats had [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-8-19 FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks says only when the FCC and the nation does more to diversify media voices can broadcasting be said to uphold its responsibilities to the First Amendment and a free press. That was the gist of his speech at The Media Institute's annual Free [...]