By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable, 7-19-23 The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are proposing tightening their merger review guidelines, citing what Attorney General Merrick Garland calls “unchecked consolidation” that “threatens the free and fair markets upon which our economy is based.” Garland said the guidelines reflect modern market realities. One of those [...]
By Cat Zakrzewski, washingtonpost.com, 7-14-23 The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on July 14 granted a temporary stay of a July 4 order putting sweeping limitations on the Biden Administration’s communications with social media companies. The stay was granted by a panel of 5th Circuit judges, which includes Clinton appointee Carl E. Stewart, Obama [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-13-23 Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) have reintroduced a bill to boost online content moderation transparency and prevent algorithmic discrimination. The bill was originally introduced in 2021. It failed to gain traction, but the D.C. heat on Big Tech has only ramped up since then. [...]
By Drew Harwell, washingtonpost.com, 7-13-23 A group of college professors is suing Texas for banning TikTok on public-university computers and phones, saying it has undermined their ability to teach students and to research one of the world’s most popular apps. Texas last year joined more than two dozen other states in banning the app [...]
By Cat Zakrzewski, washingtonpost.com, 7-13-23 The Federal Trade Commission has opened an expansive investigation into OpenAI, probing whether the maker of the popular ChatGPT bot has run afoul of consumer protection laws by putting personal reputations and data at risk. The agency this week sent the San Francisco company a 20-page demand for records [...]
By Cat Zakrzewski, washingtonpost.com, 7-4-23 A federal judge on July 4 blocked key Biden Administration agencies and officials from meeting and communicating with social media companies about “protected speech,” in an extraordinary preliminary injunction in an ongoing case that could have profound effects on the First Amendment. The injunction came in response to a [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-28-23 Video streamers and other edge providers are fighting a multi-front war in Washington lately, as Congress applies pressure on the FCC to apply good-faith negotiation rules to over-the-top content providers, as it does traditional video providers, and as hundreds of rural broadband providers and associations call on the [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-26-23 The Biden Administration has figured out where it will be allocating $42.45 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program subsidy money among the states and territories. Legislators were already touting their states’ shares even as the funding allocation was being announced. Congress provided $65 billion in [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-22-23 Anna Gomez, President Joe Biden's nominee for the open Democratic seat on the Federal Communications Commission, told a Senate Commerce Committee nomination hearing panel June 22 she supports reclassifying internet access as a Title II telecommunications service. Currently, the FCC classifies internet access as an information service under [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-22-23 Congress continues to press the Federal Communications Commission on the issue of regulating streaming services as it does MVPDs, and it looks like a majority of commissioners and potential commissioners support at least a new look at the issue. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel suggested at a House oversight [...]