By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-19-22 Big Tech is a threat to liberty and a big mole that needs whacking, a la the arcade game where the object is to bash as many of them on the head as possible. That was the message of the Justice Department’s antitrust chief in a fiery speech [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-16-22 In a loss for Big Tech and its ad base, a federal appeals court has concluded that corporations do not have a “freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say,” and so has paved the way for a Texas law (HB 20) that restricts how social media [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 8-17-22 The Federal Trade Commission is hosting a public forum on its proposed rulemaking targeting what it calls “commercial surveillance and data security practices that harm consumers and competition,” by which it means, among other things, data collection for online targeted advertising. The September 8 forum will be virtual [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 8-11-22 The Federal Trade Commission has signaled it could impose new rules on “commercial surveillance,” by which it means “the business of collecting, analyzing and profiting from information about people.” Such rules have obvious implications for the targeted online advertising that undergirds the free content model. The FTC Advance [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 8-11-22 Cable operators are telling the FCC that it should continue to require broadcasters transitioning to ATSC 3.0 to deliver a signal in the current ATSC 1.0 standard, and that the programming on that signal must still be substantially similar to their ATSC 3.0 signal. The FCC sought input [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-29-22 FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel says she is all for the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act, which would reclassify Internet access as a Title II telecommunications service and return the FCC’s authority to impose net neutrality rules. That authority went away in 2017 when the FCC under then [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-19-22 A comprehensive data privacy bill that would, among many other things, allow web users to opt out of targeted advertising – and ban ads aimed at children entirely – was heading to a markup July 20 in the House Energy & Commerce Committee. The bipartisan American Data Privacy [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-18-22 Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) are introducing a bill that would reclassify Internet service providers under Title II of the Communications Act’s mandatory access regulations and pave the way for a possible return of network neutrality rules. That is according to someone who has seen [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-5-22 Legislators from both sides of the aisle – Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) – have teamed up to urge the Federal Trade Commission to investigate over-the-top video clip streaming site TikTok based on reports that suggest the Chinese-based company is not insulated from the Chinese [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-5-22 The Federal Communications Commission is asking for input by Aug. 16 on its congressional mandate to coordinate tens of billions of dollars of government money in various broadband subsidy programs with the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The NTIA, the White House’s [...]