By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-4-22 Three former chiefs of the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau – including two former top military officers – have expressed their strong endorsement of Gigi Sohn as the regulator’s fifth commissioner. Those ringing endorsements came in letters this week to the chair and ranking [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-23-21 Republican congressional leaders have reached out to key Biden Administration agencies to make sure the billions of dollars in various broadband subsidy programs created by Congress goes to areas unserved by broadband, particularly rural areas, rather than to “duplicative and wasteful subsidized overbuilding.” The definition of “access" is [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-17-21 The Federal Trade Commission has been almost exclusively an enforcement agency, but under new chair Lina Khan it is looking at coming up with new rules to address what Khan calls “lax security practices, data privacy abuses, and algorithmic decisionmaking that may result in unlawful discrimination.” That is [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-16-21 Federal Communications Chair Jessica Rosenworcel made it clear to Republican lawmakers before her successful confirmation vote (68 to 31) earlier this month to a new, five-year term that she did not support efforts by “some liberal organizations” to remove conservative cable channels from their lineups or for the [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-15-21 FCC Democratic nominee Gigi Sohn signaled to Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) that she would be no slam dunk vote for restoring the FCC’s vague “general conduct standard” if chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel tees up restoration of the FCC's open internet rules as expected. Under former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-9-21 Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has called on Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan to immediately launch an investigation of “recent revelations and public documentation” that it had misled advertisers and the public in making claims about the “brand safety” and reach of its ads, which she said would [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-8-21 President Biden is promoting broadband investment as one of the ways his administration is strengthening American democracy. The White House issued a fact sheet Wednesday outlining all the things his team has done to advance those values “against the backdrop of a rise in authoritarianism and increasing threats [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-8-21 It’s official. The Senate has voted to confirm Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to a new, five-year term on the commission, her third term but first as chair – President Joe Biden designated her chair Oct. 26 after she had been acting chair since January. The vote [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-2-21 The House on Thursday (Dec. 2) passed three communications-related bills, including one requiring the Federal Communications Commission to start kicking the tires on 6G wireless. The bills are the FUTURE Networks Act (HR 4045), the Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Networks Act (HR 2685), and the American Cybersecurity Literacy [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 11-29-21 The House Energy & Commerce Committee has lined up Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen as its lead-off witness for a Dec. 1 hearing--"Holding Big Tech Accountable: Targeted Reforms to Tech's Legal Immunity." – on legislation to curb social media sites' immunity from civil liability over third-party content. That's according [...]