By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-22-21 Computer companies are suing Texas over a law that prevents social media censorship based on “viewpoint,” saying nothing is a clearer First Amendment violation than regulation based on viewpoint. The bill, which passed Sept. 9, “prohibits an interactive computer service from censoring a user, a user’s expression, or [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-22-21 Facebook took unfriendly fire from both sides of the aisle Tuesday (Sept. 21) in a Senate Judiciary Committee Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on Big Data. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told Facebook witness Steve Satterfield, VP of privacy and public policy, that the company needed to supply a witness to [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-16-21 FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said that the best way to fund the FCC’s Universal Service Fund advanced communications subsidies is to make Big Tech pay the freight. Citing a new study from economist Hal Singer and Ted Tatos, Carr said that the current method of assessing dwindling traditional [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-14-21 A pair of powerful senators have launched a bipartisan congressional investigation into Facebook's alleged "coverup" of the impact of its platforms on teens and children, tapping a Facebook whistleblower in that effort. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-13-21 President Joe Biden has nominated Alvaro Bedoya as commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. He will replace Democratic Commissioner Rohi Chopra, who has been named to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If he is confirmed, Bedoya, who has been critical of facial recognition tech and is a [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-9-21 The Federal Trade Commission continues its move to more aggressively vet mergers in general and tech mergers in particular, signaling it will be releasing some data next week on tech mergers that have heretofore flown under the antitrust enforcement radar, and proposing other steps to boost its regulatory [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-8-21 The FCC has released its fifth report on broadcast ownership, according to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, and there is some slight improvement in the number of women and minority-owned stations, but the emphasis is on “slight.” The number of women who owned full-power TV stations in 2019, the [...]
By George Winslow, TVTech, and TMI Staff, 9-7-21 Nine former chairs of the FCC – including Richard E. Wiley, Chairman of the Board of The Media Institute – have come out in favor of legislation that would reinstate a tax certificate program to encourage investment in TV and radio broadcast station ownership for women [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-1-21 Locast, the local TV station streaming services, said late Wednesday (Sept. 1) it was suspending interruptions to its programming, which it does to ask those who have not contributed to the service to do so. Locast has argued since its inception that it is eligible for a nonprofit [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 8-30-21 Cable operators want the FCC to reconsider whether broadcasters should be able to use carriage of their primary ATSC 1.0 TV station signal to leverage carriage of new ATSC 3.0 signals, as is the case under current FCC rules. That came in a meeting between NCTA representatives and [...]