By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-22-21 Under a proposed new law, if an algorithm used by platforms like Twitter or Facebook promotes vaccine misinformation and disinformation on their sites, edge providers will be considered publishers of that content, and thus liable for it. With vaccine/COVID-19 misinformation a hot topic in D.C. and at the [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-22-21 The House Energy & Commerce Committee on July 21 approved a bunch of bills meant to promote cybersecurity and network supply chains, including one – the Secure Equipment Act of 2021 – extending the FCC’s ban on using tech from suspect Chinese suppliers. The bills now go to [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-22-21 A trio of Republicans has introduced a bill that would require the FCC to consider levying Universal Service Fund broadband subsidy fees on Big Tech edge providers including video streaming giants Netflix and YouTube. There have been periodic calls to expand the USF contribution base given that it [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-21-21 The Federal Trade Commission has voted along party lines to rescind its policy statement that it would not require prior notice and approval of mergers undertaken by companies that have settled FTC complaints against previous proposed mergers. Under that policy, the FTC was still able to require either [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-21-21 It has not taken long for new Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan to signal big FTC process changes are coming, including by starting to hold public meeting – as the FCC has always done – and circulating some proposals for public perusal, though not enough and with [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-21-21 Cable broadband operators are OK with most of the Treasury Department’s framework for handing out billions of dollars in broadband deployment and adoption funds via the state and local COVID-19 Fiscal Recovery Funds in the American Rescue Plan, but definitely not prioritizing government owned or operated networks when [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-20-21 The House passed a bill and a resolution July 20 aimed at achieving greater media diversity. The votes on each were 319-105 – they were part of a bloc vote on a handful of communications-related bills. H.R. 1754, the MEDIA (Measuring the Economics Driving Investments and Access) Diversity [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-19-21 The U.S., joined by NATO and the European Union, is accusing China of contracting with criminal hackers to conduct global cyber extortion, crypto currency hijacking, and theft around the world, including the cyber campaign against the Microsoft Exchange Server exposed in March. That’s according to a senior administration [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-19-21 The Justice Department said July 19 that it has formally changed its policy to restrict the use of “compulsory processes” – such as subpoenas – to get information or records from members of the press on activities in the course of doing their jobs and in the “scope” [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-16-21 President Joe Biden said July 16 that Facebook was “killing people” by hosting vaccine misinformation on its social media platform. Facebook called the comments unsupported accusations that are a distraction from its effort to save lives. The White House this week has been pushing Big Tech to do [...]