By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-11-21 Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), joined by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), has renewed his effort to extend the reach of his child online protection law to young teens. Currently, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which Markey motormanned, prohibits websites from collecting personal information from anyone 12 and [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-11-21 he National Association of Broadcasters took the gloves off in a recent meeting with FCC engineering staffers over TV white spaces (TVWS) – the use of broadcast spectrum for unlicensed uses like wireless broadband – calling it a failing experiment. Microsoft has been pushing the FCC to allow [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-10-21 The FCC has unanimously approved the framework for the $7.17-billion Emergency Connectivity Fund for remote learning service and devices. Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last week circulated the draft rules to the other commissioners. Those rules do not allow for using the money to fund either the presumably [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-10-21 An FCC spokesperson has confirmed the FCC is currently reviewing the complaint filed against Sinclair's WBFF-TV over how it is covering a local story, but signaled that the current acting head of the agency is a First Amendment defender. Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's office last week [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-6-21 The House Energy & Commerce Committee waded into broadband as an equity issue Thursday (May 6) in a hearing "addressing disparities in access and affordability." Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said one problem creating digital disparities has been too narrow a definition of the digital divide. "Studies have [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-5-21 Facebook's outside oversight board has upheld the suspension of former president Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts, but it has told the company that it was not appropriate for the company to impose a permanent ban, which it called an "indeterminate and standard-less penalty." Facebook took down the [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-5-21 The State of Maine has conceded that the law mandating cable a la carte violated the First Amendment, so it will not be enforced.  According to the Portland (Maine) Press Herald, the Maine Attorney General is no longer defending the law, and in fact has conceded that it ran [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-3-21 The Biden Administration has received a bipartisan warning from Congress not to include Sec. 230-related language in any trade agreements. That came in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai from House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 4-22-21 Hill Republicans are proposing to invest $65 billion in broadband infrastructure spending over five years, with the FCC and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration charged with handing out the new money. That is according to their just-announced $568-billion GOP Infrastructure Framework, a counter-offer to the Biden Administration's [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 4-20-21 The FCC is seeking comment on whether it needs to update its rules limiting excessively loud commercials. That came in a request from the Media Bureau and following a letter to FCC acting chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel from Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), author of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation [...]