By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-24-21 Internet companies including Reddit, Etsy, and Dropbox have joined other tech companies warning Congress anew about tinkering with their Sec. 230 shield from civil immunity for the third-party content on their platforms. That comes on the eve of a March 25 hearing in the House Energy & Commerce [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-24-21 In advance of a high-profile House hearing March 25 with Big Tech CEOs about their accountability for disinformation on their platforms, a pair of House Democrats are taking advantage of that spotlight to reintroduce a bill to combat algorithmic promotion of extremism. Reps. Anna Eshoo (Calif.) and Tom [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-24-21 Concerned that a March 25 Big Tech hearing may be a chance for legislators to beat up on web platforms' Sec. 230 immunity from civil liability over third-party content, computer companies wanted the House Energy & Commerce Committee leadership to know the implications of weakening or eliminating the [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-24-21 As Democrats push a definition of broadband availability to include 100 Mbps speeds and perhaps even price, a bipartisan bill is resurfacing to focus $10 billion in 2021 on reaching "unserved areas" according to the FCC current definition of high-speed. Cable broadband operators were praising the bill's return. [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-24-21 The day before Facebook and Twitter CEOs are scheduled to testify before Congress on their platforms' hosting of disinformation, a dozen attorneys general have called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to do more to combat anti-vaxxer COVID-19 disinformation, signaling it is a matter [...]

By Mike Farrell, Multichannel News, 3-24-21 Comcast said Wednesday that it would invest $1 billion over the next ten years in its Internet Essentials program, the high-speed data service targeted at low-income households in its service footprint, to help further narrow the digital divide. Comcast started Internet Essentials in 2011 and in the past [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-23-21 The Senate on Wednesday (March 24) will hold its first hearing on a new bill that could reduce the media's massive election ad take by extending political ad disclosures to online ads on the largest digital platforms, beefing up content disclosures for political spots and other content on [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-22-21 A handful of prominent edge players including Mozilla and Reddit have asked the FCC to reinstate the net neutrality rules, but that is almost certainly not going to happen until there is a Democratic majority on the Commission. In a letter dated March 19, the above two joined [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-22-21 House Energy & Commerce Committee Republicans have a very different definition of "lift," as made clear by ranking member Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) in her opening statement Monday (March 22) for a Hill hearing on the Democrats' LIFT America Act infrastructure bill, which spends $300 billion on broadband, [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-22-21 The political climate might finally be ripe for giving news publishers more clout in negotiations with the Big Tech platforms that draw eyeballs and ad dollars by aggregating the original work of others, including cable and broadcast news operations. Proponents say the alternative could be the death of [...]