By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-21-20 The House and Senate both voted late Monday (Dec. 21) on a paired-up package of a COVID-19 relief bill and an omnibus government spending bill loaded with billions of dollars for broadband, new small business loan aid for broadcasters, and a provision making the theft of video streams [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-18-20Chinese chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), which reportedly supplies Qualcomm, Broadcom, and others, has been put on the Department of Commerce's Entities List, meaning U.S. manufacturers are presumptively barred from selling to the company.It joins other prominent Chinese tech giants, including Huawei and ZTE, on that list of [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-17-20 Google is getting hit with the legal equivalent of a swarm as more states join to sue over antitrust concerns. A day after a Texas Republican Attorney General-led group of almost a dozen GOP state AGs filed suit against Google alleging monopolistic practices. A New York Democrat AG-led group [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-16-20 In his state's second bite at the Google antitrust suit apple, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Wednesday (Dec. 16) that he is leading a multi-state lawsuit – teaming with other Republican AGs – against Google for anticompetitive conduct, exclusionary conduct, and deceptive misrepresentations related to online advertising. [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-16-20 As the tenure of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his deregulatory Republican majority winds down, D.C. policy watchers are looking for action on some big issues yet to be resolved one way or the other. While the regulatory wheels often grind slowly, with the change in administrations coming [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-15-20 Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has introduced a bill that would sunset social media networks' Sec. 230 immunity from civil liability for third-party content moderation. The sunset would not come until Jan. 1, 2023, so the bill is more like a spur to some kind of reform to the [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-11-20 China Telecom (Americas) appears to be working hard to try and prevent the FCC from revoking its licenses to operate in the U.S. On Thursday (Dec. 10), the FCC voted unanimously to initiate a revocation proceeding against the company after several federal agencies recommended that action, citing the [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-9-20 Most of the nation's state attorneys general, joined by the Federal Trade Commission, have filed a lawsuit charging that Facebook is an unlawful monopoly guilty of anticompetitive conduct. The suit alleges the social media giant "thwarted competition and reduced consumer privacy for profit" over a decade. The move [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-4-20 The America First-focused Trump Administration is going after Facebook for allegedly discriminating against U.S. workers in favor of immigrants. The Department of Justice has sued the company alleging it "refused to recruit, consider, or hire qualified and available U.S. workers for over 2,600 positions that Facebook, instead, reserved [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-4-20 Facebook has agreed to participate in the BBB National Programs National Advertising Division (NAD) guidance program. That is the self-regulatory process for reviewing and recommending changes, or not, to advertisements that have drawn complaints. Its recommendations are just that, but BBB National Programs points out that the vast [...]