By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-27-20 Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission are taking issue with Chairman Ajit Pai's announcement last week that the agency would clarify edge providers' Section 230 immunity from civil liability over third-party content, as the White House has asked. Pai also said he has been assured by Commission lawyers [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-27-20 The FCC has voted 3-2 along party lines to tell a federal court that the Commission's Restoring Internet Freedom (RIF) order promotes public safety, facilitates infrastructure deployment, and continues to allow the FCC to subsidize broadband Internet access service. It is now up to the U.S. Court of [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-26-20 House Democrats are accusing the FCC of rushing a decision on an order responding to some issues a federal court had with the Commission's elimination of net neutrality rules. The legislators suggest FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is trying to get the decision out the door before an election [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-22-20 A bill that would limit the president – of either party's – ability to "shut down the Internet" has been introduced. It comes amid concerns in D.C. about the Trump Administration's attacks on social media and other Big Tech web players and its inquiry, or perhaps more, into nationalizing [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-22-20 The Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Thursday (Oct. 22) to issue subpoenas to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The two are already scheduled to testify at a hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee next week on Sec. 230 but Judiciary wants to do its own [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-21-20 The Republican chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee wants to know if social media giants have been providing any data to the presidential campaigns. In advance of an Oct. 28 hearing on Big Tech and Section 230, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) sent letters to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-21-20 FCC General Counsel Tom Johnson took to the FCC blog Wednesday (Oct. 21) to defend the conclusion that the FCC has the authority to clarify ambiguities in Sec. 230, including limiting it if the Commission votes to do so. FCC chairman Ajit Pai announced last week the FCC would [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-20-20 Top Senate Commerce Committee Republicans have put out a handy guide to understanding Section 230 reform ahead of a hearing Oct. 28 with the CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter and with the goal of determining whether the section has outlived its usefulness. Section 230 is the law that [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-20-20 The Justice Department filed its expected antitrust lawsuit against Google Tuesday (Oct. 20), joined by 11 states attorneys general.  It called the company an illegal monopoly and vowed to "remedy the competitive harms." The states are Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas. [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-20-20 A pair of House Democrats have introduced a bill that would take a new tack on reforming Section 230, the provision that grants immunity to social platforms for most of the content on their sites, targeting online algorithms they argue facilitate offline violence. Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Tom [...]