By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-20-20 With the Republican-controlled Senate Commerce Committee scheduled to hold hearings with the CEOs of Big Tech giants, House Republicans want the Democrat-controlled Energy & Commerce Committee to do the same. On Oct. 28, Senate Commerce is holding one of those Big Tech hearings whose title gives away the plot: “Does [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-15-20 FCC chairman Ajit Pai has signaled he plans to follow President Trump's lead and "clarify" Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.  He also says he has been assured by FCC lawyers that the FCC has the authority to do so. “As elected officials consider whether to change the [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-15-20 Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said he is not looking for heavy-handed regulation of Big Tech, but he isn't looking for no hands either, including saying there needs to be a guiding hand when it comes to Sec. 230, and from the FCC, FTC, and Justice. In an interview [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-14-20 The FCC has committed to helping the developing world develop secure and open networks. The Commission said Wednesday (Oct. 14) that it had signed a memorandum of understanding to that effect with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Specifically, the two agencies have agreed to "promote open, interoperable, [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-13-20 Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has weighed in on Sec. 230 and he has clearly signaled he things the High Court should take up the issue of lower court expansion of that online content immunity provision. Thomas took the opportunity of the Supreme Court's refusal to hear the appeal [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-13-20 Cable and telecom broadband operators have joined to tell President Donald Trump not to try and nationalize 5G network infrastructure by inserting the government into the commercial market. That is according to a copy of a letter being sent to the White House later today from NCTA-The Internet & [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-11-20 If Silicon Valley executives thought it couldn’t get much hotter for them in D.C., they have another think coming. And Democrats, who once defended edge providers as the virtuous inhabitants of an online garden threatened by Internet service providers, were leading the charge. At the head of the pack [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-8-20 The FCC has a message for a federal appeals court's concerns about its net neutrality rule dereg: Not to worry. The FCC has released the draft of its order responding to a federal court remand seeking a clearer picture of the impact of the FCC's Internet access deregulation on [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-7-20 Advertisers are concerned with some of the legislative recommendations for reining in Big Tech suggested in a House Antitrust Subcommittee Majority report on a year-plus investigation into Amazon, Apple, Google,  and Facebook. The report concluded that the companies were either monopolies or dominant players who abused their power to [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-5-20 The FCC has come up with the final framework for giving out $9 billion in rural broadband deployment funds and it will not be handed out before the FCC collects better broadband deployment data. FCC chairman Ajit Pai said he has circulated that framework for a vote at the [...]