By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-11-22 The Senate Judiciary Committee has moved its scheduled markup of a tough new online antitrust bill from Thursday (Jan. 13) to Jan. 27. The bill, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, was introduced back in October by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), chair of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-10-22 The FCC said it has committed another $361 million-plus in broadband subsidy dollars for schools and libraries, bringing its total to date to almost $4.2 billion since its June 2021 launch. That is part of the $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund, not to be confused with the FCC's [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-6-22 The FCC plans to vote this month to expand the online activities that define a candidate, and to square its political file rules with the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). According to a draft of the proposed report and order (R&O), it would revise the definition of [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-4-22 President Joe Biden on Tuesday (Jan. 4) praised stakeholders – including FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel – for the agreement by AT&T and Verizon Communications to delay their rollout of 5G wireless service in the C-band spectrum from January 5 to January 19. But he also suggested there could [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-4-22 Three former chiefs of the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau – including two former top military officers – have expressed their strong endorsement of Gigi Sohn as the regulator’s fifth commissioner. Those ringing endorsements came in letters this week to the chair and ranking [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the Supreme Court of the United States in Edgar v. Haines. The brief supports a First Amendment challenge to the national security pre-publication review system, urging the Supreme Court to take up an appeal by the ACLU and Knight First Amendment [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-23-21 Republican congressional leaders have reached out to key Biden Administration agencies to make sure the billions of dollars in various broadband subsidy programs created by Congress goes to areas unserved by broadband, particularly rural areas, rather than to “duplicative and wasteful subsidized overbuilding.” The definition of “access" is [...]
Participated in an amicus letter (with the Reporters Committee and 54 other amici) filed with the House Select Committee To Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. The matter involves freelance photojournalist Amy Harris, who filed a complaint to block enforcement of a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division, Second Department in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. v. Kos Media, LLC. The case concerns an individual who authored a post on the digital media website Daily Kos under the [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-17-21 The Federal Trade Commission has been almost exclusively an enforcement agency, but under new chair Lina Khan it is looking at coming up with new rules to address what Khan calls “lax security practices, data privacy abuses, and algorithmic decisionmaking that may result in unlawful discrimination.” That is [...]