Participated in an amicus letter (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) sent to the mayor and acting city attorney of Medford, Ore., concerning the case City of Medford v. Ehrlich. The letter challenges their prosecution of Jefferson Public Radio journalist April Ehrlich, who was arrested in September 2020 by Medford police officers while lawfully [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-8-21 The Federal Communications Commission has authorized more than $163 million to 42 providers in the second round of phase one of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund broadband buildouts. The second round will cover approximately 65,000 locations in 21 states. “More help is on the way to households without broadband,” [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-5-21 The FCC has launched its latest auction (110) of midband spectrum, generally considered the sweet spot for 5G due to its propagation characteristics. The FCC is auctioning flexible licenses for 100 MHz of contiguous spectrum in the 3.45 GHz band. Acting FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel had argued during [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-5-21 Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, whose last job at the social media company was working on the counterespionage team, may have opened up a new front in Congress’s war on the social platform. That came during a hearing in the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-5-21 Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen got an angry and attentive bipartisan audience at a Tuesday (Oct. 5) hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who called it a Big Tobacco moment for Big Tech. A former Facebook [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-1-21 Computer companies have fired another legal volley in their fight against state efforts to undercut their Sec. 230 immunity from civil liability for most third-party content on social media sites. The latest volley was a motion for preliminary injunction filed Sep. 30 against Texas for a new law [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-30-21 The FCC has approved a notice of inquiry into the future spectrum needs of the Internet of Things. The move was mandated by the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. That came in a vote in advance of the FCC's public meeting Thursday (Sept. 30), so the item was [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-30-21 As part of the “social media as piñata” Big Tech bashing this week, which included Hill hearings on online privacy and Instagram’s impact on children, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced a bill that would make social media companies liable “for bodily or mental harm their products cause [...]
Participated in an amicus letter (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the Supreme Court of Washington in Does 1-6 v. Seattle Police Department, et al. The case concerns six Seattle police officers who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. The Seattle Police Department opened misconduct [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in National Press Photographers Association v. McCraw, a First Amendment challenge to Texas’s drone regulations. The brief highlights the uses of drones in journalism and argues that Chapter 423 of [...]