By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-2-21 Even as Microsoft is trying to convince the FCC to expand the broadcast band channels it wants to use for broadband, it has announced an expansion of its Airband initiative, which has been targeted to closing the rural digital divide to eight of the largest U.S. cities. The [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-1-21 Senate Commerce Committee members Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) have re-introduced a bill that would standardize the definition of high-speed fixed broadband in government subsidy programs. The Broadband Parity Act, which the pair introduced in the last Congress, would tell the FCC to get together [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in American Civil Liberties Union v. United States. The brief supports a petition for a writ of certiorari in this case. This case concerns the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-27-21 House Energy & Commerce Committee Democratic leadership is pressing Big Tech companies for answers to why they have not done more to prevent COVID-19 vaccine disinformation. E&C Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), joined by the subcommittee chairs, wrote the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter, and Google as they continued [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-27-21 Big Tech companies are suing the state of Florida over its recently passed law that limits websites’ Sec. 230 immunity from civil liability over third-party content, saying it is a speech restriction targeted at select online businesses. The Computer & Communications Industry Association teamed up with NetChoice, whose [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-27-21 Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) have introduced a bill to boost online content moderation transparency and prevent algorithmic discrimination, with Markey saying it was time to “open up Big Tech’s hood.” Facebook, for one, has been calling for legislation on transparency. Among other things, the [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-26-21 A Facebook ad airing frequently on cable and online these days features young people talking about all the wonderful things the Internet has done and is doing and how much it has changed in their lifetime, arguing that the last time Internet regulations were updated was 25 years [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-25-21 Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) has introduced a bill, the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act (H.R. 3346), that would prevent the FCC from regulating broadband access rates. Kinzinger introduced the bill four Congresses ago, where it passed the House. This time around, the bill comes as [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-26-20 Microsoft has asked the FCC to reverse its decision, made under then-chairman Ajit Pai, to allow broadcaster signals from distributed transmission systems to go "significantly" beyond a station's current authorized service area as those broadcasters roll out their Next Gen TV broadcast transmission standard. Microsoft told the FCC [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 5-24-21 Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill, recently passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature, that the governor promotes as a way to stop Big Tech from censoring his citizens. Republicans have argued that Silicon Valley giants have attempted to suppress conservative speech in the guise of [...]