By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-9-21 President Joe Biden has rescinded executive orders of former President Donald Trump that prohibit transactions with TikTok, WeChat and eight others software apps, pointing out that two of those orders are the subject of lawsuits, for one thing. In its place President Biden, via his own executive order, [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-8-21 ISPs have spent most of two decades fighting the urge from Democrats and some in Silicon Valley to define Internet access as a common carrier service and impose some version of utility style regulation on ISPs, but now edge provider giants are getting a taste of their own [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-8-21 The Senate has passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) (formerly the Endless Frontier Act), which, among many other things, attempts to diversify and better secure the 5G supply chain by backing alternatives to Chinese tech suppliers Huawei and ZTE. It now heads to the House. Among [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-8-21 The FCC has officially restored the deregulatory media ownership order adopted by the Republican majority under former chairman Ajit Pai, a decision reversed by an appeals court before that reversal was reversed by the Supreme Court. But the FCC is also seeking comment to “update the public record” [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-5-21 The Department of Justice said Saturday (June 5) that, going forward, it will not be issuing subpoenas for reporters' records in leak investigations. That came after the New York Times reported that not only was the Biden White House continuing the pursuit of such records from its reporters, a [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-4-21 Broadcasters joining the call for the FCC to start assessing its regulatory fees on Big Tech – computer companies, streamers, and other edge providers – saying they should not have to pay for computer company efforts – Microsoft in particular – to “degrade” their service. In comments to [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-4-21 Edge players have launched the latest legal salvo in their attempt to block a Florida law they say unconstitutionally restricts free speech, equal protection, and due process. The Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice, which together represent all the big players – Amazon, Google, Twitter, Mozilla, plus [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 6-4-21 Facebook will extend its ban of former President Donald Trump past the midterm elections, coming up with a two-year penalty but with the threat of a permanent ban still on the table. The company's oversight board had already upheld the suspension of Trump accounts on Facebook and co-owned [...]
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 [...]