FCC Chair Says Agency Will Take Public Comment on Trump Social Media Petition

The Federal Communications Commission will take public comment for 45 days on a petition filed by the Trump administration seeking new transparency rules in how social media companies moderate content, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said on Monday. From a report: Pai rejected calls from Democrats that he summarily dismiss the petition without public comment. The decision came after President Donald Trump…

Broadband’s Underused Lifeline For Low-income Users

The federal government’s main program to keep lower income people connected is only serving one-fifth of the people it could help, even during a pandemic that has forced school and work online. From a report: Millions of Americans still lack access to the high-speed internet service that’s become vital as people remain stuck at home and reopenings reverse. The Lifeline program,…

Judge Forces America’s FCC To Seek New Public Feedback on Its Net Neutrality Repeal

“Earlier this week, the FCC successfully defeated Mozilla’s attempt to undo the commission’s repeal of net neutrality,” reports Engadget. “But, while siding with the body, judges have asked the FCC to determine if repealing the law to prevent a multi-speed internet has had any negative consequences.”
That includes checking if net neutrality repeal has harmed public safety, reduced spending in infrastructure or…

FCC Kills Part of San Francisco’s Broadband-Competition Law

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission today voted to preempt part of a San Francisco ordinance that promotes broadband competition in apartment buildings and other multi-tenant structures. But it’s not clear exactly what effect the preemption will have, because San Francisco says the FCC’s Republican majority has misinterpreted what the law does. FCC Chairman…

US Telecom Operators Say They’ve (Mostly) Stopped Selling Your Location Data To Shady Middlemen

In a collection of letters published by FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on Thursday, representatives of T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon all said they had ceased or significantly curtailed the sale of their customers’ location data to companies whose shady practices brought to light triggered alarms among privacy advocates and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. From a report: The companies were responding to…