Brendan Carr, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has promised to end the agency’s promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies as part of his agency.
“The FCC’s most recent budget request said that promoting DEI was the agency’s second-highest strategic goal. Starting next year, the FCC will end its promotion of DEI,” Carr said.
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner who activist groups claim could be selected to chair the FCC by President-elect Donald Trump sent a letter to Big Tech industry leaders demanding details about their censorship practices, and seeking specific information about their relationship with the controversial, for-profit fact checker NewsGuard.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr on Friday posted to the social media platform X a letter he sent to Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram; Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube, as well as Tim Cook of Apple and Satya Nadella of Microsoft, warning their businesses “played significant roles” in “an unprecedented surge in censorship,” which he called “improper conduct.”
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Republican lawmakers on Monday ratcheted up the investigation into billionaire George Soros’ purchase of a wide swath of U.S. radio stations.
Soros is a major donor to Democratic and liberal causes whose purchase of American radio stations just before the election raised eyebrows and drew Congressional inquiry.
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The House Oversight and Accountability Committee opened an inquiry Thursday into the Federal Communications Commission’s expedited approval of a deal that would give Democrat megadonor George Soros a large stake in more than 200 U.S. radio stations, alleging the body was in an effort to “interfere in the 2024 election and politicize” a body that is supposed to be independent.
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The Federal Communications Commission has revived regulations for “net neutrality.” According to FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, “the action we take here is good for consumers, public safety, national security and network investment.” The people have room for doubt and the “neutrality” concept requires some explanation.
The internet developed in fine style long before any such regulation appeared, but in 2015, the FCC reclassified Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from “information services,” to “common carrier services.” The government treated an innovative new technology like a public utility monopoly, in effect turning back the clock to the Communications Act of 1934.
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed a vote related to “preventing digital discrimination” in accessing broadband internet at a meeting on Wednesday.
The FCC, which has three Democratic commissioners and two Republicans, voted along party lines in favor of a notice of proposed rulemaking Wednesday at the meeting to tackle “digital discrimination,” based on President Joe Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr asserts the rules would massively increase the commission’s regulatory authority to almost all facets of internet service.
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took a major step toward finalizing the restoration of net neutrality on Thursday.
Net neutrality rules force internet service providers to enable access to all websites and content providers at equal rates and speeds, regardless of their size or content. Democrats now outnumber Republicans on the FCC, and the commission voted in favor of a notice of proposed rulemaking Thursday at the meeting.
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TikTok hasn’t exactly got Facebook dancing in the streets.
The Chinese-owned social media app is rapidly eating away at Facebook’s user base, especially among the under-30s crowd, which seems to think that Facebook is for the over-the-hill crowd.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti recently joined a group of attorneys general in sending a letter to Congress to pass legislation that would give states the authority to jam contraband cell phones in prisons.
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Representatives Bill Johnson (R-OH-6) and Kim Schrier (D-WA-8) last week introduced legislation directing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to guarantee more comprehensive emergency-call connectivity in rural areas.
Both of the bill’s sponsors represent districts with wide rural expanses containing many communities that don’t have reliable service for remote devices, often leading to public-safety contingencies. Johnson’s district extends from northeast Ohio to the state’s south but is situated well outside of major cities. Schrier represents an area that begins just outside of Seattle and Tacoma but stretches well into her state’s sparsely populated center.
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U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-8) this week urged the head of the career-networking website LinkedIn to prohibit the platform from posting job openings at companies posing security threats to America.
Gallagher, who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Armed Services Committee, penned a letter to LinkedIn Chief Executive Officer Ryan Roslansky, drawing particular attention to companies with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The congressman stated that the site presently welcomes thousands of employment-opportunity notices from China-based corporations the U.S. government flags as national-security and privacy risks.
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Federal Communications Commission member Brendan Carr said that TikTok is “China’s digital fentanyl” and that the social media platform is “a very sophisticated surveillance app.”
“At the end of the day, TikTok is China’s digital fentanyl,” Carr, a Republican and one of five FCC commissioners, said Friday on Fox News.
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Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) this week announced she is cosponsoring a measure alongside Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) to identify broadcasting content that foreign governments are underwriting.
Called the Identifying Propaganda on Our Airwaves (IPA) Act, the bill directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to mandate that radio and television broadcast companies check foreign-media databases to ascertain non-American sources of programming and advertising.
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The Arizona-based CEO of a precious metals brokerage firm has been told by a local radio station that he cannot air ads stating that he believes Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is running for governor, is a racist.
Jim Clark, CEO of Phoenix-based Republic Monetary Exchange, told The Arizona Sun Times he felt so strongly about supporting Kari Lake for governor that he created his own ads, paying almost double the rate of ads for his own company to run them on KTAR. The middle-of-the-road radio station was running a barrage of pro-Hobbs ads but he hadn’t heard any in favor of Lake, so he wanted to create some balance.
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Gigi Sohn has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but not a single Republican in the Senate has said they will vote to approve her confirmation. If every Senate Democrat votes to confirm her, plus Vice President Kamala Harris as a tie-breaking vote, Sohn will be confirmed, but insiders say two pivotal Democratic senators have indicated they will vote no, Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly.
In an op-ed for The Register-Herald, former West Virginia legislator Mike Oliverio said Sohn has “radical left-wing viewpoints.” He cited her “record calling Fox News state-sponsored propaganda and questioning whether Sinclair Broadcasting should have their broadcast licenses revoked.”
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Senate Commerce Republicans are whipping opposition to the nomination of Gigi Sohn, one of President Joe Biden’s picks for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Biden nominated Sohn, former FCC counsel under Tom Wheeler and Ford Foundation alum, to an empty spot on the commission in late October, along with current acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to the permanent position.
While Republicans have been quiet in their response to the nomination of Rosenworcel, many are pointing to Sohn’s public statements on conservatives as reasons to oppose her confirmation.
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FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr believes the agency should require Big Tech to fund internet infrastructure, following the introduction last week of a bill mandating the FCC consider collecting contributions from the tech companies.
The Funding Affordable Internet with Reliable (FAIR) Contributions Act, introduced July 21 by Republican Sens. Roger Wicker, Todd Young, and Shelley Moore Capito, instructs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to look into charging major tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Netflix to fund broadband networks. Currently, new internet infrastructure is paid for by the Universal Service Fund (USF), a $9 billion pot of money funded by charges on consumers’ phone service.
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President Joe Biden is taking aim at Big Tech and Big Telecom’s growing power with a new executive order that will add regulations and facilitate competition within the industries.
The order, which Biden is expected to sign Friday, includes over 70 provisions, all aimed at promoting competition within tech and telecom, both of which have become more monopolistic in recent years.
It encourages the Federal Trade Commission to overhaul its rules regarding personal data collection and bans unfair competition practices online, according to a White House fact sheet. It also calls for more scrutiny when examining potential corporate mergers, especially when a larger corporation acquires a smaller one or when it could affect customers’ privacy or competition within the sector.
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The senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission criticized the Democratic Baltimore City State Attorney’s recent request for an investigation into a local Fox affiliate as an attack on free speech.
Brendan Carr, the top Republican on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), condemned Baltimore City State Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s request, saying it was part of a broader effort by Democrats to censor news coverage and political speech they don’t like. Carr demanded that the commission dismiss Mosby’s complaint by the end of the day “with prejudice.”
“The State’s Attorney’s Office, led by Democrat Marilyn Mosby, has launched a chilling and direct attack on free speech and journalistic freedom,” Carr said in a statement on Monday. “The complaint her office filed with the FCC asks the Commission to censor a newsroom simply because journalists are doing their constitutionally protected jobs and shining a light on the work of the State’s Attorney.”
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On the campaign trail, the Biden campaign voiced its support for network neutrality—“net neutrality” for short. The topic has resurfaced in recent weeks and months thanks to a few key events. These include the appointment of a new acting FCC chairwoman, the DOJ dropping a lawsuit against the state of California, and Biden’s choice of Tim Wu, the so-called “father of net neutrality,” for a National Economic Council role.
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U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is applauding a federal initiative to grow the availability of telehealth for rural areas.
The Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Department Of Health And Human Services and the U.S. Department Of Agriculture last week announced they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the Rural Telehealth Initiative.
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The Pentagon plans to free up a big chunk of its military airwaves in the U.S. for high-speed internet service, part of a broader push to get ahead of China in the deployment of 5G wireless technology.
The Trump administration announced Monday that it has identified radio spectrum used for radar defense systems that can be shared with commercial telecommunications providers without compromising national security.
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Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai announced Wednesday a plan to dramatically increase the United States’ wireless internet speeds to help pave the road to the kind of technology Americans can rely on to better cope with another coronavirus outbreak.
Pai proposed a plan to make 1,200 MHz of spectrum available for unlicensed use across the country as Americans become reliant on remote connectivity to slow the spread of COVID-19, which originated in China before traveling to the United States. Such a move could allow the so-called Internet of Things to pick up speed, connecting all devices to wireless internet.
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As the threat of COVID-19 infection by coronavirus transmission grows, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been taking steps to ensure better internet access for Americans as many self-quarantine during the crisis.
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A U.S. appeals court dealt a big blow Thursday to opponents of the Federal Communication Commission’s decision to repeal an Obama-era regulation that conservatives believe restrained the open internet.
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Former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers is heading up a group that is working to poke and prod the Federal Communications Commission into moving quicker on approving fifth generation development.
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Major U.S. internet companies can no longer use subsidies to buy equipment from Chinese mega supplier Huawei, federal regulators ruled Friday.
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More support is being thrown behind a plan to have the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction off mid-band spectrum for 5G use rather than allow satellite operators to conduct a private sale of an asset they received for free.
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by Chris White A commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission wants to know why two liberal nonprofit groups are using revenue from a federal program designed to give poor children internet access on various progressive pet projects. Organizations involved in a FCC-program dolling out broadband internet for kids might be siphoning off millions of dollars for their own purposes, according to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. The Educational Broadcast Service (EBS) licenses are intended to help schools, but Carr believes revenue from the program is going to political causes. “In addition to letting schools use it, we opened it up to allow qualifying nonprofits to hold these licenses,” he told his Twitter followers on July 3. “They had to be nonprofits for the purpose of providing educational material. Then we allowed these entities to lease out their commercial spectrum to commercial entitles like Sprint.” The FCC lets schools use valuable spectrum – a public resource – for free to offer students educational programming. Turns out that national organizations may be siphoning off millions of dollars for their own purposes, including political activity. I’ve asked for answers. pic.twitter.com/JyE3LjtlEZ — Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) July 3, 2019 Carr sent letters to the three…
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by Robert Romano The Wall Street Journal is reporting that momentum is building for the U.S. government to subject Google and other Big Tech firms to antitrust scrutiny for fears that they have become too big and too powerful. In today’s digital ecosystem, politicians, political parties, organizations and media all rely on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google and Youtube to get the message out because that’s where consumers by and large go to in order to consume information. A Pew report found 68 percent of adult Americans use Facebook, or over 170 million. 24 percent use Twitter, or about 61 million. A separate Pew report found 73 percent, or 185 million, use broadband internet. Statista reports that Google’s family of sites are the most popular in America, with 255 million unique U.S. visitors in March 2019 alone. So, the internet is indisputably a huge part of the way people are getting information nowadays. Now, conservatives and Republicans have become alarmed as many of these platforms are censoring and restricting speech that does not coincide with Big Tech’s social justice agenda. Deplatforming is real. Actor James Woods has been censored on Twitter, Stephen Crowder has been demonetized on…
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President Donald Trump is considering an executive order in the new year to declare a national emergency that would bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE, three sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. It would be the latest step by the Trump administration to cut Huawei Technologies Cos Ltd and ZTE Corp, two of China’s biggest network equipment companies, out of the U.S. market. The United States says the companies work at the behest of the Chinese government and that their equipment could be used to spy on Americans. Huawei and ZTE did not return requests for comment. Both in the past have denied that their products are used to spy. Rural operators in the United States are among the biggest customers of Huawei and ZTE, and worry that they may also have to rip out existing Chinese-made equipment without compensation. Industry officials are divided on whether the administration could legally compel operators to do that. The executive order, which has been under consideration for more than eight months, could be issued as early as January and would direct the Commerce Department to block U.S. companies from buying equipment from foreign telecommunications makers…
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by Nick Givas Tribune Media Company killed its merger with Sinclair Broadcast Group on Thursday and filed a lawsuit against the media conglomerate, claiming breach of contract. Tribune is seeking financial compensation for losses it claims it suffered as a result of Sinclair’s breach of the merger agreement. Tribune is accusing Sinclair of using questionable negotiating tactics when it was talking to the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission over regulatory requirements, according to a statement obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. It also said Sinclair wouldn’t sell certain media stations to assure the deal’s approval. The lawsuit seeks compensation for all losses incurred as a result of Sinclair’s material breaches of the Merger Agreement. In the Merger Agreement, Sinclair committed to use its reasonable best efforts to obtain regulatory approval as promptly as possible, including agreeing in advance to divest stations in certain markets as necessary or advisable for regulatory approval. Instead, in an effort to maintain control over stations it was obligated to sell, Sinclair engaged in unnecessarily aggressive and protracted negotiations with the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”) over regulatory requirements, refused to sell stations in the markets as…
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by Jeffrey Tucker At long last, with the end of “net neutrality,” competition could soon come to the industry that delivers Internet services to you. You might be able to pick among a range of packages, some minimalist and some maximalist, depending on how you use the service. Or you could choose a package that charges based only on what you consume, rather than sharing fees with everyone else. Internet socialism is dead; long live market forces. With market-based pricing finally permitted, we could see new entrants to the industry because it might make economic sense for the first time to innovate. The growing competition will lead, over the long run, to innovation and falling prices. Consumers will find themselves in the driver’s seat rather than crawling and begging for service and paying whatever the provider demands. Ajit Pai, chairman of the FCC, is exactly right. “Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the internet. Instead, the F.C.C. would simply require internet service providers to be transparent about their practices so that consumers can buy the service plan that’s best for them.” A Fed for Communication The old rules pushed by the Obama administration had locked down…
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Net neutrality activists left signs at Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai’s house Saturday, telling his children that their father was an “evil” man who “murdered” democracy. The cardboard signs list Pai’s children by name, telling them that “you don’t have to be evil.” Pai’s leadership of the FCC has been fraught with criticism due…
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Regulators are reviewing a lewd joke made by “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert this week involving President Trump and his Russian counterpart, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission confirmed Thursday. The FCC has received several complaints concerning Mr. Colbert’s recent quip and will considered whether it violated any law against broadcasting “obscene” content, Chairman…
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