Jon Brodkin

When Zachary Cohn and his wife bought a house in the Northgate neighborhood of Seattle (WA), they didn't expect any trouble getting home Internet service. It was only after closing on the house in July 2019 that they learned the bad news. "All six neighbors I share a property line with are wired for Comcast, but our house never was," Cohn said. Comcast had wired up the neighborhood with cable decades earlier and provides high-speed broadband to the abutting properties.

A federal appeals court has reinstated a Texas state law that bans "censorship" on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing Texas to enforce the law while litigation continues. A US District Court judge had granted a preliminary injunction blocking the law in December 2021, ruling that it violates the social networks' First Amendment right to moderate user-submitted content.

Elon Musk has claimed he is buying Twitter in order to protect free speech. But what does Musk mean by "free speech"? "By 'free speech,' I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people." There are multiple ways to interpret Musk's statement as it relates to United States law, particularly the First Amendment.

Comcast's hiring of a new lobbyist is part of an attempt to "torpedo" President Joe Biden's nomination of Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to the Federal Communications Commission, according to advocacy group Free Press. "Comcast just hired a lobbying firm to try to torpedo Gigi Sohn's nomination to the FCC," said Free Press.

SpaceX has abandoned a Starlink plan that Amazon objected to during a high-profile battle at the Federal Communications Commission in 2021, and wants to launch its second-generation broadband satellites starting in March 2022. But the dispute isn't over, as Amazon says that SpaceX's latest filing "raises a number of issues that call for analysis and a potential response" and asked the FCC for a month-long delay before comments are due.

Verizon is automatically enrolling customers in a new version of a program that scans mobile users' browser histories—even when those same users previously opted out of the program when it had a different name. The carrier recently announced changes to its "Verizon Selects" program along with a new name. "Verizon Custom Experience Plus is the new name of our Verizon Selects program," Verizon said in a FAQ.

The CEOs of 13 large European telecommunications companies called on tech giants—presumably including Netflix and other big US companies—to pay for a portion of the Internet service providers' network upgrade costs.

Senate Republicans are planning a strong fight against President Biden's nomination of consumer advocate Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to the Federal Communications Commission. "I will do everything in my power to convince colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject this extreme nominee," said Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Sohn has a longtime career in government policy, having co-founded consumer-advocacy group Public Knowledge in 2001.

The Federal Communications Commission urged a court to back the agency's approval of SpaceX Starlink satellite launches against a lawsuit filed by Viasat and Dish. Judges at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit previously rejected Viasat's motion for a stay that would have halted SpaceX's ongoing launches of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites pending the resolution of the lawsuit.

President Joe Biden's failure to nominate a fifth Federal Communications Commission member has forced Democrats to work with a 2-2 deadlock instead of the 3-2 majority the president's party typically enjoys at the FCC. Additionally, things could get worse for Democrats starting in January; if Biden doesn't make his choice quickly enough to get Senate confirmation by the end of 2021, Republicans could get a 2-1 FCC majority despite Democrats controlling both the White House and Senate. This is because acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's term expired in mid-2020.