Reporting

The law firm Hagens Berman filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in New York alleges that a deal between Amazon and five major book publishers has led to higher e-book prices for all consumers, because it prevents rival retailers from selling any of these publishers’ e-books at a lower price than on Amazon.

In 2017, Facebook said it was testing a new way of selling online advertising that would threaten Google’s control of the digital ad market. But less than two years later, Facebook did an about-face and said it was joining an alliance of companies backing a similar effort by Google.

San Francisco-based analytics firm Zignal Labs has found that online misinformation about election fraud plunged 73 percent after several social media sites suspended President Trump and key allies.

Color of Change, a civil rights group, urged President-elect Joe Biden to choose Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to be the Federal Communications Commission's next chairman. Commissioner Starks is junior to fellow Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who took office in 2012 and is widely considered to be a leading candidate for the chair. She would be the first woman named FCC chair, other than a Mignon Clyburn who served as acting chairwoman in 2013. Commissioner Starks “has demonstrated and recently reaffirmed his commitment to digital equity,” Color Of Change President Rashad Robinson said.

Philadelphia is partnering with Verizon to overhaul its public computer centers and fund an initiative aimed at boosting digital opportunities for residents impacted by the digital divide. The partnership will rebrand the city's Keyspot computer centers as Keystone Innovation and Technology Centers.

Former-Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps has called on the new Biden administration to establish a Presidential Commission on the Future of the Internet. He contrasts the regulation of the broadcast industry in the public interest with the relatively hands-off treatment of internet commerce and cites privacy, disinformation, and antitrust concerns, as well as the impact of social media giants on local news outlets, as reasons why a comprehensive policy review is in order.

Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai says online platforms should be forced to explain their practices in the much the same way he required of broadband providers like Comcast and AT&T. Chairman Pai paired those transparency requirements with his 2017 repeal of net neutrality rules. He also took a dig at online companies that supported net neutrality rules for broadband providers who appear to be "unwilling to abide by" similar rules themselves.

Silicon Valley's leading lobby, the Internet Association, is struggling to manage the competing interests of the companies it represents just as the industry faces a tide of bipartisan anger. Lobbying hasn't been working for tech for a while because too many firms are working at cross purposes. "A trade association can only do what its members tell it to do," said one person familiar with IA's work. "Facebook begging to be regulated puts the smaller companies in a bad position.

Elon Musk is under siege by fellow billionaires at Amazon and Dish as he tries to get his fledgling space-based broadband service off the ground, with clashes involving airwave overload and the threat of satellite collisions. competitors are pressing the Federal Communication Commission to stymie Musk's SpaceX service. Dish, the satellite company founded by billionaire Charlie Ergen, has urged the FCC to allocate the airwaves covered by the FCC's new study for 5G service. SpaceX fears 5G services would interfere with Starlink, with Elon Musk calling FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and other commissio

CARES Act broadband funding helped enable the town of Bristol, New Hampshire, to deploy 24 miles of fiber to pass 400 Bristol residences and connect to Plymouth State University. The CARES Act funding was a $1.52 million grant. In a separate project, additional fiber backbone and fiber distribution will be deployed to connect all Bristol municipal, educational and commercial buildings with funding through a Northern Border Regional Commission grant and town appropriation.