Axios

Chinese internet giants like Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba are ramping up investments in US tech and media companies. They're also building data servers and acquiring ad tech businesses in the US that can help them monetize media engagement from citizens living in America, like students or tourists. There's a misconception that the Chinese push into the Western media tech market is to target new American users or to compete directly with US tech companies.

Sinclair Broadcast Group's proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media would give the conservative-leaning company control of an additional TV station in Des Moines (IA) — one of the most important presidential primary media markets in the country. Sinclair's possible acquisition of an NBC affiliate in Des Moines underscores Democrats' worries about the deal giving a right-leaning company significantly more control over local news. The Sinclair-Tribune deal is expected to be approved by regulators this quarter.

Internet users are complaining more about net neutrality-related issues since the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal the existing net neutrality rules earlier this month, according to the FCC's consumer complaint data. As of Dec 23, consumers filed 2,388 in December, a sharp increase over the 157 complaints filed in October. The FCC voted to reverse the net neutrality rules on Dec. 14.

Both chambers of Congress have passed a bill, the Connected Government Act, that will mandate federal websites to be mobile friendly, an effort to ensure people will be able to access the websites and the services made available through them on mobile phones. “As mobile devices continue to surpass desktop use for accessing the internet, it is important that the federal government is up to speed with the latest technology that allows our people and economy to thrive,” said Sen Maggie Hassan (D-NH). 

With the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of network neutrality rules set to go into effect in 2018, attention is turning to the pledges internet service providers have made to consumers about how they'll handle web traffic. Many are taking a fairly hard line against blocking or slowing down the delivery of content. It gets more complicated when it comes to whether internet companies will allow a website, such as Netflix, to pay for a "fast lane" to prioritize its content over sites' content. Comcast says it won't block access to content or slow down its delivery.

Proponents of major media mergers say that consumers will benefit if regulators approve the deals. But consumers, especially those who can least afford it, could get screwed by these deals.Multi-billion-dollar deals — along with regulatory changes such as the repeal of net neutrality rules — are often justified as ways to spur innovation and increase consumer choice, but consumer advocates argue the actions could actually make access to some popular content more expensive. The real question: Is choice at the expense of price really giving consumers what they want?

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has rewritten the rules of the information age so thoroughly that there's no mode of communication under his control where the rules aren't looser than they were a year ago. Here's a look at what he's done.