Edward Graham

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that veterans across the country who are enrolled in VA care can now receive virtual emergency assessments to determine the severity of medical afflictions. The new tele-emergency care—or tele-EC—service is designed to connect retired servicemembers with clinical triage nurses, who can then evaluate their symptoms and determine if they require in-person aid. Veterans can access the tele-EC service by contacting VA Health Connect—which provides veterans 24/7 access to

The head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said his agency is looking at how to create an auditing process to hold artificial intelligence systems accountable, as part of an effort to promote safe and ethical uses of the emerging technologies. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said “I think one of the things that we've seen is, like financial audits for the financial accounting system, there is going to be a role to play for audits in the AI ecosystem.” NTIA released a request for comment in April 2023 soliciting public feedback on how to mitigate the harms of

Social media companies need to further enhance transparency around the content moderation requests that they receive from governments to better safeguard users’ speech online, according to Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), who has focused on tech-related policy issues during her time in office. Sen. Lummis—who serves on the influential Senate Commerce Committee—said that it is “an unprecedented time in history” for freedom of speech and the manner in which governments regulate public discourse, particularly “the real-time failures of government when it comes to interacting with companies that

On the one-year anniversary of the repeal of network neutrality, Engine, who advocates on behalf of startups, released a letter signed by over 160 startups in support of the Save the Internet Act (HR 1644/S 682). The legislation would restore the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order, which allowed startups to grow and succeed by keeping the Internet a level playing field. Startups rely on a free and open Internet to survive.

Many US voters in a recent Morning Consult/Politico poll, including pluralities of both Democrats and Republicans, said they’d like to see the next Congress make it a top priority to pass measures that better protect consumer data, outweighing other more partisan concerns such as efforts to codify network neutrality and addressing allegations of political bias and censorship on social media.

A new Morning Consult/Politico survey found 59 percent of self-identified Democratic voters considered support for network neutrality to be a somewhat or very important factor when deciding which candidate to support during the midterm elections — a figure that was unchanged from polling conducted in May.

Democratic voters are receptive to the party’s efforts to use the network neutrality debate as a way to energize the base heading into the November midterms, according to Morning Consult/Politico polling. The most recent survey — conducted May 17-19 among 1,990 registered voters nationwide — found that 59 percent of Democratic respondents said a candidate’s support for the net neutrality rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 2015 was somewhat or very important when deciding whom to vote for in the midterms, compared to 51 percent of respondents overall.

Here’s a rundown of promises kept, partially fulfilled and in need of action come 2018:

A promise fulfilled: President Donald Trump followed through on his stated information technology modernization goals by issuing an executive order on May 1 that created the American Technology Council.

Scorching criticism of internet service providers over their stance on net neutrality for much of 2017 hasn’t hurt their standing with US consumers — though some weren’t that popular to begin with. For Comcast, there was practically nowhere to go but up. Thirty-two percent of respondents had a very or somewhat favorable view of Comcast the day Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced his repeal plans; 26 percent had an unfavorable opinion. By Nov.

As the Federal Communications Commission moves forward with plans to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules, a new Morning Consult/Politico poll shows bipartisan support for keeping the regulations in place. Fifty-two percent of registered voters in a Nov. 21-25 poll said they support the current rules, which stipulate that internet service providers like Comcast Corp., AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.