Makena Kelly

There’s a new plan to revive the Affordable Connectivity Program, a pandemic-era initiative that provides low-income households in the US with discounts on high-speed internet access. A bipartisan group of senators, led by Sen Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) have proposed using a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization measure as a vehicle for funding the ACP and other telecom programs for a combined $6 billion.

By the end August 2023, adult content will get a lot harder to watch in Texas. Instead of clicking a button or entering a date of birth to access adult sites, users will need to provide photos of their official government-issued ID or use a third-party service to verify their age. It’s the result of a new law passed earlier in summer 2023 intended to prevent kids from seeing adult content online.

Nearly 500 days had passed since President Joe Biden first picked Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to become the third Democrat to the nation’s top telecommunications regulator, and she was nowhere closer to confirmation than when her name was first announced in October 2021.

Shortly after coming into office, President Joe Biden moved to restore net neutrality.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill contains billions to expand high-speed broadband across the country, aiming to close the digital divide over the next 10 years. But the Biden administration’s $65 billion down payment on broadband can only help connect families who can afford a computer. So President Biden’s latest version of the Build Back Better program goes further, allocating new funds to bring federally funded desktops, laptops, and tablets to low-income Americans.

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) is calling on the Treasury Department to fund broadband projects in communities without access to 100Mbps upload and download speeds with the money allocated by the American Rescue Plan earlier in 2021. The plan’s language suggests funding can only go to “unserved” or “underserved” communities.

The Biden administration’s ambitious infrastructure proposal, the American Jobs Plan, includes $100 billion in broadband funding, with the goal of connecting every American to high-speed broadband by the end of the decade. But with Senate Republicans set to dramatically cut total investment in their counter-proposal, the future of the package is unclear.

Rep Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY) “Broadband Justice Act,” co-sponsored by Housing Subcommittee Chairman Rep Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), would require the Housing and Urban Development Department, along with the Treasury and US Dept of Agriculture, to update its utility allowance definitions to include broadband so it can be subsidized for families living in government-assisted housing. Other utilities like gas and electricity are already subsidized in this way.

A new bill to bring back net neutrality is on its way, spearheaded by Sen Ed Markey (D-MA), one of the open internet’s most fervent advocates. If a legislative solution isn’t viable, Democrats are preparing to pressure the Federal Communications Commission to take measures into its own hands (again).

On paper, Feb 25’s House Antitrust Subcommittee hearing was about analyzing how big tech platforms act as gatekeepers and create barriers to entry — but really it was about testing out three new avenues for keeping tech companies in line and seeing which ones might gain support from tech-skeptical Republican representatives. But at the hearing, the subcommittee moved beyond calling out bad behavior and laid out three big areas where Congress could actually take action: