Press Release

Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reintroduced the Bot Disclosure and Accountability Act, a bill to require disclosure of information concerning online social media bots. The Bot Disclosure and Accountability Act authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to enforce transparency requirements on social media companies regarding the use of social media bots that replicate human activity online.

On July 11, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai released a draft proposal to improve the FCC’s broadband-deployment data-collection rules. These revisions are intended to increase the granularity and precision of the National Broadband Map, a semiannual data-collection effort that began at the National Telecommunications Information Agency (NTIA) in 2010. The full FCC will vote on Chairman Pai’s proposal at its Aug.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of AT&T customers in CA to stop the telecommunication company and two data location aggregators from allowing numerous entities—including bounty hunters, car dealerships, landlords, and stalkers—to access wireless customers’ real-time locations without authorization. An investigation by Motherboard earlier in 2019 revealed that any cellphone user’s precise, real-time location could be bought for just $300.

Next Century Cities teamed up with the Internet Society and Neighborly to create the Becoming Broadband Ready toolkit. This comprehensive toolkit provides local leaders with a roadmap to encourage broadband investment in their community. While every community will choose to tackle connectivity a little differently – a small island community and a large urban center will likely have unique considerations and approaches – there are many common threads that run through successful broadband projects.

The Federal Communications Commission authorized over $39.2 million in federal funding over the next decade to expand broadband to 15,442 unserved rural New York homes and businesses, in partnership with the state’s New NY Broadband Program. Providers will begin receiving funding in July. The federal funding is being provided through the FCC’s Connect America Fund, which is part of a broader effort by the FCC to close the digital divide in rural America. 

Public Knowledge is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Lewis as the organization’s new President and Chief Executive Officer as Gene Kimmelman steps down from the position. Lewis brings 17 years of experience in policymaking and political activism, including the last decade working in technology policy at the Federal Communications Commission and as Vice President at Public Knowledge. As a part of this leadership transition, Public Knowledge appoints Gene Kimmelman as Senior Advisor.

The New York State Public Service Commission approved an agreement with Charter Communications (known as Spectrum) to resolve disputes over the Commission’s network expansion condition that was contained in the Commission’s approval of the company’s merger with Time Warner Cable in 2016. Under the terms of the agreement, Charter will expand its network to provide high-speed broadband service to 145,000 residences and businesses entirely in Upstate New York and will pay an additional $12 million to expand broadband service to additional premises. Under the terms of the settlement:

Sens Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Brian Schatz (D- HI), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Jon Tester (D-MT) urged the Federal Communications Commission to take specific, concrete steps to improve the accuracy of broadband coverage maps. Their letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai encourages the FCC to look at legislative proposals introduced recently in Congress that include reforms requiring wired, fixed wireless, and satellite broadband providers to submit data like “shapefiles” that is more granular and precise to the commission.

“We must move aggressively to help consumers combat scam robocalls that use and abuse caller ID spoofing, and that’s why we held today’s summit. The summit was productive, and we received generally encouraging signs that companies are headed toward full implementation of the SHAKEN/STIR caller ID authentication framework. I was pleased to hear from voice service providers, vendors, consumer advocates, and others about the successes to date and the challenges that remain.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Aug 1, 2019:

Establishing the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund – The FCC will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would propose to adopt a two-phase reverse auction framework for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, committing $20.4 billion in high-cost universal service support to bring high-speed broadband service to millions of unserved Americans.