North Carolina’s rural population is larger than that of any other state except Texas. More than 4 million people live in rural North Carolina. Over the last 10 years, the population of 18- to 64-year-olds living in these areas has been decreasing, and the population of adults 65 and older is steadily increasing. In addition to these demographic changes, rural North Carolina communities face challenges related to workforce development, capital access, infrastructure, health, land use, and environment and community preservation. A few years ago, when North Carolina Rural Center President Patrick Woodie visited 80 rural counties in the state to ask leaders what mattered most to their constituents, broadband came up as an issue consistently. According to the Rural Center, access to affordable, high-quality broadband opens up a lot of possibilities for rural populations, allowing residents to do homework and pursue degrees, receive telehealth, and open small businesses. But a lot of internet service providers aren't investing in networks in rural areas because it doesn't make sense for their business. In proclaiming North Carolina's Rural Broadband Week in 2021, Governor Roy Cooper (D-NC) found that 100 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream broadband is a crucial tool for North Carolinians to fully participate in today's digital society. At the time, Gov. Cooper articulated the state's broadband goals: by 2025, nearly everyone in the state would have access to 100/20 broadband, North Carolina would be a national leader in broadband adoption, and the state would achieve digital equity which he defined as "residents in every corner of the state not only have access to broadband, but can also fairly adopt it and feel enabled to use it."

Thousands of rural Coloradans could be one step closer to gaining access to high-speed internet thanks to federal funding for broadband expansion throughout the country. Colorado could potentially receive upward of $800 million in federal aid for broadband installation thanks to the Broadband Equity Access and Development program, better known as BEAD. By expanding access to these online services, rural Coloradans will be more easily able to have access to the same quality internet that their urban counterparts already have. Colorado is already in the process of spending $171 million on broadband expansion.

A case before the Supreme Court challenging the liability shield protecting websites such as YouTube and Facebook could “upend the internet,” resulting in both widespread censorship and a proliferation of offensive content, Google said in a court filing. In a new brief filed with the high court, Google said that scaling back liability protections could lead internet giants to block more potentially offensive content—including controversial political speech—while also leading smaller websites to drop their filters to avoid liability that can arise from efforts to screen content. “This Court should decline to adopt novel and untested theories that risk transforming today’s internet into a forced choice between overly curated mainstream sites or fringe sites flooded with objectionable content,” Google said. Google contents that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects it from any liability for content posted by users on its site. It also argues that there is no way to draw a meaningful distinction between recommendation algorithms and the related algorithms that allow search engines and numerous other crucial ranking systems to work online, and says Section 230 should protect them all.