Nationwide, rural communities have 37% more residents without access to high-speed internet connections when compared with their urban peers. This becomes a problem as classrooms have become increasingly digital, says Kathryn de Wit, manager of the broadband research initiative at The Pew Charitable Trusts. “If we want kids in rural areas to have access to the latest curriculum, and to be able to work on their homework once they leave school, we need wide access to broadband,” de Wit said. In all 50 states, urban access to broadband outpaces rural access, and in all but three states, urban areas surpass rural ones in educational attainment. In the 21 states that are underperforming on education standards across the board, 76% have digital divides that “significantly disadvantaged rural areas,” according to Christiana McFarland, research director for the National League of Cities. “There are vastly different opportunities available to people based on where they live. We need more research to fully understand the true impact that the urban-rural divide has on education, but connectivity is at the heart of how we move forward,” said McFarland.

The Federal Communications Commission published a draft Order in the “Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls” proceeding. On June 6, the FCC will vote on a Declaratory Ruling and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking from this proceeding to enable carriers to block robocalls. As currently written, the FCC’s draft Order could culminate in carriers charging consumers for call-blocking services that may or may not work as intended, whether consumers want the service or not. “The big question here is who pays for this, and how much?" said Harold Feld, senior vice president of Public Knowledge. "This is particularly important on an opt-out plan, given that the Commission has given the carriers enormous discretion in how to contact customers and the general difficulties customers have in figuring out their bills. Given that customers will also have no idea how effective this will be, there need to be some safeguards here....At a minimum, carriers that use opt-out should be required to offer the service free for some trial period. Even better would be a free trial period followed by a need to opt-in for a paid service."

The job of VA’s Office of Rural Health (ORH) is to increase access to care for the nearly three million Veterans living in rural communities who rely on VA for health care. “Telehealth is a game-changer for rural Veterans,” said Dr. Thomas Klobucar, ORH Executive Director. “It breaks through the barriers of cost, time, and distance. Bringing rehabilitation services to the Veteran’s living room can connect patients with the care they might otherwise struggle to receive.”

Thanks to savvy lobbying by tech companies, online election campaign speech remains almost entirely unregulated. The platforms won exemptions from many campaign finance provisions by arguing that the rules would stifle their growth. They don’t have the legal requirements for ad disclaimers and disclosures — like keeping public logs of political sponsors — that television does. That’s how the Internet Research Agency, a home for troll accounts in St. Petersburg, Russia, could spend money on Facebook pages that worked for Hillary Clinton’s defeat without having to reveal its identity.

The House recently passed a bill requiring platforms to keep public logs of political advertisers and tightening restrictions on activity originating outside the United States. A similar bill is pending in the Senate, but it has little chance of becoming law ahead of 2020, given the opposition of the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The recent legislative action may be a start, but it’s steeped in assumptions of how media works left over from the days when TV and radio were the dominant forms. Social media posts that cost nothing don’t count as paid political ads, although they may have been created by well-funded organizations or profitable businesses whose goal is to sway voters.