ars techncia

Google, Meta, TikTok defeat Austria’s plan to combat hate speech

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Austria cannot force Google, Meta, and TikTok to pay millions in fines if they fail to delete hate speech from their popular social media platforms. Austria had attempted to hold platforms accountable for hate speech and other illegal content after passing a law in 2021 requiring tech giants to publish reports as often as every six months detailing content takedowns.

After big drop in Internet Service Provider competition, Canada mandates fiber-network sharing

In an attempt to boost broadband competition, Canada's telecommunication regulator, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), is forcing large phone companies to open their fiber networks to competitors.

Comcast gave false map data to FCC—and didn’t admit it until Ars Technica got involved

Matthew Hillier can't get Comcast service at his home in Arvada, CO. But that didn't stop Comcast from claiming it serves his house when it submitted data for the Federal Communications Commission's new broadband map. Comcast eventually admitted to the FCC that it doesn't serve the address—but only after Ars got involved.

Comcast wanted $210,000 for Internet—so this man helped expand a co-op fiber ISP

Los Altos Hills Community Fiber (LAHCF) is a cooperative (co-op) broadband provider that gives multi-gigabit fiber Internet to dozens of homes and has a plan to serve hundreds more. Town residents were able to form the provider with the help of Next Level Networks, which isn't a traditional consumer broadband provider but a company that builds and manages networks for local groups. This was done to overcome frustrations residents have been having with providers like Comcast.

As broadband providers seek payments from Big Tech, Google criticizes “sender-pays” model

Big Tech companies shouldn't have to pay for Internet service providers' network-upgrade costs, a Google executive said amid a push in Europe to have tech companies pay for broadband expansions and improvements. In November 2021, the CEOs of 13 large European telecommunications companies called on tech giants to pay for a portion of the Internet service providers' network upgrade costs.

Florida to Supreme Court: Let us regulate social networks as common carriers

The State of Florida asked the US Supreme Court to reinstate its social media regulation law that made it illegal for sites like Facebook and Twitter to ban politicians. Florida's petition said the Supreme Court should answer the questions of whether the First Amendment prohibits states "from requiring that social-media companies host third-party communications, and from regulating the time, place, and manner in which they do so," and whether the First Amendment prohibits states "from requiring social-media companies to notify and provide an explanation to their users when they censor the u