Free Press

After the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, tech companies finally seemed to accept that their failure to moderate content was undermining public safety and democracy. In the aftermath, most social-media companies removed users who spread anti-democratic conspiracies or used their online platforms to incite violence. Leading up to the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, tech companies promised users, civil-society groups and governments that they would safeguard election integrity and free expression on their platforms.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced her plan to restore the agency’s rightful authority to protect internet users. To undermine this effort, the industry has cranked up its Title II myth machine.

Following nearly a year of sustained pressure on brands from the #StopToxicTwitter coalition, showing the dangers of advertising on Twitter (now “X”), Elon Musk is now singling out coalition members to blame for the company’s extensive revenue losses.

Starting after Labor Day 2023, classes will be back in session for members of Congress as they return to Washington (DC) from their August 2023 recess. At the top of their to-do list? Playing what’s become an annual game of chicken over whether to fund the federal government — including extending funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which ensures that tens of millions of households can stay online.

The US telecommunications market has significantly evolved since Congress last overhauled the Communications Act more than a quarter century ago. But the Federal Communication Commission’s universal service distribution policies – though periodically tweaked – are still rooted in a framework designed to support incumbent telephone companies. However, the Congress and the FCC now have before them an opportunity to reimagine and reinvent universal service policy for the future.

When Congress created the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD) and $14.25 billion Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), it also enacted Section 60506 of that law, which directs the Federal Communications Commission to “prevent[ ] digital discrimination of access based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin.” Congress enacted this non-discrimination statute based on mounting evidence that low-income people and people of color are more likely to live in monopoly broadband area