New America

Why is broadband access in North Dakota as good as it is? First, the federal government helped. The US Department of Commerce's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) invested significantly in North Dakota’s broadband infrastructure.

As the internet has become an increasingly important tool for free expression around the world, major platforms and networks that carry that expression have assumed the role of speech gatekeepers, often removing or blocking users' content for various legal or policy reasons. Currently, some internet and telecommunications companies disclose some data on how much content they are removing and why in their transparency reports.

Major changes are afoot in Hollywood, spurred by a pattern of rapid corporate media consolidation. While these mergers have received critical attention, the conversation has largely ignored something else big: the implications that this media maneuvering may have for diversity in media representation. More specifically, given Hollywood’s historically barbed relationship with onscreen diversity, it makes sense to ask: How might issues of diversity play out in—and affect—the merger review process, if at all? Could it actually make things worse?