Politico

Google and Apple’s plan to team up to create new contact tracing technology to combat the coronavirus is already raising eyebrows among key policymakers in Washington.

The internet is still functioning in Europe, aside from some of the same kinds of slowdowns, interruptions

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who has previously waded into debates on net neutrality, slammed the Federal Communications Commission and broadband companies for not doing enough to address the digital divide. In a video with Rep.

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold one of the first known congressional “paper hearings” to discuss the use of personal data during the coronavirus outbreak, which has forced Capitol Hill to move much of its business online. The session, as the name indicates, will be carried out entirely through written statements, questions and responses set to be posted online, with witnesses having four days to respond to queries from lawmakers after the end of business April 9. 

House lawmakers will now have to email-in bills, amendments and other floor materials — a push to protect members of Congress and their staffers and adhere to public health guidelines during the pandemic. “Staff must electronically submit all Floor documents — including bills, resolutions, co-sponsors and extensions of remarks — to a dedicated and secure email system, rather than deliver these materials by hand to staff in the Speaker’s Lobby or Cloakrooms,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced.

Rank-and-file lawmakers in both chambers insist the day to day operations of Congress — hearings, markups, press conferences, caucus meetings — should continue in some form while the House and Senate remain out for weeks in order to prevent the spread of the virus on Capitol Hill. But congressional leaders have staunchly resisted modern technology that could allow members to vote remotely.

The great American lockdown that put the economy on ice is fueling hopes of a 5G boom. US mobile carriers were already planning to spend big on deploying superfast wireless internet in the coming years. Then the coronavirus pushed a massive nationwide adoption of Zoom video conferences, distance learning, online doctors’ visits and daylong Netflix binges — and the top internet providers are ready to spend a lot more. Verizon announced it was boosting its estimated capital investment for this year by $500 million, to as much as $18.5 billion, to accelerate its 5G efforts.