What's on the agenda for policymakers.
Agenda
There are growing calls from the administration, Congress, and some presidential candidates to either break up big tech companies or subject them to more careful scrutiny out of concern they may be violating competition laws. Some of this is egged on by advocates who would like to jettison the long-standing consumer welfare standard for antitrust policy, which holds that regulators should stay out of the way unless there is clear evidence a player’s actions are raising prices or curbing innovation.
NIST will be hosting the third in a series of public workshops on the development of the Privacy Framework: An Enterprise Risk Management Tool
President Trump signals US government ‘should be suing Google and Facebook’
President Donald Trump said the US government “should be suing Google and Facebook and all that,” then wagered that “perhaps we will,” in a new broadside against Silicon Valley at a moment when it already faces heightened antitrust scrutiny in Washington.
ReConnect Program Receives 53 Applications Worth $635M for Rural Broadband Loan/Grant Funding
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development received 53 applications requesting more than $635 million in loan-grant combination funding in the first round of the USDA ReConnect Pilot Program. The USDA made $200 million available for loan-grant combination projects in the first round of funding. The applications came from rural areas across 33 states, representing 1,099 farms and 859 businesses. Though the loan-grant application process is closed, the government will still accept applications for low-interest loans through July 12.
Texas Telecom Law Sets Up Legal Showdown for Cities, State
Cities across Texas stand to lose millions of dollars due to a new law that slashes fees telecom providers pay to them. But before the savings go into effect in 2020, it’s likely cities will challenge the legislation in the courts. The bill would slash right-of-way fees telecom providers pay cities to supply cable and phone service.
Right to Connect: A Media-Policy Roadmap for Presidential Candidates
A platform of recommended media-and-tech policies for all presidential candidates. Over the summer of 2019, Free Press Action will send the platform to each of the presidential candidates. Free Press Action will also generate a scorecard rating each candidate’s positions relative to Right to Connect’s recommendations. What is the platform asking candidates to do?
Access to reliable high speed broadband is a critical issue for small businesses, especially in rural communities that are still unserved. However, more accurate broadband maps are needed to direct federal funds to small rural carriers who seek to serve the most remote parts of America. Improved granularity and an opportunity for communities to challenge the accuracy of broadband maps are needed to build broadband networks out to the 19 million Americans on the dark side of the digital divide.
Hudson Institute will host Commissioner Michael O’Rielly to discuss the capping of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Federal Universal Service Fund (USF). The conversation will be moderated by the Director of Hudson’s Center for the Economics of the Internet Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
Events like the Edward Snowden leaks, massive data breaches, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal have increased awareness of the data we generate from our devices and our daily lives. We have visibility into some of this data use; social media is very much in the spotlight, and users often wonder what personal information accounts for the advertisements that they are served online. But much less is known about other ways that personal information is collected and shared to support e-commerce, cloud services, business planning, and research of all kinds.
** THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED **
A one-day workshop for Tribal governments, Tribal employees, and Tribal members. This event is designed to provide information that will help Tribal Nations identify and evaluate opportunities to develop more robust communications infrastructure and services in Tribal communities.