Agenda

Tech companies long averse to regulation are starting to embrace the idea of federal data privacy rules as they nervously eye foreign governments' moves toward more tightly regulating their expansive businesses. It's too late for tech to escape sweeping new privacy rules like Europe's General Data Protection Regulation. But clear rules from the US could serve as a global standard as countries around the world look to impose or tighten privacy laws.  As it stands, Europe's first-mover regulations are already resonating globally.

A bipartisan bill now in Congress would give the National Institutes of Health $95 million over five years to fund studies on how media and technology effect children.

Two bills aimed at reinstating aspects of the repealed Obama-era net neutrality rules are headed to a vote in the California General Assembly. The measures, billed by state legislators as “the strongest net neutrality protections in the country,” were stripped of key provisions earlier in 2018 amid fierce opposition from industry groups, but those components were later restored, and the measures have gained momentum in recent weeks.

The Federal Communications Commission has denied a request to stop the clock or extend the pleading cycle associated with the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint combination. The FCC denied the request by Public Knowledge, the Benton Foundation, and others to stop the review clock in order for operators to supplement their public interest statement with more specific information. In denying the request, the FCC said the the movants failed to establish any basis for granting the extension.

After a long pre-season in which little else happened other than setting a schedule and format for briefing, August 20, 2018 was Opening Day for the litigation appealing the Federal Communications Commission’s December 2017 network neutrality decision. Two groups of challengers (technically referred to as “petitioners”) filed their briefs Monday evening in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will deliver the keynote address for the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative research organization, at a fundraising luncheon in September. The center noted Chairman Pai's controversial role in ending the FCC’s net neutrality regulations and touted his efforts to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse in federal programs. Chairman Pai will attend the center’s 2018 Freedom & Opportunity Luncheon. “The FCC Chairman’s regulatory philosophy is informed by a few simple principles, competition paramount among them,” the center stated.

Ever since its founding 20 years ago in a Silicon Valley garage, Google has proudly and often ostentatiously held itself up as the architect of a new model for corporate virtue. Google, they said, would always put long-term values over short-term financial gain. “Making the world a better place” would be a primary business goal, and Google’s ethical compass could be summed up in a simple and celebrated motto: “Don’t be evil.” Now, Google appears to be changing its mind.

In this Order, we extend the previously announced deadline for the close of the Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) challenge window by an additional 90 days. Challengers will have until November 26, 2018, to submit speed test data in support of a challenge. We adopt this extension to ensure that interested parties can initiate and submit speed test data for areas they wish to challenge. In addition, given this extension, we propose to make modifications to the speed test data specifications regarding the relevant timeframes for valid speed tests.