Digital Content

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared with her colleagues a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would begin the process of strengthening the FCC’s rules for notifying customers and federal law enforcement of breaches of customer proprietary network information (CPNI). The updates would better align the FCC’s rules with recent developments in federal and state data breach laws covering other sectors. The proposal outlines several updates to current FCC rules addressing telecommunications carriers’ breach notification requirements. These include:

Privacy advocacy groups Free Press Action and Fight for the Future are urging Senate Democrats to quickly confirm Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to the Federal Communications Commission and Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission. President Joe Biden renominated both nominees on January 4 after the Senate failed to confirm them in December 2021. Both the FCC and the FTC currently have 2-2 partisan splits, making it difficult for their Democratic chairs to advance controversial items.

Lawmakers and lobbyists anticipate a major fight over antitrust bills meant to tame Big Tech before the midterms put an unofficial end to the legislative effort. The bills could remake how Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google operate and treat competitors — if they make it over the finish line.

New, independent digital outlets and nonprofits have begun to fill some of the gap left by fading local newspapers. Limited resources and the pandemic have driven many toward providing community news, information and services rather than traditional accountability journalism. There are now more than 700 independent local news startups in the US and Canada, according to Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION), a trade organization. LION now has over 400 paying members, up from 177 at the start of the pandemic according to executive director Chris Krewson.

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan submitted comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) concerning their inquiry into Big Tech payment platforms. Khan identified three areas of concern that she hopes can help to inform the CFPB's inquiry:

The San Antonio (TX) Food Bank has teamed up with the San Antonio Public Library, nonprofit Feeding Texas and internet service provider (ISP) Google Fiber to spearhead "Get Connected!," an effort to bolster digital literacy rates. The partners are distributing free refurbished laptops, holding monthly dual-language classes on basic computer skills and raising awareness of internet assistance programs. Such programs offer free or discounted internet access to low-income families.

As technology's role in American life increases, people on both sides of today's political divide have grown wary of its influence. A majority of respondents to a survey by Axios and the Illinois Institute of Technology expressed concern about the use of artificial intelligence, the reach of algorithms, the state of their online privacy, the size of tech firms and dependence on smartphones. Three-quarters of those polled said tech companies are too big (80 percent of liberals and 83 percent of conservatives).

As executive VP of digital platforms at Charter Communications, Jodi Robinson is the go-to digital chieftain at the cable company, leading its video product management, customer self-service platforms, internal design agency and its data platforms organization. A graduate of Stanford University, Robinson joined Charter in 2014 as senior Vice President. She has led its digital platforms organization since 2019 and its user experience design and development organization since joining the company.

Lina Khan's first six months leading the Federal Trade Commission has shown she's either shaken up a sleepy bureaucracy or pushed long-standing norms too far, depending on who you ask. As President Biden's first year ends, many are watching Khan's FTC to see whether it really can fundamentally change how the US regulates big companies and how tech should treat consumers.

Being on social media can feel a bit like living in a new kind of city. My job used to be to protect the city. I was a member of the Facebook Civic Integrity team. My coworkers and I researched and fixed integrity problems—abuses of the platform to spread hoaxes, hate speech, harassment, calls to violence, and so on. Over time, we became experts, thanks to all the people, hours, and data thrown at the problem. As in any community of experts, we all had at least slightly different ways of looking at the problem. For my part, I started to think like an urban planner.