Diversity

The first brief explains how  Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act influences the digital landscape for Black users. While Section 230 has helped foster free expression and innovation online, it also creates gaps in accountability — enabling the spread of harmful and discriminatory content with limited consequences for platforms.

On March 27, 2025, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to consider the confirmation of Arielle Roth, President Donald Trump's nominee for Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. If confirmed as the Assistant Secretary and head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Roth would oversee $48.2 billion in broadband infrastructure and adoption funding Congress allocated through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Millions of Black Americans have been impacted by the digital divide, the gulf between people who have access to any internet at all and those who don't.

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Brendan Carr, recently launched his own proceeding he calls “IN RE: DELETE, DELETE, DELETE.” Carr says he’s following Trump’s orders to deregulate the telecommunications industry to spur economic prosperity.

House Commerce Committee Democrats launched an investigation into Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr’s attacks on the First Amendment and his weaponization of the independent agency.

T-Mobile said it modified, changed and ended some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in its bid to receive regulatory approval for its deal with EQT for fiber operator Lumos.

I am writing to inform you that I have asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into Disney and ABC.  In particular, I want to ensure that Disney and ABC have not been violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.  While I have seen reports that Disney recently walked back some of its DEI programs, significant concerns remain. For one, I want to ensure that Disney ends any and all discriminatory initiatives in substance, not just name.

The United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development (RD), which is comprised of the Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBCS), Rural Utilities Service (RUS), and Rural Housing Service (RHS), is amending 14 program funding opportunities to remove references to the Biden Administration’s key priorities and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-related scoring criteria to bring them into compliance with the Executive Order, ‘‘Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing’’, issued on January 20, 2025.

Ever since Donald Trump bumped Brendan Carr up to chair of the Federal Communications Commission in November 2024 (after naming him a commissioner during his first term), Chairman Carr has attacked the country’s media, entertainment and even tech giants with a cool fury, threatening their business and, critics say, attempting to bully them into more favorable coverage of the President. Historically concerned with the sundry matters of broadcast licenses and station fines, the FCC hardly would seem like the centerpiece of a major media-suppression effort.

When Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr issued his big deregulation announcement, I have to admit I chortled a little bit at my desk. The irony of the announcement just tickled my funny bone. At a certain point, there’s nothing else to do but laugh.