Diversity

The Federal Communications Commission is renewing the charter of the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment for a two-year period. The purpose of the Committee is to make recommendations to the FCC on how to empower disadvantaged communities and accelerate the entry of small businesses, including those owned by women and minorities, into the media, digital news and information, and audio and video programming industries, including as owners, suppliers, and employees.

Federal Communications Commission media ownership deregulation took its latest trip to Philadelphia (PA) June 11 as the FCC defended its latest rule changes against a challenge by Prometheus Radio Project in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  Prometheus filed suit against the FCC's fall 2017 decision, under Chairman Ajit Pai, that eliminated the newspaper-broadcast and the radio-TV cross-ownership rules, among other deregulations. Joined by the Media Mobilizing Project, Prometheus wants the court to reverse the 2017 decision and require the FCC to "fully comply" with the court'

The Supreme Court said that it would hear a case alleging that Comcast discriminated against an African-American owned media company in declining to take up its channels. The justices said in an unsigned order that the court will consider whether the network needs to prove that Comcast meant to act in a discriminatory way in the case. Byron Allen, the owner of the Entertainment Studios Network (ESN), alleged that Comcast violated the Civil Rights Act of 1866 in rejecting to carry his channels.

Can Congress prevent the disproportionate harm inflicted on marginalized communities from at times irresponsible commercial data practices? As our lives increasingly shift online, so, too, have methods of discrimination—using individual data profiles—and our laws have been slow to keep up.

Sen Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep Yvette Clarke (D-NY) are urging the Federal Communications Commission to officially begin collecting data on the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of the broadcast workforce, saying that information could "empower" the commission to improve its oversight of the broadcast industry. The FCC's Democratic commissioners have been raising concerns about the issue for months, arguing that the FCC should reinstate the form (395-B) that requires broadcasters to report the racial, ethnic and gender breakdown of their offices.

Black activists say hate speech policies and content moderation systems formulated by a company built by and dominated by white men fail the very people Facebook claims it's trying to protect. Not only are the voices of marginalized groups disproportionately stifled, Facebook rarely takes action on repeated reports of racial slurs, violent threats and harassment campaigns targeting black users, they say. Many of these users now think twice before posting updates on Facebook or they limit how widely their posts are shared.

In the age of technological innovation, people of color find themselves embattled with upholding the same fight for equal rights. This time, the fight is online and offline. One such area is algorithmic bias. Algorithms are quantitative data, a process or set of rules involving mathematical calculations that produces more data that helps people make decisions. Algorithmic bias (machine learning bias) or AI bias, is a systematic error in the coding, collection, or selection of data that produces unintended or unanticipated discriminatory results.

I moved quickly to re-charter the Federal Communications Commission’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment, which had gone dormant. When it was chartered in July 2017, I charged the Committee’s leaders with developing real-world solutions to spur diversity and digital empowerment in under-served communities. I asked them to bring recommendations that could be quickly implemented in order to get solutions to the public rapidly. One of the deliverables to come out of this Advisory Committee is today’s workshop. And have they ever delivered!

Allow me to make a few brief points about why Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) is an important organization whose longevity should be celebrated. First, WICT opens doors. Second, WICT develops talent. Third, WICT creates role models. WICT demands our attention and deserves our respect. For four decades, you have empowered women in the cable industry and the sector is better for it. Congratulations on your 40th anniversary. Here’s to many more.