Internet/Broadband

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) is prepared to seek judicial review of the Federal Communications Commission’s Network Neutrality repeal to ensure that Latinos and other marginalized communities continue to have access to an open Internet.

There’s still a small chance we could stop the upcoming network neutrality vote — but if we lose the rules, what’s next? First of all, Free Press will take the Federal Communications Commission to court. Suing the FCC poses the best chance for us to win back strong Title II protections.

[Commentary] We have all heard about a gap when it comes to participation of women in the tech industry. But the gender gap problem doesn’t stop there. There’s also a shortage of women using some of the industry’s products.

[Commentary] Is it conceivable that Congress created the Federal Communications Commission so that it could identify a risk and then decide that it should take no action to constrain it? The Restoring Internet Freedom order suggests that the FCC doesn’t approve of blocking, but insists that the FCC will do nothing about it if it takes place. The Federal Trade Commission is a great antitrust and consumer-protection agency and its work is vitally important. But it was not designed to be an expert in the way that communications networks operate.

The Federal Communications Commission is moving forward with a plan to scrap net neutrality rules, defying a massive outcry from activists, Democrats and consumers. “I think what net neutrality repealed would actually mean is we once again have a free and open internet,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show.

More than 80 percent of voters oppose the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to repeal its net neutrality rules, according to a new poll from the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation. The survey presented respondents with detailed arguments from both supporters and opponents of the repeal plan, before asking them where they stood on the rules. It found that 83 percent overall favored keeping the FCC rules, including 75 percent of Republicans, 89 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of independents.

The Wall Street Journal has uncovered thousands of fraudulent comments on regulatory dockets at federal agencies, some using what appear to be stolen identities posted by computers programmed to pile comments onto the dockets. After sending surveys to nearly 1 million people—predominantly from the FCC docket—the Journal found a much wider problem than previously reported, including nearly 7,800 people who told the Journal comments posted on federal dockets in their names were fakes.

Paid prioritization involves a telecommunications company charging an additional fee to transport a video stream or other content at a higher speed through its network. The fee would most likely come from deals struck with websites such as Netflix willing to pay for a competitive advantage over an online rival.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Connect2Health Task Force (C2HFCC) announced that the FCC and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have joined forces, signing a memorandum of understanding that will focus on how increasing broadband access and adoption in rural areas can improve the lives of rural cancer patients.  As an inaugural project under the memorandum of understanding, the agencies have convened a public-private collaboration to help bridge the broadband health connectivity gap in Appalachia, taking another concrete step toward closing the digital divide.

Rep Mike Coffman (R-CO), a staunch conservative in nearly every sense, called on the Federal Communications Commission to delay its upcoming vote in a letter, saying Congress should find a “permanent legislative solution to ensure the continuation of a free and open Internet.” “The Internet has been and remains a transformative tool,” Coffman writes, “and I am concerned that any action you take may alter the rules under which it functions and may well have significant unanticipated negative consequences.”  Rep Coffman then threw FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s own—actually quite elegant—words back