Level of Government

All Points Broadband, Dominion Energy Virginia, and the Northern Neck Electric Cooperative announced the completion of the regional fiber-to-the-home broadband network in Virginia’s five-county Northern Neck region, bringing state-of-the-art fiber broadband to more than 10,000 locations in King George, Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, and Westmoreland counties previously unable to access broadband.

An “abject failure” is how one Culpeper County Supervisor characterized the county’s broadband project with All Points Broadband. At a January 2025 board meeting, All Points Senior Vice President of Business Development Tom Innes gave an update on the project, one that was extremely similar to the one he gave in November even though the company has a contracted deadline to be 80 percent complete with the project by the end of February.

A recent article published by the Russian Foreign Affairs Council (RFAC) claimed that some of organizations that engage in Internet governance have a clear U.S. bias.The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) responded, saying the claims are false. This all sounds like worldwide politics in action, but it raises a good question—who owns the Internet? There is no easy answer to that question.

Howard Lutnick, a wealthy donor to President Trump who has been chosen to lead the Commerce Department, defended Mr. Trump’s plans to impose broad tariffs and said he would take a tough stance on technology sales to China during his Senate confirmation hearing. If confirmed, Lutnick would lead on trade policy and oversee a broad portfolio of government programs touching on business promotion, technology and science.

Meta Platforms has agreed to pay roughly $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit that President Trump brought against the company and its CEO after the social-media platform suspended his accounts following the attacks on the U.S. Capitol that year. Of that, $22 million will go toward a fund for Trump’s presidential library, with the rest going to legal fees and the other plaintiffs who signed onto the case. Meta won’t admit wrongdoing.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has rescinded a memorandum that would have put a pause on all federal grant funds, creating significant confusion.

Rep Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-18) introduced H.R. 791, the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (FADPA), to prevent foreign-run piracy sites from exploiting loopholes in existing law. The introduction of the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act follows months of roundtable discussions and negotiations involving the content and tech communities to ensure the bill does not include undue liabilities and is both feasible and constitutional. The bill: 

Research shows that access to broadband correlates with greater economic opportunity and workforce participation as well as 

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX), Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Katie Britt (R-AL) introduced bipartisan legislation to keep kids off social media and help protect them from its harmful impacts. The Kids Off Social Media Act (S.278) would set a minimum age of 13 to use social media platforms and prevent social media companies from feeding algorithmically-targeted content to users under the age of 17.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Trump administration freeze on federal grants and loans that could total trillions of dollars. U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked the action minutes before it was set to go into effect. The administrative stay pauses the freeze until Monday, Feb 3. The White House had planned to start the pause as they begin an across-the-board ideological review of federal spending. The plan sparked confusion and panic among organizations that rely on Washington for their financial lifeline.