Ownership

AT&T will launch broadband services in states it doesn’t currently serve by forming a joint venture with BlackRock to fund the rollout of fiber-optic networks in new markets. The venture with BlackRock Alternatives will be called Gigapower LLC and aims to reach an initial 1.5 million customer locations across the US. The companies didn’t disclose the financial terms of the deal or the states they would seek to serve. The joint venture will be in addition to ATT's current goal of reaching more than 30 million fiber locations, including businesses, by the end of 2025. 

The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau started the 2022 Quadrennial Review of the FCC’s media ownership rules. The Bureau seeks comment on whether the media ownership rules remain “necessary in the public interest as the result of competition.” Although the FCC has not yet adopted final rules in the 2018 Quadrennial Review proceeding, it remains cognizant of the statutory obligation to review the broadcast ownership rules every four years.

Elon Musk said that Twitter was reinstating the accounts of several journalists whose accounts were suspended after he had accused them of violating the social media platform’s rules on personal privacy. Musk said he was restoring most of the accounts, which had been deactivated on Dec 15, after a majority of respondents in his informal Twitter survey voted that the suspensions should be lifted immediately.

Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists without publicly specifying why, the latest instance of the platform making content or user decisions under Elon Musk without much transparency. The accounts belonged to journalists from publications including CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Mashable.

The jokes and memes about Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase as proof of a massive midlife crisis are at least partly on point. The internet, for one, is having its own midlife crisis. And as with any midlife crisis, the internet can spiral into the abyss, continuing its own self-destructive pathway, or we can seize the moment to build a better internet founded on the essential principle that the internet belongs to all of us. Twitter isn’t just a platform. It’s how some of us live, work, and survive.

Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day. Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day. And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr.

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, said several factors led to his decision to leave the platform after almost eight years, including the disruptions created by 

For stock investors, a new risk is orbiting the satellite market: By trying to preserve competition, antitrust regulators could end up placing even more power in the hands of a privately-owned behemoth—Elon Musk‘s Starlink. California’s Viasat announced a $7.3 billion takeover of British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat in late 2021, making it a centerpiece in the long-awaited consolidation of the satellite market. Yet, despite the deal being cleared by the U.K.

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter is fueling a partisan clash in Washington, as Democrats raise concerns about the platform’s security and Republicans counter that the criticism is a thinly veiled attempt to stamp out conservative voices on the site.

When AT&T’s bold megadeal to buy Time Warner was announced in October 2016, combining AT&T’s broadband and wireless networks with Time Warner content, many analysts and investors cheered. They loved the promise of cutting out the cable middleman and delivering entertainment directly to people’s TVs, laptops, and phones. With Hillary Clinton seemingly poised to be the next president, the regulatory landscape looked favorable.