Research

This year, Congress passed a law forcing ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell the app within a year or face a potential shutdown. However, there is speculation that the incoming Trump administration could reverse the ban, even though the first Trump administration originally raised the idea of a ban, and his potential cabinet picks remain 

The U.S. fiber industry set another record in 2024, marketing fiber to 10.3 million new homes, up from 9.1 million new homes marketed to in 2023, according to data compiled by Michael Render, CEO and principal analyst at RVA LLC. The 10.3 million new homes marketed (as well as the 9.1 million homes from last year) also includes 2nd passings to some homes. In 2024, 8.4 million homes were passed and marketed with fiber for the first time. Fiber broadband is now marketed to 76.5 million U.S.

More than 80% of Canadians have access to fixed broadband networks, but for rural Canadians that figure drops to just 60%. Yet, this gap between who has broadband access and who doesn't is closing in rural areas at a rate nearly three times faster than in urban areas.

Federal agencies have already begun leveraging AI to empower existing agency missions and streamline programs. While use cases vary in application and maturity, the benefits of responsible government use of AI are potentially transformative. However, irresponsible or improper use fosters risks to individual privacy, security, and the fair and equal treatment of all citizens by their government. Key findings include:

Middleware, third-party software intermediaries between users and platforms, offers a promising solution to counter the concentrated power of social media platforms. The term has referred to a variety of technologies and systems over the years, including third-party provider tools that platforms themselves use internally.

The fifth installment of USTelecom’s Broadband Pricing Index (BPI) shows that prices for high-speed broadband internet services continue to decline—even as upload and download speeds rapidly advance. Key findings include:

• 55% of broadband customers choose 100-940 Mbps service ("BPI-Speed")
• BPI-Speed prices dropped 9.4% in the last year and 60% since 2015

A growing body of work has identified a digital language divide: the disparity between languages in terms of digital content availability, accessibility, and technological support.

Journalism is facing a trust crisis. Audiences are increasingly skeptical that mainstream media serves their interests and are turning their attention away from traditional news outlets. Meanwhile, online content creators who engage in journalist-style work are building huge, loyal audiences that eclipse those of traditional media. This shift in attention can be attributed, in part, to the different types of relationships that journalists and creators have with their audiences. This paper examines these relationships through the lens of trustworthiness.

In 2022, President Joe Biden (D-DE) signed the Data Mapping to Save Moms' Lives Act, which directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to “incorporate publicly available data on maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity into the agency’s Mapping Broadband Health in America platform, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The bipartisan bill was introduced in 2021 by Sens.

Amid national concerns about technology’s impact on youth, many teens are as digitally connected as ever. Most teens use social media and have a smartphone, and nearly half say they’re online almost constantly, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted Sept. 18-Oct. 10, 2024. Some key takeaways: