Research

Since 2020, misinformation and disinformation related to election and voter suppression have continued to spread at a growing rate across online platforms. While internet platforms ramped up attempts to combat such information during the 2020 elections, many of these efforts appear to have been temporary measures. In anticipation of the 2022 US midterm elections, this report evaluates how online platforms are combating misleading election information against a selection of recommendations made by the Open Technology Institute in 2020.

In November 2021, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Black Brilliance Research Project (BBR), and Community Informatics Lab at Simmons University launched the six-city Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Fellowship. The DEAR Fellowship helped young adults, ages 19–24, learn participatory action research skills to examine and address the root causes of digital inequities in their communities. Participatory Action Research (PAR) is different from traditional research paradigms.

How quickly has broadband deployment progressed? How fast have Census blocks moved from unserved to underserved (or served)? And is there any movement in the other direction? From served areas to underserved or unserved? For the whole United States, there were 6.76 million unserved housing units in the Dec 2019 Form 477 data. 950,000 of those housing units moved to underserved in the next update for June 2020. 402,000 became served.

The study of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption signals that diffusion processes within highly unequal societies produce stratification in the access to digital technologies

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program's Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) includes workforce development as a critical component of state plans and applications for funding—and appropriately so, as creating good jobs and developing the broadband workforce necessary to deliver on this historic investment is a critical first step for any state or territory seeking to expand broadband to its unserved and underserved residents.

The University of Missouri (UM) System's Digitally Connected Community Guide is a collection of tools and resources that communities can use to become digitally connected. Communities that are digitally connected have access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet service and use internet-based technologies and applications to improve the health, education, and economic opportunities for everyone in the community. The Guide uses a five-step plan, informed by an online workshop, to bring high-speed internet to unserved Missouri communities.

Broadband markets in the United States are by and large competitive today, and the trends indicate that competition is becoming more widespread. Federal Communications Commission data show that the share of US households that have access to multiple providers of fast broadband is already very large and is increasing rapidly.

The UK has nearly 5 million houses with more than three choices of ultrafast fibre-optic broadband, while 10 million homes do not have a single option, according to analysis that points to the inequality in internet infrastructure across Britain. While some parts of the country are benefiting from high internet speeds, others have been left behind, according to research conducted by data group Point Topic with the Financial Times. The government has pledged to bridge the digital divide and level up the economy by extending fast broadband to all homes.

If the federal government’s investments in broadband connectivity are to be effective, different programmatic pieces must work together. Broadband infrastructure funds are necessary to ensuring universal access, but not sufficient to achieve full digital equity. Equitable broadband adoption depends on people having the financial means to maintain service, which the Affordable Connectivity Plan (ACP) facilitates, as well as access to wrap-around digital inclusion services (such as tech support and skills training).

YouTube videos viewed by children do not reflect the ethnic diversity of young children, tweens, and teens across the United States. In videos watched by young children, portrayals of BIPOC characters are disproportionately negative when compared to White characters. In videos watched by 0- to 8-year-olds, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) character portrayals were shallow or missing almost three-quarters of the time.