News

Opponents of AT&T’s plan to acquire Time Warner may have to rely on the Department of Justice as their sole federal option for blocking the $85.4 billion deal as it looks increasingly likely that the FCC won’t review it.

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission voted 2–1 to stay one of the agency’s broadband-privacy rules adopted in October 2016 and scheduled to take effect tomorrow, March 2.

In its first few weeks in office, the Trump administration has taken aim at a number of its predecessor’s policies.

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday morning, Donald Trump’s FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, spoke at a broadband-industry conference and falsely claimed that Net Neutrality protections contribute to uncertainty in the marketplace and a decline in industry investments in networks.

According to Timothy Karr, senior director of strategy for Free Press, “No FCC chair over the past 40 years has been so bent on undermining the agency’s public-service mission and destroying the safeguards on which hundreds of millions of Americans rely.”

The pace of FCC enforcement actions may quicken under a possible change that new Chairman Ajit Pai is contemplating.

WASHINGTON — On Friday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced plans to sidestep the agency’s procedures to prevent implementation of part of the FCC’s landmark broadband-privacy rules.

Until today, March 2 marked the date that internet service providers would be required to adopt “reasonable” measures to protect sensitive customer info like browsing histories, location data and Social Security numbers. Thanks to the FCC’s new leadership, however, that deadline will now be extended indefinitely, and we have no idea if or when those rules will be enacted.

Net Neutrality, the internet’s open-access principle, is under assault by the Trump administration.

A coalition of civil rights and digital advocacy groups is calling on the FCC to renew its commitment to Lifeline, a program that provides subsidies for internet access to low-income households.