FCC
Americans for Tax Reform & Digital Liberty File Comments to FCC on Best Practices for Preventing and Eliminating Digital Discrimination
Americans for Tax Reform and Digital Liberty jointly filed comments on February 21st with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the agency’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Digital Discrimination. These comments explore the pitfalls that would result from the agency’s adoption of a disparate impact standard to measure digital discrimination, as opposed to a…
Digital Liberty Op-Ed in The Hill: “The FCC is working just fine without Gigi Sohn”
On September 15, The Hill published an op-ed by Digital Liberty Executive Director James Erwin, refuting the argument that the Senate must rush to confirm flawed nominee Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) because the FCC cannot function properly without all five commissioners. As the op-ed…
The Senate Should Pass the House Spectrum Bill
Without Congressional reauthorization, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will lose its general spectrum auction authority at the end of the fiscal year on September 30. Congress has never allowed this to happen, and it should not do so now. Taking the initiative, the House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a…
House Energy and Commerce Committee Hold Hearing about Extending FCC’s Auction Authority
By Rich Sill The House Energy and Commerce held a hearing on May 24 on how to strengthen the United States’s communication networks. One of the bills discussed was the Extending America’s Spectrum Auction Leadership Act of 2022 (H.R. 7783), which would extend…
FCC Oversight Hearing: American Broadband Survived the Pandemic, Don’t Kill It with Misdirected Subsidies
By Rich Sill The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing on FCC oversight on March 31. This was the first time under the Biden administration that all four FCC commissioners were called to testify to the committee. At the hearing, FCC Chairwoman…
Bedoya and Sohn Nominations Remain Stalled
By Rich Sill The Senate Commerce Committee deadlocked once again at 14-14 on the questions of whether to move the nominations of Gigi Sohn and Alvaro Bedoya to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote. To proceed, the full Senate must vote to discharge the stalled nominations from the committee; a whole host of hurdles…
Second Hearing for FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn Raises Concerns
by Rich Sill The Senate Commerce Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held an unusual second hearing on the nomination of Gigi B. Sohn to be a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday, February 9th. The first took place in December 2021, but new information concerning a recusal agreement…
FCC Adds “Broadband Nutritional Labels,” Removes China Unicom
By Rich Sill The Federal Communications Commission held an open meeting on January 27th to vote on several proposed new rules. The first item on the agenda was to require broadband companies to provide important information to customers before they purchase broadband. This information includes prices, data speed, and data allowances. Broadband companies would present this information…
Digital Liberty Supports Marketing Opportunities for Connected Devices
You might not realize that all connected devices go through a pretty strict testing process to ensure there isn’t any harmful interference with other devices that also use spectrum to communicate. Because of outdated rules manufactures product launches have been seriously delayed. Rather than being able to have test products,…
FCC Votes to Uphold The Restoring Internet Freedom Order
By Noah Vehafric Today the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 in support of an order that would uphold their original Restoring Internet Freedom Order after it was reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Restoring Internet Freedom (RIF) Order was the FCC’s…