Upon assuming control of Twitter, Elon Musk reportedly fired Twitter’s chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and others
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October 28, 2022 – Elon Musk finalized a $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter on Thursday, reported several news outlets, after months of public reversals and legal battles with the social media platform.
Upon assuming control, Musk reportedly fired Twitter’s chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and others. Musk has previously stated that he favors more permissive content-moderation policies that tolerate speech from all viewpoints. Many conservatives and other right-wingers have cheered his pro–free speech statements.
Musk first signaled his interest in buying Twitter earlier this year. The sale was struck in April, but the billionaire soon tried to back out, claiming the company obscured the number of bot accounts on its platform. Twitter sued to enforce the deal. But even after Musk once again agreed purchase the platform earlier this month, the parties still needed a judge’s ninth-inning extension to avoid going to trial.
Reactions to Musk’s acquisition varied by political ideology. Austin Petersen, a libertarian political commentator and former candidate for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination, celebrated the development. “The future for freedom is bright. Hope lives on. Thanks @elonmusk,” he tweeted shortly after reports of the deal were published.
Many liberals were less sanguine. “It’s like the gates of hell opened on this site tonight,” tweeted The Washington Post’s technology columnist, Taylor Lorenz, Thursday night.
“Let the good times roll,” Musk tweeted Friday morning.
The National Advertising Division, an advertising-industry watchdog, ruled Wednesday that Cox Communications’ claim to offer “gig speeds everywhere” was supported by fact, largely dismissing a challenge brought by AT&T.
NAD did, however, recommended that Cox specify gig speeds are only available for download and refrain from implying that AT&T “does not offer similar or faster speeds than 5G providers in markets where Cox and AT&T compete.”
AT&T’s complain sprung from an advertising campaign by Cox that juxtaposed the companies’ products. According to NAD’s ruling, a “reasonable message” implied by Cox’s ads was that Cox offered better-than-5G speeds while AT&T did not. The watchdog said this claim is unsupported since some AT&T customers can purchase plans with 1-gig speeds.
NAD said Cox signaled its intensions to comply with the ruling.
The AT&T–Cox dispute is not the first to come before NAD in recent months. In August, in response to a claim by Verizon, the watchdog ruled against a T-Mobile advertisement.
“NAD recommended that T-Mobile discontinue the claim that consumers can ‘save up to 50% vs. National [Federal Communications Commission] Broadband Rate Benchmark’ with [T-Mobile Home Internet], and the implied claim that a consumer will save up to 50% on their home internet services versus major competitors like Verizon,” the NAD’s August ruling said.
The Fiber Broadband Association and the Wireless Infrastructure Association announced on Wednesday a partnership to promote the development of the broadband workforce.
WIA said the agreement will promote both organizations’ workforce outstanding development initiatives as well as the Registered Apprenticeship Program.
“Thanks to strong support from industry and our partners in the federal government and across the states, WIA has been expanding quality training programs across the U.S. to meet the demand for a highly-skilled broadband workforce, including through our Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP), and our 5G Readiness Program,” said Patrick Halley, president and CEO of the WIA.
“We’re seeing considerable [National Telecommunications and Information Administration] funding as well as private investments that will help create digital equity across North America, but we can’t do that without a larger technical workforce to actually build the networks,” said FBA CEO Gary Bolton. “This partnership with WIA will help close that workforce gap.”
The NTIA will soon administer the distribution of $42.45 billion from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, which is funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. Projects funded by BEAD and other government programs need trained workers, however, and many industry experts have sounded the alarm on an impending workforce shortage in the broadband industry.
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ISP is rebutting claims of the Associated Press and The Markup story on internet deals in non-white neighborhoods
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October 27, 2022 – Verizon is requesting the Federal Communications Commission deny claims of discrimination as a “de facto” reason for areas with no network deployment, according to a Wednesday letter from the telecom company.
“We…explained that the Commission should reject arguments to assume that any area where our network is not deployed is de facto caused by discrimination,” the letter said, alluding to the October 24 meeting where the issue was discussed.
“Instead, the actions of third parties, and technical and economic considerations explain areas in Verizon’s territory where its services are not available, notwithstanding demographics,” the letter added.
Last week, the Associated Press and The Markup co-published a story that revealed that Verizon was among a number of service providers that offered “fast base speeds at or above 200 [Megabits per second] Mbps in some neighborhoods for the same price as connections below 25 Mbps in others.” The story noted the neighborhoods that got the worst deals had lower median incomes in nine out of 10 cities in the data analysis.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s digital discrimination provisions require that the FCC create rules to coordinate equitable access to broadband and prevent digital discrimination based on race and class status, yet taking into account “issues of technical and economic feasibility,” according to the document.
In September of this year, Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies alleged no evidence of digital redlining, in the results of an empirical analysis questioning the IIJA’s provision racial and class-based bias in digital discrimination.
“Discrimination is costly to the firm (i.e., forgone profits), so these results indicating a lack of digital discrimination are consistent with profit-maximizing behavior by providers” said George Ford, Phoenix center chief economist.
The Department of Agriculture announced Thursday it is committing $759 million from the ReConnect program to deploy fiber broadband infrastructure in rural, tribal and U.S island territories, according to a press release.
Awards include a $36-million loan will go to the Public Service Telephone Company in Georgia; a $34-million grant to Western New Mexico Telephone Company Inc.; a $34-million grant to Upper Peninsula Telephone Company in Michigan; a $30-million grant to Dena’ Nena’ Henash (Tanana Chiefs Conference); a $29-million grant to Teleguam Holdings LLC; a $25-million grant to Leaco Rural Telephone Cooperative Inc.; a $25-million grant to Pawnee Nation Of Oklahoma; a $25-million grant to Pioneer Telephone Cooperative in Oregon; a $25-million grant to WNM Communications Corporation in New Mexico; and a $24-million grant to Hayneville Telephone Company Inc. in Alabama, according to the USDA website.
“USDA partners with small towns, local utilities and cooperatives, and private companies to increase access to high-speed internet so people in rural America have the opportunity to build brighter futures. Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, USDA is committed to making sure that people, no matter where they live, have access to high-speed internet. That’s how you grow the economy – not just in rural communities, but across the nation,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in the release.
The ReConnect loan and grant program distributes loans and grants to fund the costs of broadband deployment in areas that do not have access to service at speeds of 100 * 20 Megabits per second.
Last month, the USDA announced a $502 million commitment from the ReConnect program, dispersed in 20 states.
Nearly half of the 2,500 participants surveyed by fiber service provider Utopia Fiber said they chose speeds of 1 Gigabit per second or higher, according to its 2022 customer survey results released Tuesday.
The survey by the Utah-based fiber company found that 43 percent of respondents chose the gigabit speeds or higher, with 95.8 percent saying internet speed was either “extremely important (64.94%) or “very important (27.7%),” according to the results.
Metrics company Ookla’s Speedtest results in September 2022 reported the national median speed for fixed broadband is 172.30 Megabits per second download and 22.40 Mbps upload. Utopia Fiber says the need for faster speeds is a result of the rise in remote work and use of online streaming services.
“The big takeaway here is that ‘Internet is life’, and either you have it, or you don’t,” Kimberly McKinley, chief marketing officer of Utopia Fiber, said in a press release. “Consumers also shared that their communities were better places to live now (76.02%) because municipalities made the wise decision to invest in fiber and allow every home and business the same equitable opportunities and services at a very reasonable and fair price.”
In Ookla’s third quarter market report, the average download speed of the top 10 cities combined for fixed broadband is 244.93 Mbps.
‘By joining the movement, we can ensure an internet shaped by our shared public interest values.’
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October 26, 2022 – Internet advocacy group Public Knowledge announced Tuesday the launch of the Movement for a Better Internet, an organization that will bring together technology policy advocacy groups to promote better policy decisions to create a “better internet.”
The group will share blog posts, social content, leadership pieces and events. The website says it will gather diverse voices through workshops, roundtables and meetings.
Public Knowledge said it’s collaborating with the Association for Progressive Communications, Creative Commons, Derechos Digitales, Internet Archive, Niskan Center, and Wikimedia Foundation in this effort.
“The internet lies at a crossroads and every member of society has a stake in its future,” Lisa Macpherson, Public Knowledge’s senior policy analyst, said in a blog post. “As the digital landscape evolves and innovates, the internet offers new opportunities for self-expression and community building. But it is also fraught with misinformation and manipulation; deceptive privacy practices; and all-powerful, unaccountable gatekeepers. In time, our Web3 innovations and metaverse futures will either approach or avoid this same crossroads that the current popular internet faces.
“By joining the movement, we can ensure an internet shaped by our shared public interest values — an internet that puts people and communities first. We encourage academics, activists, and advocates working at organizations passionate about creating this better internet to join us in this movement,” Macpherson added.
Brendan Carr, Federal Communications Commission commissioner, on Tuesday came out in support of the introduction of a bill that would require the FCC to publish a list of every entity that holds an agency license with ties to authoritarian regimes.
The Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act was introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, R-NY, on Tuesday.
Carr said on Twitter there’s a lack of disclosure on entities with ties to the Chinese Communist Party and other authoritarian governments operating in the U.S. tech and telecom markets. This makes it more difficult to assess potential harm to the U.S. national security interests, Carr said.
Carr added the CCP will use every tool available to advance its malign goals to surveil Americans. He said one example is that it develops and exploit tech and telecom relationships.
Last week, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel backed legislation introduced in both chambers that would allow the agency to require television and radio broadcasters to reveal who is sponsoring foreign programming.
Officials in Saratoga Springs, New York and representatives from telecom SiFi Networks formally celebrated Tuesday the groundbreaking of the telecom’s Saratoga Springs FiberCity project, a $32-million venture that they said will see every home, business and institution in the city connected to fiber.
The network was constructed earlier this year, but a SiFi Networks spokesperson told Broadband Breakfast that city and company officials could not get together when it initially broke ground.
The project will be an open access fiber network that will be turn on by 2024, providing fiber to homes, businesses and institutions.
GigabitNow will be the first provider on the network and will offer symmetrical plans between 350 Megabits per second and up to 10 Gigabits per second with pre-registration available now, a press release said
“It’s now estimated that one-third of the workforce works remotely, at least part of the week. Having the FiberCity in Saratoga Springs is a game changer for economic development and will also help the region attract large employers and technology companies,” Todd Shimkus, president and CEO of Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce in the release.
In February, SiFi Networks CEO Ben Bawtree-Jobson, said SiFi planned to put $2 billion towards open-access fiber networks in 30 cities in the US, with the goal of connecting every home directly to fiber.
‘We have every reason to believe the Justices will … agree to hear this case,’ said CCIA President Matt Schruers
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October 25, 2022 – Two organizations are asking the Supreme Court to review a Florida social media law to see if its prohibitions on social media companies deplatforming users for certain political views violates the First Amendment.
“The question presented is: Whether S.B. 7072 in its entirety, and its compelled disclosure provisions in particular, comply with the First Amendment,” said the Monday Supreme Court submission by industry association Computer and Communications Industry Association and big tech lobbyist NetChoice.
The submission follows one by the State of Florida, which petitioned the Supreme Court earlier this month asking the high court for a review of the constitutional issues at the core of the social media law.
“We have every reason to believe the Justices will see the threat the Florida law presents to long standing principles of U.S. democracy and agree to hear this case,” Matt Schruers, president of the CCIA, said in a press release.
“The First Amendment means that governments cannot pick winners and losers in the marketplace of ideas,” Schruers added. “Florida’s law violates a well-established Constitutional principle that the government cannot dictate what content private entities distribute, and particularly not to ensure that a favored viewpoint is heard. As more governments line up to control online speech, it is vital that the Supreme Court hear this case to uphold principles of free expression.”
In May, the 11th circuit court rejected Florida’s social media law, and in June 2021, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle blocked enforcement of the bill.
Earlier this month, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals approved a stay of the implementation of a similar bill, Texas’s social media law H.B. 20, which would have disallowed big tech platforms from moderating content based on political leanings.
Directors from technology research network Manufacturing USA convened with 12 government agencies at the White House leadership summit on Monday to discuss domestic manufacturing and workforce development and the implementation of the Chips and Science Act, the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, according to a readout.
“The Manufacturing USA institutes are an important part of that work,” the readout said. “They help facilitate U.S. leadership in advanced manufacturing and build a strong workforce. The institutes work through public-private partnership and are involved in a range of cutting-edge technologies from robotics to additive manufacturing to biomanufacturing.”
Manufacturing USA focuses on developing domestic manufacturing technologies through public-private partnerships among U.S. industry, universities, and federal government entities.
The institutes are located in thirteen states across the country and each is sponsored by the Department of Commerce, the Department or Defense, or the Department of Energy.
Fiber-based service provider FirstLight announced Tuesday it is expanding its fiber network beyond the 1,280 miles its built so far in New York state.
FirstLight has built 1,280 miles year-to-date with plans to build an additional 480 miles by the end of the year, according to a press release. FirstLight’s New York-based fiber network extends from Buffalo to Albany and from the Hudson Valley to Plattsburgh.
“Since FirstLight’s inception in 1999, the focus has been to design a robust and reliable fiber-optic network in New York and our mission remains the same,” FirstLight CEO Kurt Van Wagenen said in a press release. As we grow throughout the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, it is important that we continue to expand our capabilities as well as extend our network reach to best serve our long standing customers.”
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