Broadband news digest for Friday, November 21, 2025
This week, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) approved 19 state and territory Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program Final Proposals (18 of them on Tuesday and Texas on Thursday), another step towards states breaking ground on BEAD-funded broadband deployment.
Even as debates continue about the role of social media in our country, including on censorship and its impact on youth, Americans use a range of online platforms, and many do so daily. YouTube and Facebook remain the most widely used online platforms. The vast majority of U.S. adults (84%) say they ever use YouTube. Most Americans (71%) also report using Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta Platforms directors agreed to a $190 million settlement of claims they failed to rectify repeated violations of Facebook users’ privacy and improperly engineered an accord to shield the billionaire chief executive officer from personal liability. The amount of the settlement had been sealed since a trial was halted in July.
Friday, November 21, 2025
The Federal Communications Commission took action to rescind a prior Declaratory Ruling misconstruing the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). The Order also withdraws an Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that accompanied that Declaratory Ruling, which was based in part on the Declaratory Ruling’s legal analysis and proposed cybersecurity requirements.
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