Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

We write concerning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Implementing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) “Prevention and Elimination of Digital Discrimination” (Docket/RM 22-69). We urge you to take swift action to adopt final rules to facilitate equal access to broadband internet.  Congress intended Section 60506 to require internet service providers to end discrimination resulting from programs and policies that perpetuate systemic barriers for people of color and other underserved groups.

Sens Ron Wyden (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep Sara Jacobs (D-CA) wrote to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan requesting the agency investigate Apple and Google for engaging in unfair and deceptive practices by enabling the collection and sale of hundreds of millions of mobile phone users’ personal data. "The FTC should investigate Apple and Google’s role in transforming online advertising into an intense system of surveillance that incentivizes and facilitates the unrestrained collection and constant sale of Americans’ personal data," says the letter.

Sens Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent letters to BetterHelp and Talkspace, two leading mental health apps, expressing deep concerns about the companies’ use of patients’ personal health data and requesting more information about their data sharing and privacy practices. Their letter follows reports that mental health apps are collecting, mining, and disseminating private client information to third parties, including data brokers and Big Tech companies like Google and Facebook.

Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep Mondaire Jones (D-NY) introduced bicameral legislation to help stomp out rampant industry consolidation that allows companies to raise consumer prices and mistreat workers. The Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act would ban the biggest, most anticompetitive mergers and give the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the teeth to reject deals in the first instance without court orders and to break up harmful mergers. The bill would:

Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to United States Attorney General Merrick Garland and Gary Gensler, Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) and SEC to open criminal and civil investigations into Facebook to determine if the company or its executives violated US wire fraud and securities laws.

Internet service providers (ISPs) have been able to get away with fostering pseudo-monopolies because they spend a lot of money to keep the regulatory environment and the conversation surrounding it murky. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, has been an effective agent for ISPs. He led the charge to dismantle net neutrality in 2018, and he has done everything in his power to stop municipalities from building their own broadband infrastructure.

I will make sure every home in America has a fiber broadband connection at a price families can afford. That means publicly-owned and operated networks — and no giant Internet service providers running away with taxpayer dollars. My plan will:

Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, requesting more information about reports that the FCC's Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) may be inappropriately dominated by industry insiders.

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and the head of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Makan Delrahim, urging close scrutiny of Sinclair Broadcast Group's recent acquisition of 21 Regional Sports Networks and Fox College Sports (RSNs) from the Walt Disney Company in a deal valued at $10.6 billion.

America’s big tech companies have achieved their level of dominance in part based on two strategies: 1) Using Mergers to Limit Competition Using and 2) Proprietary Marketplaces to Limit Competition.