Thomas Johnson

As though Americans don’t have enough to worry about right now, some people have recently been stoking fears about the supposedly harmful health effects of 5G — the new generation of wireless broadband networks. For decades, the Federal Communications Commission has ensured that equipment that transmits information over radio waves — from station antennas to cell towers to mobile phones to laptops — is safe for consumer use. The FCC most recently reviewed and reaffirmed those standards, which are among the most stringent in the world, in an order issued late in 2019. 

The Federal Communications Commission’s Office of General Counsel and Media Bureau wholly rejected a petition by Free Press demanding a government investigation into broadcasters that have aired statements by the President of the United States during White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings and related commentary regarding the coronavirus pandemic by other on-air personalities. The letter order notes that Free Press’ petition seeks remedies that would dangerously curtail the freedom of the press embodied in the First Amendment and misconstrues the FCC’s rules.

My topic for this afternoon: How difficult it is for regulators to predict how technology will develop and transform markets, and why that difficulty demands humility from our regulators. This is a particularly important lesson for the Federal Communications Commission, which stands at a unique crossroads between technology and innovation. Regulators are not good futurists.  And what predictive powers regulators have are weakening as technological progress quickens and becomes even less predictable.