We study the effects of news coverage of the novel coronavirus by the two most widely-viewed cable news shows in the United States – Hannity and Tucker Carlson Tonight, both on Fox News – on viewers’ behavior and downstream health outcomes. Carlson warned viewers about the threat posed by the coronavirus from early February, while Hannity originally dismissed the risks associated with the virus before gradually adjusting his position starting late February. We first validate these differences in content with independent coding of show transcripts.

The Internet itself is being tested like never before. To understand how these challenges are testing, more than ever, both the Internet’s technical foundation and the society that relies on it, the Center for Data and Computing (CDAC) is launching a new initiative to deploy our expertise and collaborative relationships towards studying how this pandemic has affected the Internet network — how it is responding globally, and how well local communities are able to make use of it.

Here are five ideas about what the Federal Communications Commission can do, right now, to keep us as a country moving forward:

The public health crisis has exposed New York’s digital divide. Lawmakers representing communities in upstate New York have voiced concerns about the issue for years, fighting to increase access to high-speed internet in rural communities that often struggle to even get a bar of cell service. But despite repeated pledges by state officials to remedy the situation, access to high-speed broadband internet remains elusive in the state’s bucolic areas.

So far, 723 telecommunications companies large and small have signed the Federal Communications Commission's "Keep Americans Connected" pledge. But according to a growing movement, many of those same companies — and especially the largest ones — need to "remove fine print from the internet pledge." A petition which currently has 13,112 signatures is asking FCC C

Those of us who are able to work from home are only able to do so because we have three things — a working computer, broadband access and the technical skills needed to use our devices. But the people who live on the other side of the digital divide — most of whom are people of color, many of whom are people in their 40s, 50s and 60s — can’t work from home. The digital divide has always disproportionately impacted the same communities that have always been left behind in the US.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a sudden, massive public need for trustworthy digital inclusion services. Millions of Americans need support from digital inclusion programs: to get connected with affordable home internet, find affordable computing devices, and learn basic digital skills. “Digital Navigators” is an adaptation of traditional digital inclusion programming to this new reality, providing one-to-one dedicated support via phone service.  The realization that digital inclusion programs needed to adapt organically emerged in several places over the last month.

According to the latest Verizon Network Report, overall data volume across its networks has increased 19% compared to pre-COVID levels. While data usage remains at elevated levels, the changes in how people are using the network has stabilized. Peak data usage in several categories shows small week to week changes, though peak usage numbers remain high compared to typical pre-Covid-19 levels. In the US, there has been a notable decline in people’s movements during the course of the global pandemic.

5G could help solve the last-mile problem by bringing high-speed internet from the fiber backbone to the home. This hybrid solution could be a more realistic approach to connecting some areas of the country. However, the effort might still remain financially prohibitive for some providers, which might result in the need for the government to step in and subsidize part of the effort.

In the fourth week of its COVID-19 Internet Dashboard, NCTA-the Internet & Television Association said that peak broadband growth, both downstream and up, has plateaued.