Reporting

As part of his just-announced "Partnership with Rural Communities," Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer has proposed a massive rural broadband connectivity program that includes $135 billion in investment and "protecting" municipal and co-op broadband networks. "The modern economy is a knowledge economy," Steyer's plan points out. "Full participation in commerce depends on reliable, fast, affordable access to the Internet.

North Carolinians aren’t the quickest adopters when it comes to broadband. Despite the fact that around 94.8 percent of North Carolinians have access to high-speed internet, only 59.4 percent of households adopt it, according to the Federal Communications Commission. “It’s pretty low. That’s a good 40 percent of the population that has access but is still not adopting,” said Amy Huffman, NC Department of Information Technology’s digital equity and digital inclusion program manager. It affects rural and urban areas equally. “That’s a big problem,” she said.

Benton Senior Fellow Jonathan Sallet called for a new national broadband agenda. Over the past year, Jon has been talking to broadband leaders around the country, asking about who’s currently connected and who’s not. You can read Jon’s findings in Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s. Jon delivered the keynote address at the Broadband Communities conference in Virginia on Wednesday.

Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-LA) talked on the phone with President Donald Trump to outline his views on the Federal Communications Commission’s pending decision on how to get the coveted 5G-ready airwaves known as the C-band into wireless providers’ hands. Sen Kennedy said the conversation was positive. Sen Kennedy also met with FCC staff on spectrum auctioning, as the lawmaker had intended.

"Unfortunately, we are not able to honor your request," Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons tells Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) about the senator's ask that the agency release its 2012 staff report on Google. A chunk of that report was accidentally released back in 2015, revealing that FTC staffers judged that Google had caused "real harm" in the search and online ads markets as part of an investigation that ended with no charges brought against the company.

Twitter and Facebook are staking out starkly different positions about how to handle political ads, but it is unclear how either approach will prevent the spread of misinformation. Some social-media websites have banned ads related to candidates, political parties and legislation. But blocking issues-based advertising, such as ads from advocacy groups or trade organizations, can be hard to enforce, tech executives and media buyers say.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced the Filter Bubble Transparency Act that would force large online platforms to be more transparent about how their algorithms find content to share. The bill would require companies that collect data from more than 1 million users and make more than $50 million per year to notify users that their platforms use algorithms to determine what information is shown and offer users the opportunity to opt-out of curated content.

Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel looked to throw a scare into the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about the country's 5G-readiness. That came at a hearing on the national security risks, supply chain security, an promise of 5G.

The Texas-led antitrust investigation into Google has already spilled into court, after the company told a judge that two experts retained by the states raise serious “confidentiality” concerns given their past work with rivals, such as News Corp.

Thank you to the US Chamber of Commerce and to the Competitive Carriers Association for organizing this gathering today. This gathering represents the core of the “all of government” approach to address 5G security concerns.