Reporting

Joe McNamara is heading to the Virginia House of Delegates with the promises of a red-blooded Republican, from reining in spending to avoiding tax increases. But the former Roanoke County supervisor is also a supporter of municipal broadband, where taxpayer funds are used to subsidize a government-owned internet service provider that competes directly with private companies like Comcast and Verizon. “It’s definitely, definitely something that whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, independent it really makes no difference,” McNamara said.

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley's victory over Sen Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is an ominous sign for one company in particular: Google. Hawley campaigned as an antagonist to big technology companies in general and Google in particular. In 2017, as MO's attorney general, Hawley launched a wide-ranging investigation into Google's business practices. "There is strong reason to believe that Google has not been acting with the best interest of Missourians in mind," Hawley said in a Nov 2017 statement.

A new report from Cisco forecasts an alarmingly slow internet traffic growth rate for Latin America, especially when compared to the other lagging regions, like the Middle East and Africa. When it comes to internet speed, Latin America is far behind all other regions and will continue to lag over the next five years, per the report.

Bots spreading misinformation are using more sophisticated techniques, like going after specific human influencers and targeting misleading information within the first few seconds of it being posted, according to new studies.

Consumer agencies in the Netherlands, Poland and five other European Union countries asked privacy regulators to take action against Google for allegedly tracking the movements of millions of users in breach of the bloc’s new privacy law.  Google is already facing a lawsuit in the United States for allegedly tracking phone users regardless of privacy settings. The consumer groups, which included those in the Czech Republic, Greece, Norway, Slovenia and Sweden, filed complaints with their respective national data protection authorities, based on research by their Norwegian counterpart.

More than 30 Google employees have joined a petition protesting the company’s plans to build a search engine that complies with China’s online censorship regime. An employee-led backlash against the project has been churning for months at the company, but Nov 27’s petition marks the first time workers at Google have used their names in a public document objecting to the plans. The existence of the project, code-named Dragonfly, was confirmed by chief executive Sundar Pichai in Oct.

The Federal Communications Commission is moving toward adopting a new rule that community television groups say would gut funding for public, educational and governmental channels. “The loser if that ends up happening will be the local taxpayer, the local cable subscriber and the everyday citizens who rely on access to public information that’s provided through these programs,” said Geoffrey C. Beckwith, executive director and CEO of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

President Donald Trump said that the United States should launch its own state-run cable TV network that would compete with CNN for viewers across the globe, a suggestion that prompted comparisons to networks run by the governments of Russia and China. In afternoon tweets, President Trump said, "While CNN doesn’t do great in the United States based on ratings, outside of the U.S. they have very little competition. Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair....and false way.

There’s a lot more behind the news that the Federal Communications Commission plans to increase the minimum broadband speed target in rural areas that wasn’t detailed in FCC Chairman Pai’s recent blog post about current commission initiatives. The plan to increase the minimum broadband speed is just one aspect of a 125-page order that the FCC will consider next month. Also detailed in the order: a plan to make new offers of model-based A-CAM broadband support to rural rate-of-return (ROR) carriers.

Apple's exclusive market for selling iPhone apps came under fire at the Supreme Court, as justices considered whether consumers should be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit alleging the company has an illegal monopoly that produces higher prices. The plaintiffs are a group of consumers pursuing a class-action lawsuit seeking damages on behalf of people who have purchased iPhone apps. They argue that prices are higher than they would be in a competitive market because Apple requires that all software for its phones be sold and purchased through its App Store.