Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Angus King (I-ME) have joined a bipartisan group urging the Department of Agriculture to direct funding for broadband internet expansion to high-need rural areas. They urged the USDA to set aside part of a $600 million rural broadband fund for “geographically challenged” areas. They cited a Federal Communications Commission statistic that of the 24 million US households that do not have reliable, affordable, high-speed internet service, 80 percent are in rural areas. In addition to Sens. Collins and King, the letter was signed by Sens. Joe Manchin(D-WV),  Dean Heller (R-NV), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH). 

Trying to protect an open internet state by state, rather than by federal law, is a daunting and unwieldy goal. Unfortunately, it’s also entirely necessary, given that the Trump administration and Congress are more than happy to let internet providers restrict what we — the American people — can see and access online. As much as the internet has been abused by bogus web and social media sites, an independent internet is an important part of maintaining an informed citizenry. Getting rid of net neutrality means you might pay more for such things as streaming movies from particular sites. You might also suddenly find you can’t go into competition with an established web-based company with your own web-based start-up because you don’t have the deep pockets to pay for fast internet speeds.

A growing number of US households are exclusively accessing the internet via smartphones, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. While much of the discussion about cord cutting in the US is focused on households that are canceling cable or satellite TV services, this latest finding indicates the trend is now expanding into broadband services. “The number of people who are smartphone-only internet users—meaning they own a smartphone but do not have traditional home broadband service—has grown from 12% in 2016 to 20% this year,” according to the latest survey. Moreover, while the proportion of American adults with high-speed broadband service at home has steadily increased since 2000, adoption rates have been declining since 2016. Saturation levels may have peaked in 2016 when 73% of US residents had broadband service at home. As of the beginning of 2018, adoption dipped to 65%.

Rural Georgia needs better internet access quickly, but state lawmakers said internet companies won’t expand to rural areas if there’s too much red tape. Lobbyists said their companies are spending too much time negotiating with each city and county for access to roads to install broadband equipment. So state lawmakers and local elected officials will meet for the first time to talk about who has the right of way. Dublin Mayor Phil Best said the residential areas of town are where broadband service spotty. He said he welcomes internet providers, but he wants to keep local control of his city. Best is also first vice president of the Georgia Municipal Association, which represents the interests of city governments in Georgia. He said cities want companies to install broadband access in their communities quickly, but how to make sure their assets and ordinances are respected at the same time is “the $10,000 question.”

Delta Air Lines’ CEO Ed Bastian said that the airline was working hard toward offering free in-flight Wi-Fi to all of its passengers. Though Bastian neglected to attach an exact timeline to his claim, he noted that the plan comes in response to Delta passengers’ vocal desire for fast, free connectivity. “I don’t know of anywhere else, besides in an airplane, that you can’t get free Wi-Fi,” Bastian opined. “We’re going to make it free.” Not everything about the shift is positive, though, as in-flight Wi-Fi also leaves passengers vulnerable to hacking in ways they generally aren’t on the ground. In the confined locale that is an airborne aircraft cabin, hackers have more leverage than many of us are prepared to combat, and some even use sophisticated hardware stowed in carry-on baggage to access data better kept behind closed doors. As a result, cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly pressing issue for airlines worldwide. 

At the Senate antitrust subcommittee hearing on Oct 3, Department of Justice antitrust chief Makan Delrahim teased that the DOJ is wrapping up what it bills as a first-ever criminal case against the anticompetitive use of search algorithms in a "price-fixing scheme." Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) asked about search algorithms used by companies "like Google or Yelp!" that use algorithms that can have "profound market effects," like disadvantaging less tech-savvy small businesses by "guiding users away from the best option at the cheapest price." He asked what resources Delrahim had to scrutinize algorithms and AI systems as a "potential misuse of market power." The antitrust chief suggested they were already being employed in that pursuit. Delrahim said that the anticompetitive use could take a couple of forms, like two potential competitors using the same algorithm "as a way of effectuating a price-fixing scheme." "We actually have a case that's a criminal case that is going to be coming to conclusion in the next two weeks, I think, and then we will make public the use of that, and I believe it is the first of its kind." He said if there is market power that can harm innovation or new entry or other threat to market power via that algorithm, "it certainly could be a violation of the antitrust laws," he said, but that it is something the US and the European Union are struggling with.

Vice President Mike Pence amplified the charge leveled by President Donald Trump recently, saying China has used covert actors, front groups and propaganda in an attempt to sway US public opinion. "To put it bluntly, President Trump's leadership is working and China wants a different American president," Pence said. "As a senior career member of our intelligence community recently told me, what the Russians are doing pales in comparison to what China is doing across this country." The vice president pointed to an advertising supplement China ran in the Des Moines Register, which he said "cast our trade policies as reckless and harmful to Iowans."

VP Pence also took aim at Google, calling on the tech giant to halt development of a project it said would accelerate censorship efforts in China. “For example, Google should immediately end development of the Dragonfly app that will strengthen Communist Party censorship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers,” VP Pence said. 

When Facebook announced in April that it would create a public database of political advertising, it seemed like a meaningful step—something that might make it harder for Russian trolls and other bad actors to try to manipulate public opinion using the company’s self-serve ad platform. But it soon became obvious the move would cause problems for media companies: In a follow-up post, Facebook said that any news stories on political topics that were promoted or “boosted” to extend their reach in the News Feed would also be labeled as political ads and put in the database.

To promote political news stories, Facebook requires that publishers apply and be authorized as a political advertiser—presumably to prove that they aren’t a front for a Russian or Iranian troll factory. The process requires the uploading of official ID, such as a driver’s license, a passport, or the last four digits of a Social Security Number, along with receipt of a registered letter at an approved US address. For larger media outlets, these requirements might be complicated and annoying. For smaller publishers, Facebook’s new rules can be so unwieldy and demanding—and the definition of what constitutes a “political news story” so capricious—that small newsrooms in four states said they are either scaling back their Facebook usage or, in some cases, have given up on promoting their content there at all.