President Donald Trump ramped up his attacks against the nation's biggest newspapers, saying that a poll should be done to see whether The New York Times or The Washington Post is "more dishonest and deceitful." "A poll should be done on which is the more dishonest and deceitful newspaper, the Failing New York Times or the Amazon (lobbyist) Washington Post!" he said on Twitter. "They are both a disgrace to our Country, the Enemy of the People, but I just can’t seem to figure out which is worse?" "The good news is that at the end of 6 years, after America has been made GREAT again and I leave the beautiful White House both of these horrible papers will quickly go out of business & be forever gone," President Trump continued. He also asked if "people would demand that I stay longer" to "keep America great" after two terms in the White House. 

Even though community broadband has proven itself incredibly valuable and viable, broadband is taking a beating in some areas of the country thanks to what has become a siege against municipal broadband by the large telecommunication incumbents, including AT&T, Comcast, and others. This effort has led to a backlash against municipal broadband in some states, depriving communities of a well-tested option when it comes to high-speed connectivity to the Internet and the digital economy. The only way we can fight back is to start with reliable, locally generated data from those in the trenches. This is critically important. Nobody knows about local economies like economic development professionals, community groups, elected officials, co-ops and other local organizations. If communities don’t have their expertise at the table in Washington (DC) and state capitals, local broadband could lose big. So, if they won’t seat you at the table, bring a chair.       

[Craig Settles assists cities and co-ops with business planning for broadband and telehealth. He is currently surveying economic development professionals nationwide about the impact of telehealth and community broadband.]

A year ago, the Trump Federal Communications Commission announced a proposal to reallocate C-band spectrum for 5G. With much fanfare, the FCC trumpeted a plan to outsource to the satellite companies the process of auctioning these airwaves. Rather than the kind of open and transparent auction process the agency has followed since the first spectrum auction in 1994, the Trump FCC declared it would be “faster” to embrace what they called a “marketplace approach” in which the licensees took over the job traditionally done by the FCC. The tradeoff for moving “faster” was that the licensees—rather than the American taxpayer—would keep the money the auction generated. By thus outsourcing its responsibilities, the Trump FCC explained, they would be adhering to Republican marketplace orthodoxy, but more importantly, getting the spectrum in the hands of 5G networks “faster.” It has been a year since that announcement and the “faster” process has yet to bear fruit. The current goal of the FCC is to decide whether to proceed with the outsourcing, or adopt another solution, by the end of 2019. Over a year and a half will have been wasted as the Trump FCC tried to find a way to pass off its essential public interest determinations to private interests.

The go-to metric for antitrust enforcers has long been increasing prices. Critics, however, have begun to question whether that approach needs an update, given that tech giants like Google and Facebook offer free services. And this week, some of the nation’s leading antitrust enforcers made clear they’re willing to take a broader view. Justice Department antitrust chief Makan Delrahim said his office will consider factors like privacy violations or free speech restrictions as signs that product quality and market competition have deteriorated. And a group of 43 state attorneys general echoed that idea in comments to the Federal Trade Commission, saying the agency should scrutinize proposed mergers for harms to privacy or innovation. But members of Congress may be seeking legislative changes. Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), chairman of the House antitrust subcommittee, sees potential to modernize statutes “written more than 100 years ago” to keep large technology companies accountable. Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has talked to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who heads the panel’s antitrust subcommittee, about launching a probe into competition in the tech sector. But Chairman Graham acknowledged that there’s daylight on the issue between himself and Chairman Lee, who said such an investigation would be best left to federal regulators. 

Progressive advocacy groups critical of Silicon Valley have lined up meetings with the majority of House antitrust subcommittee members ahead of expected further hearings on the market power of online tech companies. The goal? To equip Congress to ask better questions than it managed during this spring's oft-painful Zuckerberg sessions. “We're doing grassroots work in the service of making a hearing go well,” said David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress, which along with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance is making the Hill rounds. Segal said the goal is to connect the dots for members between the ad-driven and acquisition-heavy business models of companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon and the choices those companies make on issues like privacy and election protection.

For all the talk of antitrust investigations, the bigger threat to tech platforms like Google and Facebook is an intensifying call from Congress to revamp a law that shields them and other web companies from legal liability for users' posts. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff joined a group of policymakers calling to reconsider the legal protections afforded to tech platforms. It's a broadening of a line of attack that caught fire in 2018 when a new law made it easier to sue tech platforms for hosting sex-trafficking ads. If this idea picks up steam again in Congress, expect Big Tech — including any site that hosts user comments and reviews, user-written ads, or videos and photos — to fight tooth and nail to keep its immunity.