California has $6 billion in federal COVID relief funds with which to close the digital divide, but advocates argue that telecom industry proposals could sabotage the state’s high-stakes experiment in online democracy. In Sacramento (CA), companies are jockeying to be first in line for multimillion-dollar state grants to connect the unconnected, advocates say, and pressuring lawmakers to weaken provisions that would make broadband more affordable to low-income Californians. The state plans to build its own open-source fiber optic network to connect local communities to the global internet, and it’s offering $2 billion in grants to companies and local governments to bring unconnected residents and businesses online. The big cable and telecom firms that have long fought to keep local governments and other competitors out of the broadband market didn’t publicly oppose the plan. But now, just as California has the tools to close the digital divide, open the market to competition and potentially drive down prices, the industry is advancing proposals that could water down the state’s reforms, said Paul Goodman, an attorney at the Center for Accessible Technology, a Berkeley disability rights group. “If California sets strong rules, other states will follow," said Goodman. "California sets the tone for the rest of the country.”

Southport (ME) voters have estimates on how much it will cost to build their own broadband network or connect underserved residents. They do not know exactly how much has been spent to rally opposition against it. It is an example of how big-campaign tactics are coming to smaller communities that are looking to develop their own broadband systems. The archipelago town of just 600 people off Boothbay Harbor (ME) has seen mailers and digital ads linked to the incumbent internet provider and allies. Spending on the issue does not have to be disclosed because of a campaign finance loophole. It is likely to be a continuing trend as more communities consider whether to build their own broadband networks with plentiful money from state and federal programs. Providers, led here by Spectrum, are looking to cut off the local competition. A $2 million project to create a town-owned fiber network is at stake as voters decide to either allow the town to continue pursuing the project authorized in 2021 or halt it after a group of voters who have questioned the project rallied a petition. They could approve a second option to pay a provider to connect underserved residents to high-speed internet.

The US is "far worse off than you think" when it comes to social media undermining its democracy, according to Nobel Peace Prize laureate and journalist Maria Ressa. Ressa, a Filipino American co-founder of news organization Rappler, says the next wave of elections around the world, including the US midterms in November 2022, provides another opportunity for social media to spread disinformation, divide people against one another and incite violence. She argues nations need to require accountability for tech firms like Meta, which owns Facebook, and Twitter. Ressa also has hope that the EU will take steps to regulate social media companies as efforts in the US have stalled. But she warns that the global problem needs global solutions, both in law and practice by social media companies themselves. Independent news media "lost" in Russia, Ressa said. She raised concerns about the future of democracy next in Brazil, Kenya, and the US, which are dealing with similar threats of fractured information systems and have upcoming elections. "We will all end up like Russia if we don't do better," Ressa warned.

It’s been a year since Ookla first examined SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet, which launched its public beta in November 2020. Now, it's updating the ongoing series on satellite internet performance data with first-quarter 2022 in Europe, Oceania, North America, and South America, including results from 10 additional countries. Ookla is also examining how Starlink’s internet performance has changed over the past year in the United States and Canada. Over the past year, Starlink speeds increased nearly 58 percent in Canada and 38 percent in the US. Additionally, Starlink in Mexico was the fastest satellite provider in North America. Starlink’s low-earth orbit satellites (LEOs) provide a life-changing service for consumers in rural areas that might not otherwise have access to high-speed internet. However, more companies are looking to compete with Starlink and launch their own LEO constellations, including Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which recently received permission to test their own satellite service and is slated to launch later in 2022, and Viasat which is set to merge with Inmarsat and launch new constellations by 2023.

This study was commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism to understand how news is being consumed in a range of countries. Research was conducted by YouGov using an online questionnaire at the end of January/beginning of February 2022. 2021’s report contained some positive signs for the news industry, with higher consumption and rising trust amidst a second wave of Coronavirus lockdowns. Many traditional news brands seemed to benefit not just from greater attention, but also financially, with more people taking out online subscriptions and advertisers looking to associate themselves with reliable content. A year on, we find a slightly less optimistic picture. While a break-out group of primarily upmarket news publishers across the world report record digital subscription numbers and growing revenues, more broadly, we find that interest in news and overall news consumption has declined considerably in many countries while trust has fallen back almost everywhere – though it mostly remains higher than before the Coronavirus crisis began. We’re also seeing news fatigue setting in – not just around COVID-19 but around politics and a range of other subjects – with the number of people actively avoiding news increasing markedly. More widely, this year’s data confirm how the various shocks of the last few years, including the Coronavirus pandemic, have further accelerated structural shifts towards a more digital, mobile, and platform-dominated media environment, with further implications for the business models and formats of journalism.