Chicago Connected — "a groundbreaking initiative to provide free Internet" — aims to connect 100,000 students, giving them Internet at home for minimum of four years. Chicago officials say they hope the program will be the first phase of a broader effort that ultimately bridges the city’s digital divide. The four-year scope really sets the program apart from those found in other parts of the country, “This is really just phase one of what we’re trying to do,” said Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jennie Bennett. “The [Chicago Public School] student need was critical because of COVID, but we know there’s a broader need across the city.”  The city in its role was able to act in part as a convener, facilitating the donations from the disparate actors, working with the ISPs, and bringing in the school district. Community groups were also instrumental in conceptualizing the nature of the group.

Daniel Anello is the CEO of Kids First Chicago, a community group that works to ensure high-quality public schools are accessible to all families. Anello’s group helped facilitate and give shape to Chicago Connected as well. Anello said the expectation is that by the time the first four years of the plan is up, there will be new funding or potentially legislation that will help it continue indefinitely.  “What the quarantine and coronavirus did was really elevate how significant an issue this has been for a very long time,” Anello said. “We’ve always thought of the Internet as a luxury, and the truth is coronavirus made us realize it’s a necessity.”

As the pandemic drags on, local governments across the country are looking for ways to connect their residents, who need better Internet access for everything from online education to annual taxes to telehealth appointments. But 19 states still place restrictions on cities and counties that want to invest in broadband expansion, hamstringing their ability to address urgent connectivity needs. To help people figure out if their community is able to take action, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance worked with the Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) to develop a step-by-step guide for local officials and advocates. The guide includes the various considerations communities must make when developing a Covid-19 broadband response, including the extent of local government authority, state legal restrictions, and declaration of emergency powers.

The broadband industry has lost a key initial ruling in its bid to kill a privacy law imposed by the state of Maine. The top lobby groups representing cable companies, mobile carriers, and telecoms —ACA, CTIA, NCTA, and USTelecom — sued Maine in Feb, claiming the privacy law violates their First Amendment protections on free speech and that the state law is preempted by deregulatory actions taken by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. Maine's Web-browsing privacy law is similar to the one killed by Congress and President Donald Trump in 2017, as it prohibits ISPs from using, disclosing, or selling browsing history and other personal information without customers' opt-in consent. The law took effect on July 1, 2020.

The case is not over, but the July 7 ruling by Judge Lance Walker in US District Court for the District of Maine dealt a major blow to the broadband industry's lawsuit. Judge Walker denied the plaintiffs' motion for judgment on the pleadings, criticized the industry's First Amendment argument, and granted Maine's motion to dismiss claims that the state law is preempted by federal law. The judge agreed with the broadband industry that "plaintiffs' marketing of customer data... is sheltered by the First Amendment," but he added that "not all speech deserves the same level of protection."

"While Judge Walker allowed the broadband industry's argument that the Maine law violates the First Amendment to proceed, he ruled that the law is not unconstitutional on its face and clearly expressed skepticism that the industry would succeed at trial," said Benton senior fellow and public advocate Gigi Sohn. "Judge Walker refused to apply a strict scrutiny standard to the law, instead applying an intermediate First Amendment scrutiny that applies to commercial speech. He also firmly rejected broadband providers' overwrought allegations of harm."

Vendors must expose proprietary information, such as sales data or logistic information, to digital platforms like Amazon or Facebook in order to reach customers on those platforms. This gives digital platforms the ability to use vendor proprietary information to create, price, and market rival products, enabling platforms to unfairly benefit from the work, business acumen, and risks taken by third-party vendors. Although accusations against Amazon have received the most press coverage, the problem goes well beyond Amazon and undermines competition broadly. 

The paper proposes a solution modeled on Section 222 of the Communications Act (47 U.S.C. §222), which imposes requirements on telecommunications carriers to protect “customer proprietary network information,” or “CPNI.” The paper proposes a new draft statute to create a “platform CPNI” rule that would:

• For the first time, define “digital platform” in statutory language;
• Limit the use -- not the collection -- of vendor proprietary information by digital platforms to the purpose stated, absolutely prohibiting platforms from using this information for marketing or strategy related to rival products; and,
• Limit the use of buyer proprietary information to prevent ‘reverse engineering’ vendor proprietary data.