49 organizations spanning multiple industries announced they have joined forces as part of a new coalition dedicated to helping close America’s digital divide. Convened by farmer-owned cooperative Land O’Lakes, Inc., the newly formed American Connection Project Broadband Coalition (ACPBC or “Coalition”) will advocate for public and private sector investment to bring high-speed internet infrastructure to rural areas, in addition to advocating for policies and contributing their own resources to facilitate remote education, health and mental health  services, job opportunities and more, with the goal of connecting and lifting up all American communities through access to modern digital technology. The Coalition is continually adding members who share a desire to connect the country.

In conjunction with the launch of the Coalition, the companies sent a letter to President Trump and congressional leadership urging them to “enact groundbreaking broadband connectivity legislation that includes the necessary resources to close the digital divide in this country.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is angering a lot of powerful people as his chairmanship hits its fourth and potentially final year. The Pentagon, the Commerce Department and the Department of Transportation. Electric utilities, airlines and the auto industry. Public safety officials and weather forecasters. Top lawmakers of both parties, including Sen John Kennedy (R-LA) an ally of President Donald Trump’s who controls the FCC’s purse strings on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I wouldn’t take him with me to buy a car because he’d pay full sticker price and then try to give the salesman a bonus,” Sen Kennedy said earlier in 2020, criticizing Chairman Pai's plan to offer satellite operators billions of dollars to give up their airwaves for 5G. 

And most of the criticism is because of actions Chairman Pai has taken in 2020. Barbs coming Chairman Pai’s way have multiplied in recent months as he leads the FCC in divvying up billions of dollars’ worth of wireless spectrum for a new generation of Wi-Fi and 5G wireless service — moves that are leaving a lengthening trail of winners and losers and putting Chairman Pai's decision-making and career experts under the microscope.

The clear winners include Comcast, Facebook, AT&T and other Silicon Valley and telecom titans that say Chairman Pai’s policies will help the US vie with China for technological supremacy. To his allies, Chairman Pai is heroic for taking on parochial interests keeping America from making the objectively best uses of its digital resources. To his foes, however, he’s going rogue in ways that waste taxpayer money and could endanger public safety.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Oversight Subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO), Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) sent letters to Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey, the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter, to request information on their companies’ response to disinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. In June, in an effort to increase transparency and accountability, the European Commission requested that certain companies produce monthly reports detailing actions they have taken to address COVID-19 disinformation on their platforms. Facebook, Google and Twitter have reportedly agreed to produce these reports to the European Commission. The Reps also requested briefings to discuss the information the companies intend to produce in these monthly reports and to hear more about the efforts currently underway to combat COVID-19 disinformation on these platforms.