Rural America deserves a partner in the White House. Here’s my plan to put rural Americans back in the driver’s seat:

• Invest $60 billion to connect all rural Americans to high-speed Internet, including next-generation gigabit systems, by working with private providers, states, rural electric cooperatives, broadband cooperatives, and community broadband networks. The investment would be directed by detailed, accurate broadband service maps that reflect actual service availability.
• Create a Digital Extension Service to advise and assist farmers, rural entrepreneurs, and community leaders in adopting digital technologies for precision agriculture, e-commerce, telemedicine, high-tech manufacturing, and opportunities for attracting remote workers as new residents. 
  • The Digital Extension Service would work with 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA) to inspire and mentor young people across rural America in the application of STEM education.
• Create a $750 million Rural Tech Skills initiative to fund training partnerships between community colleges, community-based and labor organizations, and employers to prepare the rural workforce for tech jobs across industries like clean energy, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and health IT.
• Create a White House Council on a Cooperative Economy to ensure all federal loan, contracting, and technical assistance programs are accessible by cooperatives 
  • Increase funding for the Rural Cooperative Development Program to $40 million per year.

Installing high-speed fiber-optic infrastructure is incredibly expensive. By some accounts, it can cost up to $8,000 per home to have the cabling put in place. Yet, perhaps unsurprisingly, a Federal Highway Administration report detailed that up to 90 percent of this cost was tied up in the process of actually digging up roadways, not the fiber lines themselves. As a result, some cities and states champion the idea of future-proofing PROW’s (public rights-of-ways) during road construction projects. This common-sense concept is frequently referred to as ‘Dig Once’, and would mandate the inclusion of broadband conduit—flexible plastic pipes which can be used to more easily install fiber-optic communications cable—during the construction of any road receiving federal funding.

The practice effectively eliminates the need to dig up recently-paved roads to expand broadband infrastructure, significantly reducing the cost of building out internet access to underserved communities across the country. Congress had the chance to make this the national standard in 2018 with the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2018, but the bill didn’t pass. A similar bill was ultimately enacted, though lacking any specific dig once requirement. Goldman Sachs has estimated that it could cost upwards of $140 billion to build high-speed service out to the entire country. If dig once had been implemented nationally, it could’ve provided up to $126 billion in savings, bringing the estimated total to a far more palatable $14 billion. Despite the fact that this basic principle is widely agreed-upon by both sides of the political aisle, progress at the national level has stalled completely, and only 11 states have actually followed through with implementing formal or informal policies. 18 cities around the nation have done the same.

It’s time to recognize that inequal access to broadband translates into inequality of opportunity. People in rural areas that lack broadband face higher unemployment rates, see fewer job and economic opportunities and place children from these communities behind their suburban and peers in school. Of course, this is not just a rural issue – broadband deserts exist within very urban areas as well, where costs can be unaffordable and availability non-existent. To be sure, there are efforts underway to provide the funding and assistance needed to expand broadband coverage for rural areas, by the administration, Congress, governors and the private sector, including Microsoft and our Airband partners. But much more needs to be done to translate proposals into action.

That’s why we’re at the Iowa State Fair. Microsoft is hosting a booth, where we’ll learn from Iowans about their digital realities, discuss what we can do through the Airband Initiative to help and what other opportunities can be unlocked with reliable, affordable broadband access. We hope to discuss the issue with political leaders attending the fair as well. Solving the broadband gap should be a national issue because we are leaving millions of Americans behind. We look forward to working with both sides of the aisle to make meaningful progress on this important national issue.

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) is adding its voice to those calling on the Federal Communications Commission to open a public comment period since new developments were made related to the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. WISPA, which previously called for a public comment period, notes the series of agreements that T-Mobile and Sprint entered into with the Department of Justice in July. Those conditions include the divestiture of certain spectrum assets to Dish Network. Prior to that, the companies committed to a number of conditions with the FCC, including 5G build-out targets in rural areas. WISPA told the FCC, “[T]he Conditions Letter and the Consent Decree propose changes to the rural broadband marketplace that could affect competition with smaller fixed broadband providers and eligibility for universal service high-cost funding. The build-out extensions also could impact the ability of small providers to access spectrum to provide fixed wireless services to consumers in rural areas.”

Top officials in the Trump administration expressed interest in tools that might anticipate mass shootings or predict attackers by scanning social media posts, photos and videos during a meeting with online platforms including Facebook, Google and Twitter. The technology could serve as an early-warning system for potential attacks, White House officials proposed at the brainstorming session, perhaps compiling information from across social sites to identify deadly incidents before they occur, according to three people familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss a private gathering on the record. In response, though, tech leaders expressed doubt that such technology is feasible, while raising concerns about the privacy risks that such a system might create for all users

Two key strategies have emerged to hold online forums responsible for violence: deplatforming and increasing the liability imposed on internet intermediaries by changing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Both strategies are notable because they are not directly aimed at the perpetrators of violence, or even at others who are participating in the hateful forums. They are instead aimed at the chain of companies or nonprofits that host the speech of others. For either approach, there is reason to tread carefully. Both strategies have surface appeal in response to hateful speech. But once you’ve turned it on, whether through pressure or threats of lawsuits, the power to silence people doesn’t just go in one direction. In our 30 years of helping people make their voices heard online at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, we have seen how censorship reinforces power far more than it protects the powerless.

In response to ongoing issues with the major hosts of user-generated content, EFF helped write and promulgate the Santa Clara Principles in May 1998 to try to outline some basic transparency and due process standards that those companies should implement when they directly host user-generated content. Deplatforming and eliminating Section 230 both satisfy a craving to do something, to hold someone or something responsible. But make no mistake: Both carry great risks if we want the internet to remain a place where powerful entities cannot easily silence their less powerful critics.

[Cindy Cohn is the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation]

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to major US telecommunications companies AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon urging them to lower the amount of sensitive data they store on customers. Those large pools of data present a significant hacking risk, Sen Wyden argued. "Your companies collectively hold deeply-sensitive information about hundreds of millions of Americans. It should come as no surprise that this data is a juicy target for foreign spies," he said.

People of color made up nearly 40 percent of the US population, according to 2018 Census Bureau figures. In comparison, only 16.55 percent of journalists in US newsrooms in 2017 were people of color — down from 16.94 percent in 2016, according to the American Society of News Editors’ newsroom census. Knight Foundation’s $1.2 million investment in the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education is an attempt to help newsrooms rethink solutions to the diversity crisis. Maynard will use the new funding to launch its Equity and Inclusion Transformation Program, embedding specialists in newsrooms to help them better inform underserved communities and establish more equitable and inclusive workplaces. Maynard’s embedded coaches will assess the organization’s internal processes, workplace culture, connection to community, hiring and retention rates, and its leadership’s management skills, among other elements. From there, Maynard will then work closely with the outlet to devise strategies, plans and benchmarks to become more equitable and inclusive, and provide the necessary training and oversight to accomplish this goal.