Digital Content

Is social media a net benefit to American society? Given the increasingly important role that social media plays in our daily lives, this is a question that all of us, including groups like the Media Institute, need to grapple with. Now, I will tell you up front that I don’t have an answer. And I won’t touch on particular policy issues, like social media’s role in elections. What I have in mind is something broader. With that, let me suggest two trends that I believe have lowered our discourse—and how social media has enabled each. First: Everything nowadays is political.

US internet traffic is projected to grow two-and-a-half times over the next five years, according to a new USTelecom analysis of annual Internet Protocol (IP) traffic data from Cisco’s Visual Networking Index(link is external), a continuation of explosive growth over the past decade. A massive shift toward online consumer video is the primary driver of traffic growth.

Facebook may soon ask you to "upload a photo of yourself that clearly shows your face," to prove you're not a bot. The company is using a new kind of captcha to verify whether a user is a real person. According to a screenshot of the identity test shared on Twitter and verified by Facebook, the prompt says: “Please upload a photo of yourself that clearly shows your face.

Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, blasted Twitter for what he said was a push to “discriminate” against conservatives. He  accused Twitter of hypocrisy for its criticism of the FCC's plan to repeal the Obama-era regulation. “When it comes to a free and open Internet, Twitter is part of the problem,” Chairman Pai said.

[Commentary] What the rollback of net neutrality rules actually mean for the US Internet ecosystem over the next several years? 1. Blatant Discrimination Against Particular Services Is Not That Likely; 2. Blatant Favoritism Of Particular Services Is Quite Likely; and 3. Different Tiers Of Services Based On Ability To Pay Is Overwhelmingly Likely. The result will not be blatant discrimination and censorship of the Internet (which most Americans will not tolerate). Nope.

Facebook is creating an online tool to allow users to determine if they might have been exposed to Russian disinformation during the 2016 presidential election and its fractious aftermath. The new tool, which the company said will be available by the end of 2017, is the latest move by Facebook to respond to public and political pressure to reveal the extent of the Russian disinformation campaign waged on its social media platform and on Instagram, which Facebook owns.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai released his proposal to kill net neutrality today, and while there’s a lot to be unhappy with, it’s hard not to be taken with the brazenness of his argument. CHairman Pai thinks it was a mistake for the FCC to try and stop Comcast from blocking BitTorrent in 2008, thinks all of the regulatory actions the FCC took after that to give itself the authority to prevent blocking were wrong, and wants to go back to the legal framework that allowed Comcast to block BitTorrent. 

The Department of Immigration & Customs Enforcement is taking new steps in its plans for monitoring the social media accounts of applicants and holders of U.S. visas. At a tech industry conference in Arlington (VA), ICE officials explained to software providers what they are seeking: algorithms that would assess potential threats posed by visa holders in the United States and conduct ongoing social media surveillance of those deemed high risk. The comments provide the first clear blueprint for ICE’s proposed augmentation of its visa-vetting program.

Facing an onslaught of competition from internet companies like Netflix and YouTube, the big media companies are conducting a radical self-examination and deciding they need a makeover.  A few weeks ago, Disney began expressing interest in buying 21st Century Fox, looking for new content from the company's movie studios and cable operations. A few days later, Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, also expressed interest, and now Sony and Verizon are taking a look. At the same time, AT&T, the phone giant, is trying to acquire Time Warner, which owns Warner Brothers. Their goals?

The European Union has agreed a plan obliging online retailers operating in the bloc to make electrical goods, concert tickets or car rental available to all EU consumers regardless of where they live. Putting an end to “geoblocking”, whereby consumers in one EU country cannot buy a good or service sold online in another, has been a priority for the EU as it tries to create a digital single market with 24 legislative proposals.