Government & Communications

It’s an interesting time to be an organization that conducts media bias research in the United States. Depending on the results of your research, you may find the Federal Trade Commission using it to justify an inquiry directed at another company; or you may find yourself the target of an FTC investigation. The first scenario was reflected in FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson's recent letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

What Iran has, a splinternet, is becoming reality for many millions of people. It is likely to get far worse. More than half of Russia’s regions are able to access only a limited, government-approved version of the internet through their mobile phones. The “great firewall of China” blocks most of the global internet, including sites such as Google and the Guardian.

This year, we celebrate a historic milestone in our country’s history. On July 4, 2026, we will mark 250 years of American independence. In recognition, President Donald Trump established the Salute to America 250 Task Force. Chairman Carr is heeding this call by establishing the Pledge America Campaign in support of this historic initiative.

For nearly two decades, the US quietly funded a global effort to keep the internet from splintering into fiefdoms run by authoritarian governments. Now that money is seriously threatened, and a large part of it is already gone, putting internet freedoms around the world at risk. Managed by the US state department and the US Agency for Global Media, the program—broadly called Internet Freedom—funds small groups all over the world, from Iran to China to the Philippines, who built grassroots technologies to evade internet controls imposed by governments.

This is yet another troubling example of corporate capitulation in the face of this Administration’s broader campaign to censor and control speech. The Federal Communications Commission has no lawful authority to pressure broadcasters for political purposes or to create a climate that chills free expression. CBS is fully protected under the First Amendment to determine what interviews it airs, which makes its decision to yield to political pressure all the more disappointing.

Thirty years ago, digitization, fiber optics, and microprocessors transformed the world. Software turned them into digital cellular and the Internet, lifting one billion people from extreme poverty and enabling us to halve the death toll of COVID compared to the Spanish flu — despite a world four times larger. Today, those same technologies have given rise to artificial intelligence. The question before us: what can we learn from how government handled that earlier revolution?

As we mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, I can’t help but reflect on how pivotal that moment was, not just for our industry, but me personally. I worked on the Act when I was leading NTCA’s government affairs efforts, and even then, we knew it was both a product of its time and an attempt to carry forward principles that would guide communications policy for generations.

As the National Telecommunications and Information Administration works to get the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program over the finish line, the agency is considering its next phase: how to effectively invest the remaining BEAD funds. On February 9, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth announced that NTIA has now approved 50 out of 56 BEAD Final Proposals from states and territories, moving one step closer to ensuring un

States, territories, and their communities that lack sufficient internet access have been wondering what will happen to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program's "nondeployment funds"—funds left over after a state meets BEAD’s infrastructure deployment goals.

As the transatlantic standoff over content moderation rages on, tech industry groups and advocates are arguing that something doesn’t quite add up about the U.S.’s position regarding online speech.