Upcoming policy issue

Things are about to get uncomfortable in Washington for Google. Top Republicans in Congress are leaning hard on the tech giant to make its content policies friendlier to the GOP, after winning that fight with social media companies Meta and X. Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-TX) and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) are now putting pressure on Google and its parent company Alphabet, which owns both the internet’s dominant search engine and the popular YouTube video platform.

Across the more than 400 federal agencies that regulate almost every aspect of American life, from flying in airplanes to processing poultry, President Trump’s appointees are working with the Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting initiative headed by Elon Musk and also called DOGE, to launch a sweeping new phase in their quest to dismantle much of the federal government: deregulation on a mass scale.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr warned European allies hesitant about working with Elon Musk’s satellite internet company that they needed to choose between US and Chinese technology.

The CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” is not going easy on President Trump and the commander in chief is noticing. President Trump went after the program in a social media post after seeing two critical stories regarding his handling of the Russia-Ukraine war and his proposal to annex Greenland.

We spend a lot of time talking about the future—of AI, of the nation’s economic competitiveness, of closing the digital divide. But too often, we’re forced to try and build that future on a foundation of regulations designed for a different world.

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Brendan Carr, recently launched his own proceeding he calls “IN RE: DELETE, DELETE, DELETE.” Carr says he’s following Trump’s orders to deregulate the telecommunications industry to spur economic prosperity.

Less than two weeks before the start of a landmark antitrust trial against tech giant Meta, the growing relationship between President Donald Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is stoking fears in Washington (D.C.) that the White House could pull the plug on the whole case.

Criticism is mounting against the 5G Fund, a long-gestating US government program that would distribute billions of dollars to wireless network operators with the goal of funding the construction of 5G networks in rural areas. Indeed, the issues are so lengthy and complex that T-Mobile has suggested just ending the program altogether.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and its Media/Telecommunications Task Force co-chairs, UnidosUS and United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, wrote to the chair and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee demanding that they delay the confirmation hearing for Olivia Trusty to serve as a Federal Communications Commissioner until the administration provides a binding commitment that it will keep the FCC fully staffed with five commissioners, two of whom must be Democrats.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has indicated he’ll make fundamental changes to the $42 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. These changes, such as giving a stronger preference for satellite internet, could force states to restart their broadband grant programs. On April 3, a group of 115 state legislators from 28 states sent Secretary Lutnick a letter requesting that any BEAD changes be optional rather than mandatory.