Lawsuits blaming social media platforms for injuries and deaths are part of a long tradition of faulting speech for human conduct and suffering, the American Enterprise Institute's Clay Calvert wrote Tuesday. Theories that the platforms create social media addiction make it easy to shift blame for injuries and actions "by clouding causal, human-agency questions," said Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow of technology policy studies. Such cases ultimately try to put responsibility "on innovative technology companies whose lawful-speech services millions of adults and minors enjoy daily without sustaining or causing harm."
The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, sued the Trump administration Wednesday for canceling the Digital Equity Act competitive grant program, which had been approved by Congress. NDIA said it asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to order the administration to restore the program and “allow NDIA to resume shovel-ready projects aimed at providing digital navigator services to 30,000 people in 11 states.”
NBC's Saturday Night Live roasted FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on its latest episode, with cast member Mikey Day portraying the commission head. The sketch showed President Donald Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, summoning Day's Carr, who danced on screen to the 1983 pop song "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell. When Day's Carr corrected the president that his first name is Brendan, not Brandon, Johnson's Trump replied that "it's crazy you think I care." Johnson's Trump also admonished Day's Carr for hugging him: "You gotta stop."
Dan Schulman, a Verizon board member and the former CEO of PayPal, is replacing Hans Vestberg as Verizon CEO, effective immediately, the company announced Monday. Unlike T-Mobile, which is also going through a CEO transition (see 2509220029), Verizon hadn’t indicated in recent months that change was coming. Mark Bertolini, a Verizon director and the CEO of Oscar Health, was named chairman. Vestberg will stay on as a special adviser for a year, Verizon said.
The FCC "has become a convenient political tool [that] too often abandons its independence," and Chairman Brendan Carr should front efforts to dismantle it, wrote Mark Jamison, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. The reasons it was created in 1934 "have disappeared," he said Friday, including regulation of the old Bell telephone monopoly and oversight of public airwaves. The agency's increased politicization is hurting investment, Jamison argued. Meanwhile, the Bell monopoly no longer exists, and many of the commission's consumer protection and equipment authorization functions could be done by other agencies, he said, adding that many of its jobs already overlap with other federal departments.
The FCC added a section to its Further NPRM seeking comment on whether correctional facilities should be allowed to jam cell signals, with an eye to preventing the use of contraband phones. Commissioners approved the NPRM Tuesday 3-0, with questions on a potential pilot program added at the request of Commissioner Anna Gomez (see 2509300063).
An NTIA spokesperson confirmed in an emailed statement Wednesday that the administration has terminated the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, effective Tuesday (see 2509300065). “NTIA has determined that its limited resources must be focused on speedy and effective implementation of the spectrum provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and other NTIA priorities,” the spokesperson said. “NTIA appreciates the valuable contributions of the many dedicated experts who served on the committee over the past two decades.”
The U.S. “got lazy” in the last 15 or so years about participating in standards-setting bodies and paid the price with China dictating standards for 5G, said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., at SCTE’s TechExpo event Tuesday in Washington. “China flooded the zone,” he said, while the U.S. hasn't been sending as many people to standards-setting bodies. China’s 5G success is a “wake-up call,” and industry and government should agree that the U.S. has “got to get back in the game” and invest resources in standards-setting efforts.
The Trump administration Tuesday notified members of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee that, after more than two decades, the committee is no more. “For those of you who are new members of CSMAC, we regret that you were unable to serve on the committee,” said an email sent to members. “Nonetheless, we are grateful for your willingness to contribute to an entity that has made numerous valuable contributions on important spectrum management topics over the years.” NTIA didn’t say why the committee was being terminated. The agency didn't immediately comment.
The FCC Office of Managing Director has revised on delegated authority its manner of ruling on regulatory fee waiver requests, according to a public notice in docket 25-219 Monday. In the past, OMD has resolved such requests by issuing individual letter decisions, but going forward, OMD will periodically issue public notices that list actions on all requests for waiver, reduction and/or deferral of fees, the PN said. “This change to our customary procedure implements the Commission’s goal of streamlining internal review processes and will enable OMD to more quickly resolve those matters while fulfilling its obligation to thoroughly review the record for each request and petition for reconsideration,” the PN said. More novel and controversial requests will still get letter decisions, OMD said. Monday’s PN included a list of OMD decisions on regulatory fee waiver requests for a host of entities, some from as far back as 2019. In a separate order, OMD also provided more detailed denials of a number of requests for financial hardship regulatory fee waivers. Petitions for reconsideration or applications for review of the decisions must be filed within 30 days, the order said.