The First Amendment protects social media platforms’ ability to moderate content, the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday, sending the tech industry’s lawsuits against Florida and Texas laws back to the lower courts (see 2402270072). All nine justices agreed on remanding, but Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch disagreed with First Amendment-related aspects of the majority opinion, which Justice Elena Kagan wrote (dockets 22-555 and 22-277).
Industry lawyers continue to assess the potentially seismic implications of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and the other Chevron case decided last week (see 2406280043). Yet the after-effects are being seen already. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday directed parties in the net neutrality challenge to file not later than July 8 supplemental briefing material addressing the effect of the Chevron decision “on our analysis” of a motion to stay the order (see 2406280060).
The statute authorizing the federal TikTok ban -- the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act -- is unconstitutional, and it isn’t even “a close case,” four professors’ amicus brief said Thursday (docket 24-1113), urging that the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit reject it.
The commercial space industry widely objects to the FCC's proposed "object-years" approach for space safety, with numerous operators in comments last week calling it ineffective and more than one deriding it as "simplistic" (docket 18-313). Those comments were part of a record refresh in the FCC's orbital debris mitigation docket (see 2405020048). The FCC's object-years proposal would cap at 100 the number of years failed satellites in a constellation could remain in orbit. It has placed 100 object-years conditions on several non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellations in the past year (see 2406120006).
DOJ and NTIA should end VeriSign’s contract for .com domain name registry services and kill its no-bid “monopoly,” which has led to rising registration costs, the American Economic Liberties Project and advocates wrote the agencies Wednesday. VeriSign’s government-designated, no-bid contract should end before the Aug. 2 automatic renewal date, AELP wrote in letters that Demand Progress Education Fund and Revolving Door Project signed. They requested the agencies open the contract to a “fair bidding process” and set a “price cap” for registration of .com and other top-level domains. The advocates said DOJ should withdraw from 2018 interagency guidance, which they claim allowed the Trump administration’s NTIA to “remove contractual protections against price-gouging.” The department should probe VeriSign’s “kickback” arrangement with ICANN for possible antitrust violations, the letter said. ICANN is a nongovernmental organization that accredits domain name registries and registrars. VeriSign must obtain consent from ICANN to increase its prices, and in 2022, the company offered a $20 million “cash bonus” to win approval from ICANN, the groups wrote DOJ. VeriSign hiked its price from $6 during the George W. Bush administration to $10.60 today, a 70% rise, they said. Citing public statistics, the groups claimed VeriSign has a “gross profit margin and operating margin of nearly 90 and 70 percent respectively.” The company’s free cash flow was estimated at $925 million in April, they said: “Billions of dollars that could be devoted to maintaining infrastructure, improving service, or accommodating more affordable pricing structures are instead diverted to other ends.” They noted the company spent about 6% of revenue on research and development in 2023. The letter noted that when registration for .net domain names was opened to competitive bidding in 2011, the price for registration dropped from $6 to $3.50. NTIA, DOJ, VeriSign and ICANN didn’t comment Thursday.
A top California communications lawmaker pushed back on industry opposition to a bill that would require $30 affordable internet plans as a condition of receiving California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) infrastructure grants. The Assembly Communications Committee voted 8-2, with two Republicans voting no, to advance SB-424 at a Wednesday hearing. In addition, the committee voted 10-0 for bills that set broadband labor standards (SB-1460) and expand eligibility for CASF public housing broadband grants (SB-1383). All three pieces of legislation, previously passed by the Senate, will go to the Appropriations Committee.
The space economy in 2022 accounted for $131.8 billion, or 0.5% of U.S. GDP, and supported 347,000 private-sector jobs, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Tuesday. The agency said manufacturing accounted for 31.1% of total private employment in space, with information following at 21.9%.
A California Senate panel scaled back what the California Public Utilities Commission could require from cable companies under a proposed update of the state’s 2006 video franchise law, known as the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act (DIVCA). At a hearing webcast Monday, the Senate Communications Committee voted 12-4 to approve the Assembly-passed AB-1826 with amendments. The Senate committee delayed receiving testimony on an Assembly-passed equity bill (AB-2239) that would ban digital discrimination as defined by the FCC (see 2405230012).
The commercial space launch industry should not be sanguine about SpaceX's forthcoming Starship heavy launch rocket's impact on competition, though changes won't be immediate, Arianespace Chief Commercial Officer Steven Rutgers said Tuesday at the Washington Space Business Roundtable. Meanwhile, a notable shakeout in the ranks of new and emerging launch providers is coming, launch executives predicted.
The federal TikTok ban that takes effect Jan. 19 is “unprecedented” because Congress has never “expressly singled out and shut down a specific speech forum,” said TikTok/ByteDance's opening brief Thursday (docket 24-1113) in the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit challenging the ban’s constitutionality (see 2405070045).