The new Federal Communications Commission report signals a major retreat from the former administration's goal of connecting every American to gigabit-speed broadband.

It’s just one word, but it changes everything. In its latest broadband deployment report, the FCC quietly backpedaled on its mission to expand high-speed internet to every American and eliminated an ambitious gig-speed goal entirely. 

“High-speed broadband is often essential to full participation in modern society,” the opening sentence of the Aug. 14 report reads.  

That sounds pretty uncontroversial at first glance, but it stands in stark contrast to the previous report issued under President Joe Biden’s FCC, which called access to affordable, reliable broadband “essential to full participation in modern life.” The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres went even further, calling the issue “a matter of life and death” in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I noticed an article that said that Optimum (Altice USA) was in danger of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE automatically issues a warning to any stock when the average share price over thirty days is below $1.00. This warning was given to Optimum on August 13, and the company has until February 13, 2027, to get the 30-day average stock price above $1.00 to remain listed on the exchange.

The company’s stock has  plummeted over the last year. A year ago, the stock was trading at $2.33 per share. Five years ago, the stock traded at more than $28 per share. As I wrote this blog, the share price was $0.89. The lowest price this year was $0.60 per share. Optimum stock is considered extremely volatile by analysts because the company had almost 50 days during the last year when the stock rose or fell by more than 5%. The changes aren’t always downward. In early June, the stock price rose more than 9% in one day on news that the company had grown to have 700,000 cellular customers.

Frequency Forward and the Media Action Center, along with viewers of ABC stations across the country, filed a Motion to Intervene as plaintiffs in Disney and ABC’s lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The groups seek to ensure viewers' First Amendment rights are represented in American Broadcasting Companies v. FCC (Case No. 1:26-cv-2902) and to guarantee the American public has a seat at the table.

The groups support Disney’s efforts to fight back against the FCC and Chairman Brendan Carr’s unconstitutional assault on the freedom of the press. As Disney argued in its lawsuit, “the ultimate injury here is not to the station or its parent company … it is to the public.” The motion seeks to protect ABC viewers' constitutionally protected right to receive news, information and programming free from government intimidation.

Three months after town meeting voters in Longmeadow, Massachusetts rejected an $8.6 million proposal to kickstart the construction of a municipal fiber network, Town Councilors in the neighboring town of East Longmeadow moved in a different direction, voting to take control of its digital future and provide its residents and businesses with next-generation Internet access.

The move was formalized earlier this month when East Longmeadow Town Councilors unanimously approved issuing $43.5 million in bonds to finance the construction of a municipally-owned fiber network.

The vote paves the way for the western Massachusetts town of about 16,000 to finally get the affordable and reliable town-wide Internet connectivity local leaders see as vital for its economic future and improved quality-of-life.

Exclusive: Arturo Béjar, an ex-Facebook employee and whistleblower, said outcome ‘is not an all clear to say the product is safe’

The star witness in the US government’s landmark trial against Meta believes that a multibillion-dollar settlement reached on Wednesday does not go far enough to stop the social media giant’s harms to young users.

“The limitations that are in the agreement are the equivalent of saying: ‘Well you can smoke as many cigarettes as you can in two hours a day,’” said whistleblower and ex-Facebook employee Arturo Béjar. “It doesn’t make the cigarettes any safer.”

Dozens of states had sued Meta, alleging that it designed addictive products that led to mental health problems for young people such as disordered eating, depression and suicide. The states and the company reached a wide-ranging settlement agreement on Wednesday that will force Meta to make major changes to its platform, including putting strict limits on how much time teens are able to spend on apps like Instagram and Facebook.

Béjar’s testimony formed a key part of the government’s case.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe is celebrating the opening of its new fiber network operations center as the Hoopa Valley Public Utilities District (HVPUD) expands fiber-to-the-home Internet service throughout the Hoopa Valley Reservation and into neighboring communities just outside of its Tribal lands.

To mark the occasion earlier this summer, more than 50 community members, Tribal leaders, HVPUD staff, and project partners attended the July 17 opening celebration.

At the celebration, Hoopa Valley Tribal Vice Chairman Jordan Hailey hailed the milestone moment:

Good morning!

In the United States, various jurisdictions are pressing “pause” on the development of new data centers, and on July 14, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order establishing the first statewide moratorium on hyperscale facilities. Many of these moratoria are designed to enable more study on the effects of data centers to the environment, electrical grid and water supply, and of various other impacts to local and regional economies.

Tech Policy Press contributing editor Dean Jackson and Tim Bernard, a tech policy analyst and writer who has contributed frequently to the site, collect policy choices local governments can weigh while a data center moratorium is in effect, drawing on 17 publicly available resources from governments, researchers, and advocacy organizations. It organizes the options into categories spanning transparency, zoning, power and water use, taxation and community benefit agreements, labor protections, and enforcement.

The Walt Disney Company is suing the FCC, alleging a violation of First Amendment rights by challenges to its ABC broadcast licenses. NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez.

ABC and Disney's decision to sue the Federal Communications Commission over what the companies allege is retaliation for the network's news coverage and programming highlights the importance of protecting the First Amendment, said FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, the agency's lone Democrat, in an interview with Morning Edition on Wednesday.

"Disney has found its courage, and it is pushing back," Gomez told NPR's Leila Fadel. "And this is good. It's good for the First Amendment. It's good for the public, and it's good for broadcasters in general."

Governor Josh Stein argued the FCC should exercise its licensing authority in a way that protects press freedom under the First Amendment.

The Walt Disney Company and its broadcast network ABC has gained another political ally in its ongoing fight with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its eight local television broadcast licenses.

Last week, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein sent a letter to the FCC supporting Raleigh-Durham’s local ABC station WTVD (Channel 11), one of eight broadcast outlets directly owned by Disney.

In June, a sharp-suited Austrian executive from a global surveillance company told a prospective client that he could “go to prison” for organizing the deal they were discussing. But the conversation did not end there.

The executive, Guenther Rudolph, was seated at a booth at ISS World in Prague, a secretive trade fair for police and intelligence agencies and advanced surveillance technology companies. Rudolph went on to explain how his firm, First Wap, could provide sophisticated phone-tracking software capable of pinpointing any person in the world. The potential buyer? A private mining company, owned by an individual under sanction, who intended to use it to surveil environmental protesters. “I think we’re the only one who can deliver,” Rudolph said.

Nicholas Johnson served as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman from 1966 to 1973. The FCC regulates U.S. interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable.

Appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson, Nicholas Johnson was referred to as the “hippie” commissioner, primarily because he was considered a McLuhanist. It’s hard to imagine someone in the stodgy, bureaucratic role of FCC chairman being a McLuhan enthusiast.

In Radical Software (1970), without mentioning McLuhan directly, it is quite clear to whom he is referring:

"Only by treating technology as ecology can we cure the split between ourselves and our extensions."

Johnson later shortened the statement to “the separation of content and conduit,” which focused the function of the FCC on the delivery of content with minimal involvement in the content itself. He was a forward thinker like McLuhan, and his attitude is echoed in Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This section includes the “26 words that saved the Internet.” Section 230 is often referred to as “the 26 words that saved the Internet.”

Elon Musk's SpaceX is making moves to acquire more AWS-3 midband spectrum for Starlink's mobile satellite direct-to-device (D2D) service and getting closer to nationwide coverage in the US.

In a recent FCC filing, SpaceX subsidiary Starlink Spectrum Holdings requested permission to transfer control of three unpaired AWS-3 licences in the 1695MHz–1710MHz band that are held by Tristar License Group (TLG).

New Mexico-based Penasco Valley Telephone Cooperative (PVT) is using a $1 million disaster relief grant from the New Mexico Office Of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) to construct and expand reliable Internet access in numerous New Mexico communities that have historically been subjected to wildfires and flooding.

According to cooperative leadership, PVT is building an alternate fiber broadband route to establish more resilient and redundant connectivity to inhabitants of areas like the Capitan Mountains Wilderness, where the Seven Cabins Fire recently burned 31,000 acres after the crash of a medical plane last June.

The investments are also intended to shore up redundant communications connectivity in areas like Lincoln County, where the combined South Fork Fire and Salt Fire burned through over 25,000 acres, destroyed 1,400 homes and commercial buildings, and killed two local residents.

It’s been a few years since I spoke ‘officially’ with Alyssa Kenney, Wisconsin’s State Broadband and Digital Equity Director.

Housed in Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission (PSC), Kenney’s team is not only making the most of what post-BOB BEAD has become but is also allocating money to shore up the program’s shortcomings.

Schlemiel! Schlimazel!

In March of 24, Kenney was excited about a statewide equity program on the drawing board called the digital navigator program. Largely funded by the state’s designated $13.3M in Digital Equity Act (DEA), Kenney described the digital navigator program as hands on support, helping with affordability, equipment, and training. “Somebody to meet them at the library and really walk them through setting up an email,” explained Kenney.

As the recent NDIA court triumph signals the return of DEA, everything ‘old’ is new again and Kenney hopes to  get back to work on both this program as well as deepening relationships and coalitions to digital navigators. “Digital equity and adoption have always been really important to the Public Service Commission chair, through multiple seat holders. DEA and the Associated Dollars will hopefully come back and put some teeth behind our statewide equity goals.”

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 2026 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has taken its first formal step toward reopening the Digital Equity Act’s competitive grant program.

NTIA published a notice Tuesday opening a 60-day public comment period on the information collection and application requirements it plans to use for a new round of funding. The notice begins the federal paperwork process needed before NTIA can accept applications under the revived program.

The notice says NTIA will use the information from applicants to review their proposed projects and budgets. Affected applicants include nonprofits, community anchor institutions, educational agencies, workforce-development entities, Tribal entities, state and local governmental entities, and other eligible organizations or partnerships.

The move comes as the Commerce Department works toward its previously announced goal of reopening the program by December.

The EU AI Act's transparency rules went live three weeks ago while everyone was reading about the delay. Here's the 30-minute audit that tells you if you're exposed.

I run a media company where AI touches every one of our seven newsletters, and I'll admit something: when the EU agreed in May to push the AI Act's high-risk rules to 2027 and 2028, I mentally filed the whole thing under "future Mark's problem." I suspect half of corporate America did the same.

Then I actually read what got delayed. The high-risk rules moved. The transparency rules in Article 50 — the ones that govern chatbots, AI-generated images, and AI-written content — took effect on August 2, 2026. Three weeks ago. The only piece that got a reprieve is machine-readable watermarking for older systems, and that grace period ends December 2. I nearly missed a media-labeling law while running a media company. That's the kind of thing that keeps compliance officers young.

Find every place AI talks to your customers before a regulator does.

For four and a half days in July, an internal, frontier OpenAI model escaped a sandboxed cybersecurity evaluation and ran an autonomous intrusion campaign against Hugging Face, a company that hosts AI datasets and models. The rogue model’s aim wasn’t corporate sabotage: It was trying to steal the answer key for a cybersecurity test that OpenAI researchers were asking the model to complete.

Ironically, Hugging Face’s defensive operation was hampered by OpenAI’s commercial models refusing to assist because of cybersecurity guardrails, forcing Hugging Face to turn to open source models running on its local hardware to fend off and analyze the attack.

But most alarmingly, OpenAI did not know its internal model was responsible until Hugging Face disclosed the breach on July 16. Five days later, OpenAI acknowledged and owned it publicly, and has been responding actively since. However, as more details of this incident emerge, the reality it presents is unprecedented and urgent. 

The Paramount-Warner Bros. deal is going badly — for the billionaires.

To the chagrin of CEO David Ellison and Paramount leadership, bribery and bootlicking get you only so far in 2026. While these underhanded tactics may have been enough to woo the Trump administration, the deeply unpopular mega-merger is now hitting major roadblocks. 

A dozen state attorneys general, led by California’s Rob Bonta, are suing to block the deal on antitrust grounds, with a trial set to begin next March. Starting Sept. 30, Paramount will have to pay WBD shareholders $7 million for every day the deal is delayed. (That adds up to a $650 million “ticking fee” per quarter.)

The highly leveraged merger already rests on shaky foreign financing and the declining wealth of David’s daddy, Larry Ellison, the deal’s main backer. And every week brings even more evidence the merger is a job killer designed to warp news coverage and undermine democracy.

The Illinois broadband office can breathe a sigh of relief. I think. Its BEAD final proposal was… finally… approved.

A month after California’s BEAD approval, and an astonishing 11+ months since the proposal was submitted, Illinois and the NTIA see

Twelve state attorneys general, the directors’ and crew unions, the theater owners, and much of the industry disagree on almost everything in the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery case. They agree on one thing: They would all prefer a settlement. The Directors Guild and IATSE have jointly urged Attorney General Rob Bonta and David Ellison to pursue a negotiated resolution. The theater owners group, Cinema United, which opposed the merger, now seeks a settlement with enforceable protections. The three largest exhibitors have endorsed the deal after receiving commitments on theatrical output and release windows. Political leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, likely successor Xavier Becerra and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, have joined in.

I understand the impulse. I share it. No one in this industry benefits from another year of limbo. Not Warner Bros. Discovery, not Paramount, and certainly not the writers, directors, crews, vendors and communities whose livelihoods depend on production that companies in limbo may not greenlight.