Opponents of AT&T’s plan to acquire Time Warner may have to rely on the Department of Justice as their sole federal option for blocking the $85.4 billion deal as it looks increasingly likely that the FCC won’t review it.
According to Timothy Karr, senior director of strategy for Free Press, "No FCC chair over the past 40 years has been so bent on undermining the agency's public-service mission and destroying the safeguards on which hundreds of millions of Americans rely."
The Republican-led Federal Communications Commission still hasn't said if it will dismantle the Net Neutrality regulations, but it's already picking apart the rules to make them less potent.
Until today, March 2 marked the date that internet service providers would be required to adopt “reasonable” measures to protect sensitive customer info like browsing histories, location data and Social Security numbers. Thanks to the FCC’s new leadership, however, that deadline will now be extended indefinitely, and we have no idea if or when those rules will be enacted.
A coalition of civil rights and digital advocacy groups is calling on the FCC to renew its commitment to Lifeline, a program that provides subsidies for internet access to low-income households.