John Eggerton

Sens Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), have introduced the Privacy Bill of Rights bill, the Customer Online Notification for Stopping Edge-provider Network Transgressions (CONSENT) Act, which would require edge providers to obtain opt-in consent to use, share or sell users' personal info. It would not extend opt-in to data collection, but would require edge providers to notify users of such collection. The bill would require the Federal Trade Commission to establish online protections for "customers" of online edge providers, including Facebook and Google.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) said he would tend not to regulate Facebook and other edge providers more, but rather would reduce the regulations on their Internet service provider and broadcast competitors. Regarding privacy regulation of social media giants, Chairman Walden said people clearly needed to know how their data and information was being used, but he was clearly not ready to jump on the "regulate the edge" bandwagon that has been revving up. He pointed out that there are user agreements that are enforceable by the Federal Trade Commission, which is the sam

Former Obama-era Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz argued against a state bill creating its own network neutrality rules and regulations and Internet service provider contract terms and online privacy protections in the wake of the Federal Communications Commission's elimination of its own rules. According to his prepared testimony for a hearing before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, Leibowitz said he recognized "the sky did not fall" when the FCC, during the Obama Administration, reclassified ISPs as Title II common carriers.

The National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the White House's chief telecommunications policy advisor, has launched a revamped BroadbandUSA website and broadband map. The site was first launched as part of the Obama Administration's broadband stimulus funding initiative. That stimulus funding ran out in 2015, and the Federal Communications Commission took over the broadband mapping info collection -- it just released a new map in February.

A second member has quit the Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, also suggesting it has been carrying water for industry rather than drawing on a well of other sources to grow broadband deployment. Miguel Gamiño Jr., CTO of the New York City, said in a letter to FCC chairman Ajit Pai that after participating in 100 hours worth of calls, attending one all-day meeting in D.C.

Paid prioritization has become the third rail of net neutrality discussions, Comcast senior EVP David Cohen said, but it should not be. Cohen said he has had conversations with his industry, with tech companies and the Cisco’s of the world about the possibility of agreeing to a prohibition on paid prioritization with a limited exception for specialized services that do not travel on the public internet, though he said that was not an official Comcast proposal.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit will be hearing the appeals of the Federal Communications Commission's Restoring Internet Freedom order. That court has principal jurisdiction over FCC decisions. The court heard the two previous appeals -- of the 2011 Open Internet Order, which it overturned, and the 2015 Open Internet Order, which it upheld. The Judicial Conference lottery, which is held when appeals are filed in multiple venues, had chosen the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but there had been a motion, unopposed, to instead consolidate the cases in the DC Circuit.

Federal Trade Commission acting Chief Technology Officer Neil Chilson says that the FTC has the tech expertise to enforce network neutrality in the absence of Federal Communications Commission rules against blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization, but that it does not need a "granular, micromanaging" level of technical detail to protect consumers and competition -- it is not writing specific rules -- but rather to focus on the end effects of a particular practice.

President Donald Trump has extended the cyber attack national emergency, which was declared by President Barack Obama in April 2015 but would have terminated April 1, 2018, while elsewhere on the broadband front, the White House was promoting efforts by Republicans in Congress to further broadband infrastructure buildouts, which the Administration has said are a priority inrural areas. In December 2018, President Trump issued an executive order with added steps to address that cybersecurity emergency.

The Federal Communications Commission has taken the next step toward instituting its network neutrality rollback. On March 27, the FCC signaled it has submitted the enhanced information-collection portion of the Restoring Internet Freedom Order to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), according to the Federal Register, which plans to publish that OMB submission March 28 -- starting a 30-day comment period to the OMB.