Politico

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai personally approved a secret deal that gave the social network a leg up in the search giant’s online advertising auctions, attorneys for Texas and other states alleged in newly unsealed court filings.

The Biden administration is getting closer to launching its proposed Alliance for the Future of the Internet. Administration officials originally hoped to launch this effort of “like-minded countries” in early December 2021 in tandem with the president’s Summit for Democracy.

Comcast has added a lobbyist with deep ties to Arizona, a state whose senior senator may hold the key to confirming Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] for the open seat at the Federal Communications Commission. The cable, broadband and broadcasting giant hired Kirk Adams of Consilium Consulting to lobby on FCC nominations.

Privacy advocacy groups Free Press Action and Fight for the Future are urging Senate Democrats to quickly confirm Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to the Federal Communications Commission and Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission. President Joe Biden renominated both nominees on January 4 after the Senate failed to confirm them in December 2021. Both the FCC and the FTC currently have 2-2 partisan splits, making it difficult for their Democratic chairs to advance controversial items.

Three former Federal Communications Commission public safety chiefs endorsed Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] for the open Democratic commissioner slot. In a pair of letters to the Senate Commerce Committee on January 3, Jamie Barnett, David Simpson and David Turetsky — who all worked at the FCC during the Obama administration — said Sohn has strongly supported law enforcement and first responders.

Democrats are gearing up for another attempt at confirming President Joe Biden’s nominees for top posts at the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration after GOP objections stalled them in 2021. The three nominations — Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] for the open FCC seat, Alvaro Bedoya for the open FTC seat and Alan Davidson to head NTIA — technically expired when the December 2021 session ended.

So far the bulk of the anger towards Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo over her skepticism about EU tech regulations has come from civil society groups, but the business community is now mobilizing. A coalition of eight companies, including Yelp, Genius, Felt, Patreon, Beeper and REX, wrote that they support the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, the two EU rules Raimondo slammed during a recent US Chamber of Commerce event.