Information that is published or distributed in a digital form, including text, data, sound recordings, photographs and images, motion pictures, and software.
Digital Content
How do Americans weigh a core value like free expression against the downsides that come with harmful content and misinformation online? A new report by Gallup and Knight Foundation, being released June 16, explores attitudes toward key issues in tech policy, including content moderation, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and approaches to industry self-governance like Facebook’s Oversight Board. This new study provides a springboard for tech companies, government and citizens like to advance a conversation about free expression online.
Speakers
On July 1, the Permanent Internet Tax Fairness Act is going to apply to 7 grandfathered states that were still collecting taxes on broadband services
A Q&A with Steve Lacoff, general manager of communications at Avalara (which provides cloud-based software tax compliance), on the Permanent Internet Tax Fairness Act.
FCC Commissioner O'Rielly voices doubts about President Trump's executive order
Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said he's unsure whether his agency has the authority to carry out President Donald Trump's executive order targeting tech firms' legal protections. President Trump's order seeks to have the FCC craft regulations limiting the scope of legal immunity that online platforms have under federal law.
Twitter's Newest Trick Relies on Tracking More of Your Clicks
Twitter introduced a new feature that prompts users to read links to articles before sharing them.
Internet Archive Will End Its Program for Free E-Books
The nonprofit has said its National Emergency Library was a public service to people unable to access libraries during the pandemic, but publishers and authors accused it of theft.
Our Open Letter To Facebook
Over the past year, the Biden for President campaign has called on Facebook to meet the commitment the company made after 2016 — to use its platform to improve American democracy rather than as a tool to spread disinformation that undermines our elections. The campaign has proposed meaningful ways to check disinformation on your platform and to limit the effect of false ads. But Facebook has taken no meaningful action.
Ending Our Click-Bait Culture: Why Progressives Must Break the Power of Facebook and Google
This memo briefly explains how Facebook and Google have come to dominate modern communications networks, what that means for American democracy, and how to fix it.
Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users
Cox Communications is lowering Internet upload speeds in entire neighborhoods to stop what it considers "excessive usage," in a decision that punishes both heavy Internet users and their neighbors. Cox, a cable company with about 5.2 million broadband customers in the United States, has been sending notices to some heavy Internet users warning them to use less data and notifying them of neighborhood-wide speed decreases.
How Google Docs became the social media of the resistance
Google Docs has risen as one of the key tools for organizing George Floyd-related protests.
Doomscrolling: Why We Just Can’t Look Away
Primal instincts often drive our obsession with stressful news, and social-media platforms are designed to keep us hooked. “These algorithms are designed to take and amplify whatever emotions will keep us watching, especially negative emotions. And that can have a real negative impact on people’s mental health,” says David Jay of the Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit addressing how social-media platforms hijack our attention.