The Commerce Department is prioritizing regulation that protects intellectual property, human rights and privacy without slowing innovation, Secretary Gina Raimondo said Tuesday. Various legislators and officials at a National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence summit called for international cooperation, investment and for setting artificial intelligence standards.
Unit growth in laptop and tablet imports to the U.S. continued at its torrid pace in May, the 14th full month of pandemic-induced demand for remote work and learning connectivity tools, according to Census data we accessed on Sunday through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. Vietnam raised its standing as a country of origin for notebook PCs and tablets, plus smartphones, which moved considerably more upmarket in May, likely due to the increasing mix of higher-priced 5G-enabled handsets.
The FTC and DOJ will work to update mergers and acquisitions guidelines and begin interagency collaboration directed in President Joe Biden’s executive order, FTC Chair Lina Khan and Attorney General Merrick Garland responded to the EO Friday. Democratic senators and consumer groups welcomed Biden’s call for more vigorous and modernized antitrust. Industry groups shot back. See a news bulletin here and 2107090063 for the EO's telecom provisions.
It will be a challenge for state attorneys general to prove Google has a monopoly over the Android app store market, former FTC and DOJ officials told us Thursday. Consumer groups welcomed Wednesday’s lawsuit from AGs in 36 states and Washington, D.C.
Former President Donald Trump sued Facebook, Google, Twitter and their CEOs Wednesday, alleging illegal online censorship. Experts dismissed this as a baseless effort without First Amendment grounds.
Voice has evolved from an interface to a distinct consumer channel -- with its own behaviors and implications for brands, Vixen Labs said Tuesday. About 95% of consumers using voice technology are mobile users; two-thirds use a smart speaker; and 31% use voice daily, with most using voice to search, consume and shop, said a May survey done by Vixen with the Linux Foundation’s Open Voice Network.
Among associations that deal with telecom and whose website home and About pages we checked for accessibility, the average scores were in the 80s out of 100. The highest score was 100, the lowest 63. Communications Daily used two trackers, www.webaccessibility.com and Google’s Lighthouse extension, to review the sites of some 30 associations. Experts said in interviews that manual checks are more accurate, and results show some accessibility problems.
With nearly 3.1 million households enrolled to date in the FCC’s emergency broadband benefit program, experts told us the program could last at least another year if enrollment numbers and the amount of money ISPs seek for reimbursement remain at the current pace. Others said it’s too early to say because of the limited data available.
Opponents of the FCC’s order reallocating the 5.9 GHz band raise a novel issue in a spectrum fight at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit -- whether the FCC violated a law requiring the allocation of spectrum for intelligent transportation systems. The FCC moved away from dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), the former allocation for the entire 75 MHz. Instead, the agency divided the band with 45 MHz set aside for Wi-Fi and 30 MHz for cellular vehicle-to-everything technology. Wi-Fi advocates say the court is unlikely to reverse the FCC in favor of the Department of Transportation.
Florida plans to “immediately appeal” to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday's decision by the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee to freeze Florida’s law regulating social media, said a spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) Thursday. Hours before the law was to take effect, Judge Robert Hinkle granted NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association’s motion for preliminary injunction (see our bulletin). Plaintiffs and supporting amici told us they’re confident the 11th Circuit won’t overturn the lower court.