Pai Touts Broadband Efforts to Close Digital Divide as Top Priority, Key to Free Speech

important functions, and so in this mission we simply cannot fail and we cannot falter," he said Friday at a Center for Democracy & Technology conference on online speech (he deviated at times from prepared remarks). Pai said free speech is being both challenged and stimulated by modern communications, but on balance, "the positives outweigh the negatives." He cited polls showing a lack of appreciation among Americans for freedom of speech, along with "regular demands" the FCC pull the licenses of Fox News, MSNBC or CNN because people disagree with opinions expressed on the networks. "Setting aside the fact that the FCC doesn’t license cable channels, these demands are fundamentally at odds with our legal and cultural traditions," he said. Pai also sees positive signs, with expansion of internet access particularly hopeful. But for "too many," the discussion "is academic," he said, because they are on the wrong side of the digital divide, lacking adequate access to high-speed broadband. "The most significant digital divides are along economic and geographic lines," he said. "Basically, if you’re wealthy and live in a city, you should be in good shape. If you’re low-income and/or live in a rural area, you’re much more likely to have a problem." He said the FCC is trying to close those gaps, including by revamping $6.5 billion in USF subsidies to support both mobile and fixed broadband services over the next 10 years, and by removing regulatory barriers to network investment.