Paramount Global has eliminated its diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the face of America First Legal lawsuits against the company and its CBS subsidiary, the conservative administrative law nonprofit said last week. AFL said it has also secured a settlement with Paramount and CBS regarding an AFL client -- a script supervisor for the show SEAL Team -- who alleged discrimination by dint of not being an underrepresented minority. Paramount has committed to no longer setting numerical goals related to race, ethnicity, sex or gender and no longer collecting demographic data of applicants, AFL said. Paramount didn't comment Friday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has also targeted DEI initiatives at companies the agency regulates (see 2503280038).
The FCC Enforcement Bureau’s Region One office in Maryland sent a warning to a business in Hartford, Connecticut, about pirate radio broadcasts from its property, said an agency notice of illegal pirate radio broadcasting issued Friday. EB agents in Boston found unauthorized radio broadcasts coming from the property owned by 30 Arbor Street LLC on three different days last year, the notice said. The property appears to include house apartments and a distillery called the Hartford Flavor Co., according to an online search.
Members of the Cross-Sector Resiliency Forum briefed aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr about the group’s most recent work, according to a filing posted Friday in docket 11-60.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' reported plans to eliminate 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline services specifically catering to LGBTQ+ users -- part of an array of cost-cutting steps -- are "grotesque," FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez wrote Friday on X. The FCC "is committed to mental health support for all -- no matter who you love or how you identify," she said. "That’s why we made it easier to call/text 988. Stripping LGBTQ+ Americans of this lifesaving tool is cruel and will lead to preventable deaths." HHS didn't comment.
The FCC's equipment authorization authority can be used to fight the security vulnerabilities that equipment on the agency's "covered list" can pose, Charter Communications executives told the commission. In a docket 21-232 posting Friday recapping a meeting with FCC Council for National Security Director Adam Chan, Charter advocated that the agency require device manufacturers seeking certification to show that their devices securely authenticate with a network owner or operator before the device can connect. Alternately, they should show that their devices communicate a unique, unchangeable and cryptographically assured device ID number to the network anytime it connects, Charter said. Such a requirement would let connectivity providers identify vulnerabilities in their networks, including the originating devices, and isolate them, it added.
Utilities Technology Council President Rusty Williams met with FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington to discuss cybersecurity and spectrum issues, said a filing posted Friday in docket 23-239. UTC and Simington “discussed ways that the cyber trust mark could promote the security of industrial control systems, and how utilities need access to unauctioned inventory spectrum on a licensed basis.”
Both sides agreed to a briefing schedule in a case challenging the FCC’s order to give use of the 4.9 GHz band to the FirstNet Authority and, indirectly, AT&T (see 2410220027). The schedule was submitted last week to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which will hear the case (24-1363).
The U.S. government urged the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals not to look to the 5th Circuit decision overturning an AT&T data fine when it hears arguments Tuesday concerning a $46.9 million penalty the FCC levied against Verizon. The carrier hopes the 2nd Circuit will follow the 5th’s direction (see 2504180021). “The FCC forfeiture order AT&T challenged, which involved AT&T’s location-based-service program, is nearly identical to the order Verizon challenges here,” the carrier told the court. The government responded Friday in docket 24-1733.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday delayed the Aug. 20 deadline for larger carriers to meet the Safe Connections Act's requirements. The act's goal is to help domestic violence survivors gain access to safe and affordable communications services. The FCC approved an order implementing the act in November 2023 (see 2311150042).
Several changes are likely to be included in the 37 GHz order and Further NPRM set for a commission vote Monday, industry and FCC officials said. Limited changes are possible to the proposed robocall NPRM, which seeks to close a gap in the commission’s Stir/Shaken authentication rules. Both items are expected to be approved by a unanimous vote.