Two FCC commissioners say social media companies' embrace of U.S. Supreme Court precedent is misplaced when it comes to their arguments in the challenges before SCOTUS of Texas and Florida social media laws (see 2309290020) that such platforms have a First Amendment right to censor users' speech. Writing last week in the Yale Journal on Regulation, Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington said SCOTUS has never held that the First Amendment gives dominant companies like big social media "a freewheeling right to censor others’ speech." Pointing to such SCOTUS precedent as its Turner decision, requiring cable systems to carry broadcast TV channels, the Republican commissioners said the high court has allowed the government to apply anti-discrimination requirements to corporations in ways consistent with the First Amendment. The commissioners said social media regulations like Texas' House Bill 20 "are easily distinguished" from regulations struck down on First Amendment grounds in decisions such as Tornillo, which involved a Florida law requiring newspapers to run partisan editorial content. "Indeed, HB20 touches none of the First Amendment third rails that were at play in those cases," they said. When considering such issues as market power and the degree to which the regulated entity makes individualized decisions about speech rather than being a common carrier of speech, "it is clear that the government can, in the appropriate case, apply anti-discrimination rules to social media platforms," they said. "Texas’s HB20 is one of those cases."
The U.S. scored an important win for Wi-Fi at the recent World Radiocommunication Conference, beating back a move to harmonize the upper 6 GHz band for 5G, speakers said during a CES discussion of unlicensed spectrum late Thursday. Officials said restoration of FCC auction authority is critical, but when Congress will act remains uncertain.
Industry lawyers and analysts expect a busy start for the FCC in 2024, with the 3-2 Democratic majority able to approve items without the FCC’s two Republicans, and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel eager to address priorities before the usual freeze in the months before and after a presidential election.
The FCC warned a New York realty company of the possible forfeiture of up to $2.3 million for allegedly hosting a pirate radio station, said an Enforcement Bureau letter in Thursday’s Daily Digest. The notice to Matovu Realty concerned a building at 3349 Decatur Ave., Bronx, and identified Matovu as the owner. The letter demands proof that unauthorized transmissions found by EB field agents have ceased and requests that the unauthorized broadcasters be identified. Matovu has 10 business days to respond. The company didn't comment.
The 2018 quadrennial review order supports Gray Television's arguments against the FCC’s $518,000 enforcement action over a 2020 transaction involving an Anchorage station, Gray told the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a response letter Thursday. Gray was responding to an FCC letter last week giving the court notice of the QR order, which was released in December. Gray has argued that the agency created a requirement for what data is used to determine station rankings without notice when it issued the forfeiture in 2022 (see 2307240065). Ratings data from the time of the transaction showed Gray already owned two of the top-four stations in the market, which the broadcaster has argued means the Anchorage deal didn’t result in a new top-four combination -- instead an existing top-four combination added another station. The FCC has argued that this ratings data wasn’t available to Gray when it made the deal and so is invalid. The QR order changes the ranking methodology to use “available data over a 12-month period immediately preceding the date of application,” Gray told the court Thursday. The inclusion of the word “available” in the QR order “underscores its prior absence, and it highlights the FCC’s failure to provide Gray with fair notice of such a requirement which the FCC invented to justify penalizing Gray,” said the broadcaster. The QR order also doesn’t show that applying the agency’s rule against affiliation swaps to Gray’s purchase of a station’s network affiliation “furthered an interest in competition, as the First Amendment requires,” Gray told the court. “Thus, nothing the FCC said in the 2023 Order cures the fatal defect in the Forfeiture Order.” Oral argument in the case is set for March.
Representatives of the Bristol Bay Cellular Partnership spoke with FCC Wireless and Wireline bureau staff on the company’s request for waiver and revised performance commitments demonstrating it “has met all applicable Alaska Plan deployment milestones.” The reps “explained that the ongoing withholding of support has forced the Company to put several planned system upgrades, network expansions, and other projects on hold,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 16-271.
Wi-Fi Alliance Services representatives urged FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff to let the company launch operations as an automated frequency coordination system provider in the 6 GHz band. They noted the company “has taken all the steps specified by the Commission to be recognized as a provider of 6 GHz AFC services, including submitting its Report on the public trial it conducted,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-352 said.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel asked auto manufacturers and wireless service providers to help protect domestic abuse survivors "from the misuse of connected car tools by abusers." In letters Thursday, Rosenworcel wrote, "Having access to a car is also a critical lifeline," adding: "No survivor of domestic violence and abuse should have to choose between giving up their car and allowing themselves to be stalked and harmed by those who can access its data and connectivity." Rosenworcel contacted Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Stellantis, Tesla and Toyota asking for "details about the connected car systems they offer, any existing plans to support survivors in their efforts to disconnect from abusers, and how these companies handle consumers’ geolocation data." In addition, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile received letters. Rosenworcel asked the providers for information about "existing connected car services, treatment of geolocation data from these services, current compliance with the Safe Connections Act of 2022, and how/if the companies provide connected car services to consumers who are not subscribers to their wireless services otherwise."
An FCC order making pole attachment dispute resolutions faster takes effect Feb. 12, said a notice for Friday's Federal Register. Commissioners adopted the item in December along with a related declaratory ruling on transparency requirements and a Further NPRM seeking comment on rules that could hasten deployment (see 2312130044).
Enhanced alternative connect America cost model (ACAM) carriers must certify and submit their cybersecurity and supply chain risk management plans to the FCC by Feb. 12 (see 2308310047). A Wireline Bureau public notice posted Thursday in docket 10-90 said any carrier that misses the deadline or lacks operational plans during the support term, the bureau will direct the Universal Service Administrative Co. to "withhold 25% of monthly support until the carrier comes into compliance."