January 22, 2024
Should Internet Platforms Be Classified as Common Carriers?
In my latest blog post, I illustrated that the increased privacy rationale used by the majority of the commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission to support the reclassification of broadband internet service providers (ISPs) in its resuscitated Open Internet Order, rulemaking would have negligible effect. This is because the risk of privacy breaches by ISPs (for…
January 19, 2024
Bureaucracy, Violence, and Utopia: A Fun and Interesting Reminder
The highlight for me of David Graeber’s 2015 book, The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, is his trenchant critique of the post office, which has fallen from its essential role in Western society formation and progress to something quite deadened indeed. Postal services emerged to serve the needs of…
January 18, 2024
OpenAI-New York Times Copyright Fight Further Illustrates Autonomy-Automaton Dichotomy
The latest dispute between the New York Times and OpenAI reinforces the distinction in understanding artificial intelligence (AI) between autonomy and automatons, which we have previously examined. The Gray Lady turned heads late this past year when it filed suit against OpenAI, alleging that the artificial intelligence giant’s ChatGPT software infringed its copyrights. Broadly speaking, the Times alleged that the famous chatbot…
January 17, 2024
Why I Left Harvard
Since early December, the end of my 20-year career teaching at Harvard has been the subject of articles, op-eds, tweets from a billionaire, and even a congressional hearing. I have become a poster child for how the growing campus DEI—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—bureaucracies strangle free speech. My ordeal has been used to illustrate the hypocrisy of the assertions by Harvard’s leaders…
January 17, 2024
Pay Attention, America: Edmund Burke and the Folly of British Climate “Leadership”
“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.” This timeless wisdom was articulated by Edmund Burke, a famous philosopher, member of the House of Commons for many years in the mid- and late 18th century, and often described as a “father of conservatism.” British energy policies since 2008 — the year that Parliament…
January 17, 2024
Can the FCC’s Open Internet Order Really Increase Consumer Safety?
On January 17, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is scheduled to report on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet. If it proceeds, broadband internet access services, provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be reclassified as telecommunications services subject to Title II of the Communications Act 1934. Broadband providers will…
January 11, 2024
Concern for Kids Prompts Problematic Internet Regulation, Take 27
“What about the kids?” plays an outsized role in the short history of Internet law. From the Communications Decency Act to the Child Online Protection Act, California’s violent video game law, and more, the contours of online regulation have been shaped by well-meaning legislation that turned out to be unwise, unconstitutional, or both. Last month,…
January 9, 2024
Broadband Pricing Under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program
Key Points Read the PDF. Congress created the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, a prominent feature of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA),1 to usher areas without modern broadband into the digital age. Congress found: The IIJA provides $42.45 billion for planning, infrastructure deployment, and adoption programs in all 50 states, American…
January 9, 2024
Examining Manipulated Media and Platform Accountability
On October 24, 2023, AEI hosted a panel to discuss a case facing Meta’s Oversight Board, which concerns an altered video posted by a Facebook user of President Joe Biden. The video raises questions about social media platforms’ responsibilities and their ability to influence public perceptions of political figures. The panel included AEI’s Clay Calvert and Shane…
January 5, 2024
Louis Brandeis and William McKinley: An Unlikely Pair United Under Biden
William McKinley won the presidency under the banner of the “Full Diner Pail” for workers allegedly underpinned by protection and high tariffs. Louis Brandeis, by contrast, was a free trader who abhorred concentrated corporate power (today’s Big Tech). The Biden administration has accomplished the unlikely feat of merging neo-Brandeisian trustbusting with portions of “Full Dinner Pail” protectionism….