April 23, 2024
Huawei’s 5G Resilience: Will It Last?
As laid out in my last blog, Huawei continues to demonstrate that it has maneuvered, at least partially, around US-imposed restrictions on advanced chips. Last week, it introduced a more advanced version of its 5G-enabled smartphone, the Pura 70, and expects to sell some 60 million such handsets this year. Semiconductor chips will also play a key role…
April 22, 2024
Earth Day 2024: How Plastic Can the Enviros Get?
It is Earth Day 2024, an annual exercise in self-applause that always is too much fun because of the inanities, hypocrisies, mendacities, and sheer stupidity of the Earth Day slogans, arguments, propaganda, and exhortations. And also because of the embarrassing spectacle of long queues of corporate officials and public relations gasbags desperate to advertise their environmental bona fides so that the green alligators might eat them last. The Earth Day slogan for…
April 19, 2024
In Attacking Apple, the Department of Justice Fails to Grasp the Essence of Progress
Those who look forward to Apple (yet again) redefining the technological horizon, like it did with the iPhone, may need to temper their expectations. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken an ill-conceived step with an antitrust lawsuit that, if successful, threatens to transform Apple from an industry maverick into just another phone maker. The DOJ…
April 19, 2024
Evaluating State Broadband Efforts: Insights from the Broadband Barometer Project
As the country races into its digital transformation, the expansion of broadband across the United States has become a pivotal undertaking. There are numerous state and federal efforts, fueled largely by over $70 billion of federal taxpayer dollars. States are at the forefront, receiving about $42.5 billion to implement the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program under…
April 16, 2024
The Off-Duty, Online Speech Rights of Public Employees: A Free Speech Victory
During the tumultuous cancel-culture summer of 2020, police officer George Forbush publicly vented his anger about the beating a person suffered at a Black Lives Matter (BLM) march. After watching video of the disturbing incident on Twitter, the 19-year veteran of the Sparks (Nevada) Police Department tweeted this off-duty response from his personal account: “I have six AR-15 rifles. I…
April 16, 2024
The Past and Present of Net Neutrality
Toward the end of this month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a vote to reinstate a set of rules for internet providers. Consisting of 434 pages and resembling a 2015 order passed during the Obama administration, the new rules are expected to pass given the makeup of the FCC. If enacted, broadband companies and other…
April 15, 2024
American Privacy Rights Act of 2024: A Renewed Push for a Comprehensive National Privacy Framework
Little more than two years from the last significant attempt to modernize our national privacy law in the failed American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA), US House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-WA, and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Chair Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA released a “discussion draft” of the American…
April 12, 2024
Net Neutrality’s Glimmers of Hope and Hidden Timebombs
On April 25, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote to reinstate net neutrality rules and reclassify broadband providers as Title II common carriers. Since the agency signaled its intentions last fall, we’ve published several posts discussing the potential pitfalls this proceeding might pose for consumers and innovation. The recently published, 435-page draft final rule reinforces many of those concerns, though…
April 11, 2024
The Return of Crypto: Building the Next Era of the Internet
Center for Technology, Science, and Energy AEI, Auditorium1789 Massachusetts Avenue NWWashington, DC 20036 Contact Information Event: Owen O’Brien-Powers | Owen.O’Brien-Powers@aei.org | 503.449.4641Media: MediaServices@aei.org | 202.862.5829 Event Summary On April 11, AEI’s Jim Harper was joined by venture capitalist and Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Chris Dixon for a conversation about the nature of the internet and the next iteration of the web,…
April 11, 2024
Who Will Monitor the AI Monitors? And What Should They Watch?
As all good policy practitioners know, all regulatory activities are constrained by the agency problem: Those who are being regulated know far more of what is going on than those who are charged with overseeing their activities. But there are even more problems of information asymmetry associated with AI regulation, because even those who are…