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Below: Meta’s oversight board takes on its newest platform. First:
Lawmakers rush to shore up internet subsidy program before it lapses
A group of lawmakers is making a major push to extend a key internet subsidy program in their upcoming government spending talks, part of a last-ditch effort to head off a lapse in funding.
In recent days, top Democratic lawmakers and officials at the Federal Communications Commission have held numerous rallies calling for the $14 billion Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP, to receive a new round of appropriations from Congress.
As my colleague Eva Dou reported, the ACP “allowed some 23 million low-income households to receive discounts on their internet bills of up to $30 a month,” or higher for tribal lands. The Biden administration touts it as the “largest internet affordability program in our nation’s history.”
The battle is coming to a head as lawmakers try to stave off a government shutdown next month, with the negotiations potentially offering the last chance to keep the subsidies alive before they’re projected to run out of funding.
The White House in October urged congressional appropriators to dedicate $6 billion to extend the ACP through the end of 2024, and in January, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel — whose agency administers the program — warned that the existing funds would expire in April.
In response, a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers unveiled a bill last month to re-up its funding. Now, key negotiators are pushing to tuck the measure into upcoming spending bills on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are racing to avert a possible shutdown.
“We’re trying to get it included in that. If we can’t, we’ll try to get an emergency appropriation,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (N.J.), the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said at an event in his state to rally support for the program Wednesday.
Lawmakers need to pull out all the stops, Pallone warned, because “it’s going to be very detrimental to all these people that need internet access” if the funding expires. Rosenworcel, who spoke alongside him, said in a statement after the event: “We’ve come too far to turn back now.”
Sara Collins, director of government affairs at the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, said the spending talks “may be the really the only opportunity to get an extension passed” before the funding lapse.
Democrats have sought to rally support in recent weeks as more households are getting notified that they could soon lose access to the internet discounts.
Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who held an event in his home state, said he also backs “including additional funding for the ACP in the appropriations bills … to save this essential program.”
The White House had requested new funding as part of a supplemental package on domestic priorities. The House and Senate did not initially include appropriations for the effort in their respective spending bills, and the two chambers in recent months have focused on separate supplemental packages largely focused on national security. But lawmakers could still look to tuck funding for ACP into a final package or an omnibus spending bill.
The bipartisan support for extending the program notwithstanding, top Republicans have either raised serious reservations or balked at the prospect of re-upping it.
House and Senate GOP leaders warned in a letter to the FCC’s internal watchdog last year that there are “strong indications that the programs have not been effective in increasing broadband adoption.” Republicans have also spoken out over the watchdog’s finding that there was “significant provider noncompliance” with the program’s rules.
“In light of ACP’s poor record, it would be irresponsible to spend billions more on this program without a total overhaul,” Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement to The Technology 202.
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Meta’s Oversight Board to review content moderation calls on Threads
Meta’s Oversight Board said Thursday that it will review thorny content moderation decisions on the company’s new social media app, Threads. The board, which is funded by Meta but makes decisions independently, previously issued opinions only on posts that the social media giant leaves up or removes on Facebook and Instagram, our colleague Naomi Nix reports for The Technology 202.
Thursday’s announcement represents an expansion of the scope of the Oversight Board, an independent collection of academics, experts and lawyers, since it was first unveiled in 2019. Meta launched Threads last summer as an alternative to X, and the service has since grown to include more than 130 million monthly active users.
Meta Global Affairs President Nick Clegg said in a statement that the expansion “will both enhance users’ rights and strengthen transparency around content policies across our apps.”
Since its founding, the Oversight Board has weighed in on Meta’s handling of a wide range of contentious issues, from its suspension of former president Donald Trump’s account to its handling of posts related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The group has faced criticism for moving too slowly to issue decisions and declining to answer some of the hardest questions around freedom of expression and safety facing social media platforms.
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- Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky is joining the executive council of tech trade association TechNet; Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box, has been reelected to it.
- The R Street Institute think tank holds an event, “Misinformation and Disinformation: Is Democracy in Crisis, and Is It at Risk of Failing?,” on Thursday at noon.
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