Diversity

Verizon may have scored federal approval of its $20 billion Frontier acquisition, but the coast is far from clear stateside. California is scrutinizing the operator for ending its diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The California Public Utilities Commission this week began conducting hearings to seek input on whether the Verizon/Frontier deal serves the public interest.

Blair Levin, the Policy Advisor to New Street Research, thinks that the Verizon $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications will ultimately be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, though it may be a bit of a bumpy ride. His analysis, titled “VZ/FYBR Faces California Trump Transaction Trap,” focuses on how the Trump administration’s antipathy for diversity, equality, and inclusion can be reconciled with the goals and position of the CPUC, which must approve the transaction between Verizon and Frontier.

Gigi Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband, says that Trump’s reversal of the Digital Equity Act will result in more Americans being unable to access the Internet due to lack of resources or skills. “We will continue to have a massive digital divide in this country,” said Sohn.

Technology is not innovative if it harms people or leaves anyone behind. True innovation means technology works for all of us, especially communities historically pushed to the margins. People of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, Limited English Proficient people, older individuals, religious minorities, and immigrants all deserve technology that works for them. This Framework serves as a proactive vision for how emerging technology products, tools, and services, with a focus on AI, can be rights inclusive, safe, and equitable for all people.

I speak to you this morning as the President’s Science and Technology Advisor, who has been given three interconnected tasks in pursuit of a Golden Age of Innovation: to maintain American technological leadership; to ensure all Americans enjoy the fruit of transformative advances in science and technology; and, a mission I believe we all share, to revitalize America’s scientific enterprise.... To empower America’s researchers to achieve groundbreaking discoveries and to reinvigorate our national science enterprise, we must scrutinize our existing approach and recommit ourselves to best prac

Some longtime readers may recall that Al Gore created the internet. Although they also know that some credit should be shared with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The "law that created the internet" generally immunizes online platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, and Uber from liability for third-party user content (e.g., posts, comments, videos) and for the moderation of that content. The law has long been discussed as both a protector of free speech and an enabler of platform abuse.

President Donald Trump has ordered federal agencies to abandon the use of a longstanding legal tool used to root out discrimination against minorities, a move that could defang the nation’s bedrock civil rights law.

Nonprofit research organization LGBT Tech launched the LGBTQ+ Archive, a living, community-informed project created to preserve and make accessible federal LGBTQ+ resources that have quietly disappeared from public websites in recent months. This site is an independent effort to preserve and make accessible the critical information and resources for LGBTQ+ health, legal rights, and safety originally hosted on now-defunct federal websites.

A look at Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr's dramatic transformation from a low-key communications policy wonk into one of Trump’s staunchest cultural warriors. Since becoming FCC chairman in late January, Carr has repeatedly poked the corporate owners of ABC, CBS and NBC — networks the president dislikes. In 2024, Donald Trump sued CBS over edits to a pre-election “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has demanded $20 billion, alleging the interview was doctored to make Harris look better. CBS should lose its licenses, Trump has said.

It is the policy of the United States to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible to avoid violating the Constitution, Federal civil rights laws, and basic American ideals. Given the limited enforcement resources of executive departments and agencies (agencies), the unlawfulness of disparate-impact liability, and the policy of this order, all agencies shall deprioritize enforcement of all statutes and regulations to the extent they include disparate-impact liability. Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General, in coor