Media Policy Watch

by Priscilla Genet

California just won a major victory in the battle for net neutrality as Judge John Mendez refused the broadband industry’s attempts to issue an injunction that would have blocked enforcement of the net neutrality law, as reported by Karl Bode for Vice earlier in the week. California’s net neutrality law was established in 2018 following the FCC’s dissolution of federal protection under pressure from major broadband companies under Trump. California’s law went beyond the previous federal protection in mandating that Internet Service Providers reveal restrictions they have in place on consumers. Deputy Director of consumer group Fight for the Future Even Greer stated on the resolution Monday that “They spent millions on lobbying. They drove misleading robo-calls to senior citizens. They propped up fake astroturf organizations, paid off an academic, and lied through their teeth. And they still lost.” as quoted in the aforementioned article from Vice.

Biden’s administration has replaced former FCC Chair responsible for the repeal of Net Neutrality Ajit Pai with Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, an avid supporter of net neutrality. Rosenworcel has immediately announced a plan to subsidize broadband services called the Emergency Broadband Benefit as reported by The New York Times. Rosenworcel is unable to reverse the repeal of net neutrality until a third Democratic Commissioner is seated by the Biden administration due the conservative partisan advantage in the White House according to vice.

Earlier this month, legislation seeking to ban public schools from teaching the “1619 Project” was rejected by the Arkansas house as reported by The Associate Press. The teaching project was developed by The Pulitzer Center and The New York Times as an expansion on the long-form journalism project of the same name developed by Nikole Hannah Jones. The 1619 Project “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” The attempt to reject 1619 project accompanied a significant attempt by officials in Arkansas to regulate how race and slavery are taught as reported in another article by The Associate Press. On the use of the 1619 Project podcast in his classroom, Jonathan Rogers, a journalism teacher at Iowa City High School said “just hearing Black voices is so important when we’re talking about diversity and perspectives, whether it’s historical events or current events.”