New Interactive Map Shows Estimated Enrollment by Congressional District in At-Risk Broadband Affordability Program

Red States Lead with Highest Enrollment Rates

WASHINGTON — The Digital Progress Institute, a bipartisan think tank focused on bridging the policy divide between telecom and tech, has launched a new interactive Affordable Connectivity Congressional Map.  The map illustrating estimated enrollment in the Affordability Connectivity Program (ACP) by congressional district and state. A popular broadband affordability program with overwhelming bipartisan support, the ACP was created in 2021 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and it is now at risk of running out of funding next year if Congress fails to act. Since its inception, over 16 million people have enrolled in the program nationwide.

“The Digital Progress Institute launched the interactive map to demonstrate to members of Congress that their constituents rely on the ACP and it’s a program worth saving,” said Joel Thayer, president of Digital Progress Institute. “The map will be continually updated as new enrollment figures become available, but what’s clear from this map today is that the ACP knows no political ideology or geographic boundaries – over 16 million Americans from Louisiana to Kentucky to Ohio are participating in this program and enrollment shows no signs of slowing down.”

Bad Lawyering Does Not Mean Google Is Right About Section 230

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Gonzalez v. Google. This case concerns the families of victims involved in terrorist attacks committed by ISIS. The families attempted to sue Google under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), asserting that YouTube’s promotional algorithm helped ISIS radicalize and recruit members to commit heinous acts all over the world.

Given the framing presented in Gonzalez’s brief, most expected to hear oral arguments discussing how the Ninth Circuit’s holding is not supported by the text of the statute. The exact phrasing of Gonzalez’s question as presented is “under what circumstances does the defense created by section 230(c)(1) apply to recommendations of third-party content?”

Which is why Eric Schnapper’s—the Gonzalez family’s attorney—oral argument was so strange. In contrast with the brief he submitted, there was virtually no discussion of what the text of the statute intends to cover. Instead, Schnapper only muddled the distinction between when YouTube is acting as a publisher and as a distributor of content. Even worse, he focused a significant part of his case on a contorted, disjointed argument about how Google may be violating the ATA, which, again, is not at issue here.

New Poll:
Broadband Affordability Program in Jeopardy But Has Overwhelming Bipartisan Support

New polling shows that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is overwhelmingly popular among Republican, Democratic, and Independent voters alike.

A strong, bipartisan majority of voters (78 percent) support continuing the ACP, including 64 percent of Republicans, 70 percent of Independents, and 95 percent of Democrats, according to a national survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and RG Strategies in January 2023. Similar majorities also hold for urban, suburban, and rural households, who all support ACP by 68 percent or more.

Given the important role the ACP plays in ensuring millions of low-income American families and veterans can continue to access the internet for work, school, telemedicine, and other purposes, Congress must act now to reauthorize funding and preserve this overwhelmingly popular program.

Government compulsion: Big Tech’s latest red herring

As both President Biden in his State of the Union and Gov. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders (R-Ark.) in her response noted, Big Tech’s control over our information and digital markets is undeniable.

Big Tech, however, has a play for this — use government compulsion (i.e., jawboning) as a convenient red herring to distract Congress from pursuing meaningful proposals that could address their monopolies. In fact, a leaked email from a noted Big Tech lobbyist said as much.

Banning TikTok Outright Would Be Constitutional

The information war is upon us and we only have one real threat: China. China is notorious for leveraging communication networks and technology companies to gain advantages over its international rivals. President Biden’s Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines expressed her concerns over how China uses apps and communication networks to “develop[] frameworks for collecting foreign data and pulling it in . . . to target audiences for information campaigns or for other things . . . .” Haines’s remarks show precisely why Chinese apps, like TikTok, are so dangerous.

However, some take issue with banning the app commercially because of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.

SCOTUS Has a Chance to Clarify Section 230’s Meaning

Whether a person wants Section 230 reform or is a Section 230 purist, all can agree that the U.S. Supreme Court‘s forthcoming decision in Gonzalez v. Google will set the tone for broader conversations on internet regulation. This case has the potential to rein in previous judicial misinterpretations of Section 230. Frankly, courts have made it virtually impossible to hold these tech companies accountable when they harm consumers. The reason? Their previous judicial decisions fail to link the so-called Section 230 immunities—which mostly benefit Big Tech—with the text of the statute itself.