President Joe Biden signed a foreign aid package that includes a bill that would ban TikTok if China-based parent company ByteDance fails to divest the app within a year. The divest-or-ban bill is now law, starting the clock for ByteDance to make its move. The company has an initial nine months to sort out a deal, though the president could extend that another three months if he sees progress.
The Korean American believes a Black tycoon was favored because of government’s diversity goals.
Major internet providers once again will have to abide by a set of robust rules of the road, prohibiting them from blocking or throttling traffic, as the FCC today reinstated net neutrality regulations. The commission voted 3-2 along party lines to adopt the rules, which broadly prohibit Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and other providers from favoring some types of internet traffic over others. The latest net neutrality rules resemble those adopted in 2015, when the FCC voted to reclassify internet service like a common carrier, or the same regulatory designation given to phone service.
The nation’s biggest business lobbying group and a national tax-services firm have sued the Federal Trade Commission.
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Exclusives
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday appealed an order that effectively blocked his investigation of the watchdog Media Matters, which issued a critical report about brand safety on the social platform X. Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta in Washington prohibited Paxton from attempting to enforce a subpoena for a trove of information, ruling that he likely violated Media Matter’s First Amendment rights by issuing the subpoena in retaliation for the group’s report about ads on X. Paxton will ask the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift that injunction. The Texas official hasn’t yet made substantive arguments to that court.
The TikTok legislation was included as part of a larger $95 billion package that provides foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel and was passed 79-18. It now goes to President Joe Biden, who said in a statement immediately after passage that he will sign it Wednesday. Pictured: A TikTok content creator, speaks to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, April 23, as Senators prepared to consider legislation that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)
THE PRICE POINT
Killing Noncompetes Could Deliver A Body Blow To Broadcasters
If the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to ban noncompete agreements stands, anchors and many reporters should brace for the probability of seeing their salaries fall.
The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 Tuesday to ban noncompete agreements that prevent tens of millions of employees from working for competitors or starting a competing business after they leave a job.
Nexstar Media Group is asking the Federal Communications Commission to cancel its order that WPIX New York be divested by Mission Broadcasting, claiming that the agreements under which Nexstar runs the station for Mission are legal and approved by the commission. Nexstar also wants a $1.2 million fine levied against it by the FCC canceled. Mission was also fined $612,395 as part of the commission’s Notice of Apparent Liability. “Through the NAL, the commission seeks to wield its enforcement authority in a myriad of improper ways,” Nexstar said in its response.
The fate of TikTok in the United States is even more uncertain as the House on Saturday voted on a package that requires that parent ByteDance divest its popular social media platform or face a ban on app stores. Lawmakers passed the bill 360-58, part of a series of votes to break a six-month standoff over a $95 billion aid package to Ukraine as well as to Israel and to Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. The Senate is expected to take up the package of bills, including Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan aid, soon, perhaps as soon as April 23.
A preliminary injunction hearing for Fubo’s legal battle against Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports streaming joint venture has been set for Aug. 7 at 9:30 a.m. by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The hearing will continue on Aug. 8 and Aug. 9, if necessary.
Federal regulators on Friday announced a new plan designed to advance the interests of independent video programmers that have complained for years about restrictive contract terms demanded by pay TV distributors. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said she launched the rulemaking in response to independent programmers that “continue to express concern about the challenges they have getting their programming on the channel lineup of cable and satellite television.”
Adult content companies Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos will have to do risk assessment reports and take measures to address systemic risks linked to their services to comply with new EU online content rules, the European Commission said on Friday. The three companies were designated as very large online platforms last December under the Digital Services Act, which requires them to do more to remove illegal and harmful content on their platforms.
Armstrong Williams: Depression-era regulations won’t protect local journalism in the digital age.
Stuart N. Brotman: “Recently, Los Angeles became the first major U.S. city to ban digital discrimination by expanding L.A.’s authority to oversee discrimination writ large. This localized approach may be a more effective route to confront this problem. It promises to lead to faster resolutions of neighborhood problems there, while also making sure that government continues to monitor the situation for potential violations.”
Meta Platforms and other large online platforms should give users an option to use their services for free without targeted advertising, EU privacy watchdog the European Data Protection Board said on Wednesday. The EDPB’s opinion came after it was asked by national privacy regulators in the Netherlands, Norway and Germany to look into consent or pay models adopted by large online platforms such as Meta.
A new measure attempts to force the Senate’s hand on passing legislation to ban TikTok or mandate the app’s sale.
DirecTV has confirmed that it will appeal a federal judge in New York’s decision to throw out its antitrust lawsuit against Nexstar Media Group. The pay TV company has accused Nexstar of conspiring to fix broadcast retransmission license fees through management services agreements with smaller station groups Mission Broadcasting and White Knight.
Les Moonves has settled his debts with the City of Los Angeles, at least financially. In a meeting of L.A.’s Ethics Commission Wednesday afternoon, the body voted for a second time on a payout from the multi-millionaire former CBS boss. Unlike the Feb. 21 meeting, this time the proposed settlement passed.
Global digital rights advocates are watching to see if Congress acts, worried that other countries could follow suit with app bans of their own.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the CEOs of the three companies, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) requested answers about the competitive implications of the proposed sports streaming JV. “As programmers, your companies exert tremendous influence over pricing across the live sports TV ecosystem,” Nadler and Castro wrote in the letter to Disney’s Bob Iger, Fox’s Lachlan Murdoch and Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav.
A group of actors filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday against Casting Networks, one of a handful of websites that connects actors to commercial auditions, alleging that the platform functions as an illegal pay-for-play system. Casting Networks offers actors a free tier and two premium tiers. The paid options allow actors to upload more video to their profile and to submit for unlimited roles.
Bill Schultz claims he was fired in retaliation for pushing back against executives at Al Roker Entertainment, who allegedly undercut a PBS-mandated diversity program.
Voting technology company Smartmatic and the far-right network One America News said Tuesday that they had settled a defamation lawsuit stemming from the outlet’s lies about the 2020 election. “The case has been resolved pursuant to a confidential agreement,” OAN attorney Chip Babcock told CNN. Both parties declined to share details about the settlement.
The National Association of Broadcasters has released new broadcast station self-inspection guides for FM and television stations. These two guides assist broadcasters in conducting a self-inspection of their stations. Guides […]
In a letter to the FCC, former Democratic FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan and conservative commentator William Kristol, explain why they think defense of Rupert Murdoch and son Lachlan by Pennsylvania’s two Democratic senators is wrong.
