Accessible, Affordable Internet for All

The Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act (aka S.4131) is a must-read. The text of this bill is soul-crushing: it's asking for $94 billion, of which $80 billion will be spent on deploying broadband infrastructure nationwide (prioritizing unserved and underserved rural, suburban, and urban areas). Continue Reading →

Parler is back online

Parler, a social media platform that went dark after violating Apple and Google and Amazon's terms of service, is back online. The company has a new interim CEO and says it has re-launched on "sustainable, independent technology." Continue Reading →

Stripe and Amazon Take a Stand

Amazon
In the aftermath of the insurrection, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Snapchat suspended some high profile accounts (including President Trump's personal accounts) for violating their terms of service. Google and Apple removed Parler (a poorly monitored social media site) from their respective app stores. Continue Reading →

Trump Gets a “Time out”

Twitter gave President Trump a "time out." His account was locked and he couldn't tweet for 12 hours. @jack wanted some tweets deleted and, after Trump complied, Twitter reinstated his account. Facebook, on the other hand, has suspended Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts for a minimum of two weeks, but have threatened an indefinite period. Snapchat locked (but didn't delete) Trump's account. Right or wrong? Why now? Continue Reading →

Trump Administration Appeals Injunction Blocking TikTok Ban

Earlier this month, a second federal judge blocked the Trump administration's efforts to ban TikTok. On Monday, the Department of Justice appealed the injunction, citing national security concerns and arguing that the video-sharing app could supply personal data from TikTok's 100 million U.S. users to the Chinese government. Continue Reading →

Check Your Ballot Status

Vote
If you voted by mail, you can Google "check ballot status." Google is doing a pretty good job of surfacing the correct local links to this query. There is no central voter database, so I put the links for every state I could find here. Continue Reading →