Whether it is lifting net neutrality regulations, allowing AI to reach its full potential to benefit mankind, educating policy makers about content moderation, clearing legacy regulations at the Federal Communications Commission, advocating for greater spectrum efficiency, or defending business practices that benefit consumers but are disliked by antitrust enforcers, CEI punches above its weight. Coalition activity, relationships with tech and telecom journalists, media appearances, policy events, Capitol Hill outreach, op-eds, and in-depth studies combine to make CEI influential in the tech and telecom policy area.
Tech and Telecom Issue Areas
Featured Posts
Reason
The Scandalous Science Behind Nuclear Regulation
Nuclear power could be a game-changer for energy affordability, grid reliability, and carbon reduction. However, it’s been stifled for decades based on one deeply flawed…
Blog
The CHIPS and Science Act: A potential regulatory issue
Industrial policy is back with a bang. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed vulnerabilities in global supply chains, prompting intense debates in Congress about government’s role in…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Technology and politics with Corbin Barthold
In this week’s episode we cover bringing your parents to a job interview, the case against a universal basic income, and why…
Search Posts
Blog
Well @#$%&, Supreme Court Upholds Ban on “Expleetive Deleetives.”
In FCC v. Fox today, the Supreme Court upheld regulation of “fleeting expletives” on broadcast television. What should be “fleeting” is the nearly century old…
Newsletter
Cybersecurity, Chrysler in Bankruptcy and Union Finances
A congressional investigation of security breaches at the Pentagon targets popular file sharing programs like LimeWire. After extensive bailout efforts, Chrysler moves to file for…
Newsletter
Online Privacy, Credit Cards and Organ Donation
Members of the House Technology & Internet Subcommittee hear testimony on alleged abuses of consumer privacy by internet marketers. President Obama meets with credit card…
Blog
When Government Spending Gets Really Obscene
My good friend and Bureaucrash ally Xaq Fixx recently altered me to an interesting story on the intersection of politics, technology and free…
News Release
Congress Raises False Alarm on Consumer Privacy
This morning, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee held a hearing on recent developments in online privacy for consumers. This hearing explored several data…
Blog
Does Anyone Understand The Internet?
I’m beginning to think “no” is the definitive answer. While most tend to understand the basic concepts of Internet connectivity and its associated parts, it…
Blog
Tech is Key in Ideas Battle
Earlier today, Competitive Enterprise Institute President Fred Smith delivered an informative but lively, entertaining speech about the role of NGOs. The speech was delivered at…
Blog
A National Anthem for April 15
As Tea Parties brew across the land today, I’m reminded of the infamous “Tax Poem” chain email, or, spam, if you like. Set to music…
Blog
Broadband Stimulus Plan: Spend First, Ask Questions Later
There has been some noise in technology circles the last week over the FCC comment period or Notice of Inquiry (NOI) in regards to the…
Family Security Matters
Holdren as White House Science Advisor
Blog
“Newspapers are dying; Are universities next?”
Wikinomics warns that non-elite colleges risk the same plight now facing newspapers. Rarely do the dominant industries lead innovation, and in the case of…
Blog
Verizon, AT&T See the Regulation Writing On The Wall
AT&T and Verizon are indicating that there is a chance that they will not seek funds from the broadband stimulus portion…
Family Security Matters
‘Battlestar’ Rules: In the Wasteland of TV Drama, An Intergalactic Tour de Force.
Untitled Document When it premiered to high ratings in 1978, the producers of Battlestar Galactica promised their show would bring feature-film standards to…
Blog
Netflix Neutrality
A little over a week ago, Netflix was berated by a user who assumed that the company was throttling his…
Blog
Utah Gov. Vetoes Bad Gaming Bill, Self-Regulation Triumphs
Last night, the first amendment, self-regulation, consumers, parents, entrepreneurs, gamers, and business won a huge victory in Utah. In early March, I posted about the…
Newsletter
Mandating Efficiency, Infighting at SEIU and Privacy Mavens Try to Shut Down Google
Congress considers new regulations on energy efficiency for home appliances. One of the nation’s largest unions faces dissention in its ranks. The Electronic Privacy Information…
Blog
An Explosion of Litigation
Already burdened by $8 trillion in new federal spending commitments and the likelihood of higher taxes to pay for bailouts,…
Newsletter
More Newspaper Layoffs, Card Check Filibuster and Obama’s Failing Grade in Economics
The print news industry takes another hit as The McClatchy Company, the nation’s third largest newspaper publisher, announces plans to layoff 1,600 fulltime employees. Sen.
Blog
Your Interests Are My Interests
As newspapers around the country are closing, Google's interest-based ads may be just the shot in the arm the content industry needs.
Blog
Al Gore Wants .eco Web Domain…
Since Dot Eco TLD announced that they were seeking establishment as a top level domain (TLD) at ICANN’s (Internet Corporation for…
Blog
Utah: Rated R for Ridiculous
Utah is on the verge of using it’s ‘Truth in Advertising’ bill to pass regulated enforcement of video game ratings. The bill which was in…
Newsletter
Cybersecurity Turf War, Strongarm Union Tactics and a Beer Battle in Colorado
President Obama’s chief of cybersecurity quits, citing overbearing control by the Department of Defense’s National Security Agency. Prominent Democrats come out against changes…
Blog
Imagine There’s No Agency
Washington spends and regulates, and it’s hard to make it stop doing either. Government agencies and programs attract constituencies that want to keep them around,…
Newsletter
Genachowski for FCC, Obama Meets with Gordon Brown and the Threat of a Carbon Tax
President Obama nominates technology advisor Julius Genachowski to head the Federal Communications Commission. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visits the White House to discuss international…
Newsletter
FDA’s Death Toll, Online Gambling and Dangerous Treaties
The Food and Drug Administration restricts production of an approved drug to treat a degenerative and often fatal muscle disorder. Online gambling operators await action…
Blog
What Does Norway’s Net Neutrality Mean for the U.S.?
Hopefully nothing. But international policy has a way of making waves on our shores; sort of a “Look what they’re doing in Europe, we should…
Blog
Zero-Based Governing and Improving the State of the Union
Removing burdensome regulations on small business hasn’t figured much into the economic recovery program thus far. Too bad. Alternatives to “spendulus” and the “Bailout to…
Blog
More Behavorial Advertising Adventures
Back in January I wrote about several advertising industry trade associations coming together to impose self-regulation in an attempt to deter…
Blog
Coming Soon: A Predatory, Anti-Business Federal Trade Commission?
Even an economy in shambles shall not sway the elevation to Federal Trade Commission chairmanship of Jon Leibowitz, an interventionist-minded commissioner who, like all…
Blog
A Gamer Win For Parenting
If you’ve followed my posts here at OpenMarket.org or at my personal site, you’re well aware of the fact that I…
Blog
More Grand Theft Common Sense
I used to think that the groups and individuals that sat around eagerly anticipating the launch of a new Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game were…
Newsletter
Obama’s Housing Plan, Privacy on Facebook and Fairness Doctrine 2.0
President Obama announces a $75 billion mortgage “rescue” plan. Changes to the terms of service on Facebook raise a ruckus among privacy activists. The White…
Wall Street Journal
Do You Want a New Internet?
Wall Street Journal cites Wayne Crews's on Internet regulation. On the Technology Liberation Front, Adam Thierer suggests another option: “splinternets.” Clyde Wayne Crews…
Newsletter
Stimulus Upon Us, Lethal Wildfires Down Under and Satellite Radio Takes a Hit
Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress reach a deal to spend $789 billion in taxpayer money on “economic stimulus.” The death toll from wildfires in…
Op-Eds
Don’t overhype privacy fears on G1
Online users need to be careful with their information, but hyping privacy fears is unwarranted.
Blog
Sirius XM Bankruptcy: Thank Washington for the Delay
Sirius XM Satellite Radio—the company born from the merger of Sirius Satelllite Radio and XM Satellite Radio—has “been working with advisers to prepare for a…
Blog
Usage Caps and the DLC Model
I just read an intriguing post by Mike Masnick over at Techdirt. Masnick points out that ISPs keep changing the definition…
Blog
Why “doing nothing” is something really big: Stopping the Anti-Stimulus
Robert Higgs, he of the famous “ratchet effect” theory of government growth (up but never down in answer to a crisis), has…
Blog
Broadband Stimulus Cut
Bloomberg is reporting that an agreement on a stimulus package has been reached in the Senate. Included in the compromise was…
Blog
Senate Broad Stimulus & Avoiding Federal “Strings”
Aside from the fact that the Senate lacks the necessary votes to pass its version of the stimulus, the bill does…
Blog
FACT Check the Internet’s Future
The Future of American Communications (FACT) working group funded by the Media Democracy Fund released its official report on the 26th of January. The report,…
Newsletter
Stimulus to Nowhere, Banning Cell Phone Cameras and More Money for Ethanol
Republicans on Capitol Hill attack the $825 billion economic stimulus bill championed by President Obama. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) introduces legislation to ban silent cell…
News Release
CEI Unveils Agenda for Congress
Washington, D.C., January 26, 2009—With the incoming Obama administration and the opening of the new Congress, the House and Senate are…
Blog
Gateway Neutrality: Just A Taste
Right behind the broadband stimulus goldmine within the Obama administrations stimulus plan sits Sec. 3102 (E). Sec. 3102 (E) is a fairly simple bit…
Newsletter
Global Warming Bottoms Out, the Future of Digital TV in Doubt and Cap-and-Trade on the Horizon
A new poll finds that global warming has dropped to the bottom of the list of issues concerning the American public. The future of digital…
Blog
TV Transition follies: Plaguing consumers then and now.
Looks like the “digital television transition” to abandon analog and make high-definition broadcasts the standard is not going to happen as planned, but is…
Blog
Avoiding Political Erectile Dysfunction
According to the Congressional Budget Office, “Bailout to Nowhere” money for the proposed new infrastructure stimulus won’t be spent within the next two years–far too…
Blog
Barack Obama’s ‘Digital Lines’ to Nowhere
When Barack Obama said in his inaugural address, "We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce…
News Release
European Antitrust Officials Target Microsoft over Internet Explorer
The European Commission may order Microsoft to strip Internet Explorer (IE) from certain versions of Windows, according to a preliminary ruling against Microsoft…
Blog
$6 Billion For Broadband, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And LOL At The Recovery Act
Speeding its way across the Internetz today are copies of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Eager policy analysts, lobbyists, and grassroots organizations…
Blog
PEOTUS Behavioral Targeted Advertising Adventure
The prevention of regulation and the Rule of Law pounding its mighty fist within a medium or sector of business is generally something that is…
Blog
Telecom Lobbyists in the DTV Henhouse?
With the election of a new president and new Democratic majorities in Congress, the era of corporate influence is over in Washington, D.C. Or, at…
Newsletter
The FCC and Media Ownership, Ford’s Auto Bailout and Vilsack for Agriculture
President-elect Obama’s pick to head the Federal Communications Commission favors stronger diversity and “media ownership” regulations. Poor sales figures may push the Ford Motor Company…
News Release
Statement on the Nomination of Julius Genachowski to Be Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style…
Newsletter
Climate War with Canada, Net Neutrality and Hollywood’s Eco-Horror
American University professor James Lee predicts that global warming will lead to a military conflict between the U.S. and Canada. Google fields criticism over its…
Blog
Costa’s Confusion on Net Neutrality
As PC Magazine ends its run as a print publication and moves to an online-only model, columnist Dan Costa pens a good, yet confused, column.
Blog
Prediction 2009: No Net Neutrality Regulation
Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, but I think that 2009 may see the death of calls for net neutrality regulation and may even see…
Blog
How Do Regulations Stack Up as a Small Firm Grows?
Tomorrow, electric utilities and green groups team up at the National Press Club to ask for billions of new spending on what they term energy…
Blog
Solis: Could have been worse…but not much
According to the Associated Press, President-elect Barack Obama is about to name Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor. If Rep. Solis’s voting…
Blog
Taylor Tells of Tol’s Ton Toll
Jerry Taylor of Cato has an excellent summary of what the scientific literature tells us about the social cost of carbon emissions, drawing on…
Newsletter
Fed Chairman in Trouble, Kids’ TV Goes Green and Google Goes Edge-Caching
Critics of the financial bailout allege that the federal government has exceeded its Constitutional powers. The Nickelodeon TV network for kids begins an environmental awareness…
Blog
Coming to an ISP Near You: Google Servers
Over at the Tech Liberation Front, the Internet’s premier free market technology blog, we’re discussing the implications of Google’s OpenEdge program. The program plans to…
Blog
The Cloverfield Monster of the Internet
Earlier posts today dealt with the hoo-ha over Net Neutrality. By coincidence, an anonymous colleague put the following old 1996 quote by Sen. James Exon…
Blog
“Net Neutrality,” RIP? Well, One Can Hope
Net neutrality has long been a threat to Internet users. Despite the rhetoric and appeals to “openness,” it was always an anti-consumer enterprise, irretrievably and…
Blog
Federally Sanctioned Propaganda Machine
Apple's 1984 "Big Brother" ad An article over at Ad Age brings up an angle on the whole…
Blog
Censorship and Bailouts for the Rich
George Will has an interesting column on how the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” that many liberal lawmakers want to reimpose in order to shut down…
Newsletter
Obama’s Public Works, FCC Diversity Mandates and the Auto Bailout
President-elect Obama promises the largest spending program on public works programs since the 1950s. Obama tech advisor Henry Rivera endorses a proposal to expand minority…
Blog
Claim of consumers’ fear of auto bankruptcy a canard in bailout debate
Eli, in answer to the blog post you phrased as a question, the argument from the individual you heard, echoed by other Big 3…
Blog
Abarackadabra! A 21st Century “New Steal”
JOBS, ROADS, BRIDGES, SCHOOLS, BROADBAND, ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS, ENERGY…blares the Drudge Report. It’s President-elect Obama’s weekend plan—not to produce, but to transfer yet…
Blog
Wealth-Creating Alternatives to Pelosi’s Destructive Infrastructure “Stimulus”
Well, who can possibly be surprised by the revelation that “The federal government's economic stimulus package will include investment in broadband Internet infrastructure and…
Blog
This week’s Least Objectionable Bureaucrat
My occasional “Least Objectionable Legislator Award” (no prize) takes a detour today and goes to a bureaucrat instead. So the LOL Award (pun intended, I…
Newsletter
Obama’s Attorney General, More Stimulus Spending and Defending Deregulation
Barack Obama’s choice for attorney general comes under scrutiny for his record on civil liberties. Democrats in Congress plan to seek additional billions in taxpayer…
Blog
Stimulus as if Capitalism Mattered
Those dispensing the "Bailout to Nowhere" proceeds seemingly answer to no one (here's one article behaving as if this were unexpected and surprising). Today…
Blog
DeLorean disproves domsayers in debate over auto bankruptcies
In the debate about bailing out the Big 3 automakers, it is said that we just can’t allow a bankruptcy. Despite the fact that Chapter…
Blog
America the Ungovernable
With respect to the ongoing series of bailouts, my colleague Iain Murray pointed out that some sensible British commentators note that one of the ways…
Newsletter
Obama’s Treasury Pick, Waxman’s Chairmanship and the Big Tobacco Deal
President-Elect Obama prepares to nominate New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) wins control of the powerful…
Blog
Hollywood Rep. to Wield Power Over Copyright Law
My colleague Cord asked me about proposing a tech agenda for Congress given the ascendancy today of Henry Waxman to Energy and Commerce Chairmanship;…
Blog
More on Waxman and Tech
As Cord mentioned earlier, Henry Waxman has been named incoming Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which the Subcommittee on Telecommunications…
Newsletter
Yahoo’s Fortunes, Chevron’s Strange Ads and the Battle over Bottled Water
Shares of web pioneer Yahoo Inc. rise upon departure of CEO Jerry Yang. Chevron launches a series of ads aimed at reducing energy consumption. A…
News Release
CEI Blasts New Banking, Internet Gambling Regulations
Washington, D.C., November 13, 2008—In its final weeks, the Bush administration is trying to rush through ill-considered regulations aimed at preventing Internet gambling. Two Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Blog
An Agenda for the Monday a.m. Obama and Bush Meeting
Since the President and President-elect start spending quality Oval Office time together today, and since the incoming admistration's advisors can't settle on either pushing…
Blog
We’re Proof Blogging Isn’t Dead
There are all sorts of pieces about the future of "New Media" floating around these days from Andrew Sullivan's "Why I Blog" in the…
Newsletter
Online Ads, Regulatory Reform and Free Trade
Google and Yahoo abandon a proposed advertising partnership amid antitrust concerns. President-Elect Obama begins transition work with the current White House staff. Rep. Rahm Emanuel…
Blog
Obama’s win through the web…a myth?
[caption id="attachment_5754" align="alignleft" width="270" caption=" "][/caption] O'Reilly writer Andy Oram makes the case that the assertion…
Blog
“Card Check” May Trigger Beatings, Intimidation
Clayton Cramer, who grew up in a union household, explains why the “card-check” bill favored by liberal lawmakers and Obama may lead to physical…
Newsletter
Michael Crichton, Press Censorship and a Technology Czar
Bestselling author Michael Crichton dies at age 66. Members of the Bureaucrash Activist Network join forces with free speech activists to protest press censorship in…
Newsletter
E-voting, the Fairness Doctrine and Economic Unrest in Ecuador
Problems with electronic voting machines are reported in several states. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) argues for the re-imposition of the “Fairness Doctrine” for TV and…
Blog
No “Technology Czar,” Please
Like everybody else in town, we're pondering the implications of the transition to the Obama Administration for various policy areas here at CEI. On the…
Wall Street Journal
the prospect of a national “Technology Czar”
Blog
FreeRoots
Some of the brightest minds in the online conservative movement — John Hawkins, Patrick Ruffini and Mark Tapscott — are discussing what…
Blog
My apologies to the Swiss (hold firm against OECD meddling)
Last week, the German government said that Switzerland should be placed on the international blacklist…
Newsletter
Internet Censorship, Reforming Fannie and Freddie and Free Trade with Colombia
American tech companies announce new guidelines for doing business in nations threatened by censorship. Lawmakers urge embattled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to…
Newsletter
Credit Card Settlements, Wireless Networks and What’s ‘Killing the Earth’
Visa and MasterCard reach a $2.75 billion settlement with Discover Card over an antitrust complaint first brought in 1998. Cox Communications plans to roll out…
Newsletter
Greenhouse Gases, Broadband Speeds and the Future of Transit
California officials ignore the high costs of implementing the state’s greenhouse gas reduction plan. Comcast implements upgrades for broadband customers that will double download speeds…
All Things D
Broadband Speed Upgrades
Tech Dirt
Broadband Price War
DSL Reports
Broadband Competition
Tech World News
Broadband Competition
Blog
I’m Sorry, Your Candidate Is in Another Castle
The presidential campaign of a certain U.S. senator has just expanded the bounds of the political advertising universe with in-game ads inside popular EA…
Blog
FCC Might Actually Roll Back an Outdated Regulation!
If you wanted to communicate over long distances in real-time 25 years ago, you had little choice but to rely on your local phone company…
Staff & Scholars
Jessica Melugin
Director of the Center for Technology & Innovation
- Antitrust
- Innovation
- Media, Speech and Internet Freedoms
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
Founder; Chairman Emeritus
- Automobiles and Roads
- Aviation
- Business and Government