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
Blog
Hayek on Facebook’s community notes
Meta is going to stop using professional fact-checkers for Facebook posts. My colleague Jessica Melugin is relieved that Meta is finally publicly acknowledging…
News Release
Meta’s new content moderation is a step in the right direction: CEI analysis
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced major changes to its content moderation system today. The company says it aims to allow as…
Op-Eds
Targeting Digital Platforms
President Biden’s antitrust regulators have filed a pair of lawsuits targeting tech platforms, claiming they abuse their position as intermediaries between consumers and third parties.
Search Posts
Blog
The Last Nail in the Coffin for the Fairness Doctrine?
In response to calls by lawmakers for the Fairness Doctrine and related measures to be permanently removed from the Federal Register, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski…
Blog
California Social Networking Bill In Its Death Throes
In Sacramento, California, a bill that would regulate social networking is reportedly on its death bed after failing by five votes last week. The online…
Blog
Dismantling Sarbanes-Oxley
My colleague Ryan Radia and I recently wrote in an editorial for Investor's Business Daily that the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act should be dismantled for the…
News Release
Free Market Groups Applaud Proposed Privacy Law Reforms
Washington, D.C., May 17, 2011 – Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today introduced legislation (S. 1011) to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The…
Blog
PROTECT IP Act: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Combating "rogue websites" is a top priority for many in Congress this year. Lawmakers have held several hearings over the past few months…
News Release
CEI Calls PROTECT IP Act “an Improvement” Over COICA
Today, three U.S. Senators introduced the PROTECT IP Act (bill text), which would establish new mechanisms for combating “rogue” Internet sites that are…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 173: Yellow Pages
San Francisco is phasing out the distribution of hard-copy Yellow Pages.
Blog
The FCC is Broken
A new report in The Hill notes House Republicans’ concern over “dysfunction” at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the need for overhaul. Their…
Seattle PI
Telecom deal not clear as a bell
The Washington Times
State Cartel Looking to Hike Internet Taxes
A handful of U.S. senators are teeing up legislation to capture more tax revenue on Internet purchases. Certainly there are valid (and some not so…
Blog
Laura Ingraham on Protecting Email from Unwarranted Governmental Access
On Wednesday, I appeared on the Laura Ingraham Show to discuss the Obama administration's stance on reforming the 1986 law that governs law enforcement access…
Statesman
Texas Lawmakers Should Reject a Tax on Satellite TV
No one likes new taxes especially ones that don't make sense. Unfortunately, politicians never seem to learn this simple lesson. Lawmakers in Austin are…
Blog
YouTube Introduces “Copyright School” to Educate Infringing Users
In the ongoing copyright debates, areas of common ground are seemingly few and far between. It's easy to forget that not all approaches to…
Heartland
FCC Issues CA Man $7,000 Forfeiture Order
The Mercury News
An Alternative to California Proposal to Tax E-Commerce
Painful awards shows aren’t the only odious things stirring in California these days. State lawmakers want to collect sales taxes on Californians’ purchases from…
CNET
Privacy dispute tests Obama’s earlier promises
News Release
Justice Department Approves Google’s ITA Acquisition, With Conditions
Contact: Lee Doren, 202-331-2259 Nicole Ciandella, 202-331-2773 Washington, D.C., April 8, 2011 – Today, the Department of Justice announced a proposed…
Daily Caller
House moves against net neutrality but obstacles remain
News Release
Leading Free Market Groups Urge Congress to Update U.S. Privacy Laws
Washington, D.C., April 6, 2011 — This morning, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hear key administration officials testify about the statute that governs…
Letters
Coalition Letter Urging Congress to Update Privacy Laws
Full Document Available in PDF As public interest groups dedicated to limited, Constitutional…
Blog
Senators Seek to Censor Mobile App Stores, Disregarding Public Safety and the Constitution
In the latest example of big government run amok, several politicians think they ought to be in charge of which applications you should be able…
News Release
CEI Urges Congress to Address Orphan Works Problem
Today, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected a proposed class action settlement agreement between Google, the Authors Guild,…
Blog
Are Text Messages an Antitrust Issue?
Text messages cost 20 cents to send, even though they use a fraction of a penny of bandwidth. What gives? Antitrust authorities want to know.
Daily Caller
Cybersecurity Theater vs. The Real Thing
Computer attacks cost mid-to large size businesses $3.8 million annually on average , and generate massive global damage. Some homeland security and cybersecurity specialists even warn…
News Release
Congress Should Reject Privacy-Killing Do Not Track Mandate
Washington, D.C., March 16, 2011 — Today, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on “The State of Online Consumer Privacy.” Below…
Blog
CEI Podcast for March 10, 2011: Keeping Private Data Private
Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia talks about rampant how to prevent data privacy violations in the Internet age.
Ecomerce Times
House Subcommittee Vote Unlikely to Impede Net Neutrality Rules
News Release
Free Market Coalition Warns Against E-Verify Mandate
Washington, D.C., March 10, 2011 — The House Judiciary Committee is currently considering a law that would require all private employers in the United…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Mosquito-Zapping Lasers
It’s hard to deny that lasers are cool, but a lasers that can blast mosquitoes out of the sky, protecting us from the malaria spreading…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Mobile Phone Credit Card Processing
It’s a hot summer day, you pass by a lemonade stand and you think "An ice-cold lemonade would really hit the spot," but you have…
Ecomerce Times
French Firm Slings Another Stone at Google in EC Antitrust Spat
Ecomerce Times
Tough Terms May Land Apple’s Subscription Service in Hot Water
Ecomerce Times
Cyber Insecurity: Flip That Internet “Kill Switch” Plan
Unless there’s a major critical infrastructure failure, cybersecurity’s never going to be a pop culture concern like Cee-Lo Green or Christina at the Super Bowl.
News Release
House Hearing on FCC’s Net Neutrality Proposal Should Investigate “Agency Neutrality”
Washington, D.C., February 16, 2011—The following is a statement from CEI’s Director of Technology Studies, Wayne Crews: All five Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioners…
Blog
iPhone 4 is All About Verizon, Not Apple
Design loyalists know it all begins and ends with Apple, the little tech company whose mission statement is “to change the world.” When it comes…
News Release
Free Market Think Tank Urges House to Reject Patriot Act Extension
Washington, D.C., February 8, 2011 – Today, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on an extension of three provisions of the Patriot…
Blog
Tweeting Around Egypt’s Web Blackout: Meet John Scott-Railton
Recently, the Egyptian government blocked Egyptians’ access to the Internet. However, it couldn’t block the Internet itself. Consequently, John Scott-Railton figured out a way to…
Ecomerce Times
‘Kill switch’ = more federal power
Blog
Congress Considering “Kill Switch” for Capitalism
Introduced last summer, a bill affording President Obama executive power over private Internet companies in the event of a “national cyberemergency” is returning this year,…
Ecomerce Times
Mis-State Of The Union
Politicians rarely think voluntary markets are so grand that they couldn’t benefit from a good ol’ dose of compulsion. It’s a shame, because that…
Blog
How to Cop Proof Your Cell Phone
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVCROjpgCB0 285 234]…
Blog
CEI Podcast for January 20, 2011: The Future of Space Policy
CEI Adjunct Scholar and space policy expert Rand Simberg explains why NASA stagnated after its early success in bringing man to the moon.
Ecomerce Times
Comcast OK With Feds’ Conditions for NBC Merger
Reason
Being Smart With Your Smartphone, Police Search Edition
Study
Protect Free Speech by Rejecting Content Regulation
Liberate to Stimulate Index In recent years, the First Amendment’s protections have been increasingly extended to commercial speech, such as product advertisements…
Study
Counteract Politicization of Federal Science Policy
Liberate to Stimulate Index The federal politicization of science in many areas is harming science itself. Ethics rules and advisory panel guidelines…
Study
Reject the Precautionary Principle, a Threat to Technological Progress
Liberate to Stimulate Index Increasingly, governments and environmental activists are demanding that producers of both new and old technologies prove that their…
Study
Avoid Hindering the Internet’s Evolution through Net Neutrality Regulation
Liberate to Stimulate Index In 2010, Congress failed to enact legislation authorizing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce network neutrality rules.
Slashdot
Encrypt Your Smartphone – Or Else
Blog
Smartphone Searches, Encryption, and the Constitution
The smartphone is arguably one of the most empowering and revolutionary technologies of the modern era. By putting the processing power of a personal…
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