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
National Review
Please, Somebody Google ‘Hubris’
The pretense of knowledge is on full display in the Department of Justice’s proposed remedies for the Google trial. The government’s…
Forbes
A Trump 2.0 Agenda For Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence represents an unprecedented economic opportunity as well as a complex security challenge for the United States. As Trump gets set to begin his…
News Release
CEI Report: Wi-Fi success shows permissionless innovation is a competitive advantage
Wi-Fi is ubiquitous in the United States. It provides Americans with broadband access in countless locations, including homes, schools, hotels, coffee shops, offices, airports, and…
Search Posts
Blog
Antitrust Tech Hearing Unlikely to Prove Useful
Monday’s upcoming House Antitrust Subcommittee hearing featuring CEOs from Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple may turn out to have very little to do with antitrust.
Forbes
Don’t Exploit Tragedy To Curtail Beneficial Fintech Investing Apps
My colleague Joshua Rutzick, research associate at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, contributed significantly to the research and writing of this post. The recent death of…
Forbes
Don’t Exploit Tragedy to Curtail Beneficial Fintech Investing Apps
The recent death of Alexander Kearns, the 20-year-old day trader who took his own life, has sparked a conversation about the business practices…
Blog
How Narrowly Are We Going to Define Markets for Tech Antitrust?
One of the key points of contention in any antitrust analysis is defining the scope of the market in question. Ignoring existing competitors by narrowing…
Study
Repeal of #NeverNeeded Regulations Can Help People Stay Home and Safe During the COVID-19 Crisis
As individuals and businesses continue to address the COVID-19 health crisis, access to technologies and services that have enabled large swaths of the economy to…
Blog
A Bright Spot for Tech on USMCA Day
Today the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement goes into effect. Despite its many flaws, it contains a beneficial provision related to the tech sector. The language of…
Study
Policy Principles: Consumer Privacy
PRIVACY The right to privacy is a bedrock principle of a free society and essential to today’s economy. Yet, privacy protection is an ever-evolving field.
Forbes
Regulating Social Media Content Moderation Will Backfire And Make Big Tech More Powerful
As repeatedly noted by defenders of free speech, expressing popular opinions never needs protection. Rather, it is the commitment to protecting dissident expression that is…
Blog
A Cellular Network or a Jobs Program? Sprint/T-Mobile Critics Launch Misguided Attacks
The recently-approved Sprint/T-Mobile merger is already coming under fire after layoffs were announced. But even the harshest critics begrudgingly acknowledge that the jobs being eliminated…
Study
Take Net Neutrality Regulations off the Table for Good
Congress should eliminate the looming threat of net neutrality regulations to Internet service providers (ISPs). Regulation deters investment and the coronavirus health crisis has revealed…
Blog
The Flawed EARN IT Act: Rights and Common Sense Should Not Have to Be Earned
The EARN IT Act is set for a markup in the Senate Judiciary Committee as early as this Thursday. Essentially the bill conditions intermediary liability…
Blog
Is Apple a Bad Antitrust Apple?
The European Union announced last week that it is pursuing two antitrust probes against the tech giant. EU authorities are investigating whether Apple violated European…
Blog
House Judiciary Setting up Political Theater Disguised as Tech Antitrust Hearing
Sometime next month, the House Judiciary Committee is expected to hold a hearing on competition and antitrust featuring the CEOs of Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple,…
Blog
Calls to “Reform” Section 230 of Communications Decency Act Are Misguided—and Thankfully Unlikely to Succeed
This week, four U.S. Senators asked the FCC to “take a fresh look at Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act .” Real changes…
Breitbart
Online Divisions: Twitter, Facebook Diverge on Trump’s Words
Breitbart cites Research Fellow Patrick Hedger on President Trump and social media censorship: “It’s really a no-win scenario’’’ for social media companies, said…
Bloomberg Law
Trump Social Media Liability Order Opens Partisan Divide at FCC
Bloomberg Law cites attorney Devin Watkins on President Trump’s executive order on social media: “Because this comes directly from the president, this obviously…
The New York Times
Trump’s Order on Social Media Could Harm One Person in Particular: Donald Trump
The New York Times cites Research Fellow Patrick Hedger on President Trump’s executive order on social media: “Conservatives must appreciate the fact that…
Bloomberg Law
Charter Fights FCC Subsidies in Upstate New York Broadband Push
Bloomberg Law cites Research Fellow Patrick Hedger on FCC subsidies: Patrick Hedger, a research fellow for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said Charter likely…
Study
The Case against Social Media Content Regulation
As repeatedly noted by most defenders of free speech, expressing popular opinions never needs protection. Rather, it is the commitment to protecting dissident expression that…
Blog
Executive Order on Social Media Threatens Property Rights and Free Speech
Today’s Executive Order on Section 230 liability protections for online platforms violates the First Amendment and property rights of social media companies, contradicts the most…
Bloomberg Law
Here Is A Catalog Of Trump’s Threats To Regulate Social Media
The major print and cable television news media outlets are abuzz with stories of Twitter fact-checking President Donald Trump’s tweets. Alleged…
Blog
Presidential Panel on Social Media Bias Misfires
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration is considering forming a panel to investigate charges of discrimination against right-leaning users and…
Blog
Glaring Problems with Latest Right-Wing Attack on Section 230
A recent opinion editorial in Newsweek is the latest salvo from the political right against Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Couched in criticisms…
Washington Examiner
Why is there bipartisan support for limiting online liberty?
Facebook recently announced the first 20 members of its independent Oversight Board on content moderation. Many criticized the political bent of the majority of the…
Blog
Let Local News Outlets Bail Each Other Out
Allowing common ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations would allow them to achieve economies of scale in their sales departments and other keys aspects of…
Blog
The Coronavirus Outbreak Highlights Importance of the Artificial Intelligence Debate
Tracing of individuals and other measures involving artificial intelligence are in the news with respect to managing individuals’ reentry into the economy in the wake…
Blog
Decades of Internet Freedom Left America Better Suited for the Pandemic
Broadband investment has rebounded since the FCC rolled back public utility-style rules for Internet service providers. The decades-long trend of more significant Internet usage, enabled…
Blog
Market Dynamics Will Force Zoom to Reform Faster and More effectively than Government Regulation
The videoconferencing service Zoom recently ran into some privacy concerns with leaked videos and hacked online meetings. Reaction has been swift and flawed from many…
Blog
CEI Submits Comments to FCC Reinforcing Public Safety Benefits of Internet Freedom
Last year, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld virtually all of the FCC's Restoring Internet Freedom Order. This order, issued in 2017, rolled back…
News Release
CEI Praises FCC Decision to Open Up Spectrum for Business Use
In an effort to make efficient and effective use of the nation’s spectrum resources, today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it will move forward…
Blog
Apple and Google Demonstrate Big Tech Done Right Can Make Big Government Obsolete
Many see the purpose of government as solving problems that otherwise wouldn’t be efficiently addressed in its absence. Yet, despite the steady growth of government,…
Forbes
How The White House “Guidance For Regulation of Artificial Intelligence” Invites Overregulation
Excessive top-down federal funding and governance of scientific and technology research will be increasingly incompatible with a future of lightly regulated science and technology specifically, and with…
News Release
Libra Cryptocurrency Progress May Aid COVID-19 Economic Recovery
The Libra Association today announced progress made on modifying its Facebook-developed cryptocurrency and payment system to meet regulatory concerns.
Forbes
How The White House “Guidance For Regulation Of Artificial Intelligence” Invites Overregulation
Excessive top-down federal funding and governance of scientific and technology research will be increasingly incompatible with a future of lightly regulated science and…
Blog
On Balance, We’re All Better Off With Big Tech and Big Telecom During a Crisis
Thanks to the novel Coronavirus, the U.S. economy has come to an unprecedented halt and the country’s death toll stands at more than 20,000. Amid…
Blog
Robots Are Here to Make Your Job Safer and Cleaner
Positive stories about win-win results from the march of automation are everywhere in our economy, but they don’t get told and repeated enough. The workers…
Blog
Don’t Combine COVID-19 Treatments of Government Spending and Internet
Government spending is ramping up in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. A significant chunk of the economy has shifted to telecommuting. There are now…
Blog
Potential Phase 4 COVID-19 Bill Must Not Turn Broadband Charity into a Tax
As the COVID-19 crisis ransacks our economy, the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” carries increasingly important wisdom. By any objective account,…
Blog
Regulatory Restraint, Full Throttle
Members of Congress pursuing compromise or bipartisan net neutrality legislation should think twice about regulating away certain practices as a priori harmful. Among the greatest…
Blog
Gingrich Praise of Huawei is Dangerously Misguided
After attempting to cover up the spread of the novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party is now engaged in a…
Blog
Need for More Wireless Spectrum Will Persist beyond COVID-19 Crisis with Introduction of 5G Technology
Last week, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T and US Cellular all asked the FCC for temporary access to additional spectrum to accommodate the recent increased demand for…
Blog
CEI Comments to FCC on Proposed Reallocation of 5.9 GHz Band
On March 9, CEI submitted comments to the FCC on its proposal to reallocate a portion of the 5.9 GHz band from Intelligent Transportation Systems…
Comment
CEI Comments on 5.9 to FCC
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), we respectfully submit these comments in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (“Commission”) Notice…
Blog
CEI Scholars Warn EARN IT Act Will Weaken Online Protections
Today, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the EARN IT Act, a bill that ties critical intermediary liability protections for online platforms, known as Section…
Blog
Regulatory Hurdles Already Impeding Competition to Big Tech
Calls to regulate “big tech” firms continue to grow louder. Concerns range from the ability of these firms to influence the political landscape to allegations…
Blog
Federal Court Rightly Affirms Online Platforms’ First Amendment Rights
This week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that, “despite YouTube’s ubiquity and its role as a publicfacing platform, it remains a private forum,…
Blog
Net Reality: Five Years Since the Open Internet Order
If you’re reading this, the Internet is alive and well. If you’re wondering how the Internet is doing, just picture a rocket—symbolizing both the incredible…
Blog
So-Called Conservative Tech Proposal Is an Affront to the First Amendment
Several conservative groups have signaled their support for what some are calling a “small-government solution” to perceived anti-conservative bias by tech platforms. The solution that…
Blog
FCC to Vote on Crucial Spectrum Auction this Month
At the FCC open meeting on February 28, the commissioners will vote on a critical matter regarding a proposed public auction for what is known…
Forbes
We’re Not Biased, We’re Liberals: How Cultural Leftism Will Slant Social Media Regulation
“Water? What’s water?” —The fish As debates over bias, harm, misinformation and election interference on social media unfold, it will be interesting to…
Multichannel News
T-Mobile-Sprint Decision Draws Crowd
Multichannel News cites associate director Jessica Melugin on the T-Mobile-Sprint Decision: “This is good news for U.S. consumers who benefit from economies of scale…
News Release
CEI Applauds Court Decision to Approve Sprint-T-Mobile Merger
CEI applauds today’s decision by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero to approve the $26 billion merger of T-Mobile US Inc. with Sprint Corp. over the…
News Release
New Sen. Hawley FTC Proposal Would Empower Government
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) today released a new proposal to “overhaul” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), claiming the agency “lacks teeth.”…
News Release
DC Court of Appeals Declines to Reconsider So-Called Net Neutrality
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia declined to reconsider a decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to…
Blog
FCC Offers New, Promising Approach on TV White Spaces
Today, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced a new proposal on the use of television white spaces, unallocated bands or allocated and unused bands of spectrum…
The Heartland Institute
Understanding an Internet Sales Tax
The Heartland Institute cites Associate Director of the Center for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin on internet sales taxes: Jessica Melugin of the…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter on FCC C-Band Proceeding
Dear Chairman Pai, and Commissioners O’Rielly, Rosenworcel, Carr, and Starks: We support the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moving quickly to enable secondary market transactions in…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter on the L-Band
Dear Chairman Pai: We, the undersigned organizations, urge you to take decisive action to make additional mid-band spectrum available without delay. Such expansion will allow…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Urging Finance Ministers to Oppose Global Digital Taxation
On behalf of billions of taxpayers and consumers around the globe, we, the undersigned, urge you to oppose international efforts to weaponize global conversations about…
Forbes
Deepfakes and Beyond: Who Wins if Social Media Platforms are Regulated?
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone except you and people you agree with would just STFU? Attributed indirectly to Voltaire, the sentiment “I disapprove of…
C-Span
VIDEO: Patrick Hedger Discusses Efforts to Regulate “Big Tech”
Research Fellow Patrick Hedger joins C-Span to discuss efforts to regulate “big tech” companies.
Blog
California’s New Privacy Law Will Harm Consumers and Innovation
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect January 1, 2020. The law requires companies of a certain size that collect information on customers…
The Wall Street Journal
Another California Job Buster
The Wall Street Journal cites CEI’s study on A.B. 5 by Research Fellow Ryan Radia: Bloggers will be able to apply for full-time…
Blog
Department of Justice Wrong to Block Sabre Acquisition of Farelogix
On January 27th, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) will attempt to block travel technology company Sabre Corporation from purchasing communications protocol innovator Farelogix, Inc. This will be the…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter on Mid-Band Spectrum
Dear Chairman Pai: We, the undersigned organizations, urge you to take decisive action to make additional mid-band spectrum available without delay. Such expansion will allow…
Blog
USMCA Won’t Protect Tech from Trudeau
A point of contention in the debate over the new U.S., Mexico, Canada (USMCA) trade agreement has been whether or not the final deal will…
Forbes
How Regulation of “Harmful Speech” Online Will Do the Real Harm
Much of the debate over online speech concerns whether or not conservatives are “censored” by big tech. But there are bigger fish to fry.
Blog
Attorneys General Shouldn’t Hold Mergers Hostage
Last week the attorneys general of Texas and Nevada announced the withdrawal of their support of a multistate lawsuit to block the merger of cellular telephone…
Blog
Government of Singapore Demonstrates Real Online Censorship
Singapore’s recent policing of online content provides an instructive example of the difference between private curating of material by platform owners and dangerous curtailing of…
News Release
CEI Praises FCC for Breaking Impasse on 5.9 GHz Spectrum Band
Today, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the 5.9 GHz band of spectrum. For the last…
Inside Sources
Point: Critics Can’t Decide if Facebook Does Too Much or Too Little
During his recent appearance at Georgetown University, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg summed up the company’s predicament: “Right now, we’re doing a very good job at…
The Chicago Tribune
PRO: Critics can’t decide if Facebook does too much or too little
During his recent appearance at Georgetown University, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg summed up the company's predicament: "Right now, we're doing a very good job at…
Blog
Twitter’s Ban on Political Ads Has No First Amendment Implications
Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey announced that the social media platform will ban all political advertising. This comes on the heels of Facebook’s recent announcement…
Reason
5G Is the Future
Reason cites Associate Director for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin on 5G: But without a T-Mobile/Sprint merger, wireless customers might have been left…
Blog
Cautiously Optimistic about Facebook’s New Approach to Speech
It seems increasingly the case that there is a lot more to like about what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has to say than not. His…
News Release
House Hearing on Proposed Cryptocurrency Premature, Focus Should Be on Regulatory Barriers to Innovation
Ahead of a House Financial Services Committee hearing focused on Libra, a new cryptocurrency proposed by Facebook and other entities, Competitive Enterprise Institute experts John…
News Release
How to Sell Your Data without Selling Your Soul
In the Internet Age, the use and analysis of personal data holds an enormous amount of economic value, but use of that data can expose…
Study
Selling Your Data without Selling Your Soul
Humans have always sought to defend a zone of privacy around themselves—to protect their personal information, their intimate actions and relationships, and their thoughts and…
News Release
Consumers to Benefit from Court Decision to Uphold FCC Restoring Internet Freedom Order
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today issued a decision upholding the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Restoring Internet Freedom Order, reversing rules from the previous…
News Release
CEI Calls on FCC to Appeal Third Circuit Ruling on Media Ownership to the Supreme Court
This week, the Third Circuit struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s statutorily-obligated revisions to media ownership rules in a 2-1 decision. CEI urges FCC to…
The Atlantic
The Problem With the State-Level Investigation of Google
The battlefield is getting crowded. European antitrust enforcers have been fighting America’s tech giants for years. In the U.S., both the Justice Department and Federal…
Blog
Lead State in Big Tech Antitrust Suit Misleadingly Inflates Google’s Size
In The Wall Street Journal today, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is spearheading a multistate antitrust investigation into Google, made an egregious error.
News Release
Tech Antitrust Probes Good Politics for State AGs, but Terrible for Consumers
According to reports, a group of state attorneys general are planning to launch antitrust probes into Facebook and Alphabet’s Google division. New York AG Leticia…
Blog
Facebook’s $5 Billion Privacy Fine Almost Certainly Too High
Facebook has faced intense criticism from lawmakers and regulators since last spring, when The Observer and The New York Times reported that data from over…
Blog
Will T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Increase Prices?
Lots of things influence prices and, of course, not all are influenced by the same factors. However, the lawsuit filed by several state attorneys general…
Blog
Where Facebook Interim Report on Bias Falls Short
Today former U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), in fulfillment of an arrangement with Facebook, released an independent Interim Report (and accompanying op-ed) cataloging the primary concerns of…
Blog
States Making Predictable Grab for Revenue via Online Sales Taxes
Fallout from the 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair Supreme Court decision, which allowed remote sales tax collection from online purchases, has begun and The Wall Street Journal editorialized…
News Release
CBS-Viacom Merger Good Sign for Competition in the Multimedia Marketplace
Viacom and CBS today announced a merger that would combine the two entertainment companies into a single entity more able to compete with companies like…
Blog
Leaked White House Executive Order on ‘Censorship’ Violates Two Basic Constitutional Tenets
Earlier this week it was reported that the Trump administration was drafting an executive order to combat perceived “censorship” of conservatives on online platforms such…
News Release
Draft White House Executive Order Aimed at Social Media Companies Would Violate First Amendment
Following yesterday’s Politico report about a draft executive order aimed at social media companies’ policies, CNN obtained a copy of the proposed order on Friday.
Blog
Nipping at Big Tech’s Heels: Competition in Social Media
There has much bemoaning and hand-wringing by members of Congress on the alleged dangers of social media.
Blog
Response to State Lawsuit against T-Mobile/Sprint: Mergers Signal Dynamic Markets
The end of the first blog post in this series warned that the real result of a successful lawsuit to block the merger of Sprint…
Yahoo Finance
DoJ Okays T-Mobile/Sprint Merger: Winners & Losers
Yahoo Finance cites Associate Director for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin on the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. Dish Network aims to reach out 70% of…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter in in Support of FCC Actions on 621 of the Cable Act
We write in support of the draft Third Report and Order on the implementation of Section 621 of the Cable Act and urge its adoption…
Blog
Department of Justice Creates Frankenstein Imitation of Market Competition
The Department of Justice’s long-awaited merger approval for T-Mobile and Sprint is good news for consumers on balance, but the conditions required for the agency’s blessing are…
Edge Media Network
AP Explains: What T-Mobile Takeover of Sprint Means for You
The Edge Media Network cites Research Fellow Patrick Hedger on the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. “Private industry has every incentive to give American consumers what…
U.S. News & World Report
The Latest: T-Mobile Expects to Close Sprint Deal in 2019
U.S. News & World Report cites Associate Director of the Center for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin on the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. On the…
News Release
Government Green Light for T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Good News for Consumers
CEI applauds the Department of Justice’s approval of the proposed merger between the nation’s third and fourth largest mobile telecommunications providers, T-Mobile US Inc and…
Fortune
Why Recent Antitrust Regulation Isn’t Really About Consumer Protection
In its second hearing today, the House Judiciary Committee continued its investigation into the tech antitrust issue. This latest iteration of “hipster antitrust” is nothing more…
News Release
Breaking Up Tech Companies Will Harm Consumers and Halt Industry Dynamism
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust is holding a hearing today to consider the merits of antitrust regulation of large technology companies, including Amazon, Apple,…
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