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
News Release
House-passed KIDS Act harms access to protected speech and substitutes parents’ judgment in favor of regulators’
The House of Representatives passed the KIDS Act today, a package that includes incentives for age verification and onerous directives for product design.
Blog
DMA has its head in the Clouds
This week, the European Commission (EC) announced that Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure Cloud services are being preliminarily designated as “gatekeepers” under the Digital…
Blog
The oasis in America’s affordability desert: Broadband gets faster while prices fall
Americans are understandably worried about affordability. Housing, health care, utilities, and groceries have all become more expensive in recent years, stretching household budgets…
Search Posts
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…
Op-Eds
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…
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…
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