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
Lawmakers continue to embrace incoherent tech policy
As Congress continues its march to “rein in Big Tech,” some lawmakers seem unaware of how their stated goals conflict with each other. Members want…

News Release
Market-based Reforms Needed to Correct Failures of Universal Service Subsidies, Congress Urged to Act
A new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) highlights the pervasive failures of the Universal Service Fund (USF) subsidies and calls on Congress…

Blog
Good things happen when spectrum is allocated to the marketplace
There has been recent legislative activity on spectrum allocation, so it is a good time to remind ourselves why moving as much spectrum as…
Search Posts
Study
Protect Free Speech by Rejecting Content Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF In recent years, the First Amendment’s…
Study
Avoid Hampering the Internet through Net Neutrality Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF Some observers have speculated that 2009…
Study
Keep Government’s Hands off the Net and E-Commerce
Full Document Available in PDF As a network of networks, the…
Study
Avoid Privacy Regulation that Could Worsen Personal Security
Full Document Available in PDF There are two great ironies in…
Study
Liberalize Telecommunications
Full Document Available in PDF Appeals to the “public interest” and claims of airwave scarcity have long been…
News Release
FCC Commissioners Should Reject Net Neutrality Rules
Washington, D.C., December 20, 2010 – Tomorrow morning, the FCC will hold a vote on network neutrality rules, mere days before Christmas celebrations begin.
Blog
Online Poker is Not Illegal: U.S. Courts
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of New York sentenced convicted felon Anurag Dikshit, the co-founder of PartyGaming.com, to a meager year of probation and indicated his…
Blog
Interchange Price Controls: Gift to Big Merchants, Lump of Coal for Consumers and Community Financial Institutions
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve — at the direction of Congress in the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” bill — will give…
Blog
TSA’s Bad Policies Aren’t Going Away
Public outrage at the TSA's new policies has died down. That's a real shame, because people are still having experiences like this one.
Op-Eds
Keep Privacy Policies Private
Like the lame duck itself, the online privacy turkey waddles on this December. It’s headed for January and the next Congress. Along with proposed legislation,…
Blog
Does Wikileaks Have a First Amendment Case Against Joe Lieberman?
Amazon made headlines last week when it abruptly cut off service to Wikileaks, allegedly on the grounds that the site had violated Amazon's…
Blog
Wikileaks’ Assange to Australian Times: “I’m Not Sorry”
Julian Assange wrote an op-ed in the Australian Times today essentially saying, “I’m not sorry”: I grew up in a Queensland country…
Blog
Homeland Security Violating Due Process and Free Speech In Internet Power Grab?
Law professor David Post notes that the Department of Homeland Security is seizing entire domain names, not to protect national security, but to enforce…
Local Tech Wire
Opinion: ‘Net neutrality’ will hurt consumers, limit investment
IT Pro Portal
EU Google antitrust probe will hurt consumers
IT Pro Portal reports on the Google antitrust lawsuit and references comments by Wayne Crews and Ryan Radia on the case. However, competition…
Blog
European Commission Should Leave Internet Search Alone
Today, the European Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation into Google to probe allegations that the firm rigged its search engine to discriminate against…
Ecomerce Times
Google Denies Rankings Hanky-Panky as EU Pursues Probe
News Release
FCC Presses Forward With Destructive Net Neutrality Rules
Washington, D.C., December 1, 2010—This morning, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the Commission will vote on net neutrality rules during…
Washington Post
Feds pledge some action on privacy, less on net neutrality
The Washington Post cite CEI's Wayne Crews and Ryan Radia's comments on net neutrality. Other observers like the FCC's new deal even less.
Huffington Post
Yes, Mr. FCC Chairman, There Is a Santa Claus
The Huffington Post cites Wayne Crews's comments on the FCC's net neutrality rule. The would-be chairmen of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are…
News Release
EU Antitrust Investigation Into Google Will Hurt Consumers
Washington, D.C., November 30, 2010 – Today, the European Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation into Google to probe allegations that the firm rigged…
Blog
An Intrusive, Ineffective, Unionized TSA?
Much has been written about the backlash against the TSA’s intrusive new screening methods. Law professor Jeff Rosen has argued that they violate…
Blog
TSA Roundup
The Thanksgiving travel rush is officially underway.
Blog
Six Ways Congress Can Fix COICA Copyright Bill
Over at the Technology Liberation Front, I discuss the “Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act” (COICA), which the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously…
Tech Liberation
Five Ways Congress Can Fix COICA Copyright Bill
On November 18, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the “Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act” (COICA). The bill would enable the U.S. Attorney General…
News Release
Congress Should Amend COICA, Think Tank Argues
Washington, D.C., November 19, 2010 — Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to approve the “Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act” (COICA).
Blog
TSA’s John Pistole Offers to Probe Senators: Shouldn’t He Buy Them Dinner First?
TSA chief John Pistole offered to give enhanced pat-downs to senators at a hearing today on TSA's new screening policies.
Blog
CEI Podcast — November 15, 2010: Free Speech and Video Games
Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia gives his take on a Supreme Court case concerning California’s ban of violent video game sales to minors.
Associated Content
National Deficit Commission: Eliminate Commercial Space Subsidies
Associated Content
Big Government’s Final Frontier
There’s something about space policy that makes conservatives forget their principles. Just one mention of NASA, and conservatives are quite happy to check their small-government…
Blog
Video Games are More than Just Good for Kids
They will be a primary way that we learn, teach, produce and advance in the future. Jane McGonigal of Institute for the Future has…
Blog
Should Geoengineering be Banned?
Since one day the sun will expand into a red-giant star, humans in the distant multi-millennial future will either have to leave the Earth, geoengineer…
Blog
On Google: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It!
Scores.org has a post suggesting that Google is a monopoly because its “tentacles tap into sizable market shares” referring to the search engine, map services,…
Blog
Butcher’s Bill for Texting While Driving
In my LA Times piece “Texters, You’d Be Better off Driving Drunk,” Oct. 3, I stated “There are no reliable studies regarding deaths associated…
Mac World
Mobile Phone Bill Shock: FCC, Carriers Face Off
Blog
A Republican Sweep Might Not Stop Online Gambling
Many analysts and pollsters are predicting a Republican sweep of the coming midterm elections in the House. While Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) seems untouchable,…
Blog
Video Killed the Radio Star: 2010 Telephony Edition
One hundred and twenty-six years after Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone, AT&T, America’s largest provider of fixed telephony (and third largest non-oil company in…
CIO
Mobile phone bill shock: FCC, carriers face off
PC World
Mobile Phone Bill Shock: FCC, Carriers Face Off
Blog
Bill Shock Shouldn’t Be A Federal Issue
The FCC proposed new rules today aimed at combating wireless “bill shock,” a term that describes mobile subscribers getting hit with overage charges they…
Modern Healthcare
Enterprise group to FCC: No new Net neutrality rules
Blog
Our Driverless Future?
Google has been making headlines after the company revealed over the weekend that its driverless cars have logged nearly 140,000 miles on public roads…
Blog
Is the Internet’s Future in Jeopardy?
Last week, I had the pleasure of discussing net neutrality with James Boyle, a Duke Law Professor and the co-founder of the…
Blog
Texting on the Stygian Ferry
“Border collie jill surveying the view from atop the sand dune.” Those were the last words of Malibu plastic surgeon Frank Ryan, best known for…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: Congress Should Liberate to Stimulate
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features John Berlau's debate with Heather Boushey from the Center for…
Blog
CEI Weekly: Congress Should Liberate to Stimulate
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features John Berlau's debate with Heather Boushey from the Center for…
News Release
Free Market Groups Urge Congress to Update U.S. Privacy Laws
Washington, D.C., September 23, 2010 — If you store sensitive files on your personal computer which law enforcement authorities wish to examine, they generally…
Comment
Joint-Statement Submitted to House and Senate Committees on Reforming the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
The House and Senate Committees on the Judiciary held separate hearings on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) on September 22, 2010, and September 23,…
Modern Healthcare
An Industry, not a Bureaucracy
Online security problems are real, but the increasing tendency to treat cybersecurity as a government-spearheaded function asks for big trouble. Case in point is the…
Adage
Look to the Marketplace for Stronger Privacy Protection
A series of recent high-profile privacy gaffes involving internet firms such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook has spurred a public outcry for stronger privacy…
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