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
Stop rogue government AI
Performative Washington, responsible for funding AI weaponry and R&D for years, purports to have suddenly discovered the dangers of artificial intelligence. Recent incidents…
Blog
Jimmy Kimmel and the FCC: No time for equal time
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “equal time” rule aims to foster competing voices and ensure opportunities for debate. It was created in an era…
Blog
9/11 and presidential power
America is a complicated country, founded on a simple idea: no kings. Even so, nearly every president since at least John Adams has grown…
Search Posts
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…
ARS Technica
Why You Should Always Encrypt Your Smartphone
Last week, California's Supreme Court reached a controversial 5-2 decision in People v. Diaz (PDF), holding that police officers may lawfully search mobile phones found on…
Blog
Benefits of Cutting White Pages Distribution
After asking why so many states get involved in TelCo activity (requiring that phone books get distributed in hard copy, even over phone companies’ vigorous…
Blog
Why Do States Still Require Phone Books to Be Delivered?
Did you know that some states require companies to deliver phone books to state residents? Never mind the fact that most people don’t use phone…
ARS Technica
The FDA Needs Strong Medicine
Christmas came a couple of weeks late to the business sectors regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The greatest threat to the success of…
The WHIR
What’s hampering innovation?
The WHIR discusses regulation approval processes with Wayne Crews. Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute took the first position. He feels that…
The WHIR
Sack Vilsack!
Something is very wrong at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The secretary, Tom Vilsack, is letting hypothetical claims by organic farmers–who produce less than 1%…
The WHIR
What the New Congress Can Do For the Technology Sector
This week the Consumer Electronics Show will eat Las Vegas whole, and it’s an awesome thing to behold. Here’s hoping that the affiliated…
PC World
What’s Next for the FCC and Net Neutrality?
Blog
FCC Net Neutrality: Some Networks are More Neutral than Others
Today’s decision [by FCC bureaucrats] will help preserve the free and open nature of the Internet [as defined by the government] while encouraging innovation [as…
Blog
Will Net Neutrality Save the Internet?
Reason.TV created an excellent video explaining Net Neutrality and arguing against it. I’ve heard too many people irrationally claim that big corporations are going to…
Study
Recognize the Role of Private Enterprise in Protecting Critical Infrastructure and Cybersecurity
Full Document Available in PDF…
Study
Protect Incentives for Pharmaceutical Innovation
Full Document Available in PDF In recent years, Congress has faced mounting public pressure…
Boston.com
FCC passes ‘net neutrality’ Internet regulations
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.
Boston.com
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…
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