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
FCC’s license-renewal reviews of ABC stations chill disfavored speech
On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court heard arguments in a First Amendment lawsuit by ABC television stations against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), seeking…
Blog
Protestations aside, Washington wants to regulate AI. It also wants to run it
Washington’s latest AI summit between Trump and tech executives was billed largely as a meeting about safety. Ultimately, it was a meeting about something…
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…
Search Posts
Blog
“Right to Repair” Bill Is a Move in the Wrong Direction
The Fair Repair Act (S. 3830), introduced in the Senate last month, would require electronic manufactures like Apple and Samsung to make certain…
Blog
Elon Musk’s Purchase of Twitter Stock Is an Important Reminder of How Capitalism Works
The tech world was shaken by the recent news that Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, had bought up nearly one of every…
Comment
Comments to the Federal Trade Commission Regarding Forthcoming Merger Guideline Revisions
Comment Period Closes: April 21, 2022 Comment Submitted: April 3, 2022 Docket No. FTC-2022-0003-0001 On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Blog
“Letter” Rip: The Justice Department Would Like More Power, Please
In its first backing of specific antirust legislation, the Justice Department (DOJ) sent a letter in support of the American Innovation and…
Blog
Antitrust Triangulation
Sometimes it’s useful to introduce useless bills. The Prohibiting Anti-Competitive Mergers Act , sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Mondaire Jones…
Comment
CEI Comments to the FCC: FCC-21-127
Introduction On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), I respectfully submit these comments in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) notice of…
Real Clear Policy
Conservatives Will Rue the Day They ‘Common Carrier’ Social Media
Real Clear Policy cites Senior Attorney Dan Greenburg and Director of the Center for Technology & Innovation Jessica Melugin’s paper arguing against regulating social…
Blog
Amazon Antitrust Lawsuit Dismissed
Last year, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon over its third-party seller program. On Friday, a judge…
Blog
New Anti-Merger Bill Not Indexed for Inflation
Yesterday, I wrote about four problems with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY)’s new antitrust bill, the Prohibiting Anti-Competitive…
Blog
New Antitrust Merger Bill Is Fatally Flawed
There is yet another antitrust bill in Congress. The Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act, sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Mondaire…
News Release
CEI Statement: Biden Executive Order to Target Crypto for Regulation
The White House is set to release an executive order today regulating cryptocurrency. CEI Senior Fellow John Berlau expressed concerns about the order and…
Blog
House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce Hosts Less than Festive Parade for Big Tech Accountability
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce met on Tuesday, March 1, for a legislative hearing on “Holding…
Comment
CEI Comments on Office of Science and Technology Policy’s request for comments on updating the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan
Introduction On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), I respectfully submit these comments in response to the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s…
News Release
Regulating Social Media Companies as Common Carriers Would Undermine User Experience Online
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) published a new paper today making the case against regulating social media platforms as common carriers. In…
Study
Don’t Confuse the Platform with the Train
Executive Summary Should social media companies be regulated like common carriers? To answer that question, this paper describes the functions and origins of social…
Blog
All Social Media Will Need to Moderate Content
Roughly a year after being booted off the most popular social media networks, former President Trump launched his own digital platform last weekend,…
Blog
State Antitrust Lawsuit Trivializes Security Threats in Mobile App Market
Last July, 36 state attorneys general filed an antitrust suit against Google focusing on app distribution for Android devices through the Google Play…
News Release
Senators Should Oppose Sohn Nomination to FCC
The Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing today on the nomination of Gigi Sohn to be a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission.
Blog
Don’t EARN IT
Bad policy made with good intentions still delivers poor results. That is the case with the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive…
Blog
Good News for Facebook Competitors, Bad News for the FTC’s Antitrust Case
Thursday brought some interesting news, none of which were kind to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust case against Facebook. First, Facebook’s number…
Real Clear Policy
State Lawmakers Need a Better Strategy to Make Regulatory Sandbox Programs a Success
In the age of Web3 and the metaverse, the term “sandbox” has suddenly taken on a new meaning. No long just a fun place…
Blog
Protect Consumers, Not Competitors
The Open App Markets Act (S. 2710) is the latest in a parade of antitrust legislation aimed at reining in “big tech” companies…
Letters
CEI and Other Organizations Oppose the Open App Markets Act
Dear Senator, On behalf of the undersigned organizations – representing millions of taxpayers, consumers, and free market advocates across the nation – we…
News Release
A Government Central Bank Digital Currency Would Pose Big Risk to Financial Sector, Economy
The U.S. should not approve a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a new Competitive Enterprise Institute report argues. “CBDCs could hand the…
Study
Central Bank Digital Currencies Threaten Global Stability and Financial Privacy
Executive Summary As digital currencies go mainstream around the world, governments and international financial bodies are seeking to develop ways to regulate them. Some…
The Washington Examiner
Bill Targeting Big Tech Advanced Out of a Senate Committee on Bipartisan Vote
In what could be the most significant step toward regulating Big Tech, a bipartisan bill to change online shopping dramatically is moving ahead in…
Blog
A Dangerous Antitrust Game for Microsoft and Consumers
Microsoft’s couldn’t have picked a more inauspicious day to announce its planned acquisition of gaming company, Activision Blizzard. The news came concurrently with antitrust…
News Release
Senate Antitrust Bill Would Deny Consumers Popular Services from Large Tech Platforms
WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark up The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S. 2992) today, a…
Blog
The American Innovation and Choice Online Act Would Regulate Away Consumer Benefits
Perhaps Congress’ enthusiasm for ongoing government oversight of business decisions, embodied in tomorrow’s closed door markup of the American Innovation and Choice Online…
Blog
In Russia, Government Tells Internet What to Say
As a general rule, if you’re on the same regulatory page as Russia, you should probably turn the page—if not set fire to it.
News Release
Revived FTC Antitrust Suit Against Facebook Could Put Chill on Innovative Acquisitions in Tech Industry
WASHINGTON – A federal judge today reversed an earlier decision and permitted a case filed against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)…
Blog
An Option Isn’t an Option When It’s Mandatory, Even Online
Later this year, Instagram users will have the option of a chronological feed of the accounts they follow. This option is already available…
Blog
New York State of Mind Wrong on Social Media Regulation
Recent injunctions, in both Florida and Texas, against state-level social media laws championed by Republicans illustrate the difficulties of regulating content moderation…
The Hill
Congress and the Biden Administration Should be Wary of the FAA’s Opposition to 5G Spectrum Allocation
In early December, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a new rule restricting aircraft and helicopters from using certain automated…
National Review
Don’t Let Regulators Kill Crypto
Americans are excited about crypto. Who can blame them? Digital currencies promise to eliminate the middleman in all manner of value transfers, starting with financial…
Blog
Why Both Democrats and Republicans Should Oppose Gigi Sohn’s Nomination as FCC Commissioner
On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee held a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). During…
Blog
Social Media in Parallel Universes
The chasm between the political discourse at yesterday’s House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing on social media platforms and the legal…
Real Clear Policy
DOJ’s Antitrust Case Against Publishers is an Overreach
The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) antitrust suit to stop the merger of publishers Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster has not gained…
Blog
Review of Michael Munger, The Sharing Economy: Its Pitfalls and Promises (Institute of Economic Affairs, 2021)
Transaction costs are one of the most overlooked ideas in economics. They are also one of the most important. The lowering of transaction costs…
Duluth News Tribune
Counterpoint: Urge Private Sector, Consumers to Fight Back, too, Against Unwanted, Irritating Robocalls
“We have been trying to reach you regarding your car’s extended warranty.” In an age of great political partisanship, robocalls vex American consumers of…
Inside Sources
Biden Administration Threatens Consumers with Net Neutrality, Again
A big priority for progressives and, hence, the Biden administration is reinstatement of Obama-era net neutrality regulations. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will once again regulate internet service providers under Title II of the…
Blog
Facebook Leaks Are Hardly Newsworthy
The frenzied media coverage of Facebook document leaks seems to confuse hosting disagreeable content with the platform being the cause of humanity’s ills.
News Release
Biden’s FCC Nominees Mean Trouble on Net Neutrality, Broadband Policies
President Biden’s nominees for key FCC posts will have a significant impact on consumer policy, says CEI’s Jessica Melugin: “The policy implications of…
Blog
Markets Aren’t Perfect; Regulation Is Often Far Worse
A rhetorical tactic commonly employed by both my technocratic and progressive friends is a straw man argument. “If market processes are so great,” they…
Blog
The United States Should Oppose the EU’s Proposed Common Charger Regulation
The European Union (EU) wants to require all cell phone manufacturers to use a common charging device. According to European policy makers, if…
Op-Eds
Facebook keeps asking for regulation that would crush its competition
Repost: Tim Carney’s piece at the Washington Examiner, as part of their Restoring America Project…
Blog
Sen. Klobuchar’s Half-Baked Antitrust Bill
A famous scene in the 1990s comedy movie Half Baked has a young Jon Stewart musing about how different everyday activities can be…
Barrons
A Key FTC Case Goes Down the Regulatory Rabbit Hole
As imagined in Lewis Carroll’s classic, having gone down the rabbit hole, a bewildered Alice learns from the Cheshire Cat that, if you don’t…
Blog
Let the Market Make Corrections and Leave the Red Tape out of It
YouTube banned anti-vaccine content on its platform, Instagram is accused of being “toxic” for its teen users, and Facebook’s Oversight Board is…
Blog
Texas May Still Be the Wild West, But Its Social Media Shouldn’t Be
The Texas legislature passed and Governor Greg Abbott recently signed into law H.B. 20, which he described as “safeguarding the freedom of speech…
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