Communications

New Hampshire politicians from the State House to the US Senate have lined up against the expansion of internet sales taxes ahead of a Supreme Court hearing later this month that could end the current sales-tax status quo.

Recent experience suggests that it is non-ISPs like Twitter and Facebook that are the real threat to openness.

Democrats in Congress are working feverishly to restore the Obama rules by abusing a device called the “Congressional Review Act.”

IPI commends the FCC for voting today to overturn the Obama administration’s ill-conceived 2015 reclassification of broadband networks as telephone service until Title II.

The Institute for Policy Innovation said "threats against the homes and children of federal officials implementing policy are far out-of-bounds and should be condemned." 

"IPI condemns in the strongest terms the appalling attacks against FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his family that have taken place since his announced policy of returning Internet regulation to the successful framework implemented by the Clinton administration in 1997," said IPI president Tom Giovanetti.

The Federal Communications Commission just released its plan to restore internet freedom, which will bring back the historical light-touch framework that for twenty years instilled regulatory certainty and propelled over a trillion dollars in investments in better broadband services for consumers.

The Institute for Policy Innovation in a statement said the transaction "had been considered non-controversial by antitrust observers of all political persuasions." It said opponents of the deal likely don't have a markets or competitive basis and opposition instead is based on President Donald Trump's antipathy for CNN, with Justice "using the heavy hand of government to persecute those it doesn't like." If that's what's driving DOJ, it said, that would be "an ominous turn in the Trump administration."

"We’re thankful that this mistake is soon to be overturned," said Tom Giovanetti.

In the first big merger review under the Trump Administration, the Justice Department has filed suit to block AT&T's $85 billion bid for Time Warner and its valuable programming assets.