Public Knowledge Urges FCC To Adopt Policies Ending Digital Discrimination

Our comments urge the agency to set policies that end digital discrimination and promote equal access to broadband regardless of income level, race, or zip code.

Yesterday, Public Knowledge filed comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s Notice of Inquiry addressing the prevention and elimination of digital discrimination as directed by Congress last year in the bipartisan “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.” Public Knowledge urges the agency to proactively set policies that end digital discrimination and promote equal access to broadband regardless of ethnicity, race, zip code, national origin, or income level.

The following can be contributed to Jenna Leventoff, Senior Policy lCounsel at Public Knowledge:

“We all have a right to connect and communicate. On a bipartisan basis, Congress recognized that digital discrimination is a harm our nation can no longer ignore. Like housing and banking redlining before it, digital discrimination practices will not just harm protected classes of people now but lead to decades of inequality if not eliminated. We urge the Commission to use its full congressional authority to identify, prevent, and eliminate digital discrimination while promoting real equity. 

“The Commission should create rules that make high-quality broadband both available and affordable for everyone no matter their income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin. To do that, the Commission must compare the network quality and terms and conditions under which broadband is provided to protected classes as compared to that offered to non-marginalized communities. It must also create and enforce flexible rules and definitions that encompass all forms of digital discrimination. Broadband inequality will continue if the agency’s rules do not focus on discriminatory impacts. We look forward to working with the Commission to make these rules a reality.”

You may view the comments for more information.

Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.