March 7, 2022
CITI Fellows: All-Fellows Roundtable
"What Happened in 2021" and "What's in Store for 2022?"
What is your nominee for the policy choice or business decision taken in 2021 that has had or will have a meaningful impact on our Digital Future?
- The impact of the federal infrastructure broadband funding.
- The emergence of global censorship by social media companies
- Infrastructure Act investment in broadband, including unprecedented sums for digital equity/closing digital divide
- Actually more of a 2020 question - lockdowns and the shift to work from home - which lead to an increased focus on broadband infrastructure.
- EU court decisions on GDPR and data protection - impact on transAtlantic data flows
- Sajda Qureshi - She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Information Technology for Development Journal and is likely to have great insights from the work submitted to the journal from a developing countries perspective
- What empirical evidence identifies the impact of the billions of dollars allocated by Congress for emergency broadband development? Will it substantially bridge the "Digital Divide," or create even greater expectations of financial incentives for service to rural/high-cost areas?
- Leaked documents that revealed the abuse of Pegasus, Israel spyware, for surveillance in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Hungary, and elsewhere is forcing governments to decide whether encryption and data protection are more important than surveillance.
- Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act
- Lina Khan becomes FTC Chair.
- Metaverse launch by Facebook.
- Antitrust suits against tech companies.
- The mid-band 5G auction cost carriers $81 billion without a clear business case for recovering that cost plus the necessary network equipment. Will this staggering debt bankrupt the big carriers. Are new entrants possible?
What is your nominee for the prospective policy choice or business decision in 2022 that would have substantial implications for our Digital Future?
- How to reduce IT supply dependency
- The emerging restrictions on global video platforms
- The beginning of broadband planning at the state level in the U.S.
- Whether the FCC reclassifies BIAS and VoIP as a telecom service - most concerned about addictive nature of interfaces and the increase in surveillance technology
- Platform interoperability requirements if implemented in EU DSA/DMA
- Doreen Bogdam - If she is elected the Secretary-General of the ITU she may be an important and influential person leading international tech policies
- Can the ITU Stay the Course? A growing list of challenges jeopardizes the ITU's legitimacy and ability to make timely, global spectrum allocations.
- Attempts at both the Federal and state level to alter Section 230 and force Internet platforms to severely limit content moderation.
- Fabric implementation
- Congress adopts comprehensive digital asset regulation
- China's efforts to outcompete Taiwan's semi-conductor capacity
- How will states allocate the broadband infrastructure money? Will any competition policy legislation pass?