SoylentNews

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Eutelsat's OneWeb constellation suffered a date-related meltdown last week while the rest of the IT world patted itself on the back for averting the Y2K catastrophe a quarter of a century ago.

The satellite broadband service fell over on December 31, 2024, for 48 hours. According to Eutelsat, "the root cause was identified as a software issue within the ground segment." Issues began just after 0000 UTC, and it took until January 1 to get 80 percent of the network operational. By the morning of January 2, everything was working again.

A spokesperson told The Register: "We can confirm that the issue was caused by a leap year problem, related to day 366 in 2024, which impacted the manual calculation for the GPS-to-UTC offset."

An issue related to the number of days in a leap year will have many software engineers stroking their chins thoughtfully. While it is usually the extra day itself that can cause the odd issue or two, failing to take it into account when rolling into a new year can also cause headaches, as evidenced by OneWeb's woes.

[...] The issue faced by Eutelsat OneWeb was not due to two digits being used to store the year, which is what happened in the Y2K incident, but rather an oversight that meant the extra day in a leap year was not adequately accounted for. Since accurate timekeeping is required for communication and navigation systems, problems with the offset would cause an understandable – if not excusable – service outage.

The good news is that the problem was in the software in the ground segment, meaning that the hardware in orbit was unaffected. However, the incident is embarrassing for Eutelsat since it is one of the leaders of the SpaceRISE industry consortium, recently tapped by Eurocrats for the multibillion-euro IRIS² satellite broadband deal.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

[Source]: Techdirt

For decades now, U.S. wireless carriers have sold consumers "unlimited data" plans that actually have all manner of sometimes hidden throttling, caps, download limits, and restrictions. And every few years a regulator comes out with a wrist slap against wireless carriers for misleading consumers, for whatever good it does.

Back in 2007, for example, then NY AG Andrew Cuomo fined Verizon a tiny $150,000 for selling "unlimited" plans that were very limited (Verizon kept doing it anyway). In 2019, the FTC fined AT&T $60 million for selling "unlimited" plans that were very limited, then repeatedly lying to consumers about it (impacted consumers ultimately saw refunds of around $22 each).

It's gotten slightly better, but it's still a problem. Providers still impose all manner of weird restrictions on mobile lines and then bury them in their fine print, something that's likely only to get worse after Trump 2.0 takes an absolute hatchet to whatever's left of regulatory independence and federal consumer protection.

In the interim, telecom providers are even bickering about the definition of "unlimited" between themselves. For example Verizon is mad that Charter Communications (a cable company that got into wireless) is advertising its wireless service as "unlimited," while telling users they can "use all the data you want."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Android malware dubbed FireScam tricks people into thinking they are downloading a Telegram Premium application that stealthily monitors victims' notifications, text messages, and app activity, while stealing sensitive information via Firebase services.

Cyfirma researchers spotted the new infostealer with spyware capabilities and said the malware is distributed through a GitHub.io-hosted phishing website that mimics RuStore, a popular Russian Federation app store.

The phishing site delivers a dropper named ru[.]store[.]installer and it installs as GetAppsRu[.]apk. When launched, it prompts users to install Telegram Premium.

Of course, this isn't really the messaging app but rather the FireScam malware, and it targets devices running Android 8 through 15.

Once installed, it requests a series of permissions that allow it to query and list all installed applications on the device, access and modify external storage, and install and delete other apps.

Plus, one of the permissions designates the miscreant who installed FireScam as the app's "update owner," thus preventing legitimate updates from other sources and enabling the malware to maintain persistence on the victim's device.

Attackers can use the infostealer/surveillance malware to intercept and steal sensitive device and personal information, including notifications, messages, other app data, clipboard content, and USSD responses, which may include account balances, mobile transactions, or network-related data.

"These logs are then exfiltrated to a Firebase database, granting attackers remote access to the captured details without the user's knowledge," Cyfirma's researchers noted.

Stolen data is temporarily stored in the Firebase Realtime Database, filtered for valuable information, and then later removed.

This use of legitimate services – specifically Firebase, in this case, for data exfiltration and command-and-control (C2) communications – also helps the malware evade detection and is a tactic increasingly used to disguise malicious traffic and payloads.

Original Submission

taylorvich writes:

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-ants-grudges.html

A team of evolutionary biologists has demonstrated that ants learn from experience. Led by Dr. Volker Nehring, research associate in the Evolutionary Biology and Animal Ecology group at the University of Freiburg, and doctoral student Mélanie Bey, the team repeatedly confronted ants with competitors from another nest. The test ants remembered the negative experiences they had during these encounters.

When they encountered ants from a nest they had previously experienced as aggressive, they behaved more aggressively toward them than toward ants from nests unknown to them. Ants that encountered members of a nest from which they had previously only encountered passive ants were less aggressive. The results have been published in the journal Current Biology.

Ants use odors to distinguish between members of their own nest and those from other nests. Each nest has its own specific scent. Previous studies have already shown that ants behave aggressively towards their nearest neighbors in particular.

They are especially likely to open their mandibles and bite, or spray acid and kill their competitors. They are less likely to carry out such aggressive maneuvers against nests that are further away from their own. Until now, it was unclear why this is the case. Nehring's team has now discovered that ants remember the smell of attackers. This is why they are more aggressive when confronted with competitors from nests they are familiar with.

The scientists conducted an experiment in two phases. In the first phase, ants gained various experiences: One group encountered ants from their own nest, the second group encountered aggressive ants from a rival nest A, and the third group encountered aggressive ants from rival nest B. A total of five encounters took place on consecutive days, with each encounter lasting one minute.

In the subsequent test phase, the researchers examined how the ants from the different groups behaved when they encountered competitors from nest A. The ants that had already been confronted by conspecifics from this nest in the first phase behaved significantly more aggressively than those from the other two groups.

Journal Reference: Mélanie Bey et al, Associative learning of non-nestmate cues improves enemy recognition in ants, Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.054

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The man who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people in New Orleans on New Year's Day, killing 14, wore Meta's smart glasses to scout out the location prior to the attack, according to the FBI.

These camera-fitted glasses allow users to capture photos and video hands-free, and also allow video streaming. 

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, identified as a US Army veteran who carried out the deadly attack on Bourbon Street, used the glasses to conduct surveillance while riding his bike around the French Quarter in the months leading up to January 1, according to FBI special agent in charge Lyonel Myrthil.

Jabbar, we're told, made at least two trips to New Orleans to plan what the Feds have called "an act of terrorism." 

For at least two days beginning October 30, 2024, Jabbar stayed at a rental home in New Orleans. During this time, he rode a bicycle through the French Quarter while wearing the Meta glasses, Myrthil told reporters on Sunday. 

Also during the press conference, the FBI released a video taken during Jabbar's October trip with the smart glasses. 

While Jabbar wore the glasses during the January 1 massacre, he did not livestream the attack.

"Jabbar was wearing a pair of Meta glasses when he conducted the attack on Bourbon Street," Myrthil said. "But he did not activate the glasses to live stream his actions that day."

[...] In September, the tech giant teased a new, augmented-reality version of the glasses dubbed Orion.

"We're not too far off from being able to deliver great looking glasses that let you seamlessly blend the physical and digital worlds so you can feel present with anyone no matter where they are," Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg told investors during the company's most recent earnings call while touting his metaverse dreams. 

But even prior to the wearable tech being used for evil, a pair of Harvard undergraduates warned about serious privacy and physical safety threats posed by the Meta gear. The two demonstrated how the glasses could be used to automatically identify anyone in view of the device's camera and return an AI-generated dossier on them — essentially allowing miscreants to dox anyone in seconds.

"Anyone who can run some simple web automations with ChatGPT can build this," AnhPhu Nguyen told The Register in October. "It's astonishing that you can build this in a few days – even as a very naïve developer."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

At advanced nodes, chips are not getting cheaper.

Apple's A-series smartphone processors have evolved significantly from the A7 (28nm) to the A18 Pro (3nm), gaining more cores, transistors, and features. With each new node, TSMC charged Apple more per wafer, so the price increased from $5,000 for a 28nm wafer with A7 processors to $18,000 for a 3nm-class wafer for A17 and A18-series processors, reports Ben Bajarin, the chief executive and principal analyst at Creative Strategies.

Bajarin notes that as Apple's A-series chips have evolved, their transistor count has consistently increased, starting at 1 billion in the A7 and reaching 20 billion in the A18 Pro. That makes sense because the number of cores and features has also increased: in 2013, the A7 featured two high-performance cores and a four-cluster GPU, whereas, in 2024, the A18 Pro features two high-performance cores, four energy-efficient cores, a 16-core NPU, and a six-cluster GPU. 

Got a detailed price/die/density analysis of Apple A-silicon over time at TSMC. Some nuggets.From A7 to A18:- progression from 28nm to 3nm- Most dramatic shrinks occurred early (28nm → 20nm → 16nm/14nm)- Steady increase in transistor count from 1 billion (A7) to 20…December 18, 2024

A-series processors are aimed at smartphones, and Bajarin says their die sizes have remained relatively consistent, ranging between 80 and 125 square millimeters across generations. This was enabled by a steady increase in transistor densities facilitated by TSMC's latest process technologies. 

The most substantial transistor density increases occurred in the earlier nodes, such as transitions from 28nm to 20nm and then to 16nm/14nm. However, recent process technologies (N5, N4P, N3B, N3E) exhibit slower density improvements. The peak period for transistor density improvements occurred around the A11 (N10, 10nm-class) and A12 (N7, 7nm-class), with gains of 86% and 69%, respectively. Recent chips, including the A16 to A18 Pro, show a noticeable slowdown in density advancements, primarily due to slower SRAM scaling. 

However, despite diminishing returns, Bajarin notes that production costs have risen sharply. Wafer prices climbed from $5,000 for the A7 to $18,000 for the A17 and A18 Pro, while the cost per square millimeter increased from $0.07 to $0.25. 

owl writes:

They can't even follow their own rules:

https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/08/eu-court-fines-european-commission-for-breaching-its-own-data-privacy-laws/

A top court has ordered the European Union's top executive authority to pay €400 (around $410) in damages to a German citizen for breaching its own data protection laws.

In a statement, the EU General Court said the European Commission violated the citizen's rights by transferring some of his personal data to the United States without proper safeguards.

The court said the German citizen registered for a conference, managed by the European Commission, using the "Sign in with Facebook" option on the conference's website. But the citizen said information about his IP address, browser and device were transferred to companies in the United States — namely Amazon, which hosts the conference's website, and Meta, which owns Facebook — which the citizen said violated his rights under the bloc's data privacy rules.

The European Commission committed a "sufficiently serious breach" of the rules that cover the 27 European nations, the EU General Court ruled on Wednesday. Reuters, which first reported the news, said the fine is a first for the European Commission.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

The European Union has investigated itself and found ... actual wrongdoing ! For the first time ever, the EU has been found to have violated its own privacy rules established by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and will have to pay a fine, per a ruling handed down by the EU General Court.

The victim of the EU's brazen disregard for the law was a German citizen who used the "Sign in with Facebook" option when registering for a conference through a European Commission webpage. When the user clicked that button, data about their device, browser, and IP address were transferred through a content delivery network managed by Amazon Web Services and eventually found its way to servers operated by Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms in the United States. The court determined this transfer of data took place without proper safeguards, which amounts to a breach of GDPR rules, and the EU was ordered to pay a fine of €400 (about $412) directly to the person who brought the case.

[Source]: GIZMODO

Original Submission

Motor Trend is reporting on early production of a new permanent magnet material https://www.motortrend.com/features/niron-magnetics-clean-earth-permanent-magnets-ces-2025/ suitable for replacing the rare-earth magnets used, for example, in electric car motors, as well as loud speakers and many other products.

Invented some time back by university researchers and now in the pilot production stage (with suitably large investors like car companies),

Science has long known that a certain rare phase of iron nitride­­, known as an alpha-double-prime crystal structure of Fe16N2, holds extremely strong magnetic properties. But when produced by conventional means over the decades, the phase would degrade into more common, less magnetic phases. Then researchers at the University of Minnesota figured out a way to form this magic magnet material on a nano-scale using chemical vapor deposition or liquid phase epitaxy, and then developed a process for compacting and sintering nanoparticles of α″-Fe16N2 into magnets in the sizes and form factors allowing direct replacement of today's rare-earth permanent magnet motors.

Magnetic strength in the magnets used in electric motors is measured in tesla (where 1 tesla = 10,000 Gauss, for those more familiar with the unit used to measure Earth's magnetic pull). Weaker hard ferrite (iron-oxide) permanent magnets typically max out at around 0.35 tesla. The world's strongest permanent magnets made of neodymium measure around 1.4‑1.6 teslas. Niron's Clean Earth iron nitride permanent magnets peg the meter at 2.4 teslas. Niron Clean Earth magnets are also said to lose less magnetism over the typical operating temperature range than today's rare-earth permanent magnets.

Better yet: Niron's entire manufacturing process, from raw ore material to finished magnets, can be produced in a single factory on existing equipment, with 80 percent less CO2 and vastly less water usage, at a price that is currently on par with rare-earth magnets and utterly immune to price volatility due to supply chain and geopolitical forces.

Further icing on the cake: the iron is best sourced from iron salts that are a byproduct of steel manufacturing, with nitrogen sourced from ammonia. Produce that ammonia from air and water in a location that generates surplus solar or wind energy, and you get both clean nitrogen and a source of clean hydrogen that can help power the process.

One less thing to import from China...

For some perspective, here's a page on very high power research magnets (note, these are not permanent magnets as described above), https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/maglab-makes-magic-magnets

The 100 tesla pulsed magnet at MagLab's Los Alamos site produces the highest nondestructive magnetic field in the world. Higher-field magnets exist but can't withstand a field that high and explode after brief experiments. By pulsing the magnet in bursts that last 15 milliseconds, Los Alamos holds the world record for the highest field ever generated without blowing something up, enabling rare precision measurements.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are ditching third-party fact-checkers in favor of a Community Notes program inspired by X, according to an announcement penned by Meta's new Trump-friendly policy chief Joel Kaplan. Meta is also moving its trust and safety teams from California to Texas:

"We've seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see." Meta said. "We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they're seeing – and one that's less prone to bias."

The Community Notes feature will first be rolled out in the US "over the next couple of months" according to Meta, and will display an unobtrusive label indicating that there is additional information available on a post in place of full-screen warnings that users have to click through. Like the X feature, Meta says its own Community Notes will "require agreement between people with a range of perspectives to help prevent biased ratings."

The moderation changes aim to address complaints that Meta censors "too much harmless content" on its platforms, and is slow to respond to users who have their accounts restricted. Meta is also moving its trust and safety teams responsible for its content policies and content reviews content out of California to Texas and other US locations, instead of wholesale moving its California headquarters like Elon Musk did with SpaceX and X.

Also at BBC, MSN and NYP.

Original Submission

taylorvich writes:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-mediterranean-diet-linked-memory-gut.html

A new Tulane University study suggests the Mediterranean diet's brain-boosting benefits may work by changing the balance of bacteria in the gut.

In a study published in Gut Microbes Reports, researchers at Tulane University School of Medicine found that subjects following a Mediterranean diet developed distinctly different gut bacteria patterns compared to those eating a typical Western diet. These bacterial changes correlated with better memory and cognitive performance.

"We've known that what we eat affects brain function, but this study explores how that could be happening," said lead author Rebecca Solch-Ottaiano, Ph.D., neurology research instructor at Tulane's Clinical Neuroscience Research Center. "Our findings suggest that dietary choices can influence cognitive performance by reshaping the gut microbiome."

The study found that rats fed a Mediterranean-style diet rich in olive oil, fish and fiber over 14 weeks showed increases in four beneficial types of gut bacteria and decreases in five others compared to rats eating a Western diet high in saturated fats. These bacterial changes were linked to improved performance on maze challenges designed to test memory and learning.

Specifically, higher levels of bacteria such as Candidatus Saccharimonas were associated with better cognitive performance, while increased levels of other bacteria, such as Bifidobacterium, correlated with poorer memory function.

The Mediterranean diet group also showed better cognitive flexibility—the ability to adapt to new information—and improved working memory compared to the Western diet group. They maintained lower levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol.

Journal Reference: Rebecca J. Solch-Ottaiano et al, Comparison between two divergent diets, Mediterranean and Western, on gut microbiota and cognitive function in young sprague dawley rats, Gut Microbes Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1080/29933935.2024.2439490

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Florida witnessed a massive rise in VPN demand on New Year's Day after Pornhub began prohibiting people from accessing its site from within the Sunshine State, it is claimed.

Between the clock striking midnight and 4am on January 1, the day of the Pornhub pullout, the folks at VPN-pushing vpnMentor documented a rather incredible 1150 percent spike in Floridians wanting to use a VPN to mask their public IP addresses.

January 1 marked the implementation of Florida's age-verification mandate, so perhaps all those netizens were scrambling for a VPN client and provider so that they appeared to the adult dot-com to be visiting from somewhere outside the Sunshine State, and thus evade Pornhub's blockade.

[...] Here's the back story: In March, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed the Online Protection for Minors act, aka House Bill 3, into law. The legislation requires websites to verify visitors' ages, and for those hosting a "substantial portion of material harmful to minors," such as Pornhub, to block access to anyone under 18 in an effort to prevent kids and teens from peeping on any pornographic videos. Making sure children aren't looking at smut online requires identity and age verification, which Pornhub isn't willing to get into.

HB3 allows fines of up to $50,000 for websites that don't comply with the regulations. 

And so in response, Pornhub's parent company Aylo decided to yank the site from Florida users as it had already done in other states with similar laws, including Kentucky, Indiana, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, North Carolina, Montana, Mississippi, Virginia, Arkansas, and Utah. 

"Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous," Aylo told news outlets in a statement.

"Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy. Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws."

[...] For what it's worth, Robin Tombs, boss of Yoti, which provides age checks for blue-movie sites in the US, argued earlier this week that its age confirmation system, using facial analysis, and identity document verification is secure and safe, as you might imagine.

[...] The New Year may ring in some good news for southern states' smut surfers, however. Over the summer, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging the legality of the Texas law, which could set a precedent for similar age-verification mandates — and, thus, Pornhub blocks.

The Texas case, Free Speech Coalition, et al v. Paxton, is set for argument on January 15. ®

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Lukasz Olejnik opines:

While I once hoped 2017 would be the year of privacy, 2024 closes on a troubling note, a likely decrease in privacy standards across the web. I was surprised by the recent Information Commissioner's Office post, which criticized Google's decision to introduce device fingerprinting for advertising purposes from February 2025. According to ICO, this change risks undermining user control and transparency in how personal data is collected and used. Could this mark the end of nearly a decade of progress in internet and web privacy? It would be unfortunate if the newly developing AI economy started from a decrease of privacy and data protection standards. Some analysts or observers might then be inclined to wonder whether this approach to privacy online might signal similar attitudes in other future Google products, like AI.

[...] What Is Fingerprinting? Device fingerprinting involves collecting information about user devices, such as smartphones or computers, to create a unique identifier, often to track people or their activities as they browse around the web. This data may include IP addresses, browser user-agent strings, screen resolution, or even details like battery discharge rate. Fingerprinting is particularly concerning because it can be passive—requiring no user interaction. Data is collected without the user's knowledge and linked to their device. Upon subsequent browsing, systems can recognize the same visitor, enabling ad tracking or uncovering private information, such as browsing habits.

This form of identification is neither transparent nor user-friendly. Users are often unaware it is happening, and when done without their consent, awareness, or other legal grounds, it breaches laws. Unlike cookies or other mechanisms, such identifiers cannot be easily "cleared," making them especially invasive. Nevertheless, websites, advertising technologies, and others have continued to use them. Remarkably, large technology companies like Apple and Google once vowed not to engage in such practices. This commitment marked a major achievement for privacy, driven by advancements in privacy research and engineering. Large platforms even began competing to enhance user privacy, benefiting users' welfare and reducing the risk of data misuse or leaks. This issue cannot simply be reduced to "Google does this, and the ICO critiques it."

The editorial goes on to describe the Google Ads policy change, discusses why it's drastic, and notes the contradictions it creates.

Originally spotted on Schneier on Security.

Previously: ICO Puts Foot Down on Google's Planned Fingerprinting Change

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

On December 30, at around 3 pm local time, a massive metallic ring weighing approximately 1,100 pounds came crashing into the village. The loud impact startled residents, some of whom initially feared it was an attack or a bomb explosion.

Joseph Mutua, a local villager, recounted the event to Kenyan news station NTV. While tending to his cows, he heard "a loud bang" and assumed it might be a car accident. However, there were no signs of a collision nearby.

The source of the disturbance turned out to be space debris – a separation ring from a rocket launch. These components are typically designed to burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere or fall into remote areas. Occasionally, however, they veer slightly off course.

The Kenya Space Agency (KSA) was quickly alerted and sprang into action. Collaborating with local authorities, they secured the area and took the hefty ring into custody for further investigation. Preliminary assessments suggested the debris was from a launch vehicle re-entering Earth's atmosphere. The KSA also issued a statement assuring the public that this was an "isolated case" and that the metal object posed no threat to public safety.

[...] While rare, incidents like this are becoming more frequent as Earth's orbital paths become increasingly congested. As of last year, over 170 million pieces of space debris larger than a millimeter were orbiting our planet – remnants of rockets, defunct satellites, and other space operations. Most of this debris burns up safely upon re-entry, but some make it uncomfortably close to the ground.

In February of last year, the European Space Agency issued an alert about a satellite, heavier than a large car, making an uncontrolled re-entry to Earth. Additionally, in March, a piece of the International Space Station crashed through a family's house in Florida. At times, even the station itself has had to perform maneuvers to avoid incoming debris.

For now, Kenyan authorities are still investigating the exact origin of the fallen ring.

Original Submission

taylorvich writes:

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-pollution-widespread-iq-declines-ancient.html

Lead exposure is responsible for a range of human health impacts, with even relatively low levels impacting the cognitive development of children. DRI scientists have previously used atmospheric pollution records preserved in Arctic ice cores to identify periods of lead pollution throughout the Roman Empire, and now new research expands on this finding to identify how this pollution may have affected the European population.

The study, published Jan. 6 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined three ice core records to identify lead pollution levels in the Arctic between 500 BCE through 600 CE. This era spans the rise of the Roman Republic through the fall of the Roman Empire, with the study focusing on the approximately 200-year height of the Empire called the Pax Romana.

Lead isotopes allowed the research team to identify mining and smelting operations throughout Europe as the likely source of pollution during this period. Advanced computer modeling of atmospheric movement then produced maps of atmospheric lead pollution levels across Europe. Combined with research linking lead exposure to cognitive decline, the research team also identified likely reductions in IQ levels of at least 2 to 3 points among the European population.

"This is the first study to take a pollution record from an ice core and invert it to get atmospheric concentrations of pollution and then assess human impacts," says Joe McConnell, research professor of hydrology at DRI and lead author of the study. "The idea that we can do this for 2,000 years ago is pretty novel and exciting."

Journal Reference: McConnell, Joseph R., Pan-European atmospheric lead pollution, enhanced blood lead levels, and cognitive decline from Roman-era mining and smelting, PNAS (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2419630121

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Federal Communications Commission's long-standing effort to establish stronger oversight of the internet was dealt a decisive blow this week when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC lacks the authority to regulate wireless and home broadband services under the same set of rules that have traditionally governed telephone service.

The court's decision hinged on the recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned the Chevron deference, a precedent that had previously granted federal agencies significant leeway in interpreting ambiguous statutory language. This ruling significantly curtailed the FCC's ability to implement and enforce net neutrality regulations.

Net neutrality, a principle that advocates for equal treatment of all internet traffic, has been a contentious issue in American politics for over a decade. The concept aims to prevent internet service providers from favoring certain websites or services over others – a practice that could potentially stifle competition and innovation.

The Obama administration introduced robust net neutrality rules in 2015, which were subsequently repealed in 2017 under the Trump administration. In 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling for the reinstatement of these regulations. The FCC, under the leadership of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, voted to restore net neutrality rules in 2024.

The Sixth Circuit Court's decision effectively nullifies the FCC's Safeguarding Order, which would have reinstated net neutrality regulations. The court declared that broadband internet service providers offer only an "information service" as defined under current US law, and therefore, the FCC lacks the statutory authority to impose net neutrality policies through the "telecommunications service" provision of the Communications Act.

Furthermore, the court ruled that the FCC cannot classify mobile broadband as a "commercial mobile service," which would have allowed the agency to impose net neutrality regulations on those services. The Sixth Circuit explicitly cited the absence of Chevron deference in its ruling, stating that they no longer afford deference to the FCC's interpretation of the statute.

In response to the court's decision, Rosenworcel called on Congress to enshrine net neutrality principles in federal law – an acknowledgment that the FCC's regulatory efforts have reached an impasse.

On the other hand, Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who is set to become the agency's chair later this month, praised the court's ruling. Carr criticized the Biden administration's approach, stating that their plan relied on "persuading Americans that the internet would break in the absence of these so-called 'net neutrality' regulations."

As for the future of net neutrality, the ball is now in Congress's court. However, given the current political landscape and the other pressing issues facing the government, it remains uncertain whether Congress will take up this challenge. With Carr poised to take the helm, it also seems unlikely that the agency will pursue further regulatory action on net neutrality.

Original Submission