Any New Online Consumer Protections Must Be Modern, Consistent and National

First 100 Days: Building Our Connected Future

Consumers deserve core protections around privacy, freedom of expression and other key areas in the open and thriving online world, just as they do in the physical world. Broadband companies have long supported—and delivered—open internet principles for their customers. It’s time the rest of the internet played by the same rules. The same goes for privacy. Only consistent, modern and national protections can safeguard consumers while promoting U.S. infrastructure investment and our innovation economy. Policy leaders must not look to old rules from the past to govern the online future.

Specific 100-Days Actions

  • Insist on consistent national approaches so consumers across the country can trust they have equal protections under the law and companies can invest with the confidence that our nation will continue its global leadership under a cohesive, national innovation policy.
  • View consumer protections through an inclusive and forward-looking lens. A modern framework must apply to all companies interacting with consumers online. Dusting off policies from the 1930s and even the 1990s doesn’t deliver this across-the-board protection.
  • Toughen criminal enforcement and step up international coordination to stop large-scale robocall scams. From pedaling fake COVID-19 cures to voter suppression efforts, these proliferating scams have spread misinformation and bilked $10 billion out of our most vulnerable citizens.

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THE BOTTOM LINE for First 100 Days Building Our Connected Future:

Broadband—and the work, investment and know-how of the companies providing it—has never been more important. Jonathan Spalter