Media Center

“It was a long and winding road for Jessica Rosenworcel, but she stayed the course and good sense has now finally prevailed with today’s Senate vote. Jessica faces a daunting agenda as chair but she has the experience and dedication to make historic progress leading the FCC. Past commission mistakes must be corrected and new trails blazed to provide our country with the communications ecosystem our democracy so clearly must have. Needed now is a fifth commissioner, so that a full FCC can get on with its important mandate of protecting the public interest.” - Michael Copps, Former FCC Commissioner and Common Cause Special Adviser

WASHINGTON — On Monday, 16 civil-rights, human-rights and media-justice organizations called on the top executives at AT&T and DIRECTV to cut business ties with One America News Network, the propaganda channel responsible for spreading anti-democratic disinformation, promoting COVID-19 conspiracy theories and fueling racism.

The project has been critical in shedding light not only on how politicians are targeting Facebook users, but also whether the platform is complying with its own political advertisement policies.

A new report from Common Cause in partnership with the Communications Workers of America, “Broadband Gatekeepers: How ISP Lobbying and Political Influence Shapes the Digital Divide,” examines lobbying and political spending by the largest ISPs and their trade associations and how these activities have shaped the digital divide.

Today, the Facebook Oversight Board announced its decision to uphold Facebook’s suspension of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Facebook’s decision to indefinitely suspend Trump’s account followed the former president’s actions, utilizing the platform to incite the violent and deadly January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. 

Facebook has demanded that New York University (NYU) shut down a research project that has been collecting data about the company’s ad-targeting practices. The NYU Ad Observatory, a project of the university’s engineering school, has recruited more than 6,500 volunteers - including many Common Cause members - to use a specially designed browser extension to collect data about the ads Facebook shows them. Facebook has informed NYU that the project violates provisions in its terms of service that prohibit bulk data collection from its site. The social media behemoth has threatened further enforcement action if NYU does not comply. In response, Common Cause has launched a petition drive urging the social media giant to let the program continue and instead shut down the rampant disinformation on the platform.