The telecommunications industry is pushing its powerful political levers to remove any meaningful local governmental or pubic oversight in the placement of 5G, cell towers or AI systems. A set of three overreaching federal regulatory pathways are designed to supersede already constrained municipal authority. These pose threats to privacy, security, identity, public health, mental health, environmental health, planetary health, and democracy.
Using an army of proposals from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), proposed federal legislation and Executive Orders, industry is pushing to deregulate telecommunications by reforming local permitting rules. These new proposals would remove what the FCC and industry consider outdated “regulatory barriers” to the acceleration of the next generation of innovative telecommunications technology using wireless and wireline infrastructure. By deregulating telecom and AI rather than strengthening regulations this jeopardizes privacy, security, the environment, human health and the democratic process itself. Some call this a moral hazard and other representatives call it an illegal privatization of public lands.
You must be logged in to post a comment.