The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to expand the Lifeline program—which currently subsidizes phone plans for many low-income Americans—to include broadband Internet access.
On Wednesday more than 7 million people in the U.S. signed Google’s petition urging Congress to stop #SOPA and #PIPA, the two bills that would censor the web.
The FCC is launching a new pilot program this year to make broadband more affordable. Quiet as it’s kept, this isn’t the commission’s first effort, but civil rights groups say it can’t be anywhere near the last.
This week the Senate voted against a measure to strip the FCC of its rulemaking power. But the fight to decide who will control the Internet is far from over, and Web users of color have the most to gain.