#media statement

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, TechFreedom and a dozen other free-market organizations urged Congress to amend Food and Drug Administration rules that will cripple the e-vapor industry, destroy jobs, and deprive smokers of a far safer alternative.

In August 2016, the FDA established February 15, 2007 as the “predicate date” for e-vapor products. Any product that came to market after that date must now undergo a premarket tobacco application (PMTA) process that, even by the FDA’s more conservative estimates, would cost around $6 million per product within the first two years of regulation. The e-vapor industry is largely made up of small businesses and products that look nothing like their predecessors of ten years prior. Since all but the largest businesses can’t afford to comply, this predicate date would force most of the industry to shut down entirely.

STPL News rejects Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s public statement and the implication that our reporting is unfair, inaccurate, or unethical. STPL News published reporting on 19 January 2026 regarding the terms of reference for the state-appointed municipal monitors at Mornington Peninsula Shire Council. On 21 January 2026, Council contacted STPL News advising it would cease media…

CDC Recommends COVID-19 Vaccines for Young Children | CDC Online Newsroom

Today, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., endorsed the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendation that all children 6 months through 5 years of age should receive a COVID-19 vaccine. This expands eligibility for vaccination to nearly 20 million additional children and means that all Americans ages 6 months and older are now eligible for vaccination.  Parents…

COVID-19 vaccines continue to protect against hospitalization and death among adults | CDC Online Newsroom

COVID-19 vaccines continue to protect against hospitalization and death among adults COVID-19 vaccination continues to help protect adults against severe illness with COVID-19, including hospitalizations and death, according to two reports released in today’s MMWR. During Omicron, COVID-19-associated hospitalization rates increased for all adults, regardless of vaccination status, but rates were…

WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, activists and multiple Internet companies have called on the Federal Communications Commission to continue treating broadband Internet providers as common carriers (effectively, public utilities) under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act. The FCC is currently taking public comments on the claims of legal authority made by previous chairmen in 2010 and 2015 to support net neutrality rules. Yesterday, TechFreedom held a press call on the Day of Action and the broader questions surrounding the future of net neutrality. A recording of the call is available here.

“This fight isn't really about net neutrality at all, but the FCC’s sweeping claims of authority over the Internet,” said Berin Szóka, President of TechFreedom. “For nearly a decade, the FCC has attempted to regulate the Internet — despite clear instructions from Congress that the Internet should remain ‘unfettered by Federal or State regulation.’ This was unnecessary from the start: the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and state attorneys general could, working together, have policed the broadband market, just as they police the offline economy. Once this FCC reverses its sweeping claims of power over the Internet, which deprived the FTC of jurisdiction, the FTC will again be the lead agency in the layered approach to consumer protection that kept the net ‘neutral’ and thriving long before the FCC ever had rules on the books.”

WASHINGTON D.C. — On Friday, June 30, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order reinstating within the White House the National Space Council, which was disbanded early in the Clinton Administration.  The Council will be headed by Vice President Pence, who delivered a speech on July 6, 2017 at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) outlining his vision for the Council, which will consist of the Secretary of State, Defense, Commerce, and Transportation, plus the Director of National Intelligence, the NASA Administrator, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  

Vice President Pence said the Council will convene “before the end of the summer.” He also vowed to include the private sector in the Council’s activities; the Executive Order calls for establishing a Users’ Advisory Group made up of individuals from the private sector and academia.

WASHINGTON D.C. — Yesterday, TechFreedom and the Competitive Enterprise Institute urged the FCC to modernize its media regulations to keep up with the rapidly evolving video content industry, especially with regard to its cable ownership limits and set-top box regulations.

The filing states:

OVD [online video distributor] services have thrived in an unregulated environment, relying on licensing copyrights directly with content owners on a voluntary basis—and operating outside the Communications Act’s 23-year-old MVPD framework. Many OVDs offer essentially the same network and cable programming that traditional MVPDs also distribute—but, increasingly, firms are producing popular, high-quality original video programming for purely online distribution. Their success is an example of positive impact on an industry by a lenient regulatory regime.

“Given fundamental changes in the video marketplace, the 1992 Cable Act looks increasingly outdated, and the courts said as much eight years ago, yet the last two FCC Chairmen refused to reconsider the agency’s approach,” said TechFreedom President Berin Szóka. “Competition is alive and well in the video marketplace, as cable, satellite, and over-the-top providers trip over themselves to get the best content and attract the most eyeballs. Cable’s share of the MVPD subscription video market has tumbled from almost 100% in 1992 to roughly half that today — which doesn’t even count the growing number of Americans, currently one in seven, who have cut the cord completely. There’s no reason that antitrust law can’t protect consumers in this market.”

“After twenty-one years, previous FCC struggles over set-top boxes look increasingly pointless,” continued Szóka. “The 1996 Telecom Act simply failed to anticipate that the video market would move beyond set-top boxes, which modern streaming has made increasingly obsolete. A new approach, like the DSTAC’s apps-based proposal, would ensure continued competition without tying businesses and consumers to an outdated technology. But Congress should also reconsider whether the entire statutory framework still makes sense.”

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We can be reached for comment at [email protected]. See our other work on the media regulation, including:

Our statement on the previous FCC’s proposal to regulate set-top boxes

A blog post on the FCC’s policy toward next-gen TV

Tech Policy Podcast #67: Killing the Cable Box

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