News Clips

Common Cause, joined by almost two dozen more groups, have called on Facebook to prevent political action committees (PACS) affiliated with suspended accounts--the target is former President Trump--to violate the site's community standards. "If Facebook’s content moderation policies for public figures are to have any legitimacy, they must not be so easily circumvented. We urge Facebook to close this loophole and align its content moderation policies with campaign finance law to prevent politicians from using political committees under their control to evade enforcement actions," said Yosef Getachew, Common Cause media and democracy program director.

“The ability for consumers to actually get lower prices or take action is somewhat limited at the moment,” said Yosef Getachew, media and democracy director at Common Cause, a government watchdog group. One effective solution, he says, is municipal networks—publicly owned fiber-optic networks deployed by local governments—such as the one Mx. Cadena is awaiting. “Service providers aren’t investing in areas that aren’t profitable to them. And there are cases where muni networks come in, and then the incumbent lowers their prices,” said Mr. Getachew. However, 20 states restrict or prohibit these networks, on the grounds that government-run broadband discourages private investment.

"It makes sense, certainly, that you have an executive saying that we are going to disclose where the funds are coming from," Rotman said. "But if that's not meaningful disclosure ... when it's just a pledge, then it's not really worth the paper that it's written on." Rotman said Abbott could start by adding language to the website asking donors to certify that they use their legal name. His office could also list donor names on the website contemporaneously for the public — as opposed to only providing them in response to open records requests — and add software that would prevent donors from listing incomplete names. "If you think it's important, then you have to say I'm not going to let somebody write down Donnie Darko and give me the cash," she said. "There are a lot of well-developed states and a lot of well-developed models. It's very possible for Texas to do this in a way that Texans will have disclosure in the way that the governor has promised."

ALEC could face additional legal jeopardy from complaints making similar allegations that the Center for Media and Democracy, in conjunction with the watchdog group Common Cause, says it is also filing with 15 Attorney General offices.

“For years, Congressional efforts to pass legislation needed to address the nation’s long-standing disparities in connectivity have been stopped dead in their tracks in part because of aggressive industry lobbying and the oversized political influence of the largest ISPs,” Common Cause Media and Democracy Program Director Yosef Getachew said of the study. Getachew noted that efforts to improve broadband mapping, fund the deployment of competitive fiber, or even improve the standard definition of broadband have all repeatedly been scuttled by industry lobbying. At the same time, telecom lobbyists have worked tirelessly to undermine federal and state regulatory oversight of the heavy monopolized telecom industry.

“They have vocally expressed the intention to go that route, and I think the expectation for us and for many of our voting rights allies is that that option is on the table,” said Quentin Turner, a program director for Common Cause’s Michigan chapter. “But the window is closing for them to have it on the ballot for 2022.” “For us, the good news is that they have so much disorganization in their camp that they can’t get behind actually making this process work,” Turner said. “The Republicans fully realize that everything they send to the governor this year or next will get vetoed. They want to run on this in 2022,” said Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin. “They think Evers is vulnerable, so a lot of this is just campaign fodder for the 2022 election, and then of course for the Trump allies for 2024.”