From virtual classes to digital happy hours with friends, the pandemic is transforming the way we live, work, and study. But as Americans become increasingly reliant on the internet, we ask: Just who should ensure you have the connection you need? And how might communities go about bridging the increasingly talked-about digital divide? In this episode of our new series “Agree to Disagree,” we bring two of the nation’s leading communications law experts together to discuss what broadband looks like in the United States, if the internet should be treated as a public utility, and whether government — or the free market — is better suited to keep us connected.
About the Guests:
- Gigi Sohn is a leading public advocate for open, affordable, and democratic communications networks. She served as counselor to former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler and, before that, was the CEO of Public Knowledge, a leading telecommunications, media, and technology policy advocacy organization. Sohn is now a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy.
- Christopher Yoo is one of the nation’s top authorities on law and technology. His research focuses on exploring how the principles of network engineering and the economics of imperfect competition can provide insights into the regulation of the internet and other forms of electronic communications. Yoo has been a leading voice in the “network neutrality” debate and is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
