Tom Wheeler

Tom Wheeler served as the Chairman of the FCC from 2013 to 2017 under President Obama. For more than three decades, Wheeler has been involved with new telecommunications networks and services, experiencing the revolution in telecommunications as a policy expert, advocate, and businessman. As an entrepreneur, he started or helped start multiple companies offering cable, wireless, and video communications services. While at the Shorenstein Center, Wheeler conducted research and taught study groups on the intersection of public policy and transformational technology.

Who Makes the Rules Governing Tech: Can there be an alliance of the like-minded?

March 10, 2022

This webinar will be given by M-RCBG senior research fellow Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (2013-2017). This conversation is off the record. Please use this registration form if you wish to join us online. Please note that our speaker will be presenting in person at Harvard Kennedy School in Wexner 434AB. Anyone

Can Society Control Big Tech? Truth and Trust

November 2, 2021

This conversation is off the record. Please use this registration form if you wish to join us online. Please note that our speaker will be presenting in person at Harvard Kennedy School in Rubenstein 414AB (ELLWOOD DEMOCRACY LAB). Anyone with a Harvard ID is invited to join us on a first-come, first-served basis.

A Turning Point in the Oversight of Digital Platforms: A Challenge for American Leadership

February 25, 2021

The views expressed in Shorenstein Center Discussion Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of Harvard Kennedy School or of Harvard University. Discussion Papers have not undergone formal review and approval. Such papers are included in this series to elicit feedback and to encourage debate on important issues and challenges

New Digital Realities; New Oversight Solutions

August 20, 2020

A new report by authors Tom Wheeler, Phil Verveer, and Gene Kimmelman addresses the challenge of government oversight for digital platform companies. It suggests the creation of a new federal agency designed to deal with digital issues rather than industrial ones, and the development of a new approach that replaces industrial era regulation with a new, more agile regulatory model better suited for the dynamism of the digital era.

Big Tech and Democracy: The Critical Role of Congress

April 23, 2019

In March 2019, two projects at Harvard Kennedy School—the Technology and Public Purpose (TAPP) Project at the Belfer Center and the Platform Accountability Project at the Shorenstein Center—hosted a workshop for Congressional staff to identify and discuss policy approaches to the dilemmas of big tech platforms.

The Root of the Matter: Data and Duty

November 1, 2018

Rules for the New Digital Economy Should Look to Old Common Law Traditions There are 39 million books in the Library of Congress. This impressive analog measurement pales in comparison, however, with the realities of the digital world. Every day connected computers create the data equivalent of three million Libraries of Congress! This startling fact

Time to Fix It: Developing Rules for Internet Capitalism

August 16, 2018

A Shorenstein Center Fellows Research Paper by Tom Wheeler, former Chairman of the FCC under President Barack Obama, and Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy and Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. The views expressed in the Shorenstein Center Fellows Research Paper Series are those of the

Tom Wheeler on the FCC, Net Neutrality, and Platform Regulation

February 27, 2018

February 27, 2018—Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the FCC from 2013 to 2017 under President Obama and Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow, discussed technological change, President Trump’s FCC, regulation of social platforms, and more during a talk at the Shorenstein Center. Below are some highlights from his conversation with Shorenstein Center Director Nicco Mele, as

Tom Wheeler

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