The Library of Congress today said a coding error resulted in the deletion of parts of the US Constitution from Congress' website and promised a fix after many Internet users pointed out the missing sections this morning.

"It has been brought to our attention that some sections of Article 1 are missing from the Constitution Annotated (constitution.congress.gov) website," the Library of Congress said today. "We've learned that this is due to a coding error. We have been working to correct this and expect it to be resolved soon."

The missing portions of the Constitution were restored to one part of the website a few hours after the Library of Congress statement and reappeared on a different part of the website another hour or so later. The Constitution Annotated website carried a notice saying it "is currently experiencing data issues. We are working to resolve this issue and regret the inconvenience."

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Nvidia said there are no backdoors or kill switches in its chips, denying an accusation from the Chinese government. The company also urged policymakers to reject proposals for backdoors and kill switches.

"There are no back doors in NVIDIA chips. No kill switches. No spyware. That's not how trustworthy systems are built—and never will be," Nvidia Chief Security Officer David Reber Jr. wrote in a blog post yesterday.

The Cyberspace Administration of China last week said it held a meeting with Nvidia over "serious security issues" in the company's chips and claimed that US AI experts "revealed that Nvidia's computing chips have location tracking and can remotely shut down the technology."

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The Trump administration is telling states they will be shut out of a $42 billion broadband deployment fund if they set the rates that Internet service providers receiving subsidies are allowed to charge people with low incomes.

The latest version of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) FAQ on the grant program, released today, is a challenge to states considering laws that would force Internet providers to offer cheap plans to people who meet income eligibility guidelines. One state already has such a law: New York requires ISPs with over 20,000 customers in the state to offer $15 broadband plans with download speeds of at least 25Mbps, or $20-per-month service with 200Mbps speeds.

Other states have been considering similar laws and were initially emboldened by New York winning a yearslong court battle against ISPs that tried to invalidate the state law. But states may now be dissuaded by the Trump administration's stance against price mandates being applied to the grant program.

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The White House said yesterday that the European Union agreed to scrap a controversial proposal to make online platforms pay for telecom companies' broadband network upgrades and expansions. But European officials have not confirmed the White House claim, and a European Commission spokesperson said the issue must go through the legislative process.

A White House fact sheet on President Trump's trade deal with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen contains a brief reference to Europe agreeing not to impose network usage fees.

"The United States and the European Union intend to address unjustified digital trade barriers," the White House said. "In that respect, the European Union confirms that it will not adopt or maintain network usage fees. Furthermore, the United States and the European Union will maintain zero customs duties on electronic transmissions."

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A federal judge ruled yesterday that President Trump violated US law when he fired Democrat Rebecca Kelly Slaughter from her position at the Federal Trade Commission.

"Because the law on the removal of FTC Commissioners is clear, and for the reasons explained below, the court will grant Ms. Slaughter's motion for summary judgment and deny Defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment," said the memorandum opinion from Judge Loren AliKhan in US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Trump is appealing the ruling to the DC Circuit court of appeals and yesterday asked the District Court to stay its order while the appeal is pending. The case could end up at the Supreme Court, with the Trump administration seeking to overturn a 1935 precedent that AliKhan cited while ruling in Slaughter's favor.

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The US Senate voted to rescind two years' worth of funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), delivering a blow to public radio and television stations around the country. The CPB is a publicly funded nonprofit corporation that supports NPR and PBS stations.

The 51-48 vote today on President Trump's rescissions package would eliminate $1.1 billion that was allocated to public broadcasting for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. All 51 yes votes came from Republicans, while Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted against. The $1.1 billion includes $60 million for "costs associated with replacing and upgrading the public broadcasting interconnection system" and other back-end infrastructure for public media.

"Without federal funding, many local public radio and television stations will be forced to shut down. Parents will have fewer high quality learning resources available for their children," CPB CEO Patricia Harrison said. "Millions of Americans will have less trustworthy information about their communities, states, country, and world with which to make decisions about the quality of their lives. Cutting federal funding could also put Americans at risk of losing national and local emergency alerts that serve as a lifeline to many Americans in times of severe need."

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A week after Grok's antisemitic outburst, which included praise of Hitler and a post calling itself "MechaHitler," Elon Musk's xAI has landed a US military contract worth up to $200 million. xAI announced a "Grok for Government" service after getting the contract with the US Department of Defense.

The military's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) yesterday said that "awards to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI—each with a $200M ceiling—will enable the Department to leverage the technology and talent of US frontier AI companies to develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas." While government grants typically take many months to be finalized, Grok's antisemitic posts didn't cause the Trump administration to change course before announcing the awards.

The US announcement didn't include much detail but said the four grants "to leading US frontier AI companies [will] accelerate Department of Defense (DoD) adoption of advanced AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges." The CDAO has been talking about grants for what it calls frontier AI since at least December 2024, when it said it would establish "partnerships with Frontier AI companies" and had identified "a need to accelerate Generative AI adoption across the DoD enterprise from analysts to warfighters to financial managers."

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Reddit announced today that it has started verifying UK users' ages before letting them "view certain mature content" in order to comply with the country's Online Safety Act.

Reddit said that users "shouldn't need to share personal information to participate in meaningful discussions," but that it will comply with the law by verifying age in a way that protects users' privacy. "Using Reddit has never required disclosing your real world identity, and these updates don't change that," Reddit said.

Reddit said it contracted with the company Persona, which "performs the verification on either an uploaded selfie or a photo of your government ID. Reddit will not have access to the uploaded photo, and Reddit will only store your verification status along with the birthdate you provided so you won't have to re-enter it each time you try to access restricted content."

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The Department of Justice Antitrust Division issued an unusual statement yesterday about its decision to let T-Mobile complete an acquisition of US Cellular's wireless operations.

Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, a Trump nominee who was confirmed by the Senate in March, said in a 900-word statement that the deal and two related transactions "will consolidate yet more spectrum in the Big 3's oligopoly, which controls more than 80 percent of the mobile wireless spectrum in the country." She said the top three carriers—T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon—control more than 90 percent of the mobile subscriptions in the United States.

Despite that, the DOJ said it closed its investigation into the merger and will not ask a court for an injunction to prevent T-Mobile from buying US Cellular assets. US Cellular is being carved up among the three major wireless firms, as the regional carrier is selling spectrum licenses in separate deals with Verizon and AT&T for about $1 billion each. T-Mobile is paying $4.4 billion for about 30 percent of US Cellular's spectrum assets and its wireless operations.

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With Verizon seeking permission to lock phones to its network for six months or longer instead of the current 60 days, a coalition of advocacy groups yesterday urged the Federal Communications Commission to reject the cellular carrier's petition.

"Phone locking distorts market competition, raises switching costs, and contributes to unnecessary e-waste," the groups said in a filing. "It impedes consumers' ability to take full advantage of the devices they already own, forces them to purchase new phones unnecessarily, and reduces their freedom to choose more affordable or higher-quality service options. It undermines price discipline among carriers, makes it harder for smaller and prepaid-focused providers to compete, and reduces the availability of high-quality used devices on the secondary market."

The FCC filing was submitted by Public Knowledge, the Benton Foundation, the Canadian Repair Coalition, Consumer Reports, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, iFixit, the Fulu Foundation, the Open Technology Institute at New America, law professor Aaron Perzanowski, Repair.org, and the Software Freedom Conservancy.

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CBS owner Paramount has reached a $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over his claim that 60 Minutes deceptively manipulated a pre-election interview with Kamala Harris. Trump's lawsuit has been widely described as frivolous, but Paramount seemed motivated to settle because its pending $8.4 billion merger with Skydance needed regulatory approval from the Trump administration.

In a statement provided to Ars today, Paramount said it "has reached an agreement in principle to resolve the lawsuit filed by President Trump and Representative [Ronny] Jackson in the Northern District of Texas and a threatened defamation action concerning a separate 60 Minutes report."

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called for a bribery investigation into Paramount. "With Paramount folding to Donald Trump at the same time the company needs his administration's approval for its billion-dollar merger, this could be bribery in plain sight," she said in a statement today. "Paramount has refused to provide answers to a congressional inquiry, so I'm calling for a full investigation into whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken."

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The Supreme Court today reversed a ruling that threatened the future of the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund. In a 6–3 opinion, the high court said the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit erred when it found that Universal Service fees on phone bills are an illegal tax.

Universal Service is an $8 billion-a-year system that is used to expand telecom networks and make access more affordable through programs such as Lifeline discounts and deployment grants for Internet service providers. The program was challenged in multiple circuits by Consumers' Research, a nonprofit that fights "woke corporations," and a mobile virtual network operator called Cause Based Commerce.

The 5th Circuit ruling focused on Congress delegating its taxing power to the FCC and the FCC then subdelegating that taxing power to the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), a private organization that administers the fund. In a 9–7 en banc ruling, the 5th Circuit found that "the combination of Congress's sweeping delegation to FCC and FCC's unauthorized subdelegation to USAC violates the Legislative Vesting Clause in Article I, § 1."

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The Supreme Court today upheld a Texas law that requires age verification on porn sites, finding that the state's age-gating law doesn't violate the First Amendment.

The 6–3 decision delivered by Justice Clarence Thomas rejected an appeal by the Free Speech Coalition, an adult-industry lobby group. Pornhub disabled its website in Texas last year because of the state law.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority decided that the law should be reviewed under the standard of intermediate scrutiny "because it only incidentally burdens the protected speech of adults." The law "survives intermediate scrutiny because it 'advances important governmental interests unrelated to the suppression of free speech and does not burden substantially more speech than necessary to further those interests,'" the court said.

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With Comcast trying to figure out how to stop losing broadband customers, the cable firm yesterday announced new plans that are available nationwide and do not have data caps.

Comcast said it is offering "four simple national Internet tiers that include unlimited data and the advanced Xfinity WiFi Gateway for one low monthly price." Customers whose current plans have data caps won't automatically get unlimited data and would have to switch to a new plan to remove that annoying limit from their accounts.

"Customers can repackage into one of our new plans that include unlimited data if they don't have it already with their existing plan," a Comcast spokesperson told Ars today.

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Media Matters for America sued the Federal Trade Commission yesterday, alleging that the FTC's ongoing investigation into the group "has violated Media Matters' First Amendment rights by retaliating against the organization for its reporting on Elon Musk and X."

"The investigation is the latest effort by Elon Musk and his allies in the Trump administration to retaliate against Media Matters for its reporting on X, the social media site Musk controls, and it's another example of the Trump administration weaponizing government authorities to target political opponents," Media Matters said in a press release. The group said it has suffered financially because of "the cascade of litigation launched by Musk and his allies."

The FTC's investigative demand "makes no secret of its connection to Musk's vindictive lawsuits," and "probes Media Matters' finances, editorial process, newsgathering activities, and affiliations with likeminded entities that monitor extremist content and other third parties," Media Matters said in the lawsuit filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia.

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A Republican proposal to penalize states that regulate artificial intelligence can move forward without requiring approval from 60 senators, the Senate parliamentarian decided on Saturday. But the moratorium on state AI laws did not have unanimous Republican support and has reportedly been watered down in an effort to push it toward passage.

In early June, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) proposed enforcing a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation by making states ineligible for broadband funding if they try to impose any limits on development of artificial intelligence. While the House previously approved a version of the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" with an outright 10-year ban on state AI regulation, Cruz took a different approach because of the Senate rule that limits inclusion of "extraneous matter" in budget reconciliation legislation.

Under the Senate's Byrd rule, a senator can object to a potentially extraneous budget provision. A motion to waive the Byrd rule requires a vote of 60 percent of the Senate.

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The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly pitching a merger condition that would forbid advertising agencies from boycotting platforms based on political content, in a move that could benefit Elon Musk's X social network and President Trump's own Truth Social platform.

As the FTC reviews a proposed merger between Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group, two large ad agencies, The New York Times reported yesterday that a "proposed consent decree would prevent the merged company from boycotting platforms because of their political content by refusing to place their clients' advertisements on them, according to two people briefed on the matter."

This is one of several moves the FTC has reportedly made to discourage ad boycotts that have riled conservatives. The FTC currently has only Republican commissioners because President Trump fired both Democrats, who allege in a lawsuit that the firings were illegal. Trump also declared sweeping executive power over the FTC and other agencies that were created to operate independently from the White House.

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The Trump administration has upended plans that state governments made to distribute $42 billion in federal broadband funding, forcing state officials to scrap much of the preparation work they did over the previous couple of years.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick essentially put the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program on hold earlier this year and last week announced details of a rules overhaul that requires states to change how they distribute money to Internet service providers. To find out how this affects states, we spoke with Andrew Butcher, president of the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA).

"We had been in position to be making awards this month, but for [the Trump administration's] deliberations and program changes, so it's pretty unfortunate," Butcher told Ars. Established by a 2021 state law, the MCA is a quasi-governmental agency that oversees Maine's BEAD planning and other programs that increase broadband access.

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Ajit Pai is back on the telecom policy scene as chief lobbyist for the mobile industry, and he has quickly managed to anger a coalition that includes both cable companies and consumer advocates.

Pai was the Federal Communications Commission chairman during President Trump's first term and then spent several years at private equity firm Searchlight Capital. He changed jobs in April, becoming the president and CEO of wireless industry lobby group CTIA. Shortly after, he visited the White House to discuss wireless industry priorities and had a meeting with Brendan Carr, the current FCC chairman who was part of Pai's Republican majority at the FCC from 2017 to 2021.

Pai's new job isn't surprising. He was once a lawyer for Verizon, and it's not uncommon for FCC chairs and commissioners to be lobbyists before or after terms in government.

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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wants to enforce a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation by making states ineligible for broadband funding if they try to impose any limits on development of artificial intelligence.

The House previously approved a budget bill that contained a fairly straightforward provision to ban state AI regulation for 10 years. Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, yesterday released budget reconciliation text that takes a different approach to preventing states from regulating AI.

Cruz's approach may be an attempt to get around the Senate's Byrd Rule, which limits the inclusion of "extraneous matter" in budget reconciliation legislation. He wants to make it impossible for states to receive money from the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program if they try to regulate AI. Cruz released a summary that says his bill "forbids states collecting BEAD money from strangling AI deployment with EU-style regulation."

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