This week’s episode: America’s ring of fire

The massive failure to close the digital divide

This week marks the first day of classes for many colleges. But as schools go all online, millions of families in the United States without access to high-speed internet are being left out.

Reporter Will Carless recently highlighted the problem of unequal access in a piece for Reveal. We asked him some questions about what he found.

Can you explain what the term “digital divide” means and what it looks like in reality? 

The digital divide basically means the gap between people who have a good, stable broadband internet connection and the people who don’t, either because they can't afford it or because there simply isn’t the infrastructure to provide a high-speed internet connection to their home.

What do people typically misunderstand about the digital divide? 

People think of the digital divide as being about infrastructure – basically like rural areas where infrastructure hasn't been built yet. The statistics are very hazy, but it’s estimated that most people who haven't connected to broadband don’t because it's too expensive, they can't afford it. In some places, there's only one or maybe two or three companies competing, and it's not resulting in the prices going down. So you have people paying, in some cases, hundreds of dollars a month for their internet. 

How many people in the United States don’t have a high-speed internet connection? 

That depends on who you ask. The official Federal Communications Commission figures are something in the region of 21 million households that don't have a stable broadband connection, but Microsoft did a study where they calculated it to be, like, 160 million people. So one of the big problems with this issue is that the numbers are so all over the place. 

So based on your reporting, what do you think needs to happen to create more equal internet access in the United States? 

I think it's very clear that 10 years of just giving money to corporations and hoping that they will do the right thing clearly hasn't worked. Other countries have taken different approaches and have far better, more reliable, faster, cheaper internet than we do. Step one is getting decent data. I think the federal government needs to go to these companies and say, “Open up your books and show us where there is internet where there isn't and how much it costs all over the country, so we can do an actual audit of how bad the problem is.” Then I think phase two is an acknowledgement that just hoping companies are going to compete with each other and drive prices down isn't enough. So in one word: regulation. 

You can follow Will on Twitter: @willcarless. Read the story: How the US’ massive failure to close the digital divide got exposed by coronavirus 

By the numbers: Digital divide

• Since 2008, the federal government has given private companies more than $100 billion to expand broadband access. 

• In 2008, the U.S. ranked 15th in the world for broadband access. In 2020, the country ranked 18th. 

• South Korea’s government has invested in public broadband networks – on average, South Koreans pay about half what people in the U.S. pay – and have the fastest internet in the world.  

“This has been a colossal failure. ... We’re spending a lot of money. We’re just not spending it efficiently, and we’re not spending it democratically.” 

– Christopher Ali, University of Virginia media studies associate professor and internet policy researcher
 

Field Notes

Inside one of ICE’S biggest COVID-19 outbreaks

Photographer Joel Angel Juárez snapped this photo of the Otero County Processing Center outside Chaparral, New Mexico, which is part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention network.

A new investigation by reporters Patrick Michels and Laura C. Morel explores how COVID-19 spread in immigration detention centers. According to public health experts, detainees live and sleep in cramped quarters where social distancing is impossible. In New Mexico, ICE repeatedly stonewalled the state health department’s efforts to prevent outbreaks at detention facilities. ICE continued detainee transfers, despite warnings that such movement could spread the virus, and as the health department rolled out a state plan to test every person in detention, ICE officials failed to return the department’s calls – or secure enough of their own test kits. In all, 150 detainees at Otero contracted COVID-19.

Read the investigation: ‘We sent 500 tests. They don’t answer calls’: Inside ICE’s coronavirus testing disaster

Reveal Recommends

Anjali Kamat is a senior reporter at Reveal. Her work focuses on injustice and inequality – particularly around law enforcement, housing, state repression and the global economy.

You can follow her on Twitter: @anjucomet.

Reading: 

“What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance,” an incredible book by the poet and translator Carolyn Forché about her time in El Salvador in the 1970s. It's a stunning meditation on complicity with the brutal crimes of your government and the possibility of solidarity. 

Listening: 

"Sanda Seivom" (We will fight) by Arivu, a Dalit rapper from my home state of Tamil Nadu in India. He released the song in January, inspired by the unprecedented nationwide uprising against discriminatory anti-Muslim citizenship laws pushed by the right-wing Modi government – hard to believe that was this year too, but with COVID-19, the protests have been long shut down. 

Watching: 

I just finished “I May Destroy You,” a searing and brilliant TV show. I'm blown away by how beautifully Michaela Coel portrays the trauma of sexual assault and its long and complex ripple effects across so many parts of one's life and friendships.