AAJC letter in response to the FCC notice of proposed rulemaking on digital discrimination

There are very few digital divide studies that include AAPIs in their analysis, and the few that do fail to address the needs and challenges that lower income and non-English speaking groups face, excluding them from the data altogether. Surveys that are conducted only in English and online and that aggregate data of over 20 different ethnicities provide a heavily skewed and misrepresentative perspective on broadband access in our communities. Many Limited English Proficiency (LEP) individuals are some of the most vulnerable in our community, who rely on services like broadband to complete essential taste. By design, studies and statistics that exclude these communities assume the AAPI community is a monolith, erase the most critical needs, and perpetuate structural inequalities. This is an important demographic category that must be accounted for.