Privacy Issues Test GOP Regulatory Reluctance, as Kennedy, Klobuchar Push Bill
Republicans aren't ready to “pull the trigger” on social media privacy legislation, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told us. But Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., believes GOP lawmakers will support a bipartisan bill he recently floated with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. (see 1804240046), the Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act (S-2728). “I’m not ready to turn Facebook into a regulated utility or even agree to any regulation at this point, but I do think there’s a lot of concern,” Cornyn said. “We’re going to have to sort it out, but it’s not just Facebook.” All platforms mining for data with monetary incentives deserve attention, he said.
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Kennedy told us he would prefer not to regulate online platforms, but the industry might need to be forced to address growing privacy and propaganda concerns: “We can do it the easy way or the hard way.” Kennedy was “encouraged” by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to publicly expand internal guidelines for filtering content (see 1804240047) to include an appeals process for individual posts, not just groups, pages and profiles. He also was impressed with Zuckerberg’s intelligence and poise when testifying following the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach (see 1804100054 and 1804110065). However, the senator said that the CEO is "very fluent in B.S. Talks cheap -- it’s important -- but it’s cheap compared to action, and we’ll see what he does. … He knows how to address the privacy problem and the propaganda problem better than we do because he knows his company best.”
TechNet Vice President-Federal Policy, Government Relations and Communications Alex Burgos, a former aide to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Republicans historically oppose private sector intervention, but said there has been recent willingness to regulate the tech sector. The recently passed anti-sex trafficking legislation, led by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, is one example (see 1803300033). Portman’s legislation amended Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, to hold websites liable for failing to filter illicit sex-trafficking-related content (see 1803210064).
Tech companies worry about a slippery slope and further chipping away at Section 230. While questioning Zuckerberg, Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., expressed interest in amending Section 230 to ensure political neutrality on platforms, which has been a hotly contested topic on Capitol Hill (see 1804260055). “Lawmakers’ patience is not infinite when it comes to seeing companies take concrete steps in this area,” Burgos said. “What can actually generate enough bipartisan consensus, momentum, in order to move forward?”
Electronic Frontier Foundation wants online platforms to be subject to an opt-in data consent regime, requiring companies to ask upfront for permission to collect and distribute data, said Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon. An opt-out clause, which the Klobuchar-Kennedy bill includes, is less transparent and puts a bigger onus on users, Falcon said. He acknowledged the industry’s lack of appetite for opt-in requirements: “They would rather have the exchange happen and hope that other people either through laziness or inability to navigate a user interface stay within the system. That’s how they capture the most [data], despite the preferences of the customer base," Falcon said. He called the Klobuchar-Kennedy bill a “starting point.”
TechNet, which includes Amazon, Facebook and Google, hasn't taken a stance on specific opt-in or opt-out clauses, Burgos said, and the association is exploring the Klobuchar-Kennedy bill. “Generally speaking, people’s trust is at the core of what many tech companies do, and that trust needs to be earned and maintained, and our companies are committed to earning it,” Burgos said.