Weakening Silicon Valley’s content liability protections potentially discourages platform moderation and emboldens extremists on unfiltered websites like 8chan, said progressive and libertarian tech observers Monday. Public Knowledge CEO Chris Lewis and TechFreedom President Berin Szoka warned government against intervening in speech moderation, discussing 8chan's role in the weekend’s mass shootings.
Karl Herchenroeder
Karl Herchenroeder, Associate Editor, is a technology policy journalist for publications including Communications Daily. Born in Rockville, Maryland, he joined the Warren Communications News staff in 2018. He began his journalism career in 2012 at the Aspen Times in Aspen, Colorado, where he covered city government. After that, he covered the nuclear industry for ExchangeMonitor in Washington. You can follow Herchenroeder on Twitter: @karlherk
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., told reporters Thursday she hopes DOJ's serious about its broad review of the tech industry. Antitrust enforcers, however, shouldn’t break up big tech platforms unless investigations support it, she said. The ranking member of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee and its Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, were recently briefed by DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim (see 1907250049), the same day DOJ announced its industry review.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., hopes to deliver draft privacy bill text by Labor Day, but he and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., remain divided over including a private right of action (see 1907090049). Wicker acknowledged to reporters that Cantwell wants it included, but he told us it’s a “nonstarter.” A private right of action, which is included in the California Consumer Privacy Act for certain data violations, allows consumers individually to sue violators.
Blockchain technology could potentially enhance data privacy using digital identities, digital currency company Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told the Senate Banking Committee during a hearing Tuesday. But skeptical University of California-Irvine law professor Mehrsa Baradaran said policymakers should rely on the Federal Reserve to offer digital currency options, rather than allowing industry to become a dominant money-making authority.
The Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee will form a bipartisan, bicameral working group to aid the Copyright Office’s modernization effort and introduce related legislation before year-end, Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Tuesday. Ranking member Chris Coons, D-Del., and Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, are interested in joining, Tillis told us. House members will be invited.
The FTC's antitrust probe of Facebook is “a significant step,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told us last week. Ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., lauded the probe, questioning whether Facebook is willing to make changes. For months, lawmakers from both parties have asked whether Silicon Valley competition needs greater scrutiny. Concrete action came last week with DOJ announcing a broad review of the tech industry and the FTC confirming its Facebook investigation (see 1907250049).
A bipartisan group of eight attorneys general including from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida met with Attorney General William Barr Thursday about tech industry competition, aides confirmed. The coalition discussed “real concerns consumers across the country have with big tech companies stifling competition on the internet,” it said in a joint statement: “It was a productive meeting, and we’re considering a range of possible anti-trust actions against such companies.” Aides didn’t say which other states participated. California AG Xavier Becerra didn’t attend, an aide said. DOJ and offices for other state AGs didn’t comment.
DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim met with Senate Antitrust Subcommittee leadership, aides told us Thursday. Delrahim originally was to testify before the panel with FTC Chairman Joe Simons on Tuesday, the same day DOJ announced a broad review of the tech industry (see 1907230057). The oversight hearing was postponed until September (see 1907220047).
Facebook will pay $5 billion and install an independent privacy committee to oversee data compliance, the FTC announced Wednesday in its long-awaited settlement. The company deceived users about control they have over their data, effectively violating a 2012 consent order, the agency alleged in its complaint. Separately, the SEC fined Facebook $100 million.
Equifax will pay between $575 million and $700 million to settle claims for its 2017 data breach (see 1803010033), the FTC announced Monday in a joint settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and 50 states and territories. Equifax failed to secure massive amounts of personal data with basic safeguards, the FTC alleged in its complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Data included names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and physical addresses, exposing some 147 million consumers to identity theft and fraud risks, the agency said.