The FTC should investigate whether Twitter misled users about its security risks and violated a 2011 consent decree with the commission (see 2205260054), Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., wrote in separate letters Tuesday. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also sounded the alarm on reports about how Twitter, according to Markey, “systematically and repeatedly failed to take basic security measures to protect its user data and has misled investors, regulators, and the public about the strength of its security systems.” Blumenthal cited information from whistleblower Peiter Zatko, a senior cyber executive for the company 2020-22: “These troubling disclosures paint the picture of a company that has consistently and repeatedly prioritized profits over the safety of its users and its responsibility to the public, as Twitter executives appeared to ignore or hinder efforts to address threats to user security and privacy.” Zatko was fired in January for “ineffective leadership and poor performance,” a Twitter spokesperson said Tuesday. “What we’ve seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.” His “allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders.” Allegations of “widespread security failures at Twitter, willful misrepresentations by top executives to government agencies, and penetration of the company by foreign intelligence raise serious concerns,” said Durbin. Durbin said he will continue investigating and take further steps as needed. The company entered into its 2011 consent decree with the FTC and DOJ. The FTC confirmed receiving the letters but didn’t comment.

A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers released a “revised and expanded” version of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (see 2208050056) Monday. Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., released the text with co-sponsors: Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.; House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I.; House Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Ken Buck, R-Colo.; Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. The bill will help local news publishers better negotiate with Big Tech platforms “that regularly access news content without paying for its value,” Klobuchar’s office said. The News Media Alliance welcomed the latest version of the bill, calling it a “critical bill” for local news.

It’s “incredibly disturbing” TikTok and its third-party content moderator have reportedly used child sex abuse material when training employees, Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., wrote TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Teleperformance CEO Daniel Julien Thursday. Citing reporting from Forbes, the senators demanded answers about the companies reportedly using sexually explicit material involving minors in its training materials. Blumenthal and Blackburn have teamed together on child-safety issues and legislation that recently passed the Senate Commerce Committee (see 2207270057). “By using these explicit images and videos as training materials, not only has Teleperformance subjected content moderators to the most repugnant subject matter imaginable, but it has actively promoted what it ostensibly sought to remove from TikTok,” they wrote. The companies didn’t comment.

House Democrats demanded information Tuesday about law enforcement agencies buying data through data brokers and potentially circumventing statutory requirements. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wrote to heads of DOJ, the Homeland Security Department, FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The House Judiciary Committee had a hearing on digital dragnets in July (see 2207190058), where there was bipartisan interest in government data collection practices. “These data sets -- collected, packaged, and sold by private companies -- have far-ranging uses from benign microtargeting, to invasive digital profiles, to real-time location tracking,” Nadler’s office wrote. The committees want full details about the “agency practice of purchasing commercial data to sidestep legal protections against unreasonable search and seizure.”

President Joe Biden plans to sign the Inflation Reduction Act budget reconciliation package (HR-5376) Tuesday, the White House said Monday. The bill, which the House passed Friday 220-207, includes a carve-out in the 15% minimum corporate tax language that allows companies to deduct from "taxable income” the value of spectrum licenses bought after Dec. 31, 2007, “and before the date” of the measure's enactment. The Senate passed it Aug. 7 (see 2208080062). The Wireless Infrastructure Association "applauds Congress for prioritizing America’s 5G leadership" via HR-5376 "by continuing tax policies that have stimulated billions of dollars of investment in America’s wireless networks," said President Patrick Halley. "Companies that acquire spectrum licenses do so at a high cost. By avoiding what would have amounted to a 15% tax on wireless broadband deployment, Congress is ensuring that more capital will remain available for investment in next generation wireless infrastructure.”

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, backed the FTC’s exploration of a privacy rulemaking (see 2208110068). He spoke Friday in support of the FTC posing questions about “physical, mental and reputational harms” caused by social media data practices. Schatz, one of the Senate Commerce Committee’s original negotiators on recent privacy legislation, welcomed the FTC “scrutinizing discrimination in the algorithms that Americans interact with every day and that pose significant risks when used negligently or maliciously.”

The House was expected to vote Friday night on the Inflation Reduction Act budget reconciliation package (HR-5376). The bill includes language that under a proposed 15% minimum corporate tax allows companies to deduct from "taxable income” the value of spectrum licenses bought after Dec. 31, 2007, “and before the date” of the measure's enactment. The House voted 219-208 to proceed to debate on HR-5376. The Senate passed it Aug. 7 (see 2208080062).

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Public Works Committee ranking member Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., filed the Grant to Rapidly Invest and Deploy (Grid) Broadband Act Wednesday in a bid to incentivize building a nationwide middle-mile broadband backbone along the existing U.S. electricity grid. The measure would direct NTIA to issue competitive cost-shared federal grants to encourage broadband buildout on the electric grid. It would require grant recipients to use the funding to improve cybersecurity and smart grid technology on their electrical grid infrastructure, and increase middle-mile capacity. "It’s a triple win solution for consumers because it leverages existing rights-of-way and private sector ingenuity and investment to deliver cleaner electricity, stronger cybersecurity, and more accessible broadband services," Cantwell said in a statement. Her office cited support from the Edison Electric Institute, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Public Knowledge, Utilities Technology Council, Washington Public Utility Districts Association and Wireless ISP Association.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., ranking member Sam Graves, R-Mo., Highways Subcommittee Chair Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and ranking member Rodney Davis, R-Ill., urged the FCC Monday to issue waivers requested by proponents of cellular-vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band asking to be able to deploy as fast as possible (see 2112140070). "We are writing to express our support for transportation stakeholders to have authority to operate" C-V2X technology in the 5.9 GHz band, the House Transportation leaders said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. "An increasing number of public and private transportation stakeholders are seeking waivers to operate this technology, and we ask that you act expeditiously to grant their requests. Investment in and deployment of C-V2X within the 5.9 GHz band is critical to improving transportation safety and will clearly advance the public interest." A recent spike in deaths from motor vehicle crashes means "it is imperative that regulators use every tool at their disposal to reduce the growing death toll on our roadways," the lawmakers said. "C-V2X technology has the potential to save lives -- but only if regulators allow it to do so."

The Senate passed a revised version of the Inflation Reduction Act reconciliation package as a substitute amendment to the earlier scuttled Build Back Better Act (HR-5376) with language that allows companies to deduct the value of “qualified wireless spectrum … in computing taxable income” under a proposed 15% minimum corporate tax. A qualified frequency holding would be exempt if it’s used “in the trade or business of a wireless telecommunications carrier” and the carrier acquired the spectrum license after Dec. 31, 2007, “and before the date” of HR-5376’s enactment. The Senate voted 50-50 Sunday along party lines on the measure, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaker in its favor. HR-5376 now heads back to the House, which is expected to take it up Friday. The HR-5376 “technical fix” means the wireless industry “will be able to keep the favorable tax treatment it enjoyed when it obtained the bulk of its current spectrum holdings,” New Street’s Blair Levin said in an email to investors. “Spectrum acquired prior to 2007 has already been fully amortized” for tax purposes and frequencies “acquired after the law's enactment will be acquired with the understanding of the new tax treatment.” The U.S. “wireless industry applauds this important technical fix which preserves the industry’s ability to maintain America’s 5G leadership and help close the digital divide,” CTIA President Meredith Baker said in a statement before HR-5376 passed. Baker and several Senate Commerce Committee Republicans raised concerns last week that an earlier version of the corporate tax language would include spectrum assets and could hurt U.S. wireless carriers (see 2208020076). The corporate tax “remains bad policy, but at least one unintended consequence averted” because of the spectrum carve-out, tweeted American Enterprise Institute Nonresident Senior Fellow Daniel Lyons.