Reject NTIA’s petition for a rulemaking on Communications Decency Act Section 230, tech, telecom and consumers groups told the FCC in comments posted Wednesday before the midnight deadline in RM-11862 (see 2008120050). The petition has no legal basis, the agency doesn’t have jurisdiction, and President Donald Trump is attempting to use the commission for political gain, they said. AT&T called for uniform liability protections.
Section 230
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NTIA’s petition for an FCC rulemaking on Communications Decency Act Section 230 “lacks a legitimate legal basis” and would “cause serious harm to company moderation efforts,” Internet Association Deputy General Counsel Elizabeth Banker told reporters Tuesday (see 2008120050). Content moderation protects consumers, and reasonable people want platforms to take action like “removing promotion of suicide, plans for bombs and other dangerous materials, or 419 scams,” she said. The FCC lacks “authority to implement this rule under both First Amendment case law and administrative law precedent,” she added. Comments on the petition are due Wednesday.
Communications Decency Act Section 230 should be modified to even the playing field between tech companies and other third-party content providers, AT&T blogged Monday. The company will comment to the FCC Wednesday (see 2008120050), arguing “online platforms should be more accountable for, and more transparent about, the decisions they control,” wrote Executive Vice President-Regulatory and State External Affairs Joan Marsh. Congress didn’t have any way of predicting tech companies would use Section 230 as a shield from frivolous lawsuits and “every day responsibilities,” she wrote: Platform content decisions are “shrouded in obscurity, away from public view, in a world where black-box algorithms and non-negotiable terms pick winners and losers.”
Commissioner Mike O’Rielly's departure from the FCC, likely in January, could cause delays in FCC action on rules on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act if President Donald Trump is re-elected in November. Unless another Republican is approved by January, the FCC would be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Even if Chairman Ajit Pai were determined to move an NPRM he wouldn’t have the votes to do so, given the almost certain opposition of Democrats, industry officials said.
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The FCC might not be as aggressive on pirate radio enforcement and curbing cable local franchise authorities (LFAs) after Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's expected departure from his seat Jan. 3 at the latest, experts and insiders told us. Some wonder if O'Rielly will be a quieter presence on the commission in his remaining weeks; he issued no statements at its August meeting though he did for the C-band auction rules approved on circulation (see 2008060069). O'Rielly's office and the FCC didn't comment.
The FCC lacks authority to act on NTIA’s petition for a rulemaking on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 2008030025), Vimeo said in comments to the agency in RM-11862. The FCC received 177 comments by Wednesday afternoon, almost all from individuals. The Computer & Communications Industry Association, NetChoice and Engine told us they plan to comment in opposition to NTIA’s petition.
R Street Institute Resident Fellow-Technology and Innovation Jeffrey Westling clarified that he doesn’t agree with a past position of a client of NTIA acting Administrator Adam Candeub on Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2008100046).
Adam Candeub will become acting NTIA administrator, the agency announced internally Monday. Candeub joined the agency as deputy assistant secretary of commerce in April (see 2005010060). Leadership has been fluid since David Redl left in May 2019. Doug Kinkoph had most recently been acting head and now returns to run the Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications. Having someone take charge at NTIA is “sorely needed,” said R Street Institute Resident Fellow-Technology and Innovation Jeffrey Westling. He noted Candeub’s strong background with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, though the agency hasn’t dealt extensively with the tech liability shield. Candeub previously sought a Section 230 update, suggesting Big Tech should follow the same rules as other regulated industries. NTIA’s role in President Donald Trump’s social media executive order is largely complete (see 2007280053), as it filed its petition for rulemaking with the FCC, Westling said. Candeub is on a leave of absence from Michigan State University, where he's a professor of law and director of the Intellectual Property, Information and Communications Law Program.