Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., will release a discussion draft Friday for updating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (see 2010050061), he said at a hearing Tuesday. It will have “revolutionary” concepts for preventing online piracy and protecting individual users, he said.
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
Republican senators are watching closely to see how the FTC and state enforcers apply antitrust standards to digital platforms in lawsuits against Facebook (see 2012090062). Some senators offered skepticism, in interviews about a potential Facebook breakup and the forced sale of WhatsApp and Instagram, as requested by the FTC. The agency is in a far different position than when it allowed the Instagram and WhatsApp deals, legal experts told us, while drawing comparisons to the Microsoft case in the 1990s.
Congress should provide relief for the live entertainment industry in its next aid package, Patriot Management President Ron Laffitte told the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee during a hearing Tuesday. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., described how COVID-19 is affecting the live entertainment industry, citing an inability to work and venues struggling to stay in business. The concern is frontline workers in the industry, said Wicker. Relief should focus on employees and contractors, said Laffitte, with grants and loans for payroll. Congress should extend retention tax credits, he said, so workers keep their jobs and employee-sponsored healthcare.
Communications Decency Act Section 230 needs to be updated, and one gap is the lack of transparency about content moderation decisions and algorithms, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday. Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told us he wants to treat the addictive nature of social media apps, particularly with young people, as a public health issue, likening Big Tech to Big Tobacco.
Zoom deceived users about encryption services, circumvented browser security features and exposed consumers to third-party surveillance, the FTC alleged Monday in a nonmonetary settlement with the company. The commission voted 3-2 with Democrats Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter dissenting.
If Democrat Joe Biden wins the presidency, he could potentially expand DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Google, former antitrust enforcers and experts said in interviews. If President Donald Trump is reelected, they expect DOJ to avoid settlement talks and prosecute the case vigorously.
It’s questionable whether a consumer could sue over unlawful surveillance if the federal government is always able to claim classified information protections, said 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Margaret McKeown Monday during oral argument in Jewel v. NSA (see 2004170052).
The Supreme Court didn’t offer a clear picture at oral argument for how it might rule in Oracle’s lawsuit against Google (see 2010070065), but remarks from justices were telling, observers told us. Potential outcomes include the high court remanding the case or a 4-4 split, which would be a victory for Oracle, they said. Stakeholders disagreed about what the justices’ comments meant for each side.
It’s encouraging that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg endorsed the concept of “more specific rules” in Communications Decency Act Section 230, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us after Wednesday’s hearing. “We may be getting somewhere,” he said, though he noted it wasn’t an endorsement of the Republican bill pushing the concept (see 2009220064).
Congress shouldn’t let local news “die” because Big Tech companies unfairly leverage the ad market, Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Tuesday, releasing a report showing newspaper revenue declining about 70% by the end of 2020 vs. two decades ago. The report said broadcasters lost more than 40% of ad revenue 2000-2018, and since 2005, papers lost about 60% of their overall workforce. “The biggest online platforms unfairly use content, take local news consumer data and divert customers away from local news websites, while providing little in return,” she said. NAB, Public Knowledge and the News Media Alliance welcomed the report. NAB supports “findings that the competitive power of a handful of digital platforms has dominated the marketplace for advertising and audiences,” said CEO Gordon Smith. “Targeted federal funding and new regulatory tools can help transition local journalism to succeed in the digital marketplace,” said PK Senior Policy Fellow Lisa Macpherson. Google and Facebook “effectively regulate news publishers by determining how (and whether) journalism is distributed and monetized,” said News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern. The "accusation" that Facebook scrapes news articles is "simply not true," a company spokesperson emailed: "We give news organizations the ability to post news on Facebook free of charge, and they have full control over how that content is accessed and monetized." The platform cited $400 million in contributions to "programs and partnerships with a focus on local news." News publishers are facing “enormous” challenges, but the report is a misrepresentation, a Google spokesperson emailed: “We provide value to the news industry by sending people to news sites 24 billion times a month, help publishers make money with our advertising products and provide support via the Google News Initiative.” The company cited a $1 billion investment in partnerships with news publishers for Google News Showcase.