Twitter is considering releasing historical data to increase transparency about account takedown and suspension decisions, CEO Jack Dorsey told the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday. Dorsey, at a hearing with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, said the platform might expand its transparency report to include archived suspension data. Transparency is key to calming concerns, 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
It’s ironic Donald Trump attacked Google and online platforms last week over alleged conservative bias (see 1808280055) because he owes his 2016 victory to social media amplifying campaign messages, CTA Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Michael Petricone told us Friday. A media group executive, various scholars and a tech expert agreed the president’s complaint wasn't credible.
More than half the Senate supports the Music Modernization Act, with five lawmakers signing onto the legislation last week, bringing sponsorship to 51. An aide for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the bill's author, told us his office is continuing to push for floor action. Hatch is hopeful for passage this year, given the last-minute compromise on an initially controversial amendment from Texas Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn (see 1808030044).
An industry-led cyber advisory board expects to deliver a final report to President Donald Trump in mid-November establishing cybersecurity as a “national strategic imperative,” officials said Wednesday. The National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee is finalizing its Cybersecurity Moonshot study, members said during a conference call.
The Department of Homeland Security’s new National Risk Management Center (see 1808070032) will test the willingness of industry and the federal government to collaborate on cybersecurity defense, experts said this week. The U.S. government is hesitant to share classified information with national security implications, and the private sector is reticent for fear of reputational damage or increased scrutiny from regulators, they said.
Widespread removal of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from social media was a flash point for companies feeling pressure to police platforms judiciously, but it could fuel arguments that Silicon Valley is biased against conservatives (see 1807170043), said industry observers, warning the GOP against siding with extremists.
The Trump administration’s failure to appoint a permanent EU-U.S. Privacy Shield ombudsman and stagnation of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) will be points of contention when officials from both sides of the Atlantic meet in October, experts told us. Also expect the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica privacy breach (see 1804100054 and 1804110065) to be a major topic, said Access Now Policy Counsel Drew Mitnick. EU officials want details on how the FTC, U.S. enforcer of the Privacy Shield, is handling its investigation into potential Facebook violations of a 2011 consent decree, so they can better gauge the strength of the agency’s authority.
Executives from the Center for Democracy and Technology and BSA|The Software Alliance agreed this week the U.S. needs federal privacy regulation. They said the ultimate goal should be international harmonization of privacy rules. Europe took an important step implementing the general data protection regulation, and now partners need to work toward international consensus on privacy, said BSA CEO Victoria Espinel on a scheduled weekend telecast of C-SPAN’s The Communicators.
The deal between songwriters and a performing rights organization (see 1808020053) could be the last major hurdle for passage of landmark music copyright legislation, industry representatives told us Friday. “We need to turn down the noise and try to get a bill passed right now,” said Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) Executive Director Bart Herbison Friday. A day earlier, he announced a deal with the Songwriters of North America (SONA), SESAC and the National Music Publishers’ Association for the Music Modernization Act.
Developing an internationally applicable online privacy framework is a major hurdle, given fundamental differences among the U.S., the EU and adversaries like China and Russia, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told us Tuesday. Industry representatives and a conservative scholar described during a Senate Internet Subcommittee hearing anti-business impacts of EU’s general data protection regulation.