Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and ranking member Gary Peters, D-Mich., filed the Ensuring Network Security Act Tuesday to expand eligibility for funding to help U.S. communications providers remove Chinese equipment determined to threaten national security. Congress originally established the program in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998). The Ensuring Network Security Act would make providers who have up to 10 million customers eligible for "rip and replace" funding. HR-4998 originally limited the funding to cover companies with up to 2 million customers (see 2003040056). "In our increasingly connected world, it is imperative that 100% of our communications networks are secure, and this bill will help accomplish that," Johnson said in a news release. FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield and Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry praised the measure, in the Johnson release.
A trio of House Commerce Democratic leaders urged members of Facebook's oversight board Tuesday to exert pressure on the social media company to implement its policy recommendations, amid concerns the panel doesn't have enough power. Board members defended the body in May as politically neutral and free from undue company influence (see 2005180058). "We believe" the board "will be unable to address the damage Facebook is inflicting on society unless Facebook itself amends its content policies or empowers a truly independent Oversight Board to render binding decisions that cannot be overruled by Mark Zuckerberg or his subordinates," said House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky of Illinois in letters to the panel's 20 members. The board "is intended only to apply the content policies Facebook has adopted, and we worry Facebook’s business model disincentivizes the adoption of content policies that would promote a healthy online environment," the lawmakers said. "You have the duty to use your position on the Oversight Board to pressure Facebook to change policies that you believe are not working, and if Facebook refuses to address your concerns, to resign." Facebook didn't comment.
The U.S. needs to pour more resources into research and innovation of emerging technologies to boost commercialization and outpace Chinese technology development, said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. She advocated for a methodical decoupling and reshoring manufacturing of critical technologies. “We have to realize that you can't just decouple from China and say, 'All right, we're severing.’ It is more like an unraveling,” Blackburn told the Hoover Institution Wednesday. “Whether it is critical supply chains for semiconductor chips or telecommunications equipment … we have become too dependent on China for manufacturing, and we need to return that capability and capacity to the United States.” The U.S. isn't investing enough in R&D, she said, and needs to form better partnerships between universities and corporations. Blackburn said “technology is going to be the nexus for so many areas of growth,” and the military needs to better innovate to compete with China’s civil-military fusion surrounding military applications for artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. “Our commercial sectors and our military sectors need to be innovating,” Blackburn said. “Our military complex needs to be utilizing the new concepts that are being pushed forward in the commercial area.” Blackburn said the U.S. can take steps beyond the Commerce Department's recently amending export administration regulations to let U.S. companies more easily participate in bodies in which Huawei is a member. She pointed to S-2528 to require the administration report on the “purpose, scope and means” of expanded Chinese influence on standards bodies. Friday, the White House, China's embassy in Washington and the Semiconductor Industry Association didn't comment.
The Senate unanimously passed legislation Thursday to ban federal employees from using TikTok on U.S. government-issued devices. The No TikTok on Government Devices Act (S-3455) (see 2007220061) was introduced by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rick Scott, R-Fla.
FTC Chairman Joe Simons and DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim testify at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 7, the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee announced Wednesday evening.
Congress should force Amazon to divest its storage and shipping business to ensure the company isn’t abusing its dominance, more than 20 advocacy groups wrote the House Judiciary Committee Thursday. Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, Open Markets Institute and Public Citizen signed the letter to Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., commending the recent hearing with Big Tech CEOs (see 2007290063). The groups suggested lawmakers consider structural separations and bright lines rules in its report to rein in the power of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Amazon and the Internet Association didn’t comment.
Google is under regulatory “scrutiny,” and “we realize, at our scale, that's appropriate,” said CEO Sundar Pichai on a Q2 call Thursday evening. “We've engaged constructively across jurisdictions.” Google “will operate based on the rules,” he said. “The scrutiny is going to be here for a while, and so we are committed to working through it.” Pichai denied in testimony Wednesday his company threatened to delist Yelp (see 2007290063). Consumers’ shift to online during the COVID-19 pandemic is “profound,” said Pichai. “We see people engaging a lot, doing newer things.” Their interests are broadening, he said. Google Meet has been “absolutely critical” during the crisis, he said. “We quickly reengineered it and made it available widely to help millions of other businesses and organizations connect and collaborate.” During the quarter, “we peaked at more than 600 million Meet participants in a single week,” he said.
The U.S. should impose stricter export controls on advanced chip manufacturing equipment to prevent China from getting more of its own semiconductor technologies, experts told the Commerce Department’s Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee meeting. Success of U.S. export controls depends on cooperation with allies, said Carrick Flynn and Saif Khan, research fellows with Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology. “Doing this without full buy-in from all partners is going to be worse than doing nothing at all,” Khan said. “That always has to be an overriding principle." Khan predicts China needs “at least a decade” to develop industry-leading advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Flynn suggested the U.S. take risks to prevent China from becoming the world’s leader in advanced technology development. “We do not want the Chinese government to have access to advanced computer chips,” he said. An artificial intelligence "arms race, or a hypersonic missile arms race, or any other technology arms race is not in the best interest of the United States or global security,” he said. China's Washington embassy didn't comment Thursday.
The Senate Antitrust Subcommittee scheduled a hearing for 2 p.m. Sept. 15 on Google’s potential harm to online ad competition, Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, announced Monday: “Recent consumer complaints and investigations by law enforcement have raised questions about whether Google has acquired or maintained its market power in online advertising in violation of the antitrust laws.”
The House Antitrust Subcommittee rescheduled its hearing with Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook CEOs to noon on Wednesday in 2141 Rayburn (see 2007170060). Facebook moved the release of its Q2 financials to Thursday to accommodate the hearing (see 2007270006).