Comcast, Cisco, Verizon and T-Mobile suspended some political contributions, they said Monday and Tuesday, joining a growing list of companies acting due to the deadly riot at the Capitol (see 2101120061). Verizon emailed: “Like the vast majority of Americans, we watched last week’s events in Washington and were deeply saddened. As a result, we will be suspending contributions to any member of Congress who voted in favor of objecting to the election results." T-Mobile “suspended all of our PAC distributions, pending our reevaluation of our PAC giving,” the company clarified in a statement. Comcast will suspend contributions to officials who voted against Electoral College certification, a spokesperson emailed: “The peaceful transition of power is a foundation of America’s democracy. This year, that transition will take place among some of the most challenging conditions in modern history and against the backdrop of the appalling violence we witnessed at the U.S. Capitol last week. At this crucial time, our focus needs to be on working together for the good of the entire nation.” Cisco’s employee-sponsored PAC suspended “contributions to any of the 147 representatives and senators who attempted to prevent Congress from fulfilling its constitutional duty to certify a legitimate and fair presidential election.”
Congress will revisit the possibility of a federal moratorium on face-scanning technology in the upcoming session, House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., told us. Industry representatives expect the Biden administration to push for tighter face-scanning regulation. Reps from CTA, BSA|The Software Alliance and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) said President Donald Trump’s most important artificial intelligence contribution will be his regulatory guidance to agencies.
Facebook, AT&T, Google, Microsoft, Intel and Airbnb said they’re limiting political contributions after Wednesday’s deadly riot at the Capitol. Also Monday, Amazon Web Services was hit with an antitrust lawsuit from Parler after AWS stopped hosting the social media service, which is popular with conservatives. The Computer & Communication Industry Association supported platforms’ right to suspend certain accounts involved “in the incitement of violence,” including President Donald Trump's. See here for our news bulletin on Twitter permanently yanking Trump's account Friday.
Communications Decency Act Section 230 should be rewritten and tweaked, not repealed, House Republicans told us after President Donald Trump failed to dismantle the statute through must-pass spending bills. House Democrats agreed there’s bipartisan consensus on the need to rework the tech industry’s liability shield.
Facebook extended its ban of President Donald Trump’s accounts on the platform and Instagram “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks,” until Joe Biden takes office, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced. Also Thursday, congressional critics and others in the telecom and tech spheres slammed Trump over his encouraging protesters to go to the Capitol, where several were reported by authorities to have been killed. See here and here for our reports. (Our reporter, who was trapped for several hours, was later able to safely leave, as were other journalists.)
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai continues to hold off advancing the agency's Communications Decency Act Section 230 proceeding (see 2012230065). He has yet to circulate any item on 230, agency officials told us. Observers say this indicates the agency won't act on the section before Pai leaves Jan. 20, when Joe Biden is sworn in as president.
The FTC’s recent inquiry into social media company data collection practices could likely result in enforcement action, much like the agency’s 6(b) study that led to its antitrust case against Facebook, an ex-official and attorneys said in interviews. Some said to expect the social media companies to negotiate with the agency over the scope of the latest 6(b) study, which seeks details on how data practices affect younger users and others (see 2012150005).
Expect legal and constitutional challenges against the Case Act (see 1910250047), experts told us. Congress passed the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (Case) Act (HR-2426/S-1273) last week, which would create a voluntary small claims board within the Copyright Office, as part of the COVID-19 relief package.
The FTC has received more than 270,000 COVID-19-related complaints this year with a total fraud loss of more than $200 million, said Consumer and Business Education Division Senior Project Manager Colleen Tressler during a joint webinar Wednesday with the FCC. Top such complaints involve online shopping for in-demand products and text message and phone scams, said Tressler. FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Patrick Webre cited promising vaccine reports as he expressed optimism “that life may be able to return to a sense of normalcy in the not-too-distant future.” Scams continue, he said, with perpetrators trying to steal identities and capitalize on uncertainty, at-risk groups and stimulus programs. Robocalls remain a top complaint to the FCC, said Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division Associate Chief Keyla Hernandez-Ulloa. Elijah Hebert, a U.S. Postal Inspection Service inspector, suggested consumers buy products only from “known, reliable retailers and e-commerce companies.”
Texas filed a multistate lawsuit against Google for anti-competitive conduct, exclusionary practices and deceptive representations, state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced Wednesday. Also signing the suit were Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah.