Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and ex-Commissioner Mike O’Rielly are to testify Monday at a virtual House Commerce Committee hearing (see 2103150069) on Democrats’ Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act (HR-1848), the committee confirmed Friday. HR-1848 includes money for broadband and next-generation 911 (see 2103110060).
The House Commerce Committee’s virtual hearing with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (see 2102180064) is noon EDT Thursday, announced the committee. The hearing is on “Social Media's Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation.”
Congress was right to include an amendment outlawing revenge porn in a bill reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro Wednesday. The House passed reauthorization Wednesday afternoon. Including the Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution Act of 2019 (HR-2896) “in this reauthorization will hold abusers and harassers accountable for distributing private, explicit images of individuals without their consent,” said Castro.
Tech and creative industries universally hailed Senate confirmation Wednesday of China and trade expert Katherine Tai as U.S. trade representative by a 98-0 vote. Tai inherits the USTR post as three rounds of tariffs on Chinese goods remain at 25%, over the concerns of tech and telecom stakeholders. Overhauling the tariff exclusions to give the process more “transparency and predictability” would be “very high on my radar,” Tai told her Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing Feb. 25. The levies “disrupted a lot of people’s lives and livelihoods,” she said. BSA|The Software Alliance urges Tai to “promote digital trade policies that facilitate the responsible transfer of data across borders,” said CEO Victoria Espinel. During Tai’s time as lead trade counsel for House Ways and Means, she played “an instrumental role” in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, said TechNet: USMCA “included strong intellectual property protections and a landmark digital chapter that eliminated digital trade barriers and enhanced trade.” MPA CEO Charles Rivkin said Tai “fully appreciates that securing robust copyright protections overseas is fundamental to developing a worker-centric trade policy.” CTA (here), the Information Technology Industry Council (here), the Telecommunications Industry Association (here) and others also commented.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, reintroduced legislation Wednesday that would amend Communications Decency Act Section 230 and require online platforms to remove illegal content within days, as expected (see 2102030060). Under the Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency (Pact) Act, platforms would need a “defined complaint system that processes reports and notifies users of moderation decisions within twenty-one days, and allows consumers to appeal.” The bill would make platforms “more accountable for their content moderation policies and providing more tools to protect consumers,” said Schatz. Thune called it a “common-sense legislative approach to preserve user-generated content and free speech on the internet, while increasing consumer transparency and the accountability of big internet platforms.” Public Knowledge said it's “a serious, bipartisan effort to consider content-neutral requirements to provide greater transparency and accountability.” Access Now supports the requirements for platforms to have “content moderation policies, explain their moderation decisions, and have an appeal process.” BSA|The Software Alliance welcomed the effort and wants to “avoid unintended consequences and account for the broader universe of technology companies.” The serious proposal contains a “fatal flaw: by subjecting websites to federal civil liability, the bill is far more radical than it appears and would lead to legitimate speech being removed from the internet as websites take a better-safe-than-sorry approach,” said NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo.
The Senate Commerce Committee scheduled a hybrid hearing on broadband expansion at 10 a.m. Wednesday in 253 Russell, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., announced Monday. Witnesses are ex-FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, Midco Senior Director-Government Relations Justin Forde, University of Virginia associate professor Christopher Ali and Quadra Partners’ Jon Wilkins. Topics include the FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, the Re-Connect program and “moves to enhance federal coordination among these existing programs.”
The House Commerce Committee plans a virtual hearing at 11 a.m. EDT Monday on the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow's America Act (HR-1848), as expected (see 2103030063).
House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., urged Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Friday to “address the urgent need for increased U.S. leadership in the innovation and deployment of emerging technologies.” The "U.S. is at risk of losing our competitive advantage,” they wrote Raimondo. “China is looking to continue to further bridge together manufacturing and smart technologies through IoT and become the global leader in the space. China also is predicted to outmatch the U.S. in blockchain innovation and deployment and become the global leader” there.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us she doesn’t believe reports President Joe Biden plans to nominate Columbia Law School’s Lina Khan for an FTC seat (see 2103090057) mean the administration is prioritizing filling that commission’s slots at the expense of the FCC's. Cantwell and other Democrats have pressed Biden to name a permanent FCC chair and a Democratic nominee to fill a vacant seat to establish a 3-2 majority (see 2102050064). “I wouldn’t read one” nomination announcement as coming at the expense of ushering in a Democratic FCC majority, Cantwell said. “All of the information age issues are voluminous” and require good nominees at the FCC and FTC, she said. She hadn’t received official word. Cantwell told us she also hasn’t recommended anyone for the FCC chair or vacant seat. “I’d be happy with” retaining acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel as permanent head, but she hasn’t recommended Biden choose her at the expense of other candidates, Cantwell said.
House Commerce Committee members from both parties want an update to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), they said Thursday, urging support for two different bills. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., will reintroduce the Protecting the Information of Our Vulnerable Children and Youth Act, an opt-in consent bill meant to give children and parents more control over data. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., voiced support for the Preventing Real Online Threats Endangering Children Today (Protect) Kids Act, which he introduced with Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. The privacy law must be updated to address an increasingly complex and digital world, said House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., during her subcommittee’s hearing. Kids have a new, “sad” reality because of COVID-19 and turn to social media more, said ranking member Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla. Parents need help, and tech companies need to be held accountable, said Nusheen Ameenuddin, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Communications and Media Council. Congress has a responsibility to create a healthy internet for children, said Ariel Fox Johnson, Common Sense Media senior counsel-global policy.