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Sonos CEO will testify at a House antitrust hearing next week
A day after his company sued Google for allegedly stealing some of its speaker tech, it emerged Sonos CEO Patrick Spence will testify at an antitrust hearing. The House Antitrust Subcommittee, which is broadly investigating the market dominance of tech giants, will hear from more witnesses next week.
House of Representatives passes bill to restore net neutrality
The House of Representatives has passed a bill which would restore net neutrality rules the Federal Communications Commission repealed in 2017. Representatives approved the bill by 232-190 (with a sole Republican voting in favor), but the legislation still seems doomed.
House committee chair calls for FTC antitrust investigation into Facebook
Facebook is already under regulatory scrutiny in the US, but it could be subject to much more pressure if one House representative has his way. Antitrust subcommittee chairman Rep. David Cicilline has written an editorial in the New York Times calling on the FTC to investigate Facebook for potential antitrust violations. He's concerned that the social network not only leveraged its power to collect and share data through questionable means, but tried to "obstruct" overseers and "smear" critics while simultaneously engaging in "denial, hollow promises and apology campaigns" that accomplished little.
House chair asks tech CEOs to speak about New Zealand shooting response (updated)
Internet companies say they've been scrambling to remove video of the mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, but US politicians are concerned they haven't been doing enough. The Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Bennie Thompson, has sent letters to the CEOs of Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube asking them to brief the committee on their responses to the video on March 27th. Thompson was concerned the footage was still "widely available" on the internet giants' platforms, and that they "must do better."
House Democrats will introduce bill to reinstate net neutrality rules
Now that the Democrats have the majority in the US House of Representatives, net neutrality is back on the table. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has revealed that Democrats will introduce a bill to restore Obama-era net neutrality rules on March 6th. They haven't detailed just what the legislation would include, but its not-so-subtle name (the Save the Internet Act) makes the bill's intentions clear.
Congressman asks Amazon to stop suggesting anti-vaccination content
More internet giants are coming under pressure to crack down on anti-vaccination myths. Rep. Adam Schiff has sent a letter to Jeff Bezos expressing concern over a CNN report showing that Amazon was not only recommending anti-vaccination books and videos in its search results, but was displaying them in sponsored posts. Schiff worried that Amazon was spreading false scientific claims, including content that appears to be neutral on the surface. He effectively asked Bezos to stop suggesting these titles out of a duty to "act responsibly" and asked the CEO to answer questions about Amazon's stance on the material.
House committee hopes to question Facebook over group privacy
Facebook is facing even more government scrutiny this week. Members of the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee have asked to meet Facebook over concerns about group privacy. They're responding to an FTC complaint alleging that the social network exposed the sensitive information of group members. Women in a discussion group for the BRCA gene mutation found out that it was possible to download personal data (such as email addresses and names) in bulk, making it too easy to share info outside the group.
House committee sets first climate change hearing in eight years
The National Resources Committee has set a date for the first House of Representatives hearing on climate change in eight years after Democrats regained control of the legislature. It takes place Wednesday at 10 AM ET, and it will address how climate change affects "American communities, natural resources and economic well-being."
US bills would ban exports to Chinese telecoms that violate sanctions
American politicians want to crack down further on Chinese telecoms like Huawei and ZTE. Members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate have introduced bills that would order the President to impose export bans on Chinese telecoms found to violate US export and sanctions laws. Companies like Huawei and ZTE are a "growing threat to American national security," according to co-sponsor Rep. Mike Gallagher, and they should face the same punishment that ZTE faced before its reprieves.
FBI investigates fake texts sent to House Republicans
Law enforcement is looking into one of the stranger digital attacks against US politicians in recent memory. The Wall Street Journal has learned that the FBI is investigating fake text messages sent to "several" Republicans in the House of Representatives, including Illinois' Adam Kinzinger. The currently mysterious perpetrator posed as VP Mike Pence's press secretary, Alyssa Farah, and asked representatives for both their availability for meetings and the whereabouts of other politicians.
Congress grills Google CEO over Chinese search engine plans
If you were hoping that Google chief Sundar Pichai would shed more light on his company's potential censored search engine for China... well, you'll mostly be disappointed. Rhode Island Representative David Cicilline grilled Pichai on the recently acknowledged Dragonfly project and mostly encountered attempts to downplay the significance of the engine. The Google exec stressed there were "no plans" to launch a search engine for China, and that Dragonfly was an "internal effort" and "limited" in scope.
House committee says Equifax data breach was 'entirely preventable'
Congress clearly didn't buy Equifax's attempt to pin its massive data breach on one lone technician. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has released a staff report declaring that the breach was "entirely preventable" and the result of widespread, systemic flaws in Equifax's security policies. The company didn't have "clear lines of authority" in its IT structure that would have properly enacted policies, for one thing. It also had "complex and outdated" systems that didn't keep pace with its growth, wasn't prepared to help victims and made basic security missteps. Equifax let more than 300 security certificates expire, for example, making it difficult to spot intrusions.
US lawmakers are concerned about deepfake technology
Three US Representatives have sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence asking for a report on deepfake technology, how it could be used to harm the US and any countermeasures that can be taken to detect and deter nefarious use of the technology. While deepfakes gained notoriety when Reddit users began swapping celebrity faces onto porn stars, the potential for the technology's use in misinformation campaigns has generated a fair amount of concern. "Forged videos, images or audio could be used to target individuals for blackmail or for other nefarious purposes," the lawmakers said in their letter.
Georgia congressman is the latest to introduce data privacy bills
Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA) announced today that he's introducing two bills that address digital privacy, one that specifically focuses on data privacy on mobile devices and another that would allow consumers to opt out of data collection. In a press release, he noted that the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed how little control consumers have over their digital data and highlighted evidence that US residents want more. "Privacy is an issue that should unite us, not drive us apart," Johnson said in a statement. "We have fully entered the era of big data, and consumers access the internet through mobile devices now more than ever. It's past time our laws to reflect this reality through common sense rules for data collection, transparency and use."
Bipartisan bill aims to study how tech is affecting kids
A bipartisan group of senators and representatives has introduced legislation that would fund research into the effects technology and media have on infants, children and adolescents. The funding would support research into the use of mobile devices, computers, social media, apps, websites, TV, films, AI, video games, VR and AR with a focus on cognitive, physical and socio-emotional development. "While technology educates and entertains our children every day, we need a better understanding of how it impacts their social, psychological and physical well-being," Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) said in a statement. "This bill will enable experts to conduct critical research that will inform parents and policymakers about how best to protect American children's bodies and minds from issues such as tech addiction, bullying and depression in the digital age."
Senate gives up on ZTE sanctions
Though a number of US senators have been seeking to block President Trump's deal with ZTE that lets the Chinese firm circumvent sanctions put into place by US officials earlier this year, they have now backed off on that effort. In June, the Senate passed a version of the National Defense Authorization Act that reinstated sanctions against ZTE and would effectively nullify the president's and Commerce Department's deal with the firm. However, the House of Representatives passed a version of the bill without such language and the two chambers have been working on a compromise bill that marries each of their versions. Senators have now decided to abandon the ZTE sanctions in exchange for more oversight for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS).
Facebook can’t decide when a page should be banned
Another day, another congressional hearing on how tech companies are conducting themselves. This time it was Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that testified before the House Judiciary Committee today, in a hearing titled "Examining the Content Filtering Practices of Social Media Giants." While much of the three-hour session was information we've heard before, like what they're all doing to fight fake news and propaganda-driven bots, there was an interesting discussion about Facebook's policies (or lack thereof). In particular, the company's president for global policy management, Monika Bickert, couldn't give members of the committee a firm answer on what exactly it takes to ban offensive pages from Facebook.
Republican congressman introduces bill to make net neutrality law
Today, Congressman Mike Coffman (R-CO) introduced the 21st Century Internet Act to the House of Representatives. This bill seeks to codify the principles of net neutrality into law, taking the decision out of the hands of the FCC. It adds an entirely new section to the Communications Act of 1934, Title VIII, and prohibits blocking, throttling and paid prioritization of legal internet content.
Watch tomorrow's social media congressional hearing right here
Hey, if you were wondering when we were going to get another congressional hearing about social media, you're in luck. On Tuesday, executives from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Examining the Content Filtering Practices of Social Media Giants." The people representing these tech companies are members of their public policy teams, so expect them to be grilled by US Representatives about the toxic and harmful content that shows up on each of their sites.
Net neutrality ends today
The FCC's decision to overturn Obama-era net neutrality protections goes into effect today, giving internet service providers leeway to block, throttle and prioritize websites and content. While we may not see the direct effects of this decision immediately, it is, in no uncertain terms, a massively important change that stands to alter the internet as we know and experience it.
