The House Consumer Protection Subcommittee is closer to releasing a privacy bill than bipartisan Senate negotiators, Chair Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., told reporters Wednesday after a subcommittee hearing with Facebook. At the hearing, she and ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., had contrasting views on the need to regulate media manipulation and deepfakes.
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
Facebook wants uniform tech platform standards for deepfakes, Vice President-Global Policy Management Monika Bickert plans to tell the House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Wednesday (see 1912310003). Her testimony was released the same day Facebook announced it’s banning manipulated content like deepfakes, which fabricate a person’s words. The announcement initially indicated political candidates would be allowed to include manipulated media in ads, according to Democrats who immediately criticized the policy change. The platform issued a correction.
FTC antitrust staff is right to scrutinize the consumer welfare standard, experts said in interviews. If the agency ultimately delivers related antitrust guidance, as Chairman Joe Simons suggested, some expect it in 2020. Critics claim the standard contributed to lax antitrust enforcement, but one expert said that narrow discussion is distracting from broader antitrust doctrine concerns, which led to enforcement failings. The FTC didn’t comment Monday.
Three Massachusetts-based sex-abuse survivor groups are drafting a letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., criticizing her bill directing a federal study of 2018 anti-sex-trafficking legislation (see 1912170041). Warren introduced the bill with Reps. Ro Khanna and Barbara Lee, both California Democrats, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. It would direct a study of the small percentage of consensual sex workers who claim a 2018 anti-sex trafficking law made their lives less safe and their trade more difficult, Living in Freedom Together (LIFT) CEO Nikki Bell told us. Some 200 survivors signed the draft letter, she said. The House version of the bill is HR-5448.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, welcomed Facebook’s announcement it will remove misleading platform content about the U.S. census (see 1912190059). Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said more needs to be done.
If the FTC seeks to block Facebook from integrating its messaging platforms, it’s likely a justified decision backed by antitrust standards, various lawmakers told us in recent interviews. The New York Times quoting unnamed sources reports that the agency is considering seeking a preliminary injunction to block Facebook from integrating messaging services across Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. Neither the FTC nor the company commented.
Draft legislation from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., would require tech companies to earn liability protection against civil lawsuits involving child sex abuse material, said a committee aide. Graham and Blumenthal have been negotiating legislation that would force companies to follow best business practices to earn certain liability protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 1910210067). As drafted, the bill could open up violators to civil lawsuits from victims of child sex abuse material hosted on platforms. Asked Thursday if a website that hosts child pornography should be subject to civil action, Graham told us, “That’s what 230 is all about. The thrust of the bill is that to get liability protections, you’ve got to earn them, you’ve got to do best business practices.” Blumenthal declined comment on bill specifics.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, are trying to formulate a proposal on the tech industry’s content liability shield, they told us Wednesday. Schatz previously announced plans to roll out legislation on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 1909120058).
DOJ Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim drew attention Monday to Attorney General William Barr’s recent questioning whether the tech industry’s content liability immunity is working as intended. Speaking at the Hudson Institute, Delrahim referenced Barr’s comments questioning application of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 1912110063).
House Democrats plan soon to release a draft privacy bill that tables areas of disagreement with Republicans like federal pre-emption and a private right of action, House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., told us. They have “solid agreement” with Republicans on several issues, Schakowsky said. “Some things will be bracketed that clearly aren’t agreed to, and hopefully a few parts that are not bracketed that are more likely to be agreed to.”