Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., reintroduced the Earn It Act Monday, as expected (see 2105180041). The bill removes “blanket immunity” under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for violations of law on online child sexual abuse material. The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the bill in 2020 (see 2007020050). Asked about committee consideration for the reintroduced bill, Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told us Tuesday: "Soon." Tech platforms would no longer have immunity from federal civil, state criminal and state civil child sexual abuse material laws. The bill establishes a national commission headed by leaders of DOJ, the FTC, DHS and other congressionally appointed members. The commission would establish voluntary best practices. Reps. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., and Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, are introducing companion legislation. The bill would restore victims’ privacy, said the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. CEO Dawn Hawkins said tech companies don’t currently have “incentive to prevent or eliminate CSAM.” Section 230 isn’t a barrier to federal prosecution of companies that fail to combat illegal material, said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Matt Schruers: “Enforcing existing criminal statutes in known cases would prevent more crime than placing a federal committee in control of how Internet services police content.” The bill, as originally written and reintroduced, “threatens encryption, privacy, and the Constitution,” said NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo: It gives a “get-out-of-jail-free” card to those “credibly accused of child exploitation,” and its sponsors haven’t addressed “serious Fourth Amendment problems that would give criminal defendants yet another means to challenge their CSAM convictions.”
The Senate Antitrust Subcommittee scheduled a hearing Wednesday on journalism, competition and the impact of market power. The hearing is set for 2:30 p.m. in 226 Dirksen.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., should schedule a floor vote for a bill that would ban Big Tech platforms from "unfairly" self-preferencing their own products and services, more than 30 advocacy groups wrote Monday. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S-2992) is a “critical measure to ensure that big tech firms are held accountable for the anticompetitive conduct which has allowed them to develop monopoly power,” they wrote. Public Knowledge, Public Citizen, Demand Progress, Accountable Tech, the Center for Digital Democracy and Open Markets Institute signed. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 16-6 to advance the bill earlier this month (see 2201200066).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune of South Dakota and nine other Republicans raised concerns Friday with the Treasury Department’s final rule on broadband projects’ eligibility for $350 billion in state and local funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (see 2201070061). The rule backtracks from proposed restrictions that would have allowed eligibility only in areas without 25/3 Mbps (see 2105100060). The broadband-eligible money “was born out of the challenges posed by the pandemic, when much of daily life was forced online and when consumers lacking internet access faced even greater economic and personal hardship,” the senators wrote Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. “We are profoundly disappointed that Treasury’s final rule lacks the proper guidance and constraints needed to ensure that federal funds are used efficiently and for their intended purpose.” This has “the potential to waste taxpayer dollars funding duplicative service in areas with existing access to broadband,” they said. Treasury didn’t comment.
The administration should staff a congressionally mandated AI task force to democratize access to AI resources, lawmakers wrote government leaders Thursday. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.; Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio; and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., wrote the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation “clarifying congressional intent” of the National AI Research Resource. The NAIRR Task Force Act became law in 2021. “Without staff, especially those with expertise on how AI resources can be used to support the development of ethical and safe AI, we are worried that it will be difficult to accomplish the exciting aims of the NAIRR,” they wrote.
The FTC should ban surveillance advertising due to its “overwhelming” societal harm, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., wrote the agency Wednesday, supporting a petition for rulemaking from Accountable Tech (see 2112280054). The petition requests a rule banning “surveillance advertising” as an “unfair method of competition.” Harms “vastly outweigh” the benefits, Eshoo and Booker wrote: “Surveillance advertising has been called the Internet’s Original Sin and a ‘time bomb at the heart of the Internet’ that could harm society on the scale of the subprime mortgage crisis.” The agency didn’t comment Thursday.
The America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521), House Democrats’ proposed companion to the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260), got a mixed reception from lawmakers and tech sector entities Tuesday and Wednesday. The measure, like S-1260, includes $52 billion in subsidies to encourage U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing. The two measures diverge in other respects, including the size and scope of a potential National Science Foundation tech directorate. The House Rules Committee plans to consider amendments to HR-4521 next week before a floor vote, with proposals due Friday. President Joe Biden said the measure is “squarely focused on easing the sort of supply chain bottlenecks like semiconductors that have led to higher prices for the middle class.” HR-4521 “will supercharge our investment in” chips, “advance manufacturing at home, strengthen our supply chain, transform our research capacity and advance our competitiveness and leadership abroad,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calf. “These transformative investments in science and innovation will help us to revitalize our research infrastructure” and “enhance our semiconductor manufacturing capabilities,” said House Science Committee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas. House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said both HR-4521 and S-1260 would be “massive expansions of government subsidies and federal control,” which “are not how we beat China.” It’s “another attempt to outspend” the Chinese government “with duplicative, multi-billion-dollar command and control programs that will diminish our global competitiveness, fail to solve the supply chain crisis, and make inflation worse.” Chip funding “will help ensure more of the chips Americans need are researched, designed, and manufactured on U.S. soil, strengthening our supply chains and creating new, high-paying American jobs across the country,” said Semiconductor Industry Association President John Neuffer. The Computer & Communications Industry Association backs some elements of HR-4521 but the addition of “unrelated trademark liability provisions would impose impractical and punitive regulations upon ecommerce merchants and individual sellers using digital channels to succeed, at a time of economic disruption,” said President Matt Schruers. TechNet is “glad to see movement on” HR-4521 and is “encouraged by the commitment that leaders in the House and Senate have shown to advance this bill and invest in American innovation, increase opportunities for U.S. workers, and strengthen our global competitiveness,” said President Linda Moore.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio, are pressing NBCUniversal to explain what influence the Chinese Communist Party has in shaping the media company’s coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The U.S. has “a rich history of ensuring the public has access to a multitude of diverse, and often conflicting, ideas and ideologies,” the GOP lawmakers said in a letter to NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell and NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel. “Given China’s history of censorship and government control, and the fact that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stands to benefit financially from NBCUniversal’s coverage of the games, we are concerned about the extent of influence the CCP may have over” that programming. The Republicans want NBCUniversal to detail whether the Chinese government has “taken any steps” to influence the media company’s coverage of China issues in the leadup to the Olympic Games, including whether it’s “precluded” by the government or International Olympic Committee from broadcasting anything “critical of the government.” They want to know whether China will have “the ability to block your broadcast feed” to the U.S. “as they deem fit.” NBCUniversal didn’t comment.
Facebook, Amazon and other tech and communications companies had Q4 lobbying spending increases, while most industry groups' outlays remained level or decreased from the same quarter in 2020. Huawei, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, the now-defunct Internet Association (see 2112150026), and ViacomCBS had the largest percentage increases; BSA|The Software Alliance, NCTA and Broadcom had the steepest decreases. Facebook was again the biggest tech and communications spender, reporting $5.42 million, up more than 15%. Amazon spent $4.92 million, almost 4% higher. NCTA laid out $4.17 million, down 19%. CTIA's was $4.1 million, declining 11%. Comcast spent $3.49 million, dropping almost 11%. Charter and Verizon each spent $2.99 million, a 24% increase for Verizon and a 2% decrease for Charter. AT&T spent $2.94 million, more than 11% up. T-Mobile reported $2.64 million, a 10% increase. Qualcomm posted $2.49 million, a more than 33% jump. Microsoft was $2.47 million, a more than 12% rise. Google disclosed $2.21 million, a more than 4% increase. NAB spent $1.96 million, a more than 8% decrease. Apple spent $1.86 million, a 28% increase. ViacomCBS spent $1.597 million, a 79% jump. Dell had $1.25 million, 37% higher. IBM expended $1.06 million, an almost 1% increase. Huawei spent $980,000, a 48-times jump. Cox spent $840,000, a 1% boost. Disney spent $800,000, up 11%. USTelecom was $720,000, an 11% decrease. The Information Technology Industry Council spent $650,000, up 16%. IA expended $470,000 on lobbying during its final quarter, up more than 113%. Broadcom spent $410,000, down 16%. Twitter was $310,000, 16% lower. BSA spent $240,000, dropping more than 38%. The Wireless Infrastructure Association was $190,000, up more than 5%. ACA Connects spent $160,000, little changed. CCIA's $115,000 was up 475%. The Wireless ISP Association spent $72,000, level with 2020. The Telecommunications Industry Association spent $70,000, also level.
President Joe Biden and Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger used Intel’s announcement Friday of its $20 billion investment to build two semiconductor fabs in central Ohio to appeal for passing the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act and USICA's authorization of federal funding under the Chips Act. In the U.S., “we barely produce 10%” of the world’s chips, “despite being the leader in chip design and research, and we don’t have the ability to make the most advanced chips,” Biden told a White House news briefing. As “historic” as Intel’s announcement is, enacting the USICA “is an important part of today’s message,” he said. USICA “includes a $52 billion incentive for more companies to build their manufacturing facilities” in the U.S., said Biden. “I want other cities and states to be able to make announcements like the one being made here today. That’s why I want to see Congress pass this bill right away and get it to my desk.” He vowed his administration “will use all the tools we have to reshore our supply chains, strengthen our economic resilience and make more in America.” Intel "can’t do it alone,” its chief said. Congress needs to “finish the job” by approving the Chips Act funding, said Gelsinger. “Our announcement today is motivated by the Chips Act.”