Congressional Democrats are pressing harder for President Joe Biden to name a permanent FCC chair and a fifth commissioner, citing the need for a majority to act on changes to net neutrality rules and other priorities unlikely to garner GOP support. Lawmakers remain publicly hopeful the administration will soon announce its FCC nominees. Privately, Senate Democrats in recent days told the White House their patience on FCC nomination delays has evaporated, aides said.

Congress and the administration can take a more active role to allow humanitarian aid to better flow to sanctioned regions in Africa, which is often hindered from receiving that aid, charitable groups and sanctions experts told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa May 25. Some of the issues lie with licenses issued by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and a slow bureaucratic process that unintentionally slows aid shipments, they said.

President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the State Department’s assistant secretary for Western hemisphere affairs vowed to aggressively sanction human rights violators and said more can be done to stop sanctions evasion tactics. The nominee, Brian Nichols, also told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee May 19 that the agency should coordinate closely with the Treasury Department and voiced support for some of the agency’s Cuba restrictions.

EU efforts to quash dissemination of terrorist content online moved forward Tuesday as the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee recommended approval of a measure on "the misuse of hosting services for terrorist purposes." European Council government ministers have greenlighted the regulation, which is expected to be approved by the full parliament later this month. Hosting service providers play a key role in the digital economy but are sometimes abused by third parties for carrying out illegal activities online, a March 18 EC memo said. Of particular concern is their misuse by terrorist groups and their supporters to spread content to radicalize and recruit followers, it said. In light of their central role and the technology and capabilities associated with the services they provide, hosting services "have particular societal responsibilities" to protect their services from misuse while preserving fundamental rights. The regulation shouldn't affect the application of directive 2000/31/EC, which grants intermediaries exemption from liability from illegal content, nor would it hamper national authorities and courts from imposing liability if hosting services violate the conditions, the memo said. The measure would apply to information society service providers that store and disseminate to the public information and material provided by a user of the service on request, regardless of whether the storing is "of a mere technical, automatic and passive nature." Providers of "mere conduit" or "caching" services -- along with other services in other layers of the internet infrastructure that don't involve storage, such as domain name registries and registrars and providers of domain name systems -- would be outside the scope. Terrorist content is often spread through services set up in third countries, so this would apply to "all providers of relevant services in the Union" that let people or entities in one or more EU countries use those services and that have a substantial connection to the countries. The legislation calls for harmonized rules on procedures for taking down terrorist content. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology, European Digital Rights and Internet Governance Project joined about 60 civil society groups in panning this. They argued it would incentivize online platforms to continue to use automated content moderation tools such as upload filters to the detriment of free speech, and that it lacks sufficient judicial oversight.

EU efforts to quash dissemination of terrorist content online moved forward Tuesday as the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee recommended approval of a measure on "the misuse of hosting services for terrorist purposes." European Council government ministers have greenlighted the regulation, which is expected to be approved by the full parliament later this month. Hosting service providers play a key role in the digital economy but are sometimes abused by third parties for carrying out illegal activities online, a March 18 EC memo said. Of particular concern is their misuse by terrorist groups and their supporters to spread content to radicalize and recruit followers, it said. In light of their central role and the technology and capabilities associated with the services they provide, hosting services "have particular societal responsibilities" to protect their services from misuse while preserving fundamental rights. The regulation shouldn't affect the application of directive 2000/31/EC, which grants intermediaries exemption from liability from illegal content, nor would it hamper national authorities and courts from imposing liability if hosting services violate the conditions, the memo said. The measure would apply to information society service providers that store and disseminate to the public information and material provided by a user of the service on request, regardless of whether the storing is "of a mere technical, automatic and passive nature." Providers of "mere conduit" or "caching" services -- along with other services in other layers of the internet infrastructure that don't involve storage, such as domain name registries and registrars and providers of domain name systems -- would be outside the scope. Terrorist content is often spread through services set up in third countries, so this would apply to "all providers of relevant services in the Union" that let people or entities in one or more EU countries use those services and that have a substantial connection to the countries. The legislation calls for harmonized rules on procedures for taking down terrorist content. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology, European Digital Rights and Internet Governance Project joined about 60 civil society groups in panning this. They argued it would incentivize online platforms to continue to use automated content moderation tools such as upload filters to the detriment of free speech, and that it lacks sufficient judicial oversight.

The U.S. should form a strong global technology alliance and promote better interagency cooperation on technology policies to better compete with China and counter its dominance at standards setting bodies, former government officials said. A modern national technology strategy must start with the White House and Congress, the former officials and experts said, which should embrace some form of industrial policy and pour resources into protecting critical technologies.

Increasing resources for antitrust enforcers is one potential area for Senate Judiciary Committee compromise, ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told us Wednesday. It’s something Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has pushed for along with comprehensive antitrust legislation (see 2102040053). Klobuchar will lead the subcommittee’s first hearing this session Thursday (see 2103040033).

Increasing resources for antitrust enforcers is one potential area for Senate Judiciary Committee compromise, ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told us Wednesday. It’s something Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has pushed for along with comprehensive antitrust legislation (see 2102040053). Klobuchar will lead the subcommittee’s first hearing this session Thursday (see 2103040033).

Increasing resources for antitrust enforcers is one potential area for Senate Judiciary Committee compromise, ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told us Wednesday. It’s something Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has pushed for along with comprehensive antitrust legislation (see 2102040053). Klobuchar will lead the subcommittee’s first hearing this session Thursday (see 2103040033).

The Department of Homeland Security will do a “thorough review” of its cybersecurity detection programs as a result of the Russia-linked SolarWinds attack, President-elect Joe Biden’s DHS secretary nominee, Alejandro Mayorkas, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee Tuesday. Mayorkas said the department will review its Einstein program and the continuing diagnostics and mitigation program to ensure they’re “appropriately designed and effectively executed.”