Congress needs to identify an AI regulatory framework so companies like Facebook can be held accountable for biases and side effects associated with algorithms, said House AI Task Force Chairman Bill Foster, D-Ill., during a hearing Wednesday.
Facebook and Instagram illegally deceive users and the government by hosting murder videos violating their terms of service, gun safety advocate Andy Parker alleged in an FTC complaint Tuesday. Testimony from whistleblower Frances Haugen last week confirmed Facebook can remove videos but doesn't because it's not in the company’s financial interest, Parker told reporters at the National Press Club. He filed a similar complaint in 2020 against Google and YouTube (see 2002200049). These stem from a video of Parker’s daughter Alison, a reporter who was assassinated on live TV in 2015 (see 2002030059).
DOJ could use more trial attorneys and officials with substantive expertise, Antitrust Division chief nominee Jonathan Kanter told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday during his confirmation hearing. He promised to uphold the rule of law and ensure DOJ has proper access to investigatory documents. The committee will vote on his nomination and others later. Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asked what Kanter would do with additional resources, citing her legislation to increase merger fees (see 2106250062). Kanter said he supports “appropriate funding” and would recommend more trial attorneys and more substantive expertise. Noting Tuesday’s hearing with the Facebook whistleblower (see 2110050062), Klobuchar asked if Kanter would support extending the same protections to civil cases granted to whistleblowers in criminal cases. Kanter said it’s extremely important that authorities have access to all relevant information. Monopolies can intimidate other companies, let alone individuals and, as a “general matter,” he supports ensuring authorities have access to the relevant information and witnesses, he said. Antitrust ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, cited some “disturbing trends” with antitrust law under this administration, specifically discussing the FTC’s withdrawal from the 2020 takeover guidelines, even though DOJ has retained them (see 2109150061). Lee cited the FTC reportedly asking combining parties about their environment, social and governance policies in antitrust cases and asked if Kanter would do the same at DOJ. The purpose of antitrust law is to protect competition and ESG policies unrelated to competition issues aren't related to antitrust enforcement, he said. Kanter called digital interoperability a critical principle for protecting competition.
Congress will move forward with legislation to roll back Communications Decency Act Section 230 immunity and give victims of online harm legal remedies against amplified content, Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters Tuesday. Members of the subcommittee are “very engaged” on the issue, and it’s going to be a priority to find consensus, said ranking member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., speaking to reporters after a hearing with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (see 2110010047).
Congress should investigate Facebook, subpoena its internal research about youths and block the platform’s plans to launch an Instagram for kids, consumer advocates told us Friday. They joined calls from Democrats and Republicans urging Facebook to drop those plans.
Thursday’s testimony from Facebook underscores the need for the FTC to update the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (see 2105110052), Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us after a Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing (see 2109240009). Members said Global Head-Safety Antigone Davis evaded questions about the company’s internal research showing a link between youth mental health issues and Instagram activity (see 2109150053). “They had information that they basically said they didn’t, which is a problem,” said Cantwell.
The Senate Commerce Committee’s privacy hearing Wednesday showed there’s “more commonality than expected,” Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters. Federal preemption remains a hurdle, but ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us he and Cantwell are going to “intensify” efforts to reach agreement over the next two months.
The prospect of an FTC privacy rulemaking is facing a partisan divide in the agency and on Capitol Hill. House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., told us the agency shouldn’t issue a rule because it’s a legislative issue Congress needs to fix.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., will reintroduce legislation banning large online platforms from using deceptive designs “to trick consumers” into offering personal data, they told an FTC virtual workshop on dark patterns Thursday (see 2104090042).
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced legislation Thursday to let antitrust enforcers impose larger fines and shift the burden of proof from government to “merging companies.” The top Antitrust Committee Democrat, Klobuchar said the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act “is the first step to overhauling and modernizing our laws so we can effectively promote competition.” The bill would create an FTC division to do market studies and merger retrospectives. Competition law violations would be subject to DOJ and FTC fines of up to 15% of a company’s annual revenue, instead of capped at $100 million. For certain types of deals, the bill “shifts the legal burden from the government to the merging companies, which would have to prove that their mergers do not create an appreciable risk of materially lessening competition or tend to create a monopoly or monopsony.” The bill has the support of Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Brian Schatz of Hawaii. The plan would grant enforcers the “ability to issue civil fines against companies and eliminate the need to define the market a company is competing in when charging them with abusing market power,” said the Computer & Communications Industry Association. President Matt Schruers said CCIA shares Klobuchar’s “goal of ensuring that antitrust enforcers are adequately resourced to protect consumers.” Public Knowledge Competition Policy Director Charlotte Slaiman called the bill a “turbocharge” for antitrust enforcement. Public Citizen said this “would severely limit harmful mega-mergers, attempt to strengthen the powers of the" FTC and DOJ "and expand important whistleblower protections.”