Former President Donald Trump famously doesn't do policy detail, but this time around his senior advisers and self-described MAGA revolutionaries are doing it for him. Trump himself has repeatedly called for punishment of disfavored media, including FCC-licensed "fake news" outlets. But the specifics of the disruptions planned for policy and governance of telecom (along with many other sectors) are most explicitly framed in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, the massive policy prescription directed in part by Trump's past and presumably future advisers and appointees. Among contributors is FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, author of the chapter on the future of the agency and telecom policy as a whole. In this Comm Daily Special Report, published on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, our award-winning editorial team looks at the ideas and the people that would transform telecom in America if Donald Trump is returned to office. (Our counterpart examination of Democratic plans -- whether under a reelected President Joe Biden or someone else -- will appear in August.)
The Senate Commerce Committee plans to mark up privacy legislation when it returns from recess the week of July 23, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters Thursday.
The FTC should rely more heavily on statutory text when writing rules, given the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent reversal of Chevron, FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak told us Wednesday (see 2407090044 and 2406280043). Chevron could significantly affect the FTC, given its aggressive rulemaking approach under Chair Lina Khan, legal experts told us in interviews.
The House Appropriations Committee voted 31-25 Wednesday to advance its Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY 2025 funding bill without advance FY 2027 money for CPB after Democrats didn’t attempt to restore the allocation. The House Rules Committee, meanwhile, will consider filed amendments to Appropriations’ FY25 Financial Services Subcommittee bill (HR-8773) that aim to undo a ban on the FCC implementing an equity action plan and increase the FTC’s annual funding. The measure proposes boosting the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million but includes riders barring the commission from implementing GOP-opposed net neutrality and digital discrimination orders (see 2406050067).
NGL Labs is banned from offering its popular anonymous messaging app to children and teens, the FTC announced Tuesday in a $5 million settlement secured with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. NGL Labs and co-founders Raj Vir and Joao Figueiredo unfairly marketed the app to minors by sending fake messages, falsely claimed AI-related protections against cyberbullying, and violated parental consent requirements under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the agency alleged. The commission voted 5-0 to file the complaint and proposed order, which a federal court must approve. The defendants “sent fake messages that appeared to come from real people and tricked users into signing up for their paid subscription by falsely promising that doing so would reveal the identity of the senders of messages,” the FTC said. NGL “marketed its app to kids and teens despite knowing that it was exposing them to cyberbullying and harassment,” Chair Lina Khan said. Commissioners Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak issued a concurring statement. They disagreed with language in the complaint suggesting FTC Act Section 5 prohibits marketing all anonymous messaging apps for minors. Anonymous speech is protected under the First Amendment's free speech clause, and online anonymity for children and teens has benefits, they said. Those benefits include access to mental health resources and insulation from the “maw of cancel culture.” Figueiredo said in a statement the company has cooperated with the agency for two years and considers the settlement an “opportunity to make NGL better than ever for our users.” While NGL believes “many of the allegations around the youth of our user base are factually incorrect, we anticipate that the agreed upon age-gating and other procedures will now provide direction for others in our space, and hopefully improve policies generally.”
House Republicans’ proposal that reduces the FTC’s budget 9% would create an “extraordinarily dire” situation at the agency and result in furloughs, Chair Lina Khan told House Commerce Committee members during a budget hearing Tuesday.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency should narrow the scope of its proposed cyber incident reporting rules to ease the regulatory burden on industries already facing a multitude of state and federal mandates, USTelecom, NTCA and Microsoft said in comments that were due Wednesday in docket CISA-2022-0010 (see 2403270070).
FTC Chair Lina Khan and all four commissioners will testify July 9 during a budget hearing before the House Innovation Subcommittee, the House Commerce Committee announced Tuesday. The FTC’s “mission is to ensure that it enhances consumer welfare without imposing undue burdens on business,” House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said in a statement with House Innovation Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla. “We have been very clear over the last few years via hearings, letters, and legislation when we have seen a departure from that mission.”
The DOJ should expedite its review of allegations that TikTok violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a bipartisan and bicameral group of lawmakers wrote Tuesday (see 2406180070). Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., along with Reps. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and Kathy Castor, D-Fla., sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting the DOJ “expeditiously” review the FTC’s referral of a complaint against TikTok for potential COPPA violations. Five years after the company settled with the FTC over alleged COPPA violations, “TikTok is still failing to comply with COPPA,” the lawmakers wrote. “Given TikTok's previous violations of COPPA ... we urge the Department to expeditiously investigate these allegations and take all necessary action to protect children's online privacy." The lawmakers cited the surgeon general’s recent announcement linking social media use with a youth mental health crisis as one reason for an expedited review (see: 2406170059). Markey also urged passage of his and Cassidy’s Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). Walberg and Castor introduced a House version of the measure in April.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority surprised no one Friday, issuing a decision decided on ideological lines that overrules the Chevron doctrine. Chevron gave agencies like the FCC and FTC deference in interpreting laws that Congress approved. On the penultimate day of its term, the court released a decision that wraps together Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Commerce. Both cases concern fishing regulations but were used as a vehicle for overturning Chevron.