Georgia’s Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee passed a social media bill Tuesday modeled after Texas and Florida laws that were enjoined by federal district courts (see 2202100068). SB-393 advanced 6-5 and now goes to the Rules Committee.
Section 230
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Earn It Act by voice vote Thursday (see 2202090050 and 2202010019). Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., vowed to push a companion measure forward in the House. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told us he’s going to “fight” the bill “every step of the way.”
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 FCC should consider imposing cybersecurity rules tied to USF support, similar to what the regulator did on insecure network equipment from China (see 2012100054), said former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai during a Hudson Institute virtual event Friday. Pai was interviewed by former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
Governor’s Office of Information Technology hires Brandy Reitter as executive director-Colorado Broadband Office; she's Eagle's town manager; OIT Deputy Executive Director Julia Richman leads office until Reitter joins in February.
Google and Microsoft should remove a website that encourages suicide from search engines, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wrote the companies Monday (see 2112200073). The companies have “not only the ability but also the legal authority” to remove the site from search results under the Good Samaritan provision of Communications Decency Act Section 230, Blumenthal wrote. Microsoft declined comment Tuesday. A Google spokesperson said the platform’s features promote suicide prevention hotlines for users searching for information about suicide. Google has “specialized ranking systems designed to prioritize the highest quality results available for self-harm queries,” and Google blocks such autocomplete predictions, the company said: “We balance these safeguards with our commitment to give people open access to information. We’re guided by local law when it comes to the important and complex questions of what information people should be able to find online.”
FCC nominee Gigi Sohn said her connection to Locast won’t affect her views on broadcast issues, in her written responses to the Senate Commerce Committee. She promised to operate in an independent and fair manner on all issues if confirmed.
The U.S. is “in great shape” on 5G competition internationally, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told a Media Institute virtual event Thursday. He said the agency's approach over the past five or six years of freeing up spectrum and lowering infrastructure barriers has been a proven success. He waved off former Google Executive Chairman CEO Eric Schmidt's repeated warnings of the U.S. lagging behind other nations such as China as "the Chicken Little of 5G leadership." Google didn't comment. Carr said more should be done in spectrum availability and infrastructure reform, citing completion of the 2.5 GHz auction and authorizing very low power use in the 6 GHz band as goals. Asked about 6G planning, Carr said the U.S. could start contemplating issues like the terahertz spectrum it might require, but the U.S. has "got to tend to our knitting" with 5G foremost. Asked about the likelihood of a resumption of net neutrality rules, he said it's "largely baked in" that the agency will at least debate a return to Communications Act Title II rules, though he was dismissive. "It's such an old debate of the past," he said, saying regulatory focus shouldn't be on ISPs but on edge provider behavior. He said if rate regulation were taken off the table, it would be relatively easy to find consensus about net neutrality rules for blocking and throttling. He said there could be a route for Communications Decency Act Section 230 changes that puts an affirmative anti-discrimination requirement on platforms while remaining consistent with the First Amendment. He said the Supreme Court's rulings on the First Amendment, when put on a continuum, include an opening for regulating tech companies' actions as a speech conduit while not implicating the First Amendment. Asked whether the FCC's 2018 broadcast ownership quadrennial review is likely to get done in 2022, Carr said there "is some precedent" for rolling it over: "These may start to run together a little bit."
The tech industry should create a regulatory body to set best practices for protecting children, and Communications Decency Act Section 230 immunity should be earned through adhering to those protections, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri told the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee at a Wednesday hearing. That regulatory body should gather input from civil society and regulators about universal protections, including age verification, age-appropriate design and parental controls, Mosseri said. TikTok Public Policy Head Michael Beckerman backed standardized age verification in November (see 2111090076).
The Senate Commerce Committee plans hearings next week on social media platforms’ impact on children and legislation aimed at addressing those companies’ use of algorithms to manipulate user experiences. Instagram head Adam Mosseri will testify at a Dec. 8 Consumer Protection Subcommittee panel on social media impacts on kids. The hearing will “address what Instagram knows about its impacts on young users, its commitments to reform, and potential legislative solutions,” Commerce said Wednesday. It will begin at 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell. Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez is among those set to testify at a Dec. 9 Communications Subcommittee hearing on “legislative solutions that address the dangers of online platforms’ use of technology to manipulate user experiences,” the committee said Thursday. Massachusetts Institute of Technology associate professor of marketing Dean Eckles, Atlantic Council Democracy & Tech Initiative Director Rose Jackson and Claremont Institute American Mind Executive Editor James Poulos will also testify at the hearing beginning at 10 a.m., also in 253 Russell. American Enterprise Institute Non-Resident Senior Fellow Daniel Lyons and University of California-Los Angeles law professor Eugene Volokh echoed other witnesses during a Wednesday night continuation of a House Communications Subcommittee hearing, raising misgivings about legislation to revamp Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2112010058). The hearing examined four Section 230-focused bills: the Protecting Americans from Dangerous Algorithms Act (HR-2154), Civil Rights Modernization Act (HR-3184), Safeguarding Against Fraud, Exploitation, Threats, Extremism, and Consumer Harms Act (HR-3421) and Justice Against Malicious Algorithms Act (HR-5596). “We tinker with this regime at our peril,” Lyons said. “Section 230 is woven into the fabric of online society, making it difficult to predict how a change to the statute would ripple throughout the internet ecosystem.” Volokh criticized HR-5596, which would remove Section 230 immunity when a platform “knowingly or recklessly uses an algorithm or other technology to recommend content that materially contributes to physical or severe emotional injury.” The measure “strikes me as a bad idea” because it would benefit professionally produced content that already has external marketing at the expense of user-generated submissions, he said.