Hearst Television advances Alvin Lustgarten to senior vice president-technology and information services ... Teradata promotes Hillary Ashton to chief product officer ... Gannett taps Mayur Gupta, ex-Freshly, for chief marketing and strategy officer; he resigns from Gannett board ... VideoAmp adds from Omnicom Media Jonathan Steuer as executive vice president-TV strategy and currency ... Workforce Logiq hires consultant William Rolack as vice president-diversity and inclusion.
Section 230
Senate Republicans introduced legislation Tuesday to clarify Communications Decency Act Section 230, altering liability protections for tech companies. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced the Online Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity Act. The legislation would replace “otherwise objectionable” with concrete terms for defining content moderation liability such as content promoting terrorism, unlawful content and content promoting self-harm. It would condition content moderation liability on an “objective reasonableness standard” when companies restrict access to content.
Adopt NTIA’s petition for rulemaking on Communications Decency Act Section 230, Republican state attorneys general commented to the FCC posted Thursday in RM-11862 (see 2009020064). Tech, telecom and consumer groups again largely said the FCC shouldn't consider the petition, saying the FCC and NTIA are exceeding their jurisdiction and expertise. The AG group was formed by Texas’ Ken Paxton, Indiana’s Curtis Hill, Louisiana’s Jeff Landy and Missouri’s Eric Schmitt. The petition clarifies 230's scope and empowers states without undermining protections for moderation of “traditionally regulated content,” they wrote: It promotes freedom of speech by “ensuring competition through transparency.”
Reject NTIA’s petition for a rulemaking on Communications Decency Act Section 230, tech, telecom and consumers groups told the FCC in comments posted Wednesday before the midnight deadline in RM-11862 (see 2008120050). The petition has no legal basis, the agency doesn’t have jurisdiction, and President Donald Trump is attempting to use the commission for political gain, they said. AT&T called for uniform liability protections.
President Donald Trump can’t forcibly remove FTC Chairman Joe Simons without cause, former agency officials told us, defending Simons as well-respected. They discussed ways Trump might seek to oust or demote the chairman, and a potential replacement. The Trump administration is reportedly seeking a replacement.
NTIA’s petition for an FCC rulemaking on Communications Decency Act Section 230 “lacks a legitimate legal basis” and would “cause serious harm to company moderation efforts,” Internet Association Deputy General Counsel Elizabeth Banker told reporters Tuesday (see 2008120050). Content moderation protects consumers, and reasonable people want platforms to take action like “removing promotion of suicide, plans for bombs and other dangerous materials, or 419 scams,” she said. The FCC lacks “authority to implement this rule under both First Amendment case law and administrative law precedent,” she added. Comments on the petition are due Wednesday.
Communications Decency Act Section 230 should be modified to even the playing field between tech companies and other third-party content providers, AT&T blogged Monday. The company will comment to the FCC Wednesday (see 2008120050), arguing “online platforms should be more accountable for, and more transparent about, the decisions they control,” wrote Executive Vice President-Regulatory and State External Affairs Joan Marsh. Congress didn’t have any way of predicting tech companies would use Section 230 as a shield from frivolous lawsuits and “every day responsibilities,” she wrote: Platform content decisions are “shrouded in obscurity, away from public view, in a world where black-box algorithms and non-negotiable terms pick winners and losers.”
Commissioner Mike O’Rielly's departure from the FCC, likely in January, could cause delays in FCC action on rules on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act if President Donald Trump is re-elected in November. Unless another Republican is approved by January, the FCC would be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Even if Chairman Ajit Pai were determined to move an NPRM he wouldn’t have the votes to do so, given the almost certain opposition of Democrats, industry officials said.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D) creates Data Privacy and Security Division, naming Sara Cable its chief; she had been AG’s Consumer Protection Division director-data privacy and security ... Telecommunications Law Professionals hires Ashley Brydone-Jack, ex-District of Columbia Superior Court clerk, as an associate.
The FCC might not be as aggressive on pirate radio enforcement and curbing cable local franchise authorities (LFAs) after Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's expected departure from his seat Jan. 3 at the latest, experts and insiders told us. Some wonder if O'Rielly will be a quieter presence on the commission in his remaining weeks; he issued no statements at its August meeting though he did for the C-band auction rules approved on circulation (see 2008060069). O'Rielly's office and the FCC didn't comment.