Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Wednesday she's talking to a range of lawmakers seeking potential changes to an amended version of her draft Spectrum and National Security Act after the panel pulled Cantwell’s bill and 12 others from a planned Wednesday markup session Tuesday night (see 2404300072). The potential for the spectrum bill to make it into the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act “got precluded weeks ago,” Cantwell told reporters. The Senate voted 89-10 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the FAA bill as a substitute for Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (HR-3935). Lawmakers are still eyeing other vehicles for allocating stopgap money to keep the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program running through the remainder of the year. Those proposals include a bid from Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, that would attach an amendment to the FAA package appropriating ACP $7 billion (see 2405010055).
Social Media
Social media platforms are facing intense scrutiny over how they collect, share and monetize user data. As new state and federal laws focus on age verification, parental controls and transparency requirements, social media companies face legal risks around algorithmic targeting, third-party tracking and children's safety. This page follows key legislation, investigations and lawsuits shaping privacy practices for major social platforms.
NetChoice urged Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) to veto a bill requiring age-verification for social media use. In a Monday letter, the tech industry group predicted that HB-1891 “would ultimately be struck down in court as unconstitutional.” But Lee has supported the bill, which would require parental consent for kids younger than 18 on social networks. The legislature approved HB-1891 earlier this month (see 2404160019).
The House on Monday passed legislation requiring that social media platforms report activity related to trafficking and criminal enticement of children. Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Reps. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., and Susie Lee, D-Nev., introduced the Report Act. It requires that platforms flag activity for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Currently, companies must report child sexual abuse material only. The bill passed the Senate in December and now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk. The House approved the measure by voice vote. “Children are increasingly looking at screens, and the reality is that the internet and social media leave more innocent kids at risk of online exploitation,” Blackburn said in a statement. “Under this new law, big tech companies will now be required to report when children are being trafficked, groomed or enticed by predators.” The bill will ensure “tech companies are held accountable to report and remove child sex abuse material and to strengthen protection for kids online,” said Ossoff. NetChoice State & Federal Affairs Director Amy Bos called it an “important” piece of legislation “designed to help law enforcement more effectively stop online predators and provide additional support and resources for victims of these horrific crimes.”
The White House doesn’t want a TikTok ban, its goal is protecting the privacy of American users, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday. She and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held a news briefing on the foreign aid package President Joe Biden signed into law Wednesday (see 2404240060). “This is not a ban” of the popular Chinese-owned social media app, Jean-Pierre said. "This is about divestment. This is about our national security. We are not saying that ... we do not want Americans to use TikTok. ... We want to make sure that Americans are protected.” Sullivan was asked if Biden’s campaign or other political entities should use TikTok. He said the administration is focused on implementing the new law in a manner consistent with its national security justification. “I'm going to let campaigns decide for themselves what they're going to do.”
The Senate Commerce Committee confirmed Thursday the panel plans to mark up the draft Spectrum and National Security Act and five other tech and telecom-focused bills during a Wednesday executive session, as expected (see 2404240074). The 108-page draft measure from committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., would restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority through Sept. 30, 2029, also as expected (see 2403210063). The proposal also provides a new vehicle for allocating stopgap funding for the commission’s ailing affordable connectivity program amid a delay in advancing a separate House-side bid to force a floor vote on providing that money, lobbyists told us.
TikTok will challenge the newly approved “unconstitutional” law forcing ByteDance to sell the platform, it said in a statement Wednesday as President Joe Biden signed the measure.
Georgia will stop kids younger than 16 from getting social media accounts without parental consent. Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a mandatory age-verification bill (SB-351) on Tuesday despite tech industry groups seeking a veto (see 2404020055). “As social media has taken more and more room in our young people’s lives, we have seen increases in mental health struggles and other negative behaviors and attitudes,” Kemp said. “We cannot continue to sit by and do nothing as young Georgians develop addictions and disorders and suffer at the hands of online antagonists.” However, NetChoice General Counsel Carl Szabo said the law “breaches Georgians’ privacy, endangers security, violates constitutional rights, and creates a one-size-fits all ‘solution’ that erases parents.”
Forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok is the right move and will withstand legal challenges, Senate Democrats and Republicans told us Tuesday as the chamber cleared the first procedural hurdle in approving the provision in the FY 2024 national security appropriations supplemental package (see 2404220049 and 2404190042).
California state and local enforcers could seek injunctive relief for digital discrimination under modification to a bill by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D). The Assembly Judiciary Committee approved AB-2239 with the amendment at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday. The panel and the Senate Judiciary Committee also considered multiple bills on algorithms and social media.
The Senate Commerce Committee is eyeing a May 1 vote on the to-be-filed Spectrum and National Security Act from panel Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., lobbyists told us. A general notice on the Senate Commerce markup session was online Wednesday night but the committee hadn’t formally announced its agenda. It wasn’t certain Wednesday night whether the Spectrum and National Security Act would actually be part of the meeting. The executive session will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. There are five other telecom and tech-focused bills on the docket: the Rural Broadband Protection Act (S-275), Network Equipment Transparency Act (S-690), Protecting Kids on Social Media Act (S-1291), Create AI Act (S-2714) and Future of AI Innovation Act (S-4178).