Elon Musk on Monday posted an explicit meme in response to warnings from an EU official about European content moderation obligations. Musk published the post, on his platform X, saying, “To be honest, I really wanted to respond with this Tropic Thunder meme, but I would NEVER do something so rude & irresponsible!” Earlier on Monday, European Commissioner-Internal Market and Services Thierry Breton, in a letter to Musk, urged him to be mindful of the platform’s obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act as the billionaire and X prepared for that evening's live interview with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. “We are monitoring the potential risks in the EU associated with the dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political -- or societal -- events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections,” Thierry wrote. X is already the subject of a European Commission investigation for possible DSA violations. The EC launched that inquiry in December, and on July 12 issued preliminary findings related to X’s “blue checkmarks” (see 2407120001). There are also two other probes, an EC spokesperson said at a briefing Tuesday. She noted the DSA doesn’t tackle specific comments but sets due diligence requirements that very large platforms active in the EU must follow. The EC intervenes in cases of systemic issues only. As such, she couldn't comment on Musk’s interview with Trump, the spokesperson said. Breton’s letter to Musk expressed general concerns and observations about the interview under the DSA and wasn’t meant to interfere in U.S. elections, she added.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump touted his accomplishments in deregulating business sectors during his interview Monday night with X CEO Elon Musk on that platform. In addition, Trump praised Musk’s approach to free speech and AI.
DOJ is likely to seek a ban against Google’s default search deals with companies like Apple in the department’s search market monopoly lawsuit against the platform, legal experts on opposite sides of the case said last week. Whether the department can successfully force Google to sell off Chrome or Android is an open question, they said.
Backers of resurrecting the FCC’s affordable connectivity program are tempering their expectations about how much a pair of July developments may increase Congress’ appetite for injecting stopgap funding into the lapsed initiative this year. The Senate Commerce Committee approved a surprise amendment July 31 to the Proper Leadership to Align Networks for Broadband Act (S-2238) that would allocate $7 billion to ACP for FY 2024 (see 2407310048). Former President Donald Trump earlier that month selected Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, a Republican who backed ACP funding in the face of opposition from party leaders, as his running mate (see 2407150062).
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez (D) is working with state lawmakers on legislation aimed at holding social media platforms more accountable for disseminating deepfake porn, he told us Wednesday.
The rise of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrats' presidential nominee should have few implications for FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, industry observers agree. If anything, Rosenworcel’s ties to Harris are likely stronger than they are to President Joe Biden, they said. Biden waited until October 2021, more than nine months after his inauguration, to designate Rosenworcel as the first woman to chair the agency on a permanent basis (see 2110260001).
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democrats’ 2024 presidential ticket, enters the national stage with a record of pro-rural broadband action but is largely a blank slate on other tech and telecom matters, observers said in interviews. Harris announced Walz as her pick Tuesday after a two-week vetting process in which other governors with stronger broadband policy backgrounds were in contention (see 2407260001). Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the Republicans’ vice presidential nominee, has been a leading congressional advocate for injecting funding into the FCC’s lapsed affordable connectivity program (see 2407150062).
Forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a U.S. ban is a legitimate response when facing a national security threat and doesn’t violate free speech rights, former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Thomas Feddo, former Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. chairman, argued in an amicus brief filed Friday (see 2406280020). President Joe Biden signed the TikTok divestment measure as part of Congress’ foreign aid package in April (see 2404240060). TikTok and ByteDance are challenging the law's constitutionality. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia scheduled oral argument for Sept. 16 (docket 24-1113). The divestiture policies are “nothing new or extraordinary,” Pai and Feddo wrote. Congress has exercised such power frequently in recent years, especially against Chinese telecom companies like Huawei and ZTE, whose threat to U.S. citizens is “endemic," they said: It’s “ludicrous to suggest, as TikTok does, that the U.S. Government cannot prefer divestiture as a policy option, or that it must wait for Americans to be compromised before it can act." The Biden and Trump administrations see TikTok as a national security threat in view of its mass collection of data and its vulnerability to Chinese surveillance, they said. The new law doesn’t discriminate against individual speakers or content on TikTok and doesn’t regulate speech, they said: It “targets ByteDance’s conduct and is based on the government’s longstanding concerns about that conduct. The Act fits comfortably alongside the existing regulatory structures ... that similarly aim to tackle evolving national security risk.”
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s Project 2025 ties likely won’t damage his chances of becoming the agency's chair if Donald Trump is elected president in November, even though the Trump campaign has distanced itself from the project (see 2407110054). Commissioner Nathan Simington is listed as a project adviser but didn’t write a chapter, as Carr did, or play a more public role.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel vowed she will continue fighting for the commission's net neutrality order following the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that stayed the rules Thursday (see 2408010065). "The American public wants an internet that is fast, open and fair," and Thursday's decision "is a setback, but we will not give up the fight for net neutrality," Rosenworcel said.