S-1693 to help website providers police online sex-trafficking appears headed for approval in a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee markup. Tech experts say the bill still creates legal uncertainties and won’t do much to stop bad actors. The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) bill got a boost Friday (see 1711030067) with approval of a manager’s amendment tightening definitions of what constitutes a “knowing” violation of the law, and clarifying that states could bring civil suits in federal court for violations of federal law. The amendment prompted the Internet Association, which previously had concerns (see 1709180044), to back the bill.
Section 230
Oracle topped early Q3 tech sector lobbying disclosures Friday, though many tech and telecom firms had not reported their own totals at our deadline. Oracle spent $3.82 million on lobbying during the quarter, a 90 percent increase from the same period last year. CTIA led industry groups on reported spending $2.14 million in the quarter, down from $2.77 million during the same period last year. Six groups claimed $240,000 in income for lobbying on CTIA’s behalf, and Les Brownlee & Associates reported $30,000 for lobbying for CTIA on behalf of top carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. Comcast topped early Q3 communications sector lobbying expenditures, though it hadn't filed its own report yet. Thirty outside firms reported $1.668 million in lobbying income from the company.
White House Thursday confirmation that President Donald Trump intends to fill the three vacant FTC commissioner seats, including to make Paul Weiss antitrust lawyer Joseph Simons permanent chairman (see 1710190001), likely means the FTC can move forward with its long-expected shift toward GOP-sought policy goals in tech and telecom, industry officials and lobbyists told us. The commission has faced a 1-1 deadlock since January under Republican acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen and Democratic Commissioner Terrell McSweeny.
There was bipartisan support during a House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee hearing (see here) Tuesday for action to combat online sex trafficking, but no clear consensus on the right legislative path. Ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich, pushed former Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., to defend his opposition to a carve-out to current law to make it harder for criminals to fall back on Communications Decency Act Section 230 immunity protections for websites and platforms. IBM backed a related bill.
Former Republican Rep. Chris Cox, an author of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, will be among witnesses testifying to a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Tuesday on online sex trafficking and CDA. Others are Evan Engstrom, executive director of policy, advocacy and research group Engine; U.S. Naval Academy assistant professor Jeff Kosseff; and Catholic University law professor Mary Leary. The hearing will focus on controversial House and Senate legislation that would amend Section 230 as a means to curb online sex trafficking (see 1709190065). The 10 a.m. Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations Subcommittee hearing will be in 2141 Rayburn.
Edge and tech heavyweights face growing policymaker scrutiny and regulatory risk, analysts and others said Monday, but most doubted there's a near-term threat of major U.S. government intervention that would realign the internet marketplace. "It is remarkable how quickly the discussion has changed, putting large tech companies on the defensive," emailed Doug Brake, telecom policy senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
Senate Commerce Committee members and others signaled a continued willingness Tuesday to work toward a compromise version of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (S-1693) amid sometimes emotional testimony. Much of what lawmakers and witnesses said at the hearing revealed a continued divide over S-1693 and House companion HR-1865, which would amend Communications Decency Act Section 230. HR-1865/S-1693 has drawn substantial opposition from the tech and civil liberties communities, which perceive the bill as undermining protections for online platforms that host user-generated content and make them liable for information posted by third parties on their sites (see 1708010011 and 1708110022).
The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), which seeks to clarify Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 1709070033), is "sufficiently narrow" to help child sex trafficking victims get justice and help civil attorneys and state attorneys general hold entities that participated in the trafficking responsible, said prepared testimony provided by National Center for Missing & Exploited Children General Counsel Yiota Souras. She will speak at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday on S-1693 alongside Santa Clara University School of Law professor Eric Goldman and Internet Association General Counsel Abigail Slater, both with concerns, and California AG Xavier Becerra.
The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act that would change a key part of the Communications Decency Act will get a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday. Witnesses include bill opponents Santa Clara University School of Law professor Eric Goldman and Internet Association General Counsel Abigail Slater, and supporter National Center for Missing & Exploited Children General Counsel Yiota Souras. Since introduced in early August, S-1693 has been a lightning rod for the tech and civil liberties communities, which claimed the proposed change to Section 230 would undermine protections for online platforms that host user-generated content and make them liable for information posted by third parties on their sites (see 1708010011, 1708110022 and 1708110022). "With the threat of overwhelming criminal and civil liability hanging over their heads, Internet platforms would likely turn to automated filtering of users’ speech in a big way," blogged Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Technologist Jeremy Gillula and activist Elliot Harmon Wednesday. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Rob Portman, R-Ohio, sponsored the bipartisan bill, which attracted 27 co-sponsors. He led a nearly two-year probe into Backpage.com that in January resulted in a scathing report alleging the online classified advertiser was complicit in facilitating underage sex trafficking on the internet (see 1701100001). Experts who follow the case said it's unclear if DOJ is pursuing charges against Backpage. CoStar Group, Oracle and 21st Century Fox are tech or multimedia companies that back the bill. In a letter released Wednesday by Portman, 21st Century Fox's Chip Smith, executive vice president-global public affairs, said the "narrow and tailored legislation" properly targets bad actors. He said the bill's critics are using "hyperbole and scare tactics" to say its enactment would end free speech and innovation on the Internet. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., sponsored companion bipartisan legislation (HR-1865) that garnered 126 co-sponsors. The 10:30 a.m. Senate Commerce hearing will be in 253 Russell.
Google is manipulating search results over the issue of proposed legislation that would change Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 1708010011, 1708110022 and 1709070033), returning links that favor information from organizations that oppose the bill, alleged Consumer Watchdog in a Monday news release. When searching for "Section 230," the consumer group said three of the top four links returned under the news tab were articles from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which opposes the bill. But competing search engines like Bing and DuckDuckGo provided "links to articles presenting all sides of the issue," CW said. Google appears "to be stacking the deck to favor their own purposes,” said CW Privacy Project Director John Simpson, whose organization backs the bill. "This claim is completely false," a company spokeswoman responded. "We have never re-ranked search results to manipulate political sentiment. We always strive to provide our users with the most authoritative, useful, relevant answers to their queries. A site’s ranking on Google Search is determined using hundreds of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query." Proponents say the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (S-1693) would help victims get justice without affecting tech innovation, while the tech industry, including Google, and civil liberties groups say the bill would hold tech companies liable for user-generated content without curbing online sex trafficking.