The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday sided with Qualcomm in an FTC antitrust lawsuit against the company. In the minutes after the ruling, the company's stock rose.
Karl Herchenroeder
Karl Herchenroeder, Associate Editor, is a technology policy journalist for publications including Communications Daily. Born in Rockville, Maryland, he joined the Warren Communications News staff in 2018. He began his journalism career in 2012 at the Aspen Times in Aspen, Colorado, where he covered city government. After that, he covered the nuclear industry for ExchangeMonitor in Washington. You can follow Herchenroeder on Twitter: @karlherk
Adam Candeub will become acting NTIA administrator, the agency announced internally Monday. Candeub joined the agency as deputy assistant secretary of commerce in April (see 2005010060). Leadership has been fluid since David Redl left in May 2019. Doug Kinkoph had most recently been acting head and now returns to run the Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications. Having someone take charge at NTIA is “sorely needed,” said R Street Institute Resident Fellow-Technology and Innovation Jeffrey Westling. He noted Candeub’s strong background with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, though the agency hasn’t dealt extensively with the tech liability shield. Candeub previously sought a Section 230 update, suggesting Big Tech should follow the same rules as other regulated industries. NTIA’s role in President Donald Trump’s social media executive order is largely complete (see 2007280053), as it filed its petition for rulemaking with the FCC, Westling said. Candeub is on a leave of absence from Michigan State University, where he's a professor of law and director of the Intellectual Property, Information and Communications Law Program.
The U.S. government shouldn’t force a TikTok sale to any particular company, but the Chinese app’s data practices are an unacceptable security threat, Senate Republicans told us last week. The company is defending itself through lobbying, interviews and other public actions.
Policing political content curation by platforms like Facebook and Twitter isn’t within FTC jurisdiction, Chairman Joe Simons said Wednesday at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., asked the commission about President Donald Trump’s social media executive order (see 2008040059).
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was expected to place a hold on the Earn It Act (see 2007020050 and 2007080061), Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told us Wednesday. Wyden announced in Monday’s Congressional Record he plans to object to unanimous consent. S-3398 threatens free speech, privacy and security by magnifying the failures of anti-sex trafficking legislation passed in 2018, Wyden said: “By allowing any individual State to set laws for internet content, this bill would create massive uncertainty, both for strong encryption and constitutionally protected speech online.” He voiced support for providing more resources to law enforcement. This means the bill won’t pass by unanimous consent, Blumenthal said: “It will have to be scheduled for the floor and probably not before we go on recess. I know Sen. [Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.] is very interested in pushing it, as am I, and there’s a lot of support for it, as reflected in the” unanimous Senate Judiciary Committee vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., shouldn’t schedule a vote, eight free market groups wrote Tuesday, NetChoice, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and FreedomWorks among them. “Cross-ideological agreement is rare in the modern age, yet conservatives, progressives, and moderates are united by concerns about the EARN IT Act,” said NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo.
Expect the Senate Commerce Committee to question the FTC on how it's responding to President Donald Trump’s social media executive order (see 2007280053) when commissioners testify Wednesday, senators said in interviews. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said he’s more concerned about political influence at the FCC. A day earlier, Trump withdrew the renomination of Commissioner Michael O’Rielly (see 2008030072).
The House Antitrust Subcommittee’s hearing with Big Tech CEOs showed a glaring partisan divide, so it’s unlikely the Judiciary Committee will deliver a bipartisan report, antitrust attorneys told us. Public Knowledge is more hopeful: Policy Counsel Alex Petros said both parties delivered well-researched claims against the industry at the hearing (see 2007290063). Attorneys said the evidence focused more on harm to competitors, rather than consumers, which doesn’t make a strong case.
House Commerce Committee Republicans on Monday requested a classified State Department briefing on TikTok, days after President Donald Trump threatened to ban the Chinese social media platform from the U.S. Microsoft is continuing talks to buy TikTok, after CEO Satya Nadella discussed it with Trump, it said Sunday: “Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns." It's committed to acquiring TikTok "subject to" a complete review, it said. House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, Ore.; House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, La.; and House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Wash., raised concerns about the video app and alleged ties to a Chinese company doing secret face recognition and data harvesting. Walden and Rodgers cited previous complaints about TikTok on children’s privacy, corporate governance and COVID-19. Banning TikTok would threaten U.S. jobs and the livelihood of American content creators reliant on the app, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro said: “In a week where many policymakers have called for more competition in the tech sector, undermining one of the fastest-growing social media platforms would be a step in the wrong direction.” ACT|The App Association said it's encouraged by ongoing negotiations for Microsoft to buy TikTok: “While this is an ongoing negotiation with no guaranteed outcome, we strongly urge policymakers to avoid a government intervention in banning TikTok that could result in an unprecedented geofencing of access to an online service used by 50 million Americans a day and create significant disruption to the app economy.” The State Department didn’t comment. The Microsoft blog suggests Trump “at least tentatively blessed the deal,” said Cowen analyst Paul Gallant. The deal could strengthen Facebook’s argument against antitrust scrutiny, and it might invite more attention on Microsoft from policymakers in Washington, he said.
House Antitrust Subcommittee Democrats presented evidence Wednesday of anticompetitive behavior by Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, during a hearing with their CEOs. Republicans hammered executives with claims of anti-conservative bias. All four executives appeared virtually.
Legislators so far are reacting along party lines to NTIA’s petition (see 2007270070) that the FCC help crack down on social media. Even GOP lawmakers who were somewhat supportive cautioned regulators not to run afoul of the First Amendment.