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September 2018

Privacy Role Sparks Debate at FTC Hearing

The debate over the right approach to privacy took center stage during the Federal Trade Commission’s inaugural hearing on competition. David Vladeck and Howard Beales, both former directors of the agency’s consumer protection bureau, clashed over whether the FTC requires a bigger stick when it comes to privacy enforcement. Vladeck argued the agency needs the power to impose civil penalties from the get-go. “I think that a civil penalty, for example, against Google or Facebook initially would have had a deterrent value,” Vladeck said. “Facebook is currently under investigation again.

House Majority Leader McCarthy Mulls Google Hearing

Two days after saying an “invite will be on its way” to Google to respond to allegations of bias against conservatives, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said the plan is still in progress. “Well, I gotta sit down and talk to them about it, but there’s a number of committees that have jurisdiction, there’s three off the top of my head, and they could come and we could make it three committees, or one committee, but they need to come and testify,” he said. According to Rep McCarthy, his office has been “in communications” with Google.

Weekly Digest

Everybody complains about the Rural Broadband Divide, but nobody does anything about it

 You’re reading the Benton Foundation’s Weekly Round-up, a recap of the biggest (or most overlooked) telecommunications stories of the week. The round-up is delivered via e-mail each Friday.

Round-Up for the Week of September 10-14, 2018

Who's In, Who's Out for DOJ Meeting on Tech

The Justice Department has received “an increased level of interest from state attorneys general” for its Sept. 25 meeting on “tech companies, competition, and free exchange of ideas.” The DOJ said it invited a bipartisan group of 24 state AGs to the meeting, which comes amid an avalanche of conservative allegations of tech company bias (which the companies firmly deny). According to a Justice Department official, that group includes Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson (R), California’s Xavier Becerra (D), Washington’s Bob Ferguson (D) and Texas’ Ken Paxton (R).

Bezos and the Elephant in the White House

Jeff Bezos finally talked about “the president.” After months of President Donald Trump berating Bezos’ two most visible companies, the Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner fired back. “It's really dangerous to demonize the media,” he said. “It's dangerous to call the media lowlifes. It's dangerous to say they're the 'enemy of the people.'" Bezos suggested President Trump take the high road and accept media scrutiny. "You don't take that job thinking you're not going to get scrutinized," he added. "You're going to get scrutinized.

2018 hopefuls set their sights on tech

Progressive candidates have laid out a series of sweeping policy proposals in their 2018 campaigns, including plans for the tech sector. With breakout Democratic candidates like New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez coming out in favor of aggressive measures to curb tech, we surveyed the landscape to gauge where other progressives stand on key issues like data privacy and antitrust. 

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