DOJ’s decision to withhold support of long-held digital provisions in trade agreements undermines U.S. democratic values, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a letter to Antitrust Division Chief Jonathan Kanter on Thursday. The Chamber questioned the division’s role in the removal of a digital trade chapter in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). The organization asked Kanter to explain specifically what his office “finds objectionable” within the competition chapter of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that “justified a complete gutting of those provisions in IPEF.” The Chamber asked what role DOJ might have played in U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s decision to abandon digital trade provisions at the World Trade Organization. DOJ didn’t comment.
Monthly internet service prices are highest in Norway ($79.40 monthly), with Iceland second ($62.10) and Russia least expensive ($5.60), edging out Ukraine ($6.10), according to a ranking of 85 nations by Polish e-commerce platform Picodi published last week. Internet service in the U.S. averages $50 a month, making it the sixth-most expensive, Picodi said.
New York is allocating $3 million to train higher education professionals to identify misinformation and extremist content following an “uptick in anti-Muslim and antisemitic rhetoric” on social media, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced Tuesday. The state will spend $3 million to expand its threat assessment and management program to all state college campuses, she said. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, there has been a “400 percent increase in threats against Jews, Muslims and Arabs,” she said. “I will not allow our state to be defined by the angry few that peddle in hate and violence.”
The FTC on Tuesday unanimously voted to authorize a compulsory process in nonpublic investigations of products and services that use or claim to be produced using artificial intelligence. The commission voted 3-0 to approve a 10-year omnibus resolution the agency said will “streamline FTC staff’s ability to issue civil investigative demands,” a form of compulsory process similar to a subpoena. CIDs can be used to collect documents, information and testimony in consumer protection and competition probes.
Elon Musk’s “promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate” on X is “abhorrent” and “unacceptable,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said Friday. Musk earlier in the week agreed with a post on his platform X claiming Jewish communities “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” Musk responded to the post, saying, “You have said the actual truth.” Bates said it’s “unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of Antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust.” President Joe Biden and the administration will “continue to condemn Antisemitism at every turn.” IBM suspended advertising on the platform Friday. IBM "has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation," the company said. Apple, Comcast, NBCUniversal and the European Commission also reportedly suspended advertising. They didn’t comment Friday. X responded to a request for comment Friday with an automatic reply: “Busy now, please check back later.” X CEO Linda Yaccarino said Thursday the platform has been “extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There's no place for it anywhere in the world -- it's ugly and wrong. Full stop.”
Sam Altman is out as CEO of OpenAI, the company’s board of directors announced Friday. The decision to remove him follows the board's “deliberative” review, it said. The board said it concluded Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.” Altman has made several high-profile appearances on Capitol Hill as CEO (see 2305170045 and 2309130061). Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO, the board said.
Requiring platforms to verify age forces businesses to collect sensitive information in conflict with data minimization principles, the Computer & Communications Industry Association told NTIA in comments Thursday in docket 230926-0233. NTIA requested comment on risks associated with youth mental health and privacy related to social media use. CCIA urged policymakers not to adopt burdensome age-verification regulations and instead focus on passing a federal privacy law. “Any further government measures should be tailored to address specific harms and encourage participation from all stakeholders, keeping in mind who is best equipped to address the issue,” President Matt Schruers said. “Age-specific regulations that require sites to collect and maintain additional sensitive data on more users to show compliance are counterproductive.” CCIA recommended policymakers find ways to increase resources for law enforcement agencies policing crimes against children. Numbers show that convictions are lagging behind a gradual increase in reports of child sex abuse material, NetChoice said in its comments. NetChoice cited statistics from the U.S. Sentencing Commission showing that reporting of CSAM jumped 18.8% between 2021 and 2020, but the number of offenders remained flat for the previous five years. NetChoice noted that age-verification laws in California and Arkansas have been deemed “unconstitutional attempts to regulate online speech.”
The FTC lacks the authority to regulate copyright matters related to AI-generated content, tech groups told the commission Thursday. In comments earlier this month, the FTC told the Copyright Office AI-generated activity may prompt FTC enforcement against unfair competition and unfair or deceptive practices (see 2311080038). None of the FTC’s authorizing statutes mentions copyright, and the CO’s statutes don’t mention FTC authority, said TechFreedom Associate Counsel Andy Jung during the FTC’s open meeting. The CO doesn’t list the FTC as one of its enforcement partners, he noted, saying the commission “has no expertise or authority related to copyright.” Chamber of Progress Legal Advocacy Counsel Jess Miers said the FTC erroneously supports a licensing framework that would hinder the free and fair use of publicly available works. Interpretation of copyright law falls within the jurisdiction of the courts, not within the scope of FTC Act Section 5 enforcement, she said. Copyright law has traditionally recognized the “fair use of intermediate copying” for activities such as search indexing and browsing, and this logically extends to AI model training, she said. Benjamin Harbakk, a game developer, urged the FTC to help content creators whose work is copied and sold without permission. AI generators can mimic and steal content, and thousands of pieces of artwork can be created in an hour or less, he said. The original creators have no recourse aside from lengthy legal processes associated with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, he said. Chair Lina Khan didn’t address public comments on copyright but said voice-cloning scams are an agency focus. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., provided anecdotal evidence of scammers targeting military families with voice clones of service members. She urged the FTC and FCC to act. Voice cloning scams have the potential to get much worse, and consumers often aren’t able to decipher what’s AI-generated, said Khan: The FTC will continue working closely with its government partners to enforce against voice-cloning scams.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai should reconsider her decision to “abandon important bipartisan digital trade proposals at the World Trade Organization,” Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill., wrote the USTR on Thursday (see 2311080043). DelBene and LaHood signed the letter with 36 other members of Congress, including Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.; Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; and Adrian Smith, R-Neb. USTR didn’t properly consult Congress before abandoning the digital trade provisions, they said. They raised concerns about China’s Digital Silk Road Initiative, which “permits censorship, surveillance, human and worker rights abuses, forced technology transfers, and data flow restrictions. The “void created” by USTR’s decision will “harm American workers, companies, security, and innovation, while benefitting our largest competitors in the digital space,” they said. USTR didn’t comment.
The Wisconsin State Assembly on Tuesday passed privacy legislation that would let state residents opt out of targeted ad-related data collection. Introduced by Rep. Shannon Zimmerman (R), AB-466 passed by voice vote and awaits Senate consideration. The bill would allow consumers to request and delete information held by social media platforms, apps and websites. It includes a 30-day right to cure. Violators face $7,500 fines per violation.