The FTC is seeking comment on a petition asking for more stringent requirements for FTC commissioner recusals and material conflicts of interest, says a notice for Thursday’s Federal Register. It could result in a higher likelihood of recusal for commissioners based on their backgrounds and prior work history. Industry groups sought the recusal of Chair Lina Khan in high-profile tech matters (see 2201110071). The FTC’s rule for commissioner disqualification should be amended to apply to enforcement proceedings and include specific procedures on time to respond to petitions, NetChoice, Americans for Prosperity, R Street Institute and several groups wrote the agency. The Hispanic Leadership Fund, the Innovation Economy Institute, the Institute for Policy Innovation, the James Madison Institute, the National Taxpayers Union and Young Voices signed. The rule should include review by the FTC ethics official and commissioners as well as “standards for determining recusal,” the petition says. Comments are due April 4.

Differences in chips funding legislation in the House and Senate aren’t “irreconcilable” and are “worthy of discussion,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Friday during a news conference at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. She was referencing the House-passed America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521) (see 2202040054). Pelosi's office didn’t comment about timing and participants for the conference committee. “We are almost there,” said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif. “We know what we already agree on, which is the majority of it, and there’s some little tweaks” and other differences. “There’s nothing there that’s going to be a deal stopper at all. ... This is going to get done.” The U.S. in 1990 had a 37% global share of semiconductor manufacturing capacity, which has fallen to 12% today, she noted. Since the bill was introduced, similar legislation has passed in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India and Europe, said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger: “They want the fabs built on their own soil.”

Communications Decency Act Section 230 doesn’t allow platforms to engage in “arbitrary discrimination” like banning users for political speech, attorneys for ex-President Donald Trump argued Tuesday in a lawsuit against YouTube in U.S. District Court in Oakland in docket 4:21-cv8009. Trump sued Facebook, Google, Twitter and their CEOs in July, claiming his suspensions after the Jan. 6 insurrection amount to illegal censorship (see 2107070065). Congress intended for Section 230 to benefit all Americans, and a First Amendment principle is that “all persons have access to places where they can speak and listen,” Trump’s team filed in response to DOJ’s brief on the constitutionality of Section 230. Trump argued the social media platforms violated the First Amendment. Platforms like YouTube act as common carriers when they “solicit and host third-party content,” they argued: That means any applications of Section 230 that “protect acts of arbitrary discrimination by Defendants would be unconstitutional.”

When CEO Nikesh Arora joined Palo Alto Networks in June 2018, its “mean time” to respond to cyberattacks was measured in days, he told an earnings call Tuesday for fiscal Q2 ended Jan. 31. “For someone who did not work in the security industry, I found that a little flabbergasting,” said Arora, who earlier had worked at SoftBank and Google. “We challenged our team internally” to convert Palo Alto’s response time to seconds or minutes “because that's the only way we're going to have a chance” to protect customers, he said. The company still sees “an evolving and complicated threat landscape,” said Arora. “We have highlighted in the past that cybersecurity is at the front and center of all conversations around risks and threats,” he said. “We believe cybersecurity will continue to become more and more relevant and important. With increased reliance on technology in the prevalence of cyberattacks, there is an ability to disrupt businesses and critical systems, making cybersecurity an area that will need continued focused investment.”

President Joe Biden should demand changes to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which discriminates against U.S. tech companies, Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill., wrote Wednesday in a letter with some 30 other members of Congress. The group noted the administration has recently engaged with the EU to revise its proposed DMA ahead of potential adoption next month. Originally announced in 2020, the DMA regulates self-preferencing and other competition issues associated with Big Tech. It establishes a "set of narrowly defined objective criteria for qualifying a large online platform" as a gatekeeper. As drafted, the DMA would “single out” American companies by restricting their activity in Europe while favoring European companies, the lawmakers wrote in their letter. The EU’s approach “unfairly targets American workers by deeming certain U.S. technology companies as ‘gatekeepers’ based on deliberately discriminatory and subjective thresholds,” they wrote. The DMA’s discriminatory aspects violate “fundamental principles” of the World Trade Organization, they argued. Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.; Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.; and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., signed. The White House didn’t comment.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is preparing to release guidance on how to identify and mitigate risks of misinformation and malware attacks, given rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine, CISA Director Jen Easterly said Friday. CISA hasn’t identified specific, credible threats to the “U.S. homeland,” but agencies and entities need to be ready for digital risk, she said during an Aspen Institute livestream. Private entities are more likely to experience threats first, so it’s important for businesses to report incidents to CISA, she said. That way the government can assess “seemingly disparate events,” she said.

New York state will make available $1.5 million in federal funding to expand telehealth for addiction treatment, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Friday. Providers can apply for up to $15,000 each from the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant to upgrade telehealth infrastructure and buy software, tablets and phones, the govenor’s office said. “Like too many New Yorkers, I know what it's like to lose a loved one to addiction. There's an empty chair at our family table where my nephew, Michael, should be," Hochul said. “New Yorkers struggling with addiction should have access to telehealth services that will provide the treatment they need.”

Texas is investigating TikTok’s “potential facilitation of human trafficking and child privacy violations,” Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced Friday. He issued two civil investigative demands. TikTok “may be complicit in child exploitation, sex trafficking, human trafficking, drug smuggling and other unimaginable horrors,” he said. The CIDs seek information on TikTok’s content moderation policies and practices, its handling of law enforcement requests and user reporting procedures for illegal activity. The company didn’t comment Friday.

Eun Young Choi will be DOJ’s first National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team director, the department announced Thursday. Choi has been a DOJ prosecutor for about 10 years and recently was senior counsel to the deputy attorney general. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite cited the “rapid innovation of digital assets and distributed ledger technologies” and its connection to cyberattacks, narcotics trafficking and money laundering. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco on Thursday called on crypto companies to “root out abuses. To those who do not, we will hold you accountable where we can.” The FBI’s new unit will combine crypto experts, blockchain analysis and virtual asset seizure, she said.

Amazon’s foreign sites were removed from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's 2021 Notorious Markets List (see 2108270030 and2101140046), which was released Thursday. The platform’s British, German, French, Italian and Spanish sites were included in the 2020 report. The report “highlights online and physical markets that reportedly engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy.” China is the top country of origin for which U.S. Customs and Border protection seize counterfeit goods, the report said. The report flagged for the first time China’s AliExpress and the WeChat e-commerce platform. The report also flagged China’s Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine. DHgate, Pinduoduo and Taobao also made the list. The report draws attention to Singapore-based Fmovies, also known as Bmovies and BFlix, as “one of the most popular websites in the world for streaming pirated copies of popular movies and TV shows.” Russian websites RuTracker, Flvto and MP3juices also made the list. The report credits Brazil’s Operation 404 for its 334 piracy website takedowns, and India for taking the torrent site TamilRockers offline. The report highlights Vietnam’s ongoing investigation of Phimmoi.net, and credits Thailand for seizing more than 100 broadcasting and streaming devices, which were used for the Fwiptv pirating service. The report focused on “the adverse impact of counterfeiting on workers involved with the manufacture of counterfeit goods,” the USTR said. The USTR recommended “labor inspectors, labor-focused organizations, workers’ rights associations, and others target counterfeit manufacturing facilities for Enforcement.”