Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other GOP lawmakers are pressing President Donald Trump to reverse course and reinstate his renomination of FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, officials told us. Trump abruptly withdrew O’Rielly’s renomination Monday (see 2008030072). The decision drew significant scrutiny amid perceptions it’s tied to O’Rielly’s reluctance to say he wants the FCC to clarify its rules in response to Trump’s May executive order on Communications Decency Act Section 230. Senate Republicans are making their case for O’Rielly partly because they think it would be difficult for the Senate to confirm a replacement this year (see 2008040061).
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).
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.
Prime Day 2020 will be in Q4, Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky confirmed on Thursday evening's Q2 earnings call. It's investing in “meaningfully higher” year-over-year square footage growth for fulfillment center space, sort centers and delivery stations due to come online in late Q3 into Q4. “We need to build the inventory more for Q4, and we've run out of space,” he said.
A draft order circulated to eighth-floor offices Thursday would reduce a Dec. 1 increase of the Lifeline program’s minimum service standard for mobile broadband. Currently, the MSS is to go from 3 GB monthly to 11.75 GB monthly on that date. The draft would instead shift it to 4.5 GB per month. It will “permanently clean up the mess” from the 2016 order that instituted the formula leading to the larger increase, Chairman Ajit Pai said. The agency waived a similar increase, from 3 GB to 8.75, in 2019. The metric has to rise to keep up with consumer data use, but increases that are too large prevent providers from keeping Lifeline affordable, Pai 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.
Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., wants any Digital Millennium Copyright Act revamp to codify existing DMCA fair use exceptions and add potential new such categories. Tillis has been working on potential update language with an eye to releasing a draft in December (see 2006090063). Ranking member Chris Coons, D-Del., is doubtful about the legislative path forward this Congress given limited legislative days (see 2006230068).
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.
CTA’s decision to scratch CES 2021 as a physical event gives the association five months and nine days to craft an online experience that outdoes that of most virtual trade shows run during the pandemic, officials said. “Moving to an all-digital format for CES is simply the right thing to do,” said CEO Gary Shapiro by video. “Our exhibitors partners and thought leaders will now have the time to plan, to think, to create compelling ways to engage digital audiences from around the world.”