BIDEN TEES UP TECH TALK IN STATE OF THE UNION: President Joe Biden will give his first State of the Union address tonight. While the crisis in Ukraine will likely take center stage, senior White House officials — who spoke to reporters on Monday on the condition of anonymity — did lay out a few tech policy issues the president plans to address: — Microchip manufacturing: A senior White House official said the president will tout a plan by chipmaker Intel to invest $20 billion in a Columbus, Ohio chip-manufacturing facility, and will highlight the project's expected creation of 7,000 construction jobs and another 3,000 ongoing jobs once the plant is operational. Biden will also note that within the last year, companies announced more than $200 billion in investments for microchips, electric vehicles, batteries and critical mineral production and manufacturing in the U.S. — Competitiveness call to arms: As he's done repeatedly, Biden will call on Congress to send a bipartisan competitiveness package to his desk as soon as possible. The House and Senate have yet to officially kick off the conference process for their rival competitiveness bills (H.R. 4521 and S. 1260 ). Both bills contain $52 billion in appropriated funds for the microchip industry and a slate of provisions to boost American R&D, trade and foreign policy in relation to China. But the two chambers remain at odds over specifics, and it has so far proven tough to get the conference process started. — Broadband buildout: A White House official said Biden plans to highlight how the infrastructure law will help provide high-speed internet "to every family in America." The law (H.R. 3684) sets aside $65 billion to fund broadband projects across the country, including in rural and underserved areas. But much of that money can't be sent to the states until the Federal Communications Commission finishes updating its broadband-coverage maps — a process that has stretched on for months and which still doesn't have a firm deadline for completion. — Antitrust nod? White House officials say Biden also plans to talk in depth about promoting competition in order to lower prices across a variety of U.S. industries, but did not specifically mention the largest U.S. tech firms. The Biden administration has struggled to react to congressional efforts to alter antitrust laws so they can better target the largest tech firms, particularly as it seeks to defend those same firms from aggressive antitrust legislation in Europe. TECH STRUGGLES TO COMBAT SPANISH DISINFO FROM RUSSIA: The Kremlin is having trouble controlling the narrative on the English-speaking internet about its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. But disinformation emanating from Moscow is still spreading across corners of the Spanish-speaking online ecosystem. — RT en Español thriving: Over the past week RT en Español, Russia's state-run Spanish-language news platform, received nearly double the engagement on Facebook compared to its daily average over the past month. Jacobo Licona, the disinformation lead at polling and research firm Equis Labs, told Rebecca that Spanish-language posts spreading Kremlin-backed disinformation and propaganda justifying Russia's invasion have spread widely on Facebook and YouTube. Kevin McAlister, a spokesperson for Facebook, said the company is removing Spanish-language content that could put people in imminent danger, but said they're otherwise reducing the distribution of Russian disinformation so fewer people will see it. — Blind spot? The major tech platforms have so far focused their efforts on defeating Russian disinformation in Europe — on Monday, for example, Meta executive Nick Clegg announced it would restrict access to RT and Sputnik (another Russian propaganda outlet) across its platforms in the European Union. But similarly sweeping efforts have not spread to majority Spanish-speaking countries in the Western hemisphere or platforms with large numbers of Spanish-speaking users in the United States, and Spanish-language Russian propaganda and misinformation continues to be widely shared. "Everything they do in English should be mimicked in Spanish," said Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), when asked whether the platforms should do more to restrict the spread of Spanish-language disinformation emanating from the Kremlin. (Read more of Rebecca's report in today's Recast newsletter when it publishes this afternoon.) INDUSTRY BALKS AT TECH BILLS AHEAD OF HOUSE HEARING: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce took aim at three bills targeting the tech industry slated for debate at a House Energy and Commerce hearing this morning — an effort that comes in parallel to a separate effort by the online advertising lobby to head off H.R. 6416, a bill that would prohibit most forms of targeted advertising that utilize personal user data. — Chamber laments lack of privacy bill: In a letter sent this morning to leadership of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, Neil Bradley, the Chamber's chief policy officer, said he was "disappointed" lawmakers have failed to focus on consumer privacy legislation as opposed to the slate of bills under consideration today. In addition to H.R. 6416 , Bradley also objected to H.R. 6580, which would require the Federal Trade Commission to impose stricter oversight on some uses of algorithms, and H.R. 6796, which would create a Bureau of Digital Services Oversight and Safety at the FTC. Bradley said the bills "have the potential to harm the nation's vibrant e-commerce systems, and stifle innovation and competition in crucial emerging technologies like artificial intelligence." In recent months the Chamber has fought with increasing fervor against a flood of tech bills flowing from Capitol Hill. — Advertisers take aim: The online advertising lobby is also expressing its intense displeasure with H.R. 6416, the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act. In a sprawling letter sent to subcommittee leadership this morning, Lartease Tiffith, the head of public policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, said the "draconian" legislation would "disrupt and upend" online advertising, which he called "the economic engine supporting the vibrant and open Internet." The Internet for Growth Coalition, an IAB-led initiative, also said they'd coordinated a letter-writing campaign by 3,700 small businesses and creators that fear increased advertising costs as a result of the bill. Brendan Thomas, the group's executive director, told MT that many members of Congress may not understand the importance of data-driven advertising to small businesses and creators. — Schakowsky unbowed: In opening remarks shared with MT, subcommittee chair Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) plans to tout her co-sponsorship, along with Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), of the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act (H.R. 6416). She also plans to highlight the continued threat of disinformation, allegedly amplified by the tech platforms, in the current conflict in Ukraine and in other crises around the globe. "We are done turning a blind eye while billionaires build economic empires off feeding Americans an ever-increasing diet of disinformation," Schakowsky plans to say this morning. None of the three bills under attack today by industry lobbyists have Republican co-sponsors, making their path to Biden's desk precarious — particularly if and when they reach the Senate.
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