'BIG TECH'S' PATRIOTIC DUTY?— As the country prepares for the Russian cyberattacks President Joe Biden warns are coming, some of Big Tech's biggest critics are looking to seize on that threat to needle the top platforms. A report released this morning claims that Google, Amazon, Meta and Apple have left the country vulnerable to Russian aggression by "refusing to work with United States military and intelligence officials in developing next-generation artificial intelligence and preparing for cyber attacks." It's an unusual argument, since at least some of the companies named in the report maintain significant ties to the U.S. government and military, including on AI and cybersecurity. Google wants to bid on major Pentagon cloud computing projects, and Amazon already has similar contracts sewn up. But the effort does showcase the "campaign-style" tactics of the Tech Oversight Project — a nonprofit launched in January that's funded by the Omidyar Network (bankrolled by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar) and the Economic Security Project, a nonprofit led by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. —Tech giants respond: Google spokesperson Ted Ladd called the report's claims "flat wrong." In addition to providing cloud computing services to the U.S. government, the company also partnered in February with the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit and last year announced $10 billion in cybersecurity investments. Apple, Amazon and Meta spokespeople did not respond on the record. But Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was a commissioner on the government's National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, and the company's cloud computing wing touts its ties to the Pentagon directly on its website. Meta participated in a White House summit on software security this January. And Google also has researchers dedicated to studying and warning about ongoing nation-state campaigns (as does Microsoft, which wasn't named in the report). —Is all that enough? In an email to MT, Kyle Morse, a Tech Oversight Project spokesperson, suggested that even if the tech platforms are partnering with the U.S. government to secure vulnerable systems and boost AI development, the expansive reach of their products across most facets of daily life means they could still be doing more. It's a novel line of attack for progressive critics of Google, who had previously focused efforts on shaming Google for working with the military. —Zooming out: The tech lobby has repeatedly seized on congressional concerns about Chinese research advances to argue that antitrust efforts targeting the largest tech platforms would undermine the companies' R&D efforts and weaken America's security. Today's report from the Tech Oversight Project appears similar to that effort, this time seizing on anxiety surrounding the threat from Russia to attack the big tech companies. THE FCC PICK WE'RE STILL WAITING ON — Biden has yet to announce his pick for inspector general for the FCC. That position, which is meant to audit FCC spending and investigate potential fraud and abuse, is set to assume new significance, with billions of dollars in pandemic relief and infrastructure cash now flowing into the agency. — Law or guideline? Wednesday marked four years since enactment of a bipartisan law leaving it to the White House to nominate an FCC inspector general, a bid to change a decades-old process whereby the FCC chair simply appointed the watchdog internally. But there still hasn't been a Senate-confirmed FCC IG. (Former President Donald Trump did nominate a candidate, but they failed to clear a December 2020 floor vote.) Greg Walden, the former Republican head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wants the Biden administration to act. "It was never about any particular person — it was about a process we thought could be made better," Walden told John, adding that the position is particularly important now, "when you look at how much money is going to get washed through" the FCC. — Seat warmer? Longtime FCC staffer David Hunt has served as the agency's IG for the last decade. He hasn't exactly been idle — last year Hunt launched a social media crusade to root out waste, fraud and abuse, and earlier this month he issued an advisory warning that telecom providers may be deceiving users of the FCC's low-income Lifeline program. — Accountability groups are watching: Liz Hempowicz, the public policy director at the Project on Government Oversight, told John it's not uncommon to see White House inaction on these positions. But installing a Senate-confirmed FCC watchdog would bring "a certain level of gravitas," she said: "The Senate, particularly, views those inspectors general as a little bit more independent, a little bit more accountable to Congress, a little bit more of a partner." FIRST IN MT: GOOGLE GEARS UP FOR THE MIDTERMS: From ongoing domestic disinformation campaigns about "stolen elections" being pushed at the highest levels of U.S. politics, including by Trump, to a desperate Kremlin that may be emboldened to take risks after its stumbles in Ukraine, the tech platforms have their work cut out for them headed into November. With that in mind, Laurie Richardson, the search giant's head of trust and safety, today announced additional steps (and rehashed some old ones) that the company plans to pursue to help secure the midterm elections: — Ballotpedia partnership: Google will work with Ballotpedia, an online compendium of information on federal, state and local politics and elections in the United States, to help users "quickly find authoritative information" about upcoming elections. When users type in queries about the date of state primaries, for example, Richardson said that information should appear at the top of Google search results. The company also plans to "surface authoritative voices" about the election on YouTube, which Google also owns, and to make it easier for third-party app developers to create tools for voters who seek election-related information. — Protecting election workers and addressing disinfo: Google said it will enroll high-risk campaign and election workers in its advanced protection program , and will continue to support existing election cybersecurity projects via its Campaign Security Project, which it announced in February. It also promised to update its political advertising transparency report "in the coming months" to include more granular breakdowns of advertising data.
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