FCC'S CARR CALLS FOR FTC PROBE OF CRISIS TEXT LINE: Republican FCC commissioner Brendan Carr called publicly for the FTC to open an investigation into the nonprofit Crisis Text Line over the suicide hotline's former data sharing practices with for-profit spinoff Loris.ai. In a letter sent to FTC Chair Lina Khan and Samuel Levine, the FTC's head of consumer protection, Carr urged the commission "to investigate CTL's prior and current data practices." Carr said that includes how the nonprofit collects, retains and shares data collected from its text and online messaging conversations with users struggling through mental health crises, as well as the manner in which it obtains consent from those users. Crisis Tech Line's data-sharing relationship with Loris.ai was first reported by POLITICO in January, and the company announced it had ended that relationship three days later. A Crisis Text Line spokesperson said Monday that the nonprofit "voluntarily engaged in good faith with Commissioner Carr's office on multiple occasions in an effort to address his questions," and said the group's privacy practices are "fully disclosed" and comply with the law. A spokesperson for Loris.ai declined to respond. — Defending 988: Protecting consumers from potentially abusive data-sharing practices is the primary jurisdiction of the FTC, not the FCC. But in an interview with MT, Carr said he worries the prior practices of Crisis Tech Line undermined the FCC's 988 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, as well as partnerships with suicide prevention programs run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs. (President Joe Biden's budget request, released on Monday, calls for more funding for the 988 hotline's implementation). "It's very important, as a country, that we continue to drive down barriers," Carr said, explaining that individuals may shy away from seeking help if they believe the information they divulge in a time of acute crisis could be shared against their will. In the wake of a letter Carr sent to Crisis Text Line and Loris.ai on Jan. 31 , the Republican FCC commissioner said his office spoke with the organization regarding its data-sharing practices, but that the group then declined to speak further. "I said, 'Okay, that's fine,'" Carr told MT. "'Let me just pass the information that I have gotten so far along to the Federal Trade Commission, and they can make the call.'" — Unclear path for the FTC: FTC spokesperson Juliana Gruenwald Henderson confirmed that the agency received Carr's letter, but said the FTC generally does not comment on whether it is investigating a particular matter. Jessica Rich, a lawyer at Kelley Drye and former director of the FTC's consumer protection bureau, said she's not sure the FTC could effectively pursue a case against the suicide hotline. "The FTC doesn't have jurisdiction over a bona fide non-profit," said Rich. In addition to probing the relationship between Crisis Text Line and the for-profit Loris.ai, Rich said the commission would also need to ascertain that the data shared was personally identifying and that the behavior went against the promises made to the text line's users. "Even though clearly, this is not what consumers expected when they called the crisis line, there are a lot of questions about whether there would be a legal theory that the FTC could pursue," Rich said. BIDEN ASKS TO BUMP UP SCIENCE AND TECH: The White House's discretionary budget for fiscal year 2023 ratcheted up the administration's previous requests for Congress to fund key science and tech agencies. That's a somewhat unsurprising development, given Congress' intense focus lately on increasing America's innovative potential in the face of rising global competition. A few highlights: — Department of Energy's Office of Science: The DOE's Office of Science would get $7.8 billion under Biden's budget, which the White House said is an 11 percent increase over last year's enacted levels. The office is a key driver of research into quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and also runs the country's network of national labs. — National Science Foundation: The NSF would also be slated for a significant increase compared to the funds appropriated last year by Congress. The White House request would set aside $10.5 billion for the science agency, an increase of 24 percent from 2021 enacted levels. $880 million of that request would be funneled to the agency's new Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, which is designed to move NSF's focus onto applied technology research. — About that directorate: The creation of a technology directorate is an important piece of the two competitiveness bills (S. 1260 and H.R. 4521) now under debate in Congress. (The Senate voted to kick its bill back to the House on Monday night, taking the legislation one step closer to conference.) NSF had already begun the process of standing up such a directorate. But as Joanne Padrón Carney, the chief government relations officer at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, explained, the final omnibus appropriations enacted by Congress earlier this month "did not provide enough funding for the new directorate and annual increases to programs." Biden's fiscal 2023 budget asks for $380 million more for the tech directorate compared to last year. That, Carney said, "may reflect an effort to boost the launch of this new directorate."
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