GOP GAMES OUT PLANS FOR BIG TECH — House Republicans' "Big Tech Censorship and Data Task Force" presented its preliminary proposals to rein in major tech companies during a closed-door session on Wednesday, lawmakers confirmed to MT — and a significant antitrust overhaul is not particularly high on the agenda. The task force, established last year by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and led by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), is developing proposals on Section 230 reform and privacy for the GOP to mobilize around if the party takes back the lower chamber in November. — Section 230 front and center: Republican lawmakers discussed their plans for Section 230 reform extensively, agreeing that legislation from McMorris Rodgers and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will likely serve as a framework for future efforts to reform the tech platforms' liability shield. "Everyone recognizes 230 is not enough, but it's the low-hanging fruit and it's the obvious place to start," said one House Republican aide familiar with the meeting, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations. — Antitrust hawk frustrated: Buck, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, said leaving out antitrust was a "glaring omission." Buck said he asked the task force to consider supporting tech-related antitrust bills that passed out of the House Judiciary Committee last year — legislation he co-sponsored. "We'll see if they're amenable to including those in a final report, and supporting the legislation in the future," Buck said. But the House Republican aide said there's little appetite among the broader caucus to take up Buck's bills, particularly since they were the product of the House Judiciary Commitee's 16-month bipartisan investigation into the tech giants. "Of course we did not discuss the Democrats' antitrust bills at the Republican big tech task force meeting," the aide said. (Of note: The bills were all introduced with Republican co-sponsors). — GOP leadership steps in: A senior House Republican aide, who requested anonymity in order to discuss intra-caucus disagreements, called the notion that the House GOP is uninterested in antitrust as it relates to the tech industry "completely inaccurate." "Today's productive conversation covered multiple priorities, including antitrust, as well as Section 230 and protecting children's safety online," the aide said, adding that the task force's work is "not yet complete" and will be shaped by member feedback. GOP members will meet again next week to discuss big tech issues, McMorris Rodgers said in a statement to MT. FIRST IN MT: HOUSE JUDICIARY PRESSED ON 'RIGHT TO REPAIR' BILL: A coalition of 55 consumer advocacy groups sent a letter to House Judiciary Leadership on Wednesday urging the lawmakers to hold a legislative hearing on the Freedom to Repair Act (H.R. 6566), a bipartisan bill that would reform copyright law to allow people to repair all manner of devices themselves without infringing on a protected copyright. "Companies that make products from tablets to tractors are using an oversight in copyright law to deny us the right to repair our own devices or take them to local small businesses," the groups wrote in the letter. — Groundswell: Bipartisan companion legislation to the House's "right to repair" bill was also introduced Wednesday by Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.). And the issue has become an increasingly popular grassroots movement, as consumers and businesses push for the ability to fix everything from phones to farm equipment to McFlurry machines without going through the original manufacturer. President Joe Biden asked the Federal Trade Commission to establish right to repair rules in his executive order on competition last summer, and the agency in July said it will challenge overly restrictive repair policies imposed by companies. Businesses like Apple and John Deere, however, have sought to limit who can tinker with their devices, citing a need to protect proprietary information or prevent unauthorized changes that could undermine safety and performance standards. FCC SEIZES SECURITY SPOTLIGHT— The FCC is beginning to expand its national security role in the Biden era, a distinction that started during the Trump years and has only grown more pronounced under Democratic FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, particularly amid recent anxieties about China and Russia. — More Chinese companies booted: FCC commissioners voted Wednesday to revoke U.S. authorizations for yet another Chinese telecom company: Pacific Networks and its wholly owned subsidiary ComNet, which already have a very limited presence in the U.S. They're the latest Chinese companies that commissioners, on a bipartisan basis, have ejected from the U.S. in recent years, including China Telecom and China Unicom. Those votes emanated from an agency probe initially begun under Republican FCC leadership, and both Republicans and Democrats on the commission are concerned Beijing could force Chinese companies to spy on U.S. telecom networks. "During the past year the [FCC] has made it a priority to increase trust with a series of initiatives to support network security," Rosenworcel told reporters after Thursday's vote, rattling off initiatives such as fostering 5G Open RAN network technology (a much discussed alternative to using hardware from companies such as China's Huawei) and revealing that the agency will "soon" be moving forward with new rules for authorizing telecom equipment. Despite protests from targeted Chinese companies, U.S. courts have so far upheld the FCC's actions. Earlier this month the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals shot down China Unicom's attempt to block a similar order by the FCC to halt its U.S. operations. — Here come new security targets: Rosenworcel said the FCC, in consultation with Biden administration officials, will later this month release an expanded list of communications companies deemed a security threat. The FCC's debut list, issued last year, contained five Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE. — And now, eyes on Russia: China has dominated telecom security headlines in recent years. But on Thursday Rosenworcel told reporters (somewhat cryptically) that the agency has now separately "completed a top-to-bottom review" of Russian interests in the American communications marketplace and has "shared that information with our national security colleagues." — A security funding issue to watch: Expect more pressure on Congress to shore up the FCC's $1.9-billion rip-and-replace program. The subsidies are aimed at helping rural U.S. telecom carriers ditch low-cost gear from Huawei and fellow Chinese hardware giant ZTE and replace it with "trusted alternatives." Rosenworcel recently announced that demand for aid is outstripping available funds by $3.7 billion, and nine telecom trade groups wrote Hill appropriators this month asking lawmakers to "expeditiously provide the FCC with additional funding." INTEL, NSF PONY UP $150 MILLION FOR STEM EDUCATION: Chipmaker Intel and the National Science Foundation will today announce a total investment of $150 million over the next decade into science, technology and engineering education and research programs related to semiconductors, with a focus on two-year community colleges. — Buckeyes get big bucks: $50 million from Intel is set to go solely to schools in Ohio, where the company plans to drop $20 billion on a cutting-edge microchip manufacturing facility (and needs workers with the proper training to staff it). Ohio politicians are poised for a victory lap — Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted are slated to speak this morning alongside Intel executives at Columbus State Community College. — NSF chips in: NSF is also matching another $50 million Intel will put into higher-ed STEM programs across the country, for a total of $100 million in additional STEM education funding over the next 10 years. Gabriela Cruz Thompson, Intel Labs' director of university research, tells MT it's one of the largest education investments by Intel in decades. — Reining in expectations: It may sound like a lot of money, but it often takes a long time for investments in STEM education to translate into practical benefits. Particularly given the fund's ten-year timeframe, the money is unlikely to quickly boost the chip industry's prospects for manufacturing in Ohio or elsewhere. INSTAGRAM LAUNCHES PARENTAL SAFETY HUB: Six months after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed internal data that suggested Instagram's algorithms can cause emotional harm to some teens, the company has launched an educational hub and guides for parents to supervise their kids on the app. The effort was first announced by Instagram head Adam Mosseri ahead of his congressional appearance last December, and the company finally delivered the tools on Wednesday. — Helicopter parents: The new tools allow parents and guardians to supervise their teens' accounts, see how long they spend on the app and check which accounts they follow. The tools also allow parents to set a time limit for the app's use. The company plans to eventually expand the feature to other Meta products, including Facebook. — Blumenthal unimpressed: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chair of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, called the Instagram effort "too little, too late." He said his Kids Online Safety Act (S. 3663) is needed to hold these platforms accountable for teens safety, including through mandatory annual audits.
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