Un-president-ed tech policy news
This week, we shared our thoughts on the flawed antitrust bills moving through the Senate, the Texas Attorney General's attack on Twitter, and the FTC's February Open Meeting.
Happy Presidents’ Day Weekend! Loyal readers of this newsletter know just how much we love politicians (hint: not much), but we do have a soft spot for great presidential stories. After all, Jim is a distant relative of President Rutherford B. Hayes!
The presidency tends to attract some quirky characters. President Coolidge received two lion cubs as a gift from a mayor in South Africa, kept them as pets, and named them Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau. President Lincoln was the only commander in chief to hold a bartending license, which he had secured to open a bar with a friend in Illinois. And President Fillmore “pulled a Macron” long before Emmanuel Macron was even born by marrying his own teacher.
Hopefully you have some fun plans for the long weekend — maybe you’re doing some boxing like President Teddy Roosevelt or, uh, skinny-dipping in the Potomac River like President John Quincy Adams (not recommended). Who’s your favorite president?
Competition. Yesterday afternoon, Bilal shared the screen with Daphne Keller, Anupam Chander, Jane Bambauer, and David Korzenik at “The Unintended (?) Consequences of the Big Tech Antitrust Bills,” a panel hosted by UCLA & Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology, Law, and Policy. Bilal responded to Sens. Blumenthal and Klobuchar’s antitrust proposals, pointing out that they essentially establish a duty to deal for tech companies. For more analysis of this great event, check out Berin’s live-tweet. Keep an eye out for when the Institute uploads the recording to their YouTube channel!
Bills like the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the Open App Markets Act pave the way for attacks on content moderation. Berin says as much in an interview with KQED. He draws attention to the inevitability that sites who cater to militant conspiracy theorists would use this legislation to sabotage the app stores that deplatform them and bury them in lawsuits. Of course, as Berin points out, these bills have proceeded at a rapid pace without the relevant hearings — perhaps explaining some Democrats’ apparent ignorance as to their effects.
Content Moderation. In his latest article at The Bulwark, published Tuesday, Corbin raises Texas AG Ken Paxton’s corrupt attempt to punish Twitter for deplatforming Donald Trump. Although supposedly about “consumer protection,” Paxton’s ongoing “investigation” of Twitter is obviously retaliatory, and it obviously attacks Twitter’s First Amendment right to moderate the speech on its website. Corbin’s piece brings up the case as part of a larger survey of Paxton’s misconduct. (Spoiler alert: there’s a lot of it.)
FTC. On Thursday, Andy live-tweeted the FTC’s February Open Meeting, which covered an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Concerning Earnings Claims and a proposed 6(b) Study on Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). The rulemaking will cover deceptive earnings claims, including “for-profit colleges, ‘gig economy’ platforms, and other bad actors who prey on people’s hopes for economic advancement.” The proposed 6(b) study on PBMs suggests the agency may seek to regulate exclusive contracts in the pharmaceutical market rather than prohibit such contracts across the entire economy. Interestingly, however, the motion to conduct the PBM study failed, with the Commissioners splitting the vote 2-2 down party lines.