Biden-Post saga collides with Section 230

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Quick Fix

— Perfect storm for Section 230: The feud over Facebook and Twitter’s handling of the New York Post’s disputed Biden story threw Section 230 back into the crosshairs. Then the FCC chairman announced the agency would examine the statute.

— Simington hearing set: Facing growing pressure, the Senate Commerce Committee has, in near record time, set a November hearing date to consider President Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the GOP FCC seat now belonging to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.

— AI Summit debrief: Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) offered an optimistic view of artificial intelligence and the future of work at our third annual AI summit, which also featured ex-Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

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Tech of the Town

TIMING IS EVERYTHING: PAI’S FCC TO EXAMINE SECTION 230 — FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s announcement Thursday that he plans to move forward on Section 230 rulemaking — that is, examining whether tech platforms’ legal liability protections under the 1996 Communications Decency Act should be scaled back — not surprisingly drew applause and opposition along party lines (and concern from the tech world).

— President Trump had directed the FCC to take a scalpel to the statute through a May executive order that many viewed as punishment for the platforms’ decisions to fact-check his statements.

— Months later, debate about Section 230 has hit an even more-feverish fever pitch (yes, because in 2020 anything is possible) asFacebook and Twitter’s handling of the disputed New York Post story on the Bidens prompted fresh Republican outrage over alleged censorship of the right. Although Pai’s decision on the Section 230 rulemaking has been a long time coming, the fact is he chose to announce it now, in the middle of the Post controversy. (It even became a meme.)

— “The timing of this effort is absurd,” Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday in a statement. “The FCC has no business being the President’s speech police.”

— Fellow Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks also opposed doing “the President’s bidding here,” but Republican Brendan Carr disagreed: “Chairman Pai is right that the FCC has legal authority to interpret Section 230,” Carr said, “and I applaud his leadership in announcing the FCC will move forward with clarifying the statute.” (The fifth commissioner, Republican Mike O’Rielly, lost his hopes for a new term after giving a speech in July opposing government regulation of free expression.)

CONGRESS WEIGHS IN — Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee pointed to the New York Post flare-up as an example of tech companies blurring the lines between acting as platforms and publishers, a crucial distinction when determining how much Section 230 protects them.

— “At what point do these platforms take on the responsibility of publishers, and should they be treated as such? Should Section 230 protections apply to platforms who act as publishers?” the GOP leaders said in a statement Thursday, welcoming the FCC’s commitment “to clarify the intent of a law enacted nearly 25 years ago.”

— Democrats disagreed: Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who chairs the committee’s consumer protection subcommittee and has her own qualms about Section 230, accused Republicans of showing up “only when it serves their narrow, short-term political interests.” Schakowsky said tech giants aren’t off the hook after the New York Post decision, but offered some uncharacteristic praise for Facebook in particular. “[F]or the first time I can recall, Facebook is taking the role it plays in our democracy seriously. And it does not, in any way, equate to censorship,” she said.

— What’s next: Expect to hear a lot more about the Post-Biden fracas and Section 230 before the election. And remember: the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google are testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee on Section 230 later this month.

— Twitter goes first: The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify about alleged censorship. If authorized, that session would happen next Friday.

— Related footnote: Twitter announced late Thursday it’s changing its policies against posting hacked materials after facing widespread backlash for its handling of the Biden report, Cristiano reports — ”but the platform said it will continue to block users from posting links to the Post’s recent reporting on the matter for violating other rules against sharing private personal information.”

FCC DRAMA HEADS TO THE SENATE — The Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday announced a Nov. 10 hearing to consider Trump’s nomination of Commerce Department adviser Nathan Simington to fill O’Rielly’s FCC seat. A possible coincidence: It starts at 2:30 p.m.

— ICYMI: Monday’s Morning Tech unpacked all that’s at stake if the Senate fails to fill the slot before year’s end.

WHILE TWITTER AND FACEBOOK HAVE THEIR HANDS FULL, WHERE’S GOOGLE? — The search giant is launching tools today across Google Search, Maps and Assistant to help users more easily find early voting locations, nearby ballot drop boxes, and information (such as directions and hours of operation) on in-person versus mail-in options. (In the coming days, try asking Assistant: “Hey Google, where do I vote?”) This builds on other election-related features that Google launched this year.

COVID IS RESHAPING THE FUTURE OF WORK, BUT IT’S NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM — That’s how Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) sees it. In an AI Summit panel exploring how the pandemic has accelerated the transformation of the workforce through automation and AI, the small businessman turned congressman said the shift has pushed people to find jobs and develop new skills that simply cannot be outsourced to computers.

— “More promising is the potential for people to develop those soft skills and other types of trades that AI — and for that matter, machine learning and technology and automation — will not be able to replicate,” Krishnamoorthi said. “So we see those human skills becoming even more important now than ever.”

— Are robots stealing our jobs? Krishnamoorthi is more optimistic. “Automation and technology obviously make certain skills redundant, but also enhance potentially the productivity of the company such that it invests more in other types of jobs so that the overall number of jobs actually grows,” he said.

— And that’s not all. POLITICO’s third annual AI Summit welcomed members of Congress, former Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and other experts to discuss the ways AI is shaping the pandemic, social justice issues, the 2020 election, competition with China and other policy areas. You can watch the footage here.

LOBBYING LATEST: BIG APPLE BULKS UP — Apple has added a former Trump administration official to its stable of outside lobbyists, my colleague Theodoric Meyer reports in POLITICO Influence. David Redl left the administration last year after leading the National Telecommunications and Information Agency, which advises the White House on wireless spectrum, and started the lobbying firm Salt Point Strategies. He quickly signed lobbying clients such as Comcast, Facebook and the Japanese online retailer Rakuten. Now Redl and Ansley Erdel, a former Republican congressional aide, will lobby for Apple on spectrum and internet policy issues, according to a disclosure filing.

— Apple spends less on Washington lobbying than other tech leviathans, shelling out $3.6 million in the first half of this year compared with Facebook’s $10.1 million and Amazon’s $8.7 million. The company also retains Capitol Tax Partners, Fierce Government Relations, the Franklin Square Group, the Glover Park Group, Hogan Lovells, Invariant and Miller Strategies, according to disclosure filings.

Transitions

David Edmonson, most recently TechNet’s acting vice president and executive director for Texas and the Southeast, is becoming the organization’s vice president for state policy and government relations, leading its tech advocacy efforts across the country. … Claire Cormier Thielke, managing director of the real estate investment firm Hines, was appointed to Zillow’s board of directors. … The FCC has moved its headquarters from 12th Street SW to L Street NE. … TikTok is hiring a product policy manager focused on trust and safety issues around nudity and sexual activity.

Silicon Valley Must-Reads

More meddling madness: “U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence,” WaPo reports. “The intelligence raised concerns that Giuliani was being used to feed Russian misinformation to the president.”

Show me the money: “Here are the top political donors from Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Only one is backing Trump,” via Protocol.

Quick Downloads

Happy anniversary: Saturday is the one-year anniversary of Zuck’s famous “free expression” speech at Georgetown. Take a short trip down memory lane.

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TTYL.