Karl Herchenroeder

The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) (HR-1865) the House passed Tuesday evening (see 1802270057) is an example of the need for government intervention in the absence of action from tech companies, said House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. During an appearance Wednesday at an Axios event, he expressed skepticism online platforms couldn't formulate algorithms that weed out malicious actors. If private enterprise isn't responsible and doesn’t actively respond to community needs, regulation is needed, he said. “We passed a law yesterday to deal with it,” he said, while drawing parallels to alleged Russian U.S. election interference. “It’s shocking that this couldn’t have been identified before and managed differently, and that may require additional disclosure requirements,” he said, adding he would like a “light touch” in this space, but people are “demanding accountability.” Consumers want more control over their data and privacy, he said.

In oral argument in the “Microsoft Ireland” Supreme Court case Tuesday (see 1710160009), Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor asked whether the high court should defer to Congress for a legislative solution on police access to data stored abroad. Ginsburg called the environment of U.S. v. Microsoft a “brave new world.” Citing the 1986 Stored Communications Act, Microsoft challenged a U.S. government warrant demanding emails stored in Ireland as part of a drug trafficking investigation. The high court granted the government’s application to review a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that said Microsoft didn't have to comply with a probable-cause warrant for the customer's emails in Ireland because U.S. law doesn't apply abroad.

A handful of tech groups asked House lawmakers to delay considering “rushed” anti-sex trafficking legislation, slated for a vote Monday, arguing the law would ultimately harm victims. The Center for Democracy & Technology also criticized the bill, claiming it would “substantially expand” legal risks of hosting online speech, resulting in broad censorship. Lawmakers have an agreement (see 1802220043) for amending the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (HR-1865) to include language from the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (S-1693). The House bill has 174 co-sponsors. TechFreedom, Engine, FreedomWorks, Citizens Outreach, R Street Institute and the Committee for Justice wrote a letter calling SESTA’s language unworkable and warned against simply merging the two bills on the House floor. “Any new legislation should empower prosecutors and compensate victims without inadvertently discouraging responsible websites from helping to combat sex trafficking,” the groups wrote. TechFreedom released a separate statement Friday, again saying the legislation, as merged, would harm, not help, trafficking victims. SESTA would “upset a balance carefully struck by Congress in 1996 to ensure that the fear of liability does not discourage responsible websites from assisting in the fight against trafficking,” TechFreedom said. CDT’s Free Expression Project Director Emma Llansó said Thursday the reconciled bill combines the most expansive parts of SESTA and FOSTA, creating a “mashup of overlapping forms of federal and state criminal and civil liability for internet intermediaries.” Llansó said the legal risks from the new law could potentially put small firms out of business after one infraction, jeopardizing classified ad sites, dating apps, social media platforms and other hosts of user-generated content. “By including SESTA's expansion of existing federal anti-trafficking law, which links liability to knowledge of specific content, the House bill will actually discourage some platforms from engaging in good-faith moderation efforts,” CDT said. CTA President Gary Shapiro said Friday that “moving forward on a House vote without having a legislative hearing on the impact of the SESTA language is ill-advised.”

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter should require advertisers to establish public-facing profiles with information about all their ads, a Microsoft researcher said Friday, arguing this could help eliminate toxic, viral political commercials. Speaking at a Georgetown Law Center conference, Microsoft Research’s Tarleton Gillespie suggested the profiles include targeting logic from ads, saying that's one way platforms could return value to consumers: “That’s our data that we handed to them for free.”

The U.S. needs more presidential leadership on developing artificial intelligence, said Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., Thursday. The founder of the AI Caucus told us he expects movement on his legislation to establish a federal advisory committee for development and implementation of AI.

Workforce automation won't result in the mass unemployment many experts predict, but modern American workforce-training programs are ill-equipped to deal with rapidly changing tech, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation reported. Forecasts say 15 to 85 percent of the workforce could transition to automation in coming decades. McKinsey & Co. in November projected as much as 30 percent of modern workforce activity could be replaced by automation by 2030, saying 15 percent is more realistic. ITIF President Robert Atkinson said during an event Tuesday that many agree with 15 percent, but some have much bleaker forecasts, painting a technological “apocalypse.”

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., critically described IoT as the “internet of threats,” as he and Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., pushed for a national certification process for such devices. Their Cyber Shield Act (see 1710270043) would establish an advisory committee of cybersecurity experts to recommend cybersecurity benchmarks for IoT devices. The bill would establish a voluntary certification program so that manufacturers could publicly verify that devices meet cybersecurity and data security benchmarks. Committee representatives would come from academia, industry, consumer advocates and the public.

The House Oversight Committee’s Information Technology Subcommittee held the first of three hearings on artificial intelligence Wednesday, as Chairman Will Hurd, R-Texas, begins his push to keep the U.S. a leader in developing AI. Witnesses discussed potential uses, including infrastructure defense and analytical processes, and challenges for government adoption of AI. At the second hearing, scheduled for March, officials are expected to explain how agencies are adopting AI, Hurd said, and the third, set for April, will cover private and public sector roles. “We have allies and adversaries, both nation states and individual hackers, who are pursuing artificial intelligence with all they have because dominance in artificial intelligence is a guaranteed leg up in the realm of geopolitics and economics,” Hurd said in opening remarks, saying the end goal for the three-part series is for the U.S. to clearly understand what will be needed to remain an AI leader. Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence CEO Oren Etzioni said AI is neither good nor evil. “It’s a tool. It’s a technology,” he said. Intel Vice President-Chief Technology Officer Amir Khosrowshahi said AI is “poised to create tremendous economic value while solving some of society’s most pressing challenges, but governments must mitigate unwanted impacts.”

The federal government is exploring how blockchain technology could potentially address cybersecurity weaknesses, Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-La., said Wednesday during a House Science Committee' Oversight and Technology subcommittees' hearing. Technology Subcommittee Chairwoman Barbara Comstock, R-Va., said blockchain technology has extensive applications beyond cryptocurrency exchanges, including identity authentication and verification, supply chain risk management and digital rights management. Chris Jaikaran, cybersecurity policy analyst at Congressional Research Service, said the General Services Administration and Department of Homeland Security are analyzing blockchain as a means for more efficient government business. Congress can provide oversight to federal agencies considering regulatory uses for blockchain technology, he said. IBM Vice President-Blockchain Technologies Jerry Cuomo said blockchain has the “potential to vastly reduce the cost and complexity of getting things done across industries and government.” Walmart Vice President-Food Safety Frank Yiannas said his company and IBM did two “proofs of concept” successfully demonstrating that blockchain technology can provide viable solutions for tracking and verifying food from origin to the store. Aaron Wright, professor at the Cardozo School of Law, said China, Japan and the EU have increased experimentation with the technology. They explored “whether blockchains can secure and manage critical public records, including vital information, identity, and title or deeds to property, and whether blockchains can improve government procurement and taxation processes,” he said in prepared testimony.

CenturyLink Chief Operating Officer Jeff Storey argued for government and service providers to relieve consumers from some of the burden associated with privacy policy agreements, while also expressing “high confidence” in maintaining equal internet access for consumers across the world. Storey was asked Monday how companies can help consumers become more technologically literate, in a Q&A session at a Silicon Flatirons event. Storey answered from a consumer standpoint. When deciding how personal information from devices can be used, he said, government and providers should take on some of that privacy terms and conditions burden. Providers, he said, should have to adhere to uniform privacy standards so the consumers aren't expected to read a company’s “75-page document.”