The FTC voted 5-0 Wednesday approving two regulatory measures on children’s privacy and online influencer endorsements. Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, who was sworn in this week (see 2205160058), cast his first votes at the agency.
The FTC’s requested 30% funding increase for FY23 would allow the agency to effectively face corporate defendants with “seemingly endless resources” and fulfill its mission, FTC Chair Lina Khan told the House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee during a hearing Wednesday.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., will meet with ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Monday afternoon for renewed privacy negotiations, a committee member told us last week.
The FTC should look “very closely” at Amazon’s purchase of MGM (see 2203170007), Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said Thursday. The agency didn’t challenge the deal before it closed in March, but Chair Lina Khan has been without a Democratic majority since October. The Senate confirmed Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya this week, restoring the majority (see 2205110069). The FTC said in August the “the law permits the antitrust agencies to determine that a merger is illegal even after the companies have merged.”
The Senate confirmed FTC nominee Alvaro Bedoya 51-50 Wednesday, restoring Chair Lina Khan’s Democratic majority at the commission. The Senate Commerce Committee voted unanimously during a hearing in support of a proposal that would end the agency’s practice of so-called “zombie voting,” a tactic Democratic Commissioner Rohit Chopra used after he left the agency (see 2112030042).
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is hoping for a Wednesday vote on confirmation of Alvaro Bedoya to the FTC (see 2205050050), she told us Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., filed cloture on the nomination Monday, and it will ripen Wednesday. “I would hope” for a vote Wednesday, Cantwell said. “I think everybody’s here. I think everybody’s back in town. Every day, you just don’t know what’s going to happen.” The Bedoya vote has been delayed for weeks due to repeated COVID-19-related absences in the Democratic caucus. Schumer originally filed cloture in April before withdrawing the motion.
A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel debated whether social media platforms more closely align with common carriers or with newspapers and broadcasters in a case that could have major implications for internet speech (see 2204040039). Judges were skeptical of arguments from both the tech industry and Texas during oral argument Monday in New Orleans.
It’s “reprehensible” that FTC Chair Lina Khan and her allies have attacked agency staff as “lazy and corrupt,” and it shows in the agency’s “terrible” employee survey results, Commissioner Christine Wilson said Friday at a Free State Foundation conference.
The California Assembly’s Judiciary Committee unanimously passed legislation Tuesday to make social media platforms liable for addiction- and design-related harm to children. AB-2408 would impose penalties on major social media platforms for negligent design.
A looser content moderation approach at Twitter under Elon Musk's ownership risks turning it into a fringe, extremist platform like 4chan, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., told us Thursday. “I’m concerned with what he’s rumored or said to believe” in terms of moderation, said Nadler: “That means you’re going to have all this disinformation on Twitter that wouldn’t have been previously allowed. That would concern me.” The Judiciary Committee will have to “wait and see” whether action is necessary, he said.