Hillicon Valley — Antitrust invoice unites unlikely tech forces

Tech trade teams and civil society organizations alike joined collectively to induce Congress to maintain a journalism antitrust invoice out of must-pass protection laws.  

In the meantime, we’ll break down how Elon Musk’s imaginative and prescient for so-called free speech platform was put to the check when Ye, the rapper previously generally known as Kanye West, tweeted a picture of a swastika.

That is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you’ll want to find out about tech and cyber information from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Ship tricks to The Hill’s Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare. Join right here or within the field beneath.

Tech teams inform Congress to again off journalism invoice 

Teams usually at odds over tech coverage joined forces Monday to inform Congress to maintain a journalism antitrust invoice out of the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act (NDAA).   

The joint backlash from teams representing tech giants and their critics issues the Journalism Competitors Preservation Act (JCPA), which might enable information retailers to collectively negotiate with dominant tech platforms for compensation to distribute their content material.   

Tech trade teams launched advert campaigns Monday ramping up their criticism of the laws.   

• NetChoice launched a six-figure digital and TV advert marketing campaign within the Washington, D.C., space towards the invoice, arguing the invoice is a part of Democrats’ “harmful plan” to “bail out their allies within the liberal media.” The group’s adverts are set to air on Fox Information.   
• The Pc and Communications Trade Affiliation (CCIA) individually launched a 30-second digital advert opposing the invoice with a broader message that the proposal would “make misinformation more durable to combat.”   
• Meta went as far as to threaten to take away information from its platform if the invoice is handed as a part of the broader nationwide safety laws.   

In the meantime, dozens of civil society organizations together with the ACLU, Public Data and Free Press wrote to Congressional leaders urging them to maintain the JCPA out of the NDAA or another omnibus laws.   

Learn extra right here.  

Ye checks Musk’s ‘free speech’ limits 

Elon Musk’s imaginative and prescient for a Twitter that permits any and all content material was put to the check late final week by rapper Ye’s tweet that includes a swastika.  

Musk has cast forward along with his plans to create a so-called free speech platform within the month since he took over Twitter as a part of a $44 billion acquisition — eradicating the COVID-19 misinformation coverage, slicing key workers and replatforming banned accounts.

However his choice to droop Ye, the rapper previously generally known as Kanye West, highlights the tightrope Musk is strolling between appeasing his supporters who welcome his “free speech” imaginative and prescient and working a viable social media web site. 

• “I feel [Musk] noticed a second to try to work the room to say, ‘look what I did. I ended the swastika,’” mentioned Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of the left-leaning watchdog group Media Issues for America.  
• The choice was made in an advert hoc method and with particular remedy for Ye, Carusone mentioned. Earlier than he was suspended, Ye tweeted a screenshot with a textual content from Musk saying, “Sorry, however you may have gone too far. This isn’t love.” 
   
• “This isn’t a system-wide factor and it doesn’t change the truth that there’s no coverage framework in place or enforcement mechanism on cracking down on such a hate,” Carusone mentioned. 

Learn extra right here. 

MUSK DEFENDS CONSTITUTION OVER TRUMP’S COMMENTS 

Twitter CEO Elon Musk blasted former President Trump’s name to terminate the Structure over his unfounded claims of mass electoral fraud within the 2020 presidential election. 

“The Structure is bigger than any President. Finish of story,” Musk wrote on Twitter, pinning the tweet to the highest of his profile. 

Trump on Saturday wrote on his social media platform, Fact Social, that the Structure ought to be terminated over his unfounded fraud claims. 

“A Huge Fraud of this sort and magnitude permits for the termination of all guidelines, rules, and articles, even these discovered within the Structure. Our nice ‘Founders’ didn’t need, and wouldn’t condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!” Trump wrote. 

The put up led to widespread condemnation from the White Home, Democrats and a few within the GOP. 

Learn extra right here. 

MARKEY ACCUSES MUSK OF EVADING HIM 

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) mentioned that Elon Musk nonetheless has not replied to his request for transparency into Twitter’s verification course of, after the senator allowed a Washington Publish reporter to impersonate him utilizing Twitter Blue. 

Markey despatched Musk a letter on Nov. 11 asking the brand new Twitter proprietor to clarify how the corporate would fight impersonation accounts. 

“I mentioned to Mr. Musk that he needed to have a system that assured that when somebody was talking that it was that particular person,” Markey mentioned at a Hill occasion on Friday. “He has not but despatched again to me what the answer is.”  

Markey requested Musk within the letter to reply by Nov. 25.  

The senator has argued that Twitter poses a threat to public security if it cannot successfully cease people and firms from being impersonated on the platform. 

Learn extra right here. 

CHINESE HACKERS STOLE MILLIONS IN COVID RELIEF: SECRET SERVICE

Hackers from a cybercriminal group linked to the Chinese language authorities stole not less than $20 million from the U.S. in COVID-19 reduction advantages, the primary recognized occasion of overseas, state-sponsored actors tied to pandemic fraud, Secret Service officers instructed NBC Information. 

The officers mentioned that Chengdu-based cyber group APT41 was a “notable participant” in its lots of of open investigations probing pandemic fraud from each transnational and home gamers. 

APT41 is a “Chinese language state-sponsored, cyber risk group that’s extremely adept at conducting espionage missions and monetary crimes for private acquire,” Secret Service officers instructed the outlet. 

For the reason that rollout of pandemic reduction cash in 2020, billions have been stolen by fraudulent actors throughout the U.S. and in different elements of the world via the Paycheck Safety Program or expanded unemployment insurance coverage. 

The Secret Service mentioned in August that it has recovered $286 million in stolen pandemic reduction cash. 

Learn extra right here. 

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: For as soon as, the FTC is contemplating a merger that helps the employees 

Notable hyperlinks from across the internet: 

NATO prepares for cyber struggle (Politico / Maggie Miller) 

Elon Musk, Matt Taibbi, and a Very Trendy Media Maelstrom (The New York Occasions / Michael Grynbaum) 

A globally vital chip agency is driving a wedge between the U.S. and Netherlands over China tech coverage (CNBC / Arjun Kharpal) 

📱 Lighter click on: C’mon, we all do it

Yet another factor: NZ to make tech corporations pay for information

New Zealand’s authorities proposed new laws Sunday that might require main tech corporations to pay for native information content material that they share on their respective platforms.  

In a information launch, New Zealand’s Broadcasting and Media Minister Willie Jackson mentioned the proposed laws shall be based mostly on related legal guidelines applied in Canada and Australia and shall be designed to behave as an incentive for digital platforms to succeed in voluntary offers with native information retailers. 

“It’s not truthful that the massive digital platforms like Google and Meta get to host and share native information totally free. It prices to provide the information and it’s solely truthful they pay,” Jackson mentioned in a press release. 

“New Zealand information media, notably small regional and neighborhood newspapers, are struggling to stay financially viable as extra promoting strikes on-line. So it’s vital that these benefiting from their information content material really pay for it.” 

Jackson cited how lagging revenue at media corporations has led to a big decline within the variety of journalists at information retailers and lowered manufacturing of native information content material. 

Learn extra right here. 

That’s it for right this moment, thanks for studying. Take a look at The Hill’s Know-how and Cybersecurity pages for the newest information and protection. We’ll see you tomorrow.