Alexandra Levine

President Donald Trump’s vow to scour “the dark recesses of the internet” came as deadly gun violence provoked ire over fringe online platforms like 8chan, an anonymous message board that has hosted a racist manifesto linked to Aug 3's deadly shooting in El Paso (TX). But any effort to curb dangerous extremism online will run into a host of obstacles:

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Democratic colleagues have expressed interest in legislation to allocate prime 5G airwaves known as the C-band and to use auction proceeds to help fund broadband buildout.

Justice Department Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim has briefed Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on his unit’s newly launched investigation into the tech sector. Sen Klobuchar, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee's Antitrust Subcommittee, said, “My hope is that they’re very serious about this investigation.” And Sen.

Groups are calling on the Senate Rules Committee to launch an investigation into whether a closed-door meeting of the Senate Judiciary tech task force violated the chamber’s procedures for public notice. The working group, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), met in the Judiciary hearing room for an off-the-record session with privacy officers from Snap, Match, Salesforce, and Mozilla.

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr is reviewing national nonprofit license holders of airwaves reserved for educational purposes, ahead of a planned July 10 FCC vote on opening them for 5G. Commissioner Carr fired off the first of what an aide said will likely be several letters to license holders.

As the Senate geared up to pass its defense policy bill, the office of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) unsuccessfully pushed to add language that would require that a provision mandating Pentagon-led test beds to examine sharing 5G airwaves come with a requirement that the government “solicit and consider the input of commercial wireless service providers, equipment manufacturers, and firms developing and operating spectrum sharing technologies” as part of planning. 

As the House prepares to take up funding legislation for departments including Commerce and Agriculture, lawmakers are attempting to hitch provisions tackling facial recognition tech, broadband mapping, and 5G. One Republican amendment would slate $90 million for Department of Agriculture to use on broadband buildout in unserved areas. Another would boost f

Sen Josh Hawley (R-MO) is poised to announce new legislation on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The measure is expected to focus on enforcement of Section 230, the legal liability shield that immunizes tech platforms from lawsuits over user-posted content. It would open the possibility of treating certain tech companies as publishers and therefore more liable for the content that shows up on their sites.

The go-to metric for antitrust enforcers has long been increasing prices. Critics, however, have begun to question whether that approach needs an update, given that tech giants like Google and Facebook offer free services. And this week, some of the nation’s leading antitrust enforcers made clear they’re willing to take a broader view. Justice Department antitrust chief Makan Delrahim said his office will consider factors like privacy violations or free speech restrictions as signs that product quality and market competition have deteriorated.

A small liberal think tank has spent years urging Washington to crack down on the United States’ biggest tech companies — a lonely crusade that barely registered with the political establishment. Now the Open Markets Institute has become one of the most influential drivers of Democratic politics in the fight to rein in Facebook, Amazon and Google, seeing its ideas embraced by Elizabeth Warren and forcing presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Joe Biden to take a side.