David McCabe

The influence network led by billionaire Charles Koch is watching a growing push to regulate Big Tech firms with alarm. Officials, scholars, and donors with links to the network expressed unease with the idea that sweeping regulation will solve tech's problems — like platforms that facilitate the spread of malicious content or privacy practices that outrage users — and worried lawmakers aren't being precise enough.

For several years it has made sense, in some quarters, to lump together the tech giants — chiefly Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, sometimes also including Netflix or Microsoft. But talking about "big tech" is beginning to offer diminishing returns. Many of these companies banded together in 2012 for lobbying purposes as the Internet Association, and they have long shared a set of common regulatory interests in managing their platforms and services with little government oversight. But as privacy regulation of some kind looks more inevitable, their interests are more likely to diverge.

The Federal Communications Commission is fueling the war over media consolidation by opening the door to another deregulatory spree targeting rules that stop local broadcasters from merging. The FCC voted recently to begin a legally-mandated review of the agency’s media ownership rules.

Facebook will release an early report on an audit of civil rights on its platform by the end of 2018, according to Color of Change, an advocacy organization that demanded the move in a meeting with COO Sheryl Sandberg. The social network hasn’t yet fulfilled any of the other requests made by the group, called Color Of Change, which has asked Facebook to: fire its top policy executive, a former Republican staffer, release data on voter suppression attempts on Facebook products, and release opposition research that a right-leaning consulting firm produced trying to link the civil rights group

President Donald Trump continues to comment on antitrust matters related to media companies he doesn't like, and experts worry the resulting political fray could hinder the Justice Department's ability to independently evaluate mergers. Media companies looking to merge amid an already difficult economic climate now have to consider this reality as a part of their business decisions. 

On Nov 6, Americans will choose the lawmakers who will try to hammer out privacy rules for major tech players like Google, Facebook and Amazon. Democrats are poised to take the House majority — and want strict privacy controls. Lots of things can — and do — change after elections: Committees get new leaders with new priorities; Other members shift as lawmakers jockey for a preferred spot somewhere else; Policymakers get overtaken by news events, shifting their plans.

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a leading tech lobbying group in Washington (DC), introduced a plan for regulations to protect user privacy online, becoming the latest player to try to shape new legislation that the industry sees as increasingly likely. The framework from ITI, whose members include Google and Facebook, is designed to guide policymakers in the US and around the world as they weigh concerns about data privacy online, said ITI president Dean Garfield.

Officials from the United States have entered discussions with their European counterparts in Brussels over the status of the Privacy Shield agreement, which allows Europeans to file complaints about how US companies are using their data. The officials are expected to tackle "developments concerning the collection of personal data by US authorities for purposes of law enforcement or national security." Don’t expect any major surprises, as European Union leaders are expected to wait until at least November to issue recommendations on whether to move forward with the pact.

Apple will pledge its support for federal privacy regulations during a Sept 26 Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Expect Apple’s Bud Tribble to underscore the difference between the hardware maker, which doesn’t need to make money from user data, with companies like Google, which have built their business model on it. Tribble, a longtime Apple employee who leads the company’s privacy engineering work, will "convey Apple’s support for comprehensive federal privacy legislation that reflects Apple’s long-held view that privacy is a fundamental human right" during the hearing. "We want your dev

Google’s top privacy staffer will defend the company’s business model at an upcoming Senate hearing, while backing the broad idea of new privacy rules. Google will face tough questions at the Sept 26 Senate Commerce Committee hearing on privacy, where chief privacy officer Keith Enright will appear alongside representatives from other tech companies as well as internet service providers. Enright said he plans to stand by the company’s ad-supported business model.