Advertising

A Q&A with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. 

If politicians in the US make the mistake of over-regulating big tech, Chinese competitors could easily take over the market, according to Sen Mark Warner (D-VA). When asked if tech giants should be broken up under antitrust laws, Sen Warner said regulators need to be careful not to be too “heavy-handed” because breaking up those companies could create an opening for Chinese competitors. 

Large internet companies are pushing back against tougher election advertising regulations, asking the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to allow for some flexibility in how they disclose funding sources for political ads. The Internet Association (IA), a trade group representing the biggest web-based technology companies, said that the same disclosure requirements imposed on television and radio ads don’t work well for the internet.

Facebook introduced new disclosure rules for political advertisements this week designed to block bad actors from meddling in elections. But in the meantime, the rules are blocking legitimate candidates from buying Facebook ads — and at least one congressional candidate in Mississippi says it could tip the election toward his opponent. The rules that Facebook implemented in the United States this week require anyone wishing to buy a political ad to verify their identity. To do so, Facebook mails a card to their physical location containing an authorization code.

On May 25, the European Union’s new data and privacy law takes effect. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP) changes the rules for companies that collect, store or process large amounts of information on residents of the EU, requiring more openness about what data the companies have and with whom they share it.

The notices are flooding people’s inboxes en masse, from large technology companies, including Facebook and Uber, and even from parent teacher associations, children’s soccer clubs and yoga instructors. “Here is an update to our privacy policy,” they say. All are acting because the European Union enacts the world’s toughest rules to protect people’s online data. And with the internet’s borderless nature, the regulations are set to have an outsize impact far beyond Europe.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) go into effect May 25, and privacy groups are pushing companies to commit to the same standard for their US operations. More than two dozen privacy groups sent letters to "edge providers" Amazon, Facebook and Google, and ad giants Walmart, Nestle and others asking them to use the EU regime as a baseline for their own US data protection policies. 

T-Mobile USA should stop claiming that it has "America's Best Unlimited Network," the advertising industry's self-regulator said. AT&T challenged T-Mobile's ads to the National Advertising Division (NAD), which ruled that T-Mobile hasn't substantiated its claim that it has the best wireless network. T-Mobile defended itself by arguing that speed outweighs all other factors—apparently including overall coverage and reliability.

A collection of progressive groups will launch a six figure digital ad offensive May 21 telling the Federal Trade Commission to break up Facebook’s social networking empire. The groups are asking for the FTC to do three things:

Facebook allows advertisers to target users it thinks are interested in subjects such as homosexuality, Islam or liberalism, despite religion, sexuality and political beliefs explicitly being marked out as sensitive information under new data protection laws. The social network gathers information about users based on their actions on Facebook and on the wider web, and uses that data to predict on their interests.