Platforms

Sens Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Jerry Moran (R-KS)  introduced the bipartisan Small Business Artificial Intelligence Training and Toolkit Act of 2024 that would authorize the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to work with the Small Business Administration (SBA) to create and distribute artificial intelligence (AI) training resources and tools to help small businesses leverage AI in their operations. The Small Business Artificial Intelligence Training and Toolkit Act of 2024:

A draft of key research, sponsored by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, “The Implications of Section 230 for Black Communities,” was posted on the Social Science Research Network. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act enables technology platforms to host and remove user-generated content without fear of liability for either the content or the moderation decisions.

How should we balance freedom of speech with the flood of slanderous statements, extremist manifestoes and conspiracy theories that proliferate on the internet? The United States decided decades ago to let private companies solve that quandary themselves. The Supreme Court made this position official in three major rulings in the 1990s and early 2000s. But lawmakers aren’t sure about this arrangement, now that giant online platforms are the new town square. A series of federal court cases will address these questions. Courts have faced six broad questions about online speech:

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Microsoft structured one of its latest deals with an artificial-intelligence startup to avoid a government antitrust review of the transaction. Microsoft in March hired Inflection AI’s co-founder and almost all of its employees and agreed to pay the startup around $650 million as part of a licensing fee to resell its technology.

The Washington State Broadband Office (WSBO) has launched a Digital Equity Dashboard to help everyone understand the digital divide—the gap between those with access to technology, digital literacy skills, and the internet and those without. The dashboard uses data from different sources to help illustrate the impact of the digital divide in Washington. Access, affordability, and digital literacy are crucial elements everyone needs to participate in the economy and daily life today.

On behalf of Free Press, the African American Research Collaborative (AARC) and BSP Research (BSP) completed a survey of 3,000 American adults to better understand how Americans use media and technology to gain information, how they deal with misinformation and safety online, what privacy concerns they have about online platforms, what they believe are appropriate roles in content moderation, and whether they perceive a need for more independent news sources in the current media and political environment. Key findings included:

A common reaction among tech policy and internet freedom advocates to the upcoming ban of TikTok in the US is to reject it as a step back from the traditional US internet policy of openness, free speech, and innovation.

The last two decades bore witness to a marked explosion in information-sharing readily available at our fingertips via mobile devices and touchscreens.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared with her colleagues a new agency proposal that, if adopted, would look into whether the agency should require disclosure when there is AI-generated content in political ads on radio and TV. With the circulation of this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and the subsequent support of her colleagues, the FCC would initiate a proceeding that recognizes consumers’ right to know when AI tools are being used in the political ads they view. If adopted, this proposal aims to increase transparency by: