The California Assembly Privacy Committee advanced legislation Tuesday that would hold online platforms liable for knowingly, recklessly or negligently helping facilitate child sex trafficking.
Karl Herchenroeder
Karl Herchenroeder, Associate Editor, is a technology policy journalist for publications including Communications Daily. Born in Rockville, Maryland, he joined the Warren Communications News staff in 2018. He began his journalism career in 2012 at the Aspen Times in Aspen, Colorado, where he covered city government. After that, he covered the nuclear industry for ExchangeMonitor in Washington. You can follow Herchenroeder on Twitter: @karlherk
Tech companies need to build mobile devices that allow police “lawful access by design” and strike a better balance in the end-to-end encryption debate, FBI Science & Technology Branch Section Chief Katie Noyes said Thursday. The longstanding debate is over law enforcement’s desire to create backdoors into encrypted devices (see 2004060064). Companies should be thinking about statutes that allow lawful access during the design phase, not when products have already been deployed, she said during a Center for Data Innovation livestream.
Legal advocates are discussing how to challenge the EU’s cross-border data transfer agreement with the U.S. for a third time, Max Schrems said Wednesday, discussing expectations for Schrems III (see 2211170005). President Joe Biden's executive order initiating an EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework didn’t solve the fundamental issues between U.S. and EU surveillance policies, said Schrems during the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C.
If the U.S. Supreme Court opens online platforms to liability for algorithms through a narrow interpretation of Section 230, it could mean a less consumer-friendly internet and entrench dominant platforms further, tech experts said Tuesday.
Tech and communications companies should prepare themselves for an FTC rulemaking that could significantly affect policies for consumer subscription services, legal experts and consumer advocates said in interviews.
The Senate Commerce Committee is considering a hearing on a bill from Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Thune, R-S.D., that would open the door to a TikTok ban in the U.S., Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Wednesday. Warner and Thune introduced the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (Restrict) Act (S-686), a bill with more than 20 sponsors that would allow the Commerce Department to effectively ban apps like TikTok over national security concerns (see 2303170043).
Republican states are responsible for an unprecedented wave of free speech violations, not the tech industry or Democrats, House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said during a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Tuesday.
China-based employees can access American users’ TikTok data, but that access will be cut off once the company implements Project Texas (see 2303170043), TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told the House Commerce Committee Thursday.
New Jersey’s Assembly Health Committee unanimously passed legislation Monday that would hold social media platforms liable when they engage in activity that causes users under the age of 18 to “become addicted” to their services.
Congress must end the intelligence community’s practice of doing warrantless searches of American phone calls, texts and emails, said Reps. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio; Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., in separate remarks Wednesday.