Warren, Graham partner in proposing new agency to regulate tech giants

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are teaming up on legislation to create a new agency that would have the power to regulate tech giants.

The bipartisan Digital Consumer Protection Commission Act, unveiled Thursday, would create an agency charged with oversight of Meta, Google, Amazon and other large tech companies and seek to promote industry competition and consumer privacy online.

The commission would work alongside the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ), the agencies that currently operate as antitrust enforcers, according to the bill.

The legislation would also set regulations in place requiring “dominant platforms” to be licensed and allow for licenses to be removed for repeated anticompetitive and anti-consumer conduct violations.

The bill is the latest effort from Congress to rein in the power of tech giants.


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Last year, two bipartisan antitrust reform bills advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee — the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the Open App Markets Act — but failed to make it to the floor for a vote. Companion bills that advanced out of the House Judiciary Committee also failed to advance to a full floor vote. 

Warren and Graham’s proposal seeks to target tech regulation more broadly by creating a commission specifically tasked with oversight of the booming industry.

The legislation would also grant the new commission with oversight over how to respond to emerging risks, including from artificial intelligence (AI) — an area where lawmakers and regulators have been scrambling to understand and put rules in place.

“Enough is enough. It’s time to rein in Big Tech. And we can’t do it with a law that only nibbles around the edges of the problem,” the senators wrote in a joint op-ed published in The New York Times on Thursday. 

“Piecemeal efforts to stop abusive and dangerous practices have failed. Congress is too slow, it lacks the tech expertise, and the army of Big Tech lobbyists can pick off individual efforts easier than shooting fish in a barrel. Meaningful change — the change worth engaging every member of Congress to fight for — is structural,” they added. 

Lawmakers have long faced an uphill climb when pursuing tech reforms, with the industry launching massive lobbying campaigns targeting congressional legislation.

At the same time, Republicans leading the House have focused their tech agenda on content moderation battles rather than advancing bills aimed at reining in the market power of Big Tech.

For Warren, her proposal with Graham is the second time the progressive firebrand has recently joined forces with a colleague across the aisle. Last month, Warren joined Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) to put forward a bill that targets failed bank executives with harsher penalties.

Devin Nunes On Big Tech Parler Ban: ‘There Should Be A Racketeering Investigation’

Republicans Congressman Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that the Justice Department should launch an investigation into tech companies’ efforts to remove Parler from their platforms.

Nunes made his comments on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

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Nunes On Parler Ban: ‘It’s Far Worse Than What I Could Even Imagine’

“Well, Maria, when I wrote that book, I was hoping to warn Americans so that they would vote right and that maybe this wouldn’t happen and this could be prevented,” Nunes told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo.

Nunes said the move by Big Tech violated antitrust laws, civil rights and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

“Unfortunately, it’s far worse than what I could even imagine,” Nunes said. “The effect of this is that there is no longer a free and open social media company or site for any American to get on any longer, because these big companies, Apple, Amazon, Google, they have just destroyed a — what was likely — Parler is likely a billion-dollar company.”

“Poof, it’s gone,” he added.

‘This Is Clearly A Violation Of Antitrust’

Nunes then stressed that conservatives need to have the same social media abilities that non-conservatives enjoys.

“But it’s more than just the financial aspect to that,” Nunes explained. “Republicans have no way to communicate.”

“If — and it doesn’t even matter if you’re a Republican or conservative,” he continued.

“If you don’t want to be regulated by left-wingers that are at Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, where you get shadowbanned, nobody gets to see you — nobody gets to see you, they get to decide what’s violent or not violent, it’s preposterous,” Nunes said.

Nunes then cited the violation of antitrust laws.

“So, I don’t know where the hell the Department of Justice is at right now or the FBI,” Nunes said. “This is clearly a violation of antitrust, civil rights, the RICO statute.”

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Nunes Denounces ‘Attack’ On Parler And Conservatives Being Able To Operate On Social Media

“There should be a racketeering investigation on all the people that coordinated this attack on not only a company but on all of those like us, like me, like you, Maria. I have 3 million followers on Parler,” he added.

“Tonight, I will no longer be able to communicate with those people,” Nunes lamented. “And they’re Americans.”

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Mike Pence Says ‘We’re Just Not Going To Tolerate’ Censoring Conservatives On Social Media

Breitbart News reported Monday that Vice President Mike Pence told the outlet that the Trump administration is “not going to tolerate” big tech companies that try to silence conservatives on social media, particularly during the 2020 election.

Pence: ‘We’re just not going to tolerate’ censoring conservatives

Pence said that when it comes to Google, Facebook, Twitter and other major internet platforms,  President Donald Trump has “made it very clear” this censorship of Republican-favorable views won’t be unacceptable.

“Well, the president has made it very clear that we are not going to tolerate censorship on the Internet and social media against conservatives,” Pence told Breitbart News during an interview on SiriusXM.

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President Trump Considering a Review Panel

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was thinking of forming a panel to review bias against conservatives by big tech.

“President Trump is considering establishing a panel to review complaints of anticonservative bias on social media, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that would likely draw pushback from technology companies and others,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “The plans are still under discussion but could include the establishment of a White House-created commission that would examine allegations of online bias and censorship, these people said.”

Outspoken Hollywood conservative James Woods was suspended by Twitter earlier this month.

Pence Praises Conservative Media

Pence told Breitbart News that conservatives weighing in will be crucial to informing the public with  accurate information during the election.

“The great news is there are—in addition to Breitbart—there are great and consistent voices bringing the facts to the American people,” Pence said. “While many in the mainstream media have been after this president, after this administration, since before our inauguration, it’s been that chorus of voices on the Internet that have brought forth the truth and the facts to the American people.”

 

The Vice President continued, “Whether it be the whole Mueller investigation or the Russia hoax or whether it be the impeachment that was brought forward and rejected by the Senate, it’s been those voices that’s made a difference for America, and we have every confidence going forward that we’re going to make sure the First Amendment rights of people who cherish freedom and cherish what this president has been able to do for this country are preserved, and I have every confidence that with that great army of conservative thinkers on the Internet we’re going to drive toward a great victory come November.”

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Pence later said, “Look, I couldn’t be more proud to be vice president to President Donald Trump. In our first three years, this is a president who rebuilt our military, who appointed more principled conservatives to our courts than any president in history. This is a president who revived the American economy after the slowest post-cession recovery in history under the Obama administration. Millions of jobs created through tax cuts, regulatory relief, unleashing American energy, free and fair trade.”

“And this is a president who has led our nation through one of the greatest challenges in the last century that has saved lives,” Pence said, referring to Trump’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

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