E&C Clearing Way for AI CSAM and Scams, Big Tech Stabelcoin Setback
Welcome back to The Dispatch from The Tech Oversight Project, your weekly updates on all things tech accountability. Follow us on Twitter at @Tech_Oversight and @techoversight.bsky.social on Bluesky.
🚨 BIG TECH HANDOUT ALERT: On Sunday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans introduced their budget reconciliation bill. Tucked into it is an item on Big Tech’s wish list – a TEN-YEAR BAN on state-level AI bills that also NULLIFIES laws already on the books. Republicans are siding with Big Tech CEOs over their constituents and are making it easier for AI CSAM and scams to run rampant online.
Read our statement, and learn more about the effort to push back on this dangerous bill.
STABLECOIN PUSHBACK: In a setback for Big Tech and a momentary victory for groups fighting corruption and Big Tech scams, the so-called GENIUS Act — which would have given Big Tech CEOs the green light to force customers to use their own currencies — fell short of the 60-vote threshold needed to move the bill forward last Thursday.
Several Democrats switched sides, citing “numerous issues.” The Democratic blockade came after bombshell reporting that Trump's memecoins were inviting foreign investment and pay-to-play corruption. If that wasn’t bad enough, Senate Republicans refused to share updated bill text with Democrats even as the bill was on the floor.
While the GENIUS Act’s future is still undecided, odds are that we’ll see a new version of the bill soon. Our message: Big Tech monopolies have manipulated our economy to raise prices on everyday people. Removing firewalls between commerce and banking is a mistake that will damage our economy.
ANOTHER GOOGLE DIVESTMENT ON THE HORIZON? As the remedy phase in the Google search monopoly trial wraps up, the Justice Department’s adtech remedy phase is just getting underway. Last week, the DOJ rolled out its initial proposal, which calls for the court to compel Google to sell off the AdX digital ad marketplace and the DFP platform that is used to manage and deliver ads.
The digital advertising business has been characterized as the lifeblood of the digital economy, and Google used its monopoly to manipulate the digital advertising marketplace, as well as the buy-side and sell-side platforms. What does that functionally mean? Google controlled which websites got money and which did not – gutting local news media in the process.
The DOJ says that unless these market-dominating units are spun off, Google will be able to continue extracting punitive ad fees — which consumers end up paying through higher prices across the economy.
META: CONNECTING SEXUAL PREDATORS WITH MINORS: In the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust trial against Meta, new, stunning details emerged. An internal Meta report showed that more than 27% of the “recommended follows” that Instagram displayed to predators were minors — two million kids in just a three-month period.
Sadly, this scans because as whistleblower after whistleblower continue to come forward, the pattern is clear. Meta knows their products harm children, and they knowingly continue to damage lives.
As we look to the future, these new details underscore the urgent need to regulate Mark Zuckerberg’s latest pet project: companion AI chat bots. Meta’s dangerous approach to our children’s safety isn’t new, and they’ve proven that they can’t and won’t regulate themselves. Congress needs to step up and pass legislation that protects kids from their dangerous product designs and algorithms.
KOSA COMEBACK: Lawmakers plan to reintroduce the Kids Online Safety Act this month, according to its sponsors in the last Congress — where it passed the Senate, but stalled in the House at the final hour. Bills like this that have overwhelming bipartisan public support should become law, especially when the protections they provide hold companies accountable for the damage they do to our kids.
Ohio Capitol Journal: Critics say Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan wanted to gut antitrust agency
Powerful GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio tried to sneak a provision into a spending bill that would have slashed the FTC’s antitrust powers, even as major agency lawsuits are playing out against Meta; health care conglomerates UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, and Cigna-Express Scripts; and other big DC lobbying spenders. He pulled it back at the last minute.