The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 21-0 Thursday to pass legislation intended to hold tech platforms more accountable for hosting child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., received sweeping support for his Strengthening Transparency and Obligation to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment (Stop CSAM) Act (S-1199). The bill had zero co-sponsors heading into Thursday’s markup.
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
The EU should consider issuing a renewed, unified policy on China, given French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments in April about U.S.-China relations, said European Parliament Member Eva Maydell of Bulgaria Wednesday.
It’s getting more difficult for telecom companies to maintain cybersecurity insurance due to the constant barrage of ransomware attacks, NTCA General Counsel Jill Canfield said Tuesday. She highlighted some of the cyber hurdles telecoms face, during an FCBA webinar. If a company has more than one insurance claim a year, the insurance provider will start denying claims, and it’s not easy to find a new provider, she said. Itron Privacy Counsel Nicole Thomas agreed, saying threat actors are going to continue to attack due to the profitability of ransomware efforts.
TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, data with the Chinese government, the company wrote the House Commerce Committee in response to members’ questions for the record (QFR), which the committee released Friday. The company dodged several questions, including requests for specifics about how many engineers it employs in the U.S. and China.
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the Earn It Act Thursday for the third year in a row. Co-author Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told members he expects the bill to ultimately “go nowhere” due to Big Tech lobbying efforts.
Meta should be banned from monetizing children’s data, the FTC said Wednesday, claiming the company violated its 2020 privacy order with the agency.
Senate Judiciary Committee members hope for unanimous support Thursday during a markup on legislation meant to protect children on social media, despite opposition from Public Knowledge and industry groups (see 2305010034 and 2304200032).
Montana is right to try to ban TikTok across the state, but it’s unclear how such a prohibition can be enforced at the state-level, Republican senators told us in interviews last week. Consumer groups and the tech industry condemned the Montana measure as unconstitutional.
Consumers should have a “one-stop shop” where they can ask data brokers to delete their information, House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said during a House Oversight Subcommittee hearing Wednesday (see 2304130057).
The FTC is willing to suspend its privacy rulemaking if Congress enacts a new federal privacy law, Chair Lina Khan told House Commerce Committee members Tuesday.