Happy Tuesday! We had so many tasteful and not at all corny April Fools’ jokes ready to go that will sadly never see the light of day. Send tips to: cristiano.lima@washpost.com.
Below: Jon Stewart says Apple stopped him from interviewing FTC Chair Lina Khan. First:
Congress has a long to-do list on tech post-recess — and little time
When lawmakers get back from recess next week, they will face a laundry list of legislative targets on tech and a dwindling shot clock to convert them ahead of the 2024 elections.
This Congress is already poised to be one of the least productive in decades, and legislating typically slows to a crawl on Capitol Hill ahead of presidential elections.
Lawmakers’ tech ambitions will also face competing priorities, with talks around Ukraine aid, a tax package, federal nominations and more all taking up Congress’s limited time.
Here’s a look at what will be atop Congress’s tech agenda in the coming months:
Senators are expected to continue talks about the future of TikTok and other apps with foreign ties when they return, but how quickly they can — or want — to move is still a big question.
Some Republicans have called for the Senate to take up the House bill to force TikTok to be sold or banned “asap,” but many others have pumped the brakes on talk of rapid action.
Most notably, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been noncommittal about how quickly he wants to move on the issue, or about what approach he prefers, and Senate Commerce Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has floated holding a hearing first.
Several key senators have warned that Congress could miss a major opportunity to act on their concerns by not hashing out an agreement before the 2024 elections. “We will rue the day if we don’t get this done,” Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) told me recently.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who introduced the House bill targeting TikTok, is set to step down from Congress later this month, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), whose committee advanced the bill, is also not running for reelection. That means if lawmakers don’t get a bill done this year, they would need to find new champions for the push in the House.
Child safety
Children’s safety advocates are clamoring for a swift floor vote in the Senate on the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which advanced out of committee with broad bipartisan support for the second time last year and is now backed by two-thirds of the chamber. If passed, it would be the most significant effort to regulate tech companies to clear a chamber of Congress in decades.
But there are still questions about when or if Senate leaders may dedicate floor time to the push, and whether they will try to bundle KOSA with other bills that have fewer public backers, including the package of bills targeting child abuse material from the Judiciary Committee.
Proponents of KOSA have argued that Senate passage would significantly increase pressure on House lawmakers to take up the bill, but key House leaders have shown little to no interest in taking up the proposal to date — focusing instead on broader privacy talks.
After advancing their TikTok bill, House lawmakers approved a separate measure to restrict foreign “adversaries” from getting U.S. personal information from data brokers. Cantwell, a crucial player in Congress’s privacy negotiations, called it an encouraging effort.
While narrow in scope, it’s one of the few proposals aimed at bolstering U.S. privacy protections to gain significant traction in Congress in years. Some House lawmakers have urged the Senate to take up the measure in tandem with the TikTok legislation, but some senators have their own proposals that could compete for consideration.
McMorris Rodgers recently also reaffirmed plans to introduce a broader privacy bill, which could revitalize the bipartisan House legislation that fell short last Congress.
Artificial intelligence
In June, Schumer kicked off a new push to regulate artificial intelligence technology, saying it would take “months” but not “years” for Congress to act on the issue.
More than nine months later, lawmakers have done little beyond hold meetings and hearings, launch task forces and working groups, and unveil narrow proposals. But both Schumer’s working group and the leaders of the House’s AI task force have talked about potentially taking more immediate action to grapple with the tool’s potential impact on the 2024 elections — but they have little time to devise and implement a plan.
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Jon Stewart says Apple stopped him from interviewing FTC chair
In a Monday interview with Lina Khan, comedian Jon Stewart revealed Apple had blocked him from interviewing the Federal Trade Commission chair, one of multiple disputes he had with the tech giant before the abrupt cancellation of his Apple TV Plus show last year, our colleague Cat Zakrzewski reports for The Technology 202.
During Comedy Central’s “Daily Show,” Stewart said he tried to book Khan for a podcast interview, and Apple “literally said please don’t talk to her.”
“I didn’t think they cared for you is what happened,” he said. Apple spokesman Fred Sainz declined to comment.
In November 2022, Stewart’s staff reached out to the Federal Trade Commission to book Khan for an interview about the impact monopoly power has on inflation, FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar told The Post. Planning for the episode was underway when discussions abruptly broke down. After Stewart returned to “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central earlier this year, Khan was quickly booked for an interview.
Khan has emerged as one of the sharpest critics of tech giants’ power, and her academic writing and work has shaped a new slate of lawsuits alleging Silicon Valley companies illegally wield monopoly power. Last month, Khan’s counterparts at the DOJ brought a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple — which alleges that Apple is incentivized to bring its anticompetitive playbook to new markets, including streaming.
“Apple’s conduct extends beyond just monopoly profits and even affects the flow of speech,” the lawsuit said. “For example, Apple is rapidly expanding its role as a TV and movie producer and had exercised that role to control content.”
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Inside the industry
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- IAB hosts a public policy and legal summit today at 8 a.m.
- The Center for Democracy and Technology hosts an event, “Spring Fling,” today at 8 p.m.
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