Happy Thursday! I’ve never been superstitious, but writing about spam filters in a newsletter again has me on edge. Anything for you, dear reader.
A quick programing note: The newsletter will be on a limited Tuesday to Thursday schedule through Aug. 25.
Below: The FEC rejects subsidies for SpaceX’s Starlink service, and new data shows what platforms teens use. First:
FEC greenlights Google plan to loosen spam filters, overcoming Democratic challenge
The Federal Election Commission signed off Thursday on a plan by Google that would make it easier for campaign emails to bypass spam filters — beating back a late challenge from Democratic commissioners to block the proposal.
The agency voted 4-1 to approve an opinion stating that the plan would not break federal rules prohibiting companies from giving campaigns illegal non-monetary contributions, with one Democrat opposing and another abstaining.
Under the pilot program, campaigns would be able to circumvent algorithmic sorting by tech companies that at times sends their emails to spam. Instead, their notes would only land in spam folders if users manually moved them. The proposal came in response to a firestorm of GOP criticism over a study that found political biases in tech companies’ spam filters — but that researchers told me was being taken out of context.
The plan has drawn massive public interest and intense backlash, including from thousands of commenters who urged the FEC to reject it.
Last week, agency staffers issued a draft opinion greenlighting the proposal and affirming that it “would not result in the making of a prohibited in-kind contribution.” The staffers wrote that the program would be offered “in the ordinary course of its business.”
If four of the agency’s six commissioners — split evenly between the two parties — approve the opinion, Google would have legal cover to proceed with the plan.
But the agency circulated another opinion at the behest of two Democratic commissioners late Wednesday calling for the plan to be shot down.
The draft argued that Google would be committing an illegal in-kind contribution by enhancing its existing service “only for certain political committees,” which would not be in its ordinary course of business. The opinion also suggests that “political considerations may have factored into the proposal.”
While Google has denied any political bias, including in its email sorting practices, the company has publicly and privately pointed to the pilot program as a way to alleviate concerns. Google CEO Sundar Pichai touted the plan in a slew of meetings with top GOP officials, as I reported.
Staff wrote that they were “asked to place this draft on the Agenda by one or more Commissioners,” but did not say which. According to an internal email reviewed by The Technology 202, Democratic commissioners Ellen Weintraub and Shana Broussard made the request.
At the meeting, Democrats questioned counsel for Google on why the company planned to only offer the pilot program to political campaigns, not all users.
Company counsel argued that Google needed to limit applicants to keep the program manageable and said that it was being offered to campaigns on a non-partisan basis. “That to me raises all sorts of alarm bells because that sounds like the classic definition of an in-kind contribution,” Weintraub said at the session.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the program “may help improve inboxing rates for political bulk senders and provide more transparency into email deliverability, while still letting users protect their inboxes by unsubscribing or labeling emails as spam.”
In an interview Wednesday, Weintraub stressed that the FEC was only deciding whether Google can legally launch the program — not whether it should.
“We have to address this as a legal issue. It’s not a question of whether people want more spam in your inbox. Obviously, nobody does,” she told The Technology 202.
Republican FEC Commissioner Sean Cooksey, who joined the agency’s two other Republicans and its Democratic vice chair in approving the plan, said on Wednesday companies that want to offer services to campaigns “should be allowed to do so without tripping into campaign finance violations.”
“I think that an answer from the FEC that allows this program is consistent with a large body of past FEC precedent allowing these kinds of services,” said Cooksey, former general counsel to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), an outspoken Google critic.
Cooksey said he does not have “a strong view” on whether the program would be a good idea more broadly. “I am just approaching it as a question of law, not as a question of policy,” he said.
The public, on the other hand, does appear to have a strong idea about its merits. A vast majority of the more than 2,500 comments received by the agency about the petition have been negative, according to a review by The Technology 202.
Brett Kappel, of counsel at the D.C.-based law firm Harmon Curran, called the response “totally unprecedented,” saying there’s “never been an advisory opinion request that generated anything close to the number of comments” submitted about Google’s plan.
Given the broad public backlash, it could “backfire” on GOP campaigns if Google moves ahead with the program and voters start seeing more spam, Kappel said.
“It might actually [be that] it won’t actually help the Republicans raise more money,” he said.
Our top tabs
FCC rejects SpaceX’s request for $885 million in subsidies
The Federal Communications Commission said that SpaceX internet service Starlink’s internet speeds have fallen, the company didn’t provide adequate responses to its inquiries and it can’t meet FCC requirements for the agency’s high-speed broadband subsidies, Reuters’s David Shepardson reports. In addition to Starlink, which is run by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, the FCC also rejected an application for $1.3 billion in subsidies by LTD Broadband.
“We must put scarce universal service dollars to their best possible use as we move into a digital future that demands ever more powerful and faster networks,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement that noted that Starlink technology has “real promise.” But “we cannot afford to subsidize ventures that are not delivering the promised speeds or are not likely to meet program requirements,” Rosenworcel said.
Musk wants names of Twitter’s bot calculators for lawsuit
Elon Musk wants a Delaware judge to order Twitter to give his legal team the names of people who calculate the number of “bots” on the social media network so they can be questioned, Bloomberg News’s Jef Feeley and Kurt Wagner report. Musk made the request in a sealed court filing on Tuesday.
Twitter has given Musk the names of its “records custodians,” but they aren’t as familiar with the numbers, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. Twitter declined to comment on Musk’s filing to Bloomberg News.
Musk has argued that he backed out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter after the company misled him about its advertising base. Musk also says he became concerned about how the platform calculates the number of bots. Twitter has rebutted Musk’s claims; board chairman Bret Taylor said they were “factually inaccurate, legally insufficient, and commercially irrelevant.”
Teens have flocked to YouTube and TikTok
Pew Research found that 95 percent of 13-17-year-olds say they watch YouTube videos, Heather Kelly reports. TikTok, the next most popular service, came in at 67 percent.
“When Pew did a similar survey of teenage social media habits in 2014-15, 71 percent of teens reported using Facebook. Now only 32 percent say they’re on the app, but Facebook parent Meta hasn’t lost them entirely,” Heather writes. “Its photo and video app Instagram has the attention of 62 percent of teens, and Meta’s chat app WhatsApp is used by 17 percent of teenagers.”
The popularity of such platforms could have far-reaching implications. In its revived antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, the FTC argued that the company holds a monopoly over “personal social networking services,” and that the next largest such firm, Snapchat, has fewer users. Facebook has fired back by asserting that the FTC’s definition of such services is flawed and doesn’t line up with the “commercial reality of intense competition with surging rivals like TikTok and scores of other attractive options for consumers.”
Rant and rave
Twitter users discussed Pew’s findings about how teenagers are using the internet. Journalist Casey Newton:
Data & Society program director Amanda Lenhart:
The always excellent Pew Research data on teens and social media confirms that youth are not a monolith and cannot be treated as such – whether through policy, platform design or parenting. https://t.co/8kYUfH9hEw
— Amanda Lenhart (@Amanda_Lenhart) August 10, 2022
Future of Privacy Forum chief executive Jules Polonetsky:
With data like this,I fear all socmedia companies (not just Insta) will pursue a Tik Tok model. Beyond dark patterns/child center design,how can gov promote healthy 4 society development? Will changing ad tech incentives deliver on this?Hard questions for free market societies. https://t.co/JmKwMLwJ5f
— Jules Polonetsky (@JulesPolonetsky) August 10, 2022
Agency scanner
Inside the industry
- The Computer & Communications Industry Association is launching its CCIA Research Center. CCIA Director of Research and Economics Trevor Wagener, the former deputy chief economist at the State Department, will lead the research center.
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