With help from Leah Nylen
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— Home near the Hill: Lawmakers eager to rein in “Big Tech” have found a popular off-campus spot: a townhouse owned by a rival tech company.
— 2022 watch: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is retiring from Congress after nearly five decades. His potential successor has a strong track record on issues including net neutrality and privacy.
— New allegations: Google identified a security vulnerability with an Epic Games app and leaked it to reporters, Epic said in a court filing.
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THE TECH HOUSE AIDING THE FIGHT AGAINST BIG TECH — A red-brick townhouse just two blocks south of the Capitol has become a gathering place for lawmakers sharing anti-Silicon Valley sentiments, Emily reports in a story this morning for Pros. The home, owned by Oracle, has seen an uptick in fundraisers in recent months for members of Congress in both parties pushing legislation targeting the tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.
— Spotted at the Oracle townhouse: Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) are among the lawmakers who have booked the four-story, four-bedroom property for fundraisers.
All those lawmakers have some form of jurisdiction over tech issues or have spoken out against “Big Tech” — a sign of Oracle’s selectivity in which lawmakers it allows to use the space. Ken Glueck, Oracle’s top lobbyist, said the company prefers members who sit on committees that Oracle cares about or who represent districts where it has a presence.
“It’s not a free-for-all,” Glueck said. “Pick a member I’ve never heard of, we’re not gonna do that. It reflects our general PAC giving philosophy, which is focused on places where we have facilities, committees we’re interested in, members we care about.”
Although it’s not uncommon for companies to have these townhomes, Oracle is in a unique spot, as none of the other major tech companies has a similar presence. (They do have lavish offices in D.C., although not quite as close to the Hill.)
“There are some folks in Silicon Valley who still think lobbying is a dirty word, and they see their Washington offices as a waste of money,” said Nu Wexler, a former spokesperson for Facebook, Google and Twitter. “Oracle actually sees the importance of it, and they want their lobbyists to have the necessary resources.”
IN OTHER D.C. REAL ESTATE NEWS — Peter Thiel is the mystery buyer of former Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ 10,000-square-foot home in Woodland-Normanstone, POLITICO’s Playbook reported Monday. The property was purchased for $13 million in August, according to D.C. tax records — the most expensive D.C. home sale of the last 12 months. Thiel, the German-born tech billionaire, is a PayPal co-founder and sits on Meta’s board. He’s also become a major player in two top Senate races, where he backed J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona.
WELCH IN THE LIMELIGHT — Now that Leahy announced he isn’t running for reelection, all eyes turn to his heir apparent: Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). The eight-term congressman, who is the state’s lone House member, hasn’t said whether he’ll run for the seat, but he’s widely considered the early frontrunner should he choose to do so. He would bring a lengthy track record on a slew of tech and telecom policy issues:
— Restoring net neutrality rules: Welch, who sits on the House Energy and Commerce telecom panel, has been a vocal advocate for reinstating the rules that the Trump-era FCC spiked. In 2019, he backed the Save the Internet Act, which passed the House but not the Senate. (The best chance of such a change happening during this Congress, however, is probably not through legislation but through FCC action, once Democrats regain a majority at the agency.)
— Increasing rural broadband access: Welch, a co-chair of the Rural Broadband Caucus, has managed to get a lot of bipartisan work done in recent years. In March, he introduced an $80 billion broadband bill aimed at boosting internet connectivity in areas with download and upload speeds of less than 100 Mbps (a broadband benchmark that is significantly faster than the FCC’s). He was a key voice in pushing both the Trump and Biden administrations to include money for rural broadband in an infrastructure package — funds that ended up in the infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed Monday.
— Boosting privacy efforts: Welch has also been active on privacy issues, ranging from consumer data breaches to drones. Despite bipartisan support for federal privacy legislation, the two parties remain at odds over whether a federal standard would limit how far states can go and whether individuals can sue companies for violations.
— Regulating social media: At a March hearing, Welch asked social media CEOs if they would support the creation of a federal agency akin to the FTC that would regulate social media platforms. “The solution that you’re talking about could be very effective and positive for helping out,” Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook-turned-Meta CEO, responded.
GOING AFTER FACEBOOK — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Monday that he had filed a lawsuit against Meta, saying the company formerly known as Facebook misled the public on its harms to children in order to boost its stock and deceive its shareholders.
The complaint follows a series of news reports based on internal Facebook documents leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen. One particular story from The Wall Street Journal — which explored the negative effects of the company’s products on children — has struck a chord in Washington and prompted bipartisan outrage from lawmakers. After the revelations, Facebook’s stock price per share dropped $54.08, the complaint said, causing the plaintiffs to lose more than $100 billion. Yost’s suit also seeks “significant reforms” to bar the company from misleading the public about internal practices.
“This suit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. The company has consistently denied allegations that it prized profits over users’ safety.
GOOGLE LEAKED CYBER VULNERABILITY, EPIC ALLEGES — Google leaked news about an alleged cyber vulnerability with Epic Games’ Fortnite installer as a ploy to raise safety concerns about downloading apps outside its own money-making app store, Epic alleged in newly released court documents related to its antitrust suit against the search giant.
The installer, which Epic released in 2018 in Samsung’s app store, allowed Fortnite users to bypass the Google Play Store and its hefty 30 percent commissions. In response, Epic alleged, Google created an internal “Fortnite Task Force” focused on undercutting Epic and Samsung. “Ultimately we want Samsung to stop this kind of stuff (enabling the FN installer),” Google employees wrote in meeting notes quoted by Epic.
Google employees identified a cyber vulnerability in the installer, though the search giant’s own cyber personnel said the issue was “not a critical security (or even high) vulnerability.” (Epic said it identified the problem and released a patch within 36 hours.)
Instead of telling the company, Epic alleged, Google decided to publicize the security problem in a blog post and leaked the details to two news outlets it considered “friendlies.” “Disregarding the security of users, Google rushed to ‘get the word out [about the vulnerability] on the PR side’ in order to deter developers from launching outside of Google Play and maintain Google’s monopoly,” Epic said in its filing.
— Google’s response: “Epic released Fortnite on Android with security vulnerabilities that could compromise consumers’ data,” Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said. “Safety and security are our top priorities, so of course we took steps to warn our users about this security flaw, in accordance with our App Security policy. We’ll continue to fight Epic’s claims in court.”
Sharon Bradford Franklin was nominated to be a member and chair of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. She is co-director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology. She served as executive director of the PCLOB from 2013 to 2017 and is an FCC and DOJ alum. Beth Williams has been nominated to be a member of the PCLOB. She was an assistant attorney general at DOJ and is a Senate Judiciary alum.
Thom Parisi is now a public policy manager on Meta’s connectivity and access policy team in D.C. He previously was an associate at Covington & Burling. … Nate Beltran is joining Rep. Marc Veasey’s (D-Texas) office as a tech policy adviser. He most recently was an associate at Dewey Square Group, specializing in tech and telecom policy, and is a Filemón Vela and Jim McGovern alum. … J. David Grossman is returning to the Consumer Technology Association as VP of regulatory affairs. He was most recently executive director of the GPS Innovation Alliance and is an FCC and Anna Eshoo alum.
Valery Galasso is now chief of policy for telecommunications at the New York State Department of Public Service, for which she was appointed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. She most recently was a producer at Participant Media and is also an alum of the FCC and Joe Biden’s VP office. … Kara Calvert is joining Coinbase as senior director of public policy for North America. She spent nearly 13 years as a partner at Franklin Square Group, which has lobbied for the crypto exchange since 2017. Calvert is an Information Technology Industry Council and Mike Enzi alum. … Alyssa Schimel has joined Shondaland as VP of comms and marketing.
Accountable Tech has launched a database that compiles news outlets’ coverage of the Facebook Papers leaked by Haugen.
AT&T has completed its sale of Vrio Corp. to Werthein Group.
Information overload: “Ping. Ding. Chirp. Notifications Are Driving Us Crazy.” More from WSJ.
Total 180: Zoom’s CEO was against selling ads on the platform — until he wasn’t, The Information reports.
Water cooler talk: “Inside Sophie Schmidt’s Rest of World, the new tech publication from Eric Schmidt’s daughter that launched with big ambitions but has hit early growing pains,” via Insider.
What would Thomas Penfield Jackson say? “Microsoft blocks EdgeDeflector to force Windows 11 users into Edge,” via The Verge.
Blame it on the Twitter: Republicans on Twitter are much more likely to believe Twitter is bad for American democracy than Democrats, according to a Pew survey.
Paging Zuckerberg: A global coalition of 46 civil society groups is calling on Facebook to stop surveillance advertising aimed at children.
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