With help from Emily Birnbaum, John Hendel, Leah Nylen and Sam Sabin
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— Your turn: The Supreme Court rejected a broad reading of the country’s central anti-hacking statute, and it’s now up to Congress to tweak it.
— WFH life: Google is continuing its push to bring its antitrust battles back to its home turf of California.
— Data dump: Tech company shareholders’ votes on activist proposals show an increasing desire for change.
WE MADE IT TO FRIDAY! MORNING TECH IS A FAN OF FOUR-DAY WEEKS. I’m your host, Benjamin Din. Fun fact: This week marked my eighth anniversary on Twitter, and I got verified on the same day! As I was reminiscing, I realized I had a fun anecdote about Twitter and Microsoft, but I’ll save that for next week. Stay tuned!
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SCOTUS RULING PUTS CFAA IN LAWMAKERS’ SIGHTS — The Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday substantially narrowed the scope of the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, paving the way for researchers digging into tech companies and security firms to continue their study of platforms’ algorithms and companies’ security vulnerabilities without fear of criminal prosecution.
— Big caveat: The decision “didn’t concern the other major source of potential liability for journalists and researchers who are studying tech companies — namely the terms of service” of those same companies, said Alex Abdo, litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute.
Companies have historically relied on their terms of service to stop researchers in their tracks. (Facebook, for instance, served a cease-and-desist letter last year to two NYU researchers who had been analyzing publicly available data on political ads.)
But the ruling leaves the door open for Congress to change that, Abdo said; they could add a safe-harbor provision that protects journalists and researchers. Or they could enact new legislation mandating that companies share a baseline level of proprietary data with researchers. In a statement, Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who had previously introduced a measure to strike terms-of-service violations from the CFAA, said the ruling underscored the need for federal privacy legislation.
— The tech sector response: Matt Schruers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which counts Facebook and other big tech companies as members, allowed that the ruling “should help to mitigate the unintended consequences of overbroad interpretations of the CFAA, which has led to misapplication, and discouraged legitimate activities like security research and testing.” Facebook itself didn’t respond to a request for comment on the decision.
GOOGLE WANTS ANTITRUST SUITS ON ITS HOME TURF (AGAIN) — U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan ruled last month that the antitrust suit over Google’s dominance in advertising technology should stay in Texas, but that hasn’t stopped the search giant from trying to transfer the case to its home state of California. Google has petitioned a legal body called the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate 19 cases involving its ad tech business, including the one filed by state attorneys general.
The JPML’s purpose is to centralize sprawling litigation into one court, so that similar cases don’t have to play out before multiple judges. While lawsuits filed by the Justice Department — like its antitrust case over Google’s search business — aren’t eligible for transfer, suits by state AGs don’t have that same protection.
— There’s a bill for that: Antitrust leaders in the House and Senate have introduced bipartisan legislation (H.R. 3460 (117), S. 1787 (117)) to change that — a fact that state AGs cited in their brief to the JPML arguing against moving their case out of Texas. The states also urged the panel to distinguish their suit from the other 18 cases, since it’s more advanced: The parties are beginning depositions and a trial is set for June 2023.
— Google’s arguments: The states’ suit and myriad private cases will involve the same facts and evidence, and the AGs’ claims that their discovery is already far ahead is “exaggerated,” the company said in a filing Wednesday night. Google also criticized the states for filing in Texas, alleging that the district has no relevance to the case outside of AG Ken Paxton’s “personal connections.” (When he was a state senator, Paxton’s district included Plano.)
— What’s next: The JPML’s hearing isn’t until the end of July, and a decision is likely in August.
READING THE SHAREHOLDER TEA LEAVES — Last week, the shareholders of Amazon, Facebook and Twitter shot down proposals from activist shareholders on a range of issues including misinformation, civil rights and platform misuse. Yet vote breakdowns filed this week offer some hope for activists. Compared with last year, the votes in favor of the proposals ticked up “healthily, but not dramatically” across the board, said Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, the corporate accountability group behind several of the proposals.
— Amazon’s numbers: A proposal to scrutinize the human rights implications of Amazon’s surveillance technology won 35 percent of the vote, up from last year. That number climbs to 44 percent if you exclude shares controlled by founder Jeff Bezos. More than 44 percent of shareholders voted for a racial equity audit — without Bezos, almost 55 percent, Open MIC’s analysis found.
— Over at Facebook: A proposal to eliminate the dual-class shareholder structure that gives CEO Mark Zuckerberg majority control over votes won more than 90 percent of the other shareholders’ votes, up 2 percent since last year. A proposal assessing the risk of child exploitation on Facebook won 56 percent.
For now, Zuckerberg and Bezos are still running their respective shows. But the numbers indicate an increasing appetite among shareholders for the companies to focus on the civil and human rights implications of their products.
— Waiting on Google: During its annual meeting on Wednesday, Alphabet advised shareholders against activist proposals, including one that would add a human rights or civil rights expert to its board. The company hasn’t filed its vote breakdowns, but all eight proposals were shot down.
TODAY’S THE BIG DAY — Facebook will respond to the policy recommendations its oversight board issued last month in its ruling on former President Donald Trump’s indefinite suspension. “Facebook plans to end its controversial policy that mostly shields politicians from the content moderation rules that apply to other users,” the Verge reported, citing two sources familiar with the changes, as well as make its strike system more transparent. It will also disclose “when it uses a special newsworthiness exemption to keep up content from politicians and others that would otherwise violate its rules.”
To mark the occasion, the groups Accountable Tech and Media Matters for America are running a full-page ad in today’s New York Times, as well as digital ads, calling on Facebook to keep the former president off its platform permanently. Mobile billboards paid for by those two groups will also circle Facebook’s D.C. office and Capitol Hill — a sign that progressive groups are concerned the social media company could allow Trump back on as soon as today.
WHITE HOUSE OFFERS NEARLY $1B FOR TRIBAL BROADBAND — Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that nearly $1 billion for tribal broadband is now available, the result of the bipartisan pandemic relief legislation passed in December. Harris — who’s become the administration’s go-to person on broadband, with connectivity events about once a week — used the occasion to tout the administration’s $100 billion broadband infrastructure goals.
— The tribal aid, which can flow to activities like laying broadband infrastructure, supplying equipment, funding apprenticeships or subsidizing connectivity for households, “is a down payment on the work we must do,” Harris said, referring to the broader infrastructure negotiations underway. “We must keep going until we connect every American household.”
ROBOCALL WAR GOES GLOBAL — FCC acting chief Jessica Rosenworcel on Thursday unveiled a robocall-centric memorandum of understanding with her Australian counterpart, a sign that policymakers are eyeing global coordination to combat the overseas callers flooding Americans’ phones. The agreement, follows a bevy of enforcement actions from Rosenworcel in recent months.
— So how’s the fight going? Despite federal efforts, Americans have been saddled with 22 billion spam calls over the first five months of 2021, putting the country on track for 52 billion this year, the call-blocking software company YouMail announced Thursday. And a word to our policymakers: In May, D.C. replaced Memphis, Tenn., as the second-most robocalled city (32.3 calls per person!).
Nu Wexler is joining Seven Letter as a partner. He is a Twitter, Facebook, Google and bicameral Hill alum. … Marne Levine has been promoted to chief business officer, a new role at Facebook. She is an Obama White House alum. … President Joe Biden will nominate David Weil as the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour administrator, where he will oversee worker classification issues. He held the position during the Obama administration.
Our friends at POLITICO Influence send this along: Nick Leibham, who helped lead K&L Gates’ emerging technology and innovation law practice group for more than a dozen years, is joining Holland & Knight as a partner in the public policy and regulation practice group. He will register to lobby.
Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Disney, Netflix and Workday are forming a collective, the Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions. … Global tech policy firm Access Partnership has acquired Singapore-based TRPC to improve its presence in the Asia-Pacific market.
Inside scoop: Amazon is poaching government officials for its cloud-computing unit at a rapid pace, Daniel Lippman and Emily report.
Opting out: Google will allow Android users to stop advertiser tracking, following in Apple’s privacy footsteps, Bloomberg reports.
New look: Google is removing Kamau Bobb as its global lead for diversity strategy and research and reassigning him to a STEM research position, Business Insider reports, after the Washington Free Beacon uncovered antisemitic remarks he wrote in 2007.
Internal strife: “India and Israel Inflame Facebook’s Fights With Its Own Employees,” via NYT.
Land dispute: Amazon wants a new African HQ on land that traditional groups want to designate as a World Heritage Site, Reuters reports.
Drama at the FCC: AT&T, Verizon & T-Mobile will each pay $100,000 to settle FCC investigations into their noncompliance in providing 911 location data that could indicate whether a caller is in a tall building, John reported for Pros. GOP Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington called it “a bad deal for public safety” and said they learned about the agency’s decision via press release.
Teamwork makes the dream work: A group of 20 Democratic senators, led by Brian Schatz of Hawaii, is calling on USDA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to share data with the FCC to improve broadband connectivity for those living in federally assisted housing.
Feeling Blue: Twitter has launched its subscription program in Canada and Australia, the Hill reports.
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HAVE AN AWESOME WEEKEND!