Everyone’s weighing in on internet ads

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With help from Ashley Gold, John Hendel and Nancy Scola

EVERYONE’S WEIGHING IN ON INTERNET ADS — Comments are rolling in at the FEC, as the commission considers whether to write new rules requiring Facebook and Google ads to carry the same “Paid for by Candidate X” disclosures you see on TV or hear on the radio. In the past, the commission has been unable to agree on how to interpret existing campaign finance laws for social media. But in September, amid all the controversy over Russian interference in the 2016 election, the commission, to the surprise of many observers, voted to try again. And now it’s asked the public where it should go from here.

— Google, for its part, told the FEC that well-crafted rules would give it useful clarity on how to identify who’s buying political ads. Twitter asked the agency to consider how disclosures could be effectively conveyed on “character-constrained platforms,” without impeding the user experience, and applauded the FEC’s reopening of the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Facebook is also expected to submit a comment ahead of the new deadline, which was extended until Monday.

— The Computer and Communications Industry Association, meanwhile, warned that rules have to be crafted so that legitimate online political speech is not “stifled.” And the Electronic Privacy Information Center said it wants the commission to go as far as requiring “algorithmic transparency,” showing the public not just who paid for the ads, but how they’re targeted. Short version: If new rules are inevitable, all involved want to see them done well. The challenge: There’s still a lot of disagreement over what “done well” means.

— Also sharing their take with the FEC are several House Democrats, who say the commission isn’t thinking big enough. The lawmakers, including Reps. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), say that disclosures are only a start. The FEC should also engage in a rulemaking aimed to answer the question of what to do about foreign interference across the board, they say, adding that the process would be “a much-needed venue to underscore the threat our nation faces.”

THE HONEST ADS ACT IS NOAH’S ARK — Ashley caught up with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who said he’s ready to sign on to the Honest Ads Act ( S. 1989 (115)), the online political ad disclosure bill from colleagues Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). But he needs another Republican to get on board at the same time. “I talked to Senator Klobuchar about it when she introduced it. She would be happy to add me as a co-sponsor, if there are additional Republicans,” Coons said. “It is now widely the practice that you follow Ark rules, two by two. And … it is a challenge. So, I support the bill, I think it’s good policy, I’m going to work to recruit some additional Republican co-sponsors.”

TAX BILL MOVES OUT OF COMMITTEE — House Ways and Means has advanced a long-awaited tax reform bill, which now heads to the floor, POLITICO’s Aaron Lorenzo, Brian Faler and Bernie Becker report. Some tech companies might not be pleased with one of the updates to the legislation: The amended version would “increase a one-time tax on companies’ overseas earnings, among other changes. Under the revised plan, businesses would pay a 14 percent tax on liquid assets and 7 percent on illiquid ones, up from 12 percent and five percent, respectively.”

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AT&T CEO ON THOSE OTHER DEALS — Randall Stephenson had a lot of things to say Thursday about the government’s review of his company’s $85 billion proposed merger with Time Warner ( “We’re prepared to litigate now”). But he also gave his views on other deal-making in the telecom and media worlds. On reports that Disney held talks on buying a chunk of 21st Century Fox, Stephenson said, “It didn’t seem irrational to me, it didn’t seem illogical to me,” but he added, “I suspect a lot of people in the industry are just on pause waiting to see what happens with our deal.” As for the now-defunct Sprint-T-Mobile merger talks, Stephenson said the combination would have made “a lot of sense” for the companies but faced “a difficult run” due to concerns it would reduce the U.S. wireless market from four to three major players.

IVANKA, PORTMAN HUDDLE ON SESTA — Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) met with first daughter and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump to discuss his anti-sex-trafficking bill ( S. 1693 (115)) that recently advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee. Trump has expressed support for the legislation. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recently put a hold on the bill because he believes it could unfairly harm smaller tech firms.

WHO WILL TAKE GOODLATTE’S PLACE ON HOUSE JUDICIARY — Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced Thursday he won’t run for reelection in 2018, kickstarting speculation about who will take his place atop the powerful panel. (Goodlatte likely would have had to step down as chairman regardless next year due to Republicans’ self-imposed term limits for committee leadership posts.) The Judiciary panel deals with a wide array of tech-related policies, including patent and copyright. During his tenure, Goodlatte conducted a years-long review of copyright law and played a starring role in the battle over the Stop Online Piracy Act. (He co-sponsored the anti-piracy bill, which went down in flames in 2012 after an internet-wide protest.)

KORNBLUH RETHINKING THE ‘NET — Karen Kornbluh, a longtime Democratic tech policy adviser whose name circulated as a possible FCC chair under Hillary Clinton, has some thoughts on Facebook, Google and Twitter. Speaking at a Capitol Hill event Thursday, she recalled her shock that the companies, in their congressional testimony last week, appeared reluctant to rule out accepting Russian rubles as payment for online political ads. “I couldn’t help but thinking, ‘How on earth did we get here?’” Kornbluh said. “I remember when the internet was going to be this force for strengthening democracy and increasing transparency. It was going to give voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless and bring democracy to the Middle East. I was one of those boosters.” She added: “I was an ambassador [to the OECD] under Obama, and we promoted ‘internet freedom.’ So I’m trying to understand all this.”

— Why that’s striking: During the Obama era, Kornbluh was a high-profile advocate for the idea that the internet is a force for democratic good, a notion that crystallized into conventional Washington wisdom. Now she favors fixes, calling the Honest Ads Act an obvious start. Kornbluh said the industry has to get behind “democracy by design.” “When we’re creating these algorithms, we can’t just ignore the fact that they optimize for extremism and paranoia,” she said.

MORE BROADBAND MAPPING ANGST — Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) is the latest lawmaker to say the FCC needs to step up action on broadband mapping. “My constituents have repeatedly expressed frustration with their limited access to broadband Internet, calling into question FCC’s census-based maps that inaccurately claim otherwise,” he wrote Thursday in a letter to Chairman Ajit Pai, criticizing the data collection methods that generate the mapping.

SILICON VALLEY MUST-READS

— Twitter presses pause on verification: “Twitter has suspended its verification program following outrage over handing a blue checkmark to the organizer of the deadly Charlottesville rally in August,” USA Today reports.

— Apple diversity update: “Apple continued to hire greater numbers of Asian, black and Latino workers over the past year, but the overall racial and gender breakdown of the company’s workforce remains mostly unchanged since 2016,” Recode reports. “The new data, released Thursday, also highlights that Apple added more women to its leadership ranks in 2017.”

— Project Loon’s progress in Puerto Rico: “Alphabet’s Project Loon, which last month partnered with AT&T and T-Mobile to bring LTE connectivity to disaster-stricken Puerto Rico, says its helium air balloons have delivered internet to 100,000 residents on the island,” The Verge reports.

TRANSITIONS — Anna Swick, previously press secretary for Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), heads to the office of Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.).

QUICK DOWNLOADS

Tech and telecom have strong showing on LGBTQ diversity: The Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index finds that tech and telecom firms including Apple and AT&T have been strong supporters of LGBTQ diversity and inclusion.

Social media and militant content: “Britain’s top internal security official is pressing social media companies to devise automatic systems to spot and block violent militant messaging before it is posted on their networks,” Reuters reports.

Kid-proof: YouTube Kids is updating its policies to further limit kids’ exposure to inappropriate content, The Verge reports.

Facebook’s revenge porn update: “In an attempt to combat the rise of revenge porn on its platform, Facebook is asking users to upload any nude photos they think may be distributed without consent — a process which involves a Facebook employee reviewing the uploaded images,” BuzzFeed reports.

Twitter CEO says he would have testified: The thing is, he was invited and declined, Recode reports. CEO Jack Dorsey also noted, in a DealBook interview, that “‘It should never have been possible’ for a single staffer to temporarily deactivate the President’s twitter account,” BuzzFeed reports.

Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Eric Engleman ( [email protected], @ericengleman), Angela Greiling Keane ( [email protected], @agreilingkeane), Nancy Scola ( [email protected], @nancyscola), Margaret Harding McGill ( [email protected], @margarethmcgill), Ashley Gold ( [email protected], @ashleyrgold), Steven Overly ( [email protected], @stevenoverly), John Hendel ( [email protected], @JohnHendel) and Li Zhou ( [email protected], @liszhou)