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Quick Fix
— Salting the earth, telecom-style: Ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, the GOP looks to secure an FCC majority and looser media ownership rules.
— The full-court press: Google goes to bat for its in-house lawyers to have access to confidential information in the company’s antitrust battle with the Justice Department.
— If I had a little money: Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter — a potential FTC chair under Biden — champions boosting the agency’s budget with higher merger fees.
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Tech of the Town
ENTRENCHING THE TRUMP TECH LEGACY — President Donald Trump may exit the White House in January, but Republicans are rushing to put their imprint on tech policy in a variety of ways in his final weeks. These efforts could have lasting effects well into the Biden era, cementing certain legacy moves and curbing the incoming administration’s ability to execute its agenda.
— The Senate GOP is seeking to install Trump’s FCC nominee Nathan Simington at the five-member agency to prevent Biden from filling the seat, a move that would also stall his ability to form an immediate Democratic majority. Another source of Democratic alarm: As POLITICO broke last week, Simington sought to use his position as an administration official to push conservative media to pressure the FCC, an independent agency, to target social media companies ahead of Election Day to boost Trump’s prospects. Senate Commerce is scheduled to vote on Simington’s nomination on Wednesday.
— The Supreme Court (a third of which is now Trump appointed) agreed to hear FCC Republicans’ appeal regarding their efforts to loosen media ownership restrictions on Jan. 19, just one day before Biden is sworn in. That allows the agency’s Republican lawyers to make their case, whereas after Inauguration Day Democrats will control the agency’s court strategies.
— While FCC Chair Ajit Pai is treading more carefully and is so far largely steering clear of controversial items (such as tackling the liability of social media companies, a key Trump ask), the agency chief released a memorandum providing guidance on how economics should be rolled into FCC proceedings, such as formally weighing the costs and benefits in rulemakings. One of Pai’s early pride points was creating an Office of Economics and Analytics — which some left-leaning critics initially feared could be used to undermine Obama-era regulation and something he likely hopes remains an agency fixture and part of his legacy.
— And FCC staff are teeing up what could be more controversial sleeper actions, moving rapidly to collect public feedback on a petition that some agency critics like Free Press see as a boon to the Murdoch family. Their company Fox recently requested a permanent waiver of FCC restrictions so they can continue to own both The New York Post newspaper and TV stations in the New York City market (the agency granted a short extension to comment deadlines, which now conclude Dec. 8).
— Democrats want Republicans to pump the brakes on any controversial regulation and last week also sent letters to agency heads like Pai and FTC Chair Joe Simons asking about conversions of political appointees to career staff. This practice, known as “burrowing,” would keep certain personnel employed under Biden.
Competition Corner
GOOGLE NAMES IN-HOUSE LAWYERS AMID CONFIDENTIALITY BATTLE — The Justice Department and Google are back in court Wednesday as U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta weighs how much access the search giant’s employees should have to rivals’ confidential information as part of the antitrust suit. Apple, Amazon, AT&T, Microsoft, Oracle and others who turned over docs to the DOJ have asked Mehta to limit highly sensitive information to Google’s outside counsel.
— In a filing on Friday, Google said two of its lawyers, Shaudy Danaye-Elmi and Lara Kollios, should have access. Danaye-Elmi, a Googler since 2012, supervises outside counsel and helps with government investigations, while Kollios has worked in the same regulatory, litigation and investigations group since 2019. Neither advise the business on competition-related matters nor are they involved in competitive decision-making, the company said.
FTC’S SLAUGHTER BACKS KLOBUCHAR MERGER FEE BILL — The agency has more work but half the staff it had at the beginning of the Reagan administration and “urgently” needs more money, Slaughter said in remarks released Friday from a Nov. 17 closed-door speech. “FTC funding has not kept pace with the market demands placed on our agency,” said the Democratic commissioner, who is in the running to become FTC chair once Biden takes office in January. (As reported last week, the agency is short on cash because of a surge in litigation and less money coming in during the pandemic.)
— One way to fix that? Boost the fees for merger filings. Congress can “increase merger-reporting fees, which have not kept pace with inflation, especially for mega-mergers,” Slaughter said, noting legislation (S. 1937 (116)) backed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). The top Democrat on Senate Judiciary’s antitrust panel, Klobuchar said she hopes to include her bill in the next government funding measure. The current stopgap bill expires on Dec. 11.
SECTION 230, ONCE MORE WITH FEELING — Trump spent Thanksgiving morning tweeting about tech’s liability shield. And now Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) bill to pare back internet companies’ liability protections is on the agenda for this week’s panel markup. The Online Content Policy Modernization Act, S. 4632 (116), was slated for a committee markup in October, but postponed amid the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett. A second stab at a markup on Nov. 18 also fell through.
— Graham’s bill, which melds copyright and Section 230 reforms, has backing among Senate GOP members but isn’t likely to garner much enthusiasm from Democrats. Still an overhaul of tech’s liability protections may have some support in a Biden administration. On Tuesday, Bruce Reed, a top Biden advisor who is likely to take a role in the executive branch, is set to talk about reforming the law alongside Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) at an event hosted by Georgetown Law School.
Silicon Valley Must Reads
ICYMI: A looming vacancy on the FTC has created a dilemma for the agency as it decides how to pursue its expected antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, from me.
RIP Tony Hsieh: The Zappos founder died Friday from complications related to a house fire, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Google and Facebook in the U.K. spotlight: The United Kingdom announced plans on Friday to create new rules that would limit the power of tech giants like Google and Facebook, my colleague Mark Scott reported.
Stick to in-flight texting: The FCC killed a proposal to let airline passengers use mobile phones during flights amid opposition from flight attendants and pilots, Bloomberg reports.
Quick Downloads
Amazon’s help wanted: The e-retailer has added 427,300 employees this year, bringing its global workforce to 1.2 million, the NYT reports.
And speaking of Amazon, about that outage: “The addition of new servers to Amazon’s dominant cloud-computing network led to the major outage Wednesday,” WaPo reports.
Racial discrimination at Coinbase: Three-quarters of Black employees at Coinbase, the most valuable U.S. cryptocurrency company, have quit, citing racist or discriminatory treatment, according to a New York Times dipstach.
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