[ad_1]
Editor’s Note: This edition of Morning Tech is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Technology subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. Learn more about POLITICO Pro’s comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, at politicopro.com.
— Tariff torment: Tech companies face fresh tariff hikes and more to come later this year, after the Trump administration moved forward Sunday with new duties on a portion of $300 billion worth of Chinese goods.
— September look-ahead: Lawmakers will drill down on 8chan and question the nation’s top antitrust regulators when Congress returns from its summer sojourn.
— Disinformation nation: A new report points to Instagram memes and WhatsApp chats as as the next big vehicles for spreading falsehoods heading into the 2020 election.
FAREWELL, SWEET SUMMER, AND WELCOME BACK TO MORNING TECH. I’m your host, Alexandra Levine. So begins the sprint to November of next year. On your mark, get set … go!
Got a news tip? Write me at [email protected] or @Ali_Lev. An event for our calendar? Send details to [email protected]. Anything else? Full team info below. And don’t forget: add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.
TARIFFS UNLEASHED — Tech groups in Washington are bracing for more tariff hikes this fall — in early October and mid-December — after the administration moved forward Sunday with part of President Donald Trump’s plan to hike tariffs on about $550 billion worth of Chinese goods. (The 15 percent Sept. 1 tariff, up from 10 percent previously, hit tech products including TVs, digital cameras and smartwatches, while the Dec. 15 duty is poised to hit smartphones, tablets and laptops.)
“This unpredictable tariff policy is forcing us down the wrong economic path,” said Consumer Technology Association chief Gary Shapiro. “U.S. companies have to spend more resources on constantly changing trade rules and less on innovation.” Expect more pushback from tech companies and trade groups during a formal USTR public comment period ahead of Oct. 1, when the president plans to raise existing tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods (mainly inputs for manufacturing like machinery and chemicals) from 25 percent to 30 percent.
— Also worth watching: Tim Cook. The Apple CEO has met with Trump several times this year, as recently as late August, to try to persuade him to spare Apple’s China-made products from the tariffs. The tariff hike over the weekend affects the Apple Watch and AirPods, among other Apple products, while those coming down the pike will hit the iPhone and other flagship devices from the tech giant. We’re tracking signs of further lobbying efforts from Cook — and whether they prove successful.
THIS WEEK: 8CHAN — The House Homeland Security Committee is expected to question 8chan owner Jim Watkins in a closed-door deposition on Thursday about what his website is doing to address racist and violent content. The site, known as a haven for white nationalists and conspiracy theorists, is getting new scrutiny in Washington after hosting online manifestos linked to three mass shootings this year, including the one in El Paso, Texas, a month ago. The House Homeland panel has said it’s considering legislation that would set up “a national commission on social media companies and terrorism content.”
— Also around the corner: The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an antitrust oversight hearing on Sept. 17 with Justice Department antitrust chief Makan Delrahim and FTC Chairman Joe Simons. The two regulators are driving a number of big tech investigations unfolding in Washington — including DOJ’s probe of all the major tech companies and the FTC’s antitrust probe of Facebook. (A group of state attorneys general is expected to announce its own antitrust tech investigation as soon as this month.)
— Plus: Keep your eyes peeled for an official announcement about the FTC’s settlement with YouTube over children’s privacy. Margaret scooped Friday that the fine will be between $150 million and $200 million. … French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire is in Washington this week to meet with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. We’re watching to see if the confab involves hashing out details around the deal the U.S. and France appeared to reach at G-7 in August regarding Paris’ digital tax on tech companies. … The next round of Democratic presidential debates on Sept. 12 could feature more talk from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on the need to break up big tech. … And of course we’re tracking the legal and political tussle over the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud computing contract, JEDI (with starring roles for Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle).
DISINFO WARS — Instagram and WhatsApp are the social media platforms likely to be hardest hit by disinformation campaigns during the 2020 election campaign, according to a report out today from the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. MT spoke with Paul Barrett, the center’s deputy director and author of the report, for insights on the likely scope and timing of the threat and how prepared we are to deal with it. Highlights below; you can read the full interview here.
The 2016 election saw major issues with manipulation and disinformation on Facebook and Twitter. Why do you expect Instagram to be so problematic this time around?
“Instagram’s popularity with people who use images to communicate explains why it actually has been a significant vector for disinformation,” Barrett told POLITICO. “In 2016, the Russians used it a lot — there was more engagement on Instagram than on either Facebook or Twitter — and I think that’s just because memes have increasingly become a way that people communicate in very abrupt, concise messages. Instagram is good for that, so it can easily be misused.”
What about WhatsApp? On the surface, it seems to be a private, safer forum — people aren’t usually using it to engage with strangers.
“A number of people pointed out to me the degree to which WhatsApp was used to spread conspiracy theories and all kinds of false information and phony photographs and so forth in both the Brazilian presidential election and subsequently in India. Facebook has taken some steps to limit the reach of WhatsApp, so that may dampen, somewhat, its use for disinformation. But I think it’s worth keeping an eye on nevertheless. … [WhatsApp’s closed nature] is both the benefit of it in terms of privacy and the potential for mischief; no one can look over the shoulder of WhatsApp users. That may encourage people to try to use it to spread disinformation.”
When do you expect 2020 disinformation campaigns to really ramp up?
“The amount of disinformation aimed at the Democrats both from domestic sources and potentially from overseas is going to increase as we move closer to there being a Democratic nominee or frontrunner,” Barrett said. “Once we’re down to two or three, they’re going to be subject to a lot of phony junk online.”
We’ve got a bunch of ’em piled up: John Donovan, CEO of AT&T, announced plans to retire in October. … Jeffrey Prince, a professor at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, was named chief economist of the FCC. … Kathy O’Neill, who was most recently chief of the DOJ antitrust division’s transportation, energy and agriculture section, was named senior director of investigations and litigation, “the senior-most career civil antitrust attorney, with responsibility over all civil merger and conduct investigations and litigation,” according to a department news release. … Caitlin Brosseau, who has held senior in-house positions for eBay and Pandora, is joining TripAdvisor as senior director of U.S. public policy.
Margaret McCarthy, most recently the executive director of Mobile Future, will join ITI’s government affairs team as senior director. … Leslie Miller, vice president of Google public policy, will become the new head of YouTube global policy. … Markham Cho Erickson, who chaired Steptoe & Johnson’s internet, telecom and technology practice group, is joining Google as the new head of the company’s Centers of Excellence group.
And there’s more … Kate Goodloe, former senior associate at Covington & Burling focused on privacy and cybersecurity, joins BSA as a director of policy specializing in privacy issues. … Kaya Singleton is leaving the federal affairs team at the Entertainment Software Association to join H&R Block as director of federal government relations. … Pierce Stanley, a former Demand Progress fellow focused on net neutrality, has joined the Council on Foreign Relations. … Ashley Simmons, former vice president of external affairs and communications for the Telecommunications Industry Association, left to start her own communications consultancy. … Katherine Flocken, former senior government relations specialist at Arent Fox, has joined the government affairs and consulting firm Allon Advocacy as senior policy adviser.
Bombshell: “How Amazon’s gigantic, decentralized, next-day delivery network brought chaos, exploitation, and danger to communities across America,” via BuzzFeed News.
Libra (back) in the limelight: Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm known for early investments in Facebook and other tech companies, is putting up a fight against Washington’s cryptocurrency crackdown, WSJ reports.
ICYMI: Hackers took over the Twitter account of the company’s CEO Jack Dorsey on Friday and used it to broadcast racist messages and bomb threats, The New York Times reports.
Wireless woes: Mexico’s wireless has been interfering with U.S. networks, including after the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, John reports for Pros, and the U.S. government fears it could severely disrupt America’s public safety broadband network aimed at helping first responders.
Plus: Here’s what the FCC is doing to prepare for Hurricane Dorian, according to chairman Ajit Pai.
Another day, another tech company walkout: “As Grass-Roots Labor Activism Rises, Will Unions Take Advantage?” via The New York Times.
5G report: Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has some thoughts on how we should measure who’s winning the race to 5G, in a new report from The Brookings Institution.
Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Eric Engleman ([email protected], @ericengleman), Kyle Daly ([email protected], @dalykyle), Nancy Scola ([email protected], @nancyscola), Margaret Harding McGill ([email protected], @margarethmcgill), Steven Overly ([email protected], @stevenoverly), John Hendel ([email protected], @JohnHendel), Cristiano Lima ([email protected], @viaCristiano) and Alexandra S. Levine ([email protected], @Ali_Lev).
TTYL.
[ad_2]
