Bipartisan Group of Senators Call on USTR to Not Include Section 230 in U.S.-UK Agreement
On December 18, a bipartisan group of Senators sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, requesting that the administration not include broad online liability protections in the potential U.S.-UK trade agreement. The letter, signed by Senators Mark Warner ... Read More
Local News Included in Proposed Payroll Assistance
On December 20, Congress expanded government loan forgiveness to local news outlets in the proposed COVID relief bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) released a joint statement praising these “key modifications to PPP” that expand ... Read More
38 States File Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google
On December 17, a bipartisan coalition of 38 states filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging Google used its market power to thwart competition. The lawsuit alleges that Google leveraged its market power ... Read More
10 States File Digital Advertising Lawsuit Against Google
On December 16, 10 states filed a complaint in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Sherman division alleging that Google illegally monopolized products and services that publishers used to advertise. The complaint further alleges that Google’s anticompetitive ... Read More
FTC Sues Facebook for Anti-Competitive Behavior
On December 9, the FTC announced that it will sue Facebook for violating antitrust law along with 46 states' attorneys general. The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that “Facebook has engaged in a ... Read More
Australian Government Introduces Legislation Establishing Mandatory Code of Conduct for Online Platforms
On December 9, the Australian government published its proposed legislation to create an enforceable code to require online platforms to pay news publishers for their content. The law will codify the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) draft code released ... Read More
Google Giving Access to Paywalled Content
On December 2, Google announced that it would start giving consumers access to paywalled content. Google will pay participating publishers for Google News Showcase users’ access to paywalled content. Google News Showcase launched two months ago in limited countries and Google ... Read More
Facebook to Pay Some UK Publishers
On November 30, Facebook announced it would pay some UK publishers for their content. Facebook will hire contractors to select the main stories of the day from mainstream outlets to appear in its News Tab. Facebook has not said how much ... Read More
House of Lords Calls on UK Government to Ensure a Sustainable Future for Journalism
On November 27, the Select Committee on Communications and Digital of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom published a report titled “Breaking News? The Future of UK Journalism.” The comprehensive report outlines the UK news media landscape before ... Read More
UK Government to Develop a Code of Conduct and Establish a Digital Markets Unit to Regulate Online Platforms
On November 27, the UK Government released its responses to the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) study on online platforms and digital advertising, published in July 2020. In its response, the Government accepted the CMA’s findings and recommendations and committed ... Read More
Google Compensating Some French Publishers
On November 19, Google entered into a copyright agreement with six French publishers to compensate them for their content. The agreement comes after a court ordered Google to begin negotiations with French publishers to pay them for the use of ... Read More
FCC Nominee Grilled on Section 230
On November 10, Nathan Simington, Trump’s nominee to replace FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, was questioned by Senators at a nominations hearing. Nathan Simington is a Senior Adviser at the National Telecommunications and Information Association, which petitioned the FCC for rulemaking ... Read More
Senator Cantwell Releases Report on Challenges to Local Journalism
On October 27, Senator Maria Cantrell (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Committee, released a report on threats to local news in today’s digital landscape. It explains how Google and Facebook have created a crisis for local news, whose revenues have ... Read More
Canadian Publishers Call for Compensation
On October 21, News Media Canada released a statement on behalf of Canada’s news publishers calling on Parliament to address Google and Facebook’s excessive market power. Because Google and Facebook control the majority of advertising revenue, news publishers’ bottom line is at ... Read More
DOJ Files Lawsuit Against Google
On October 20, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and 11 state Attorneys General filed a lawsuit against Google in the District Court for the District of Columbia for allegedly violating antitrust laws under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, in hopes of ... Read More
FCC to Interpret Section 230
On October 15, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai released a statement saying that “the FCC has the legal authority to interpret Section 230” and the FCC will “move forward with a rulemaking to clarify its meaning.” President Trump issued an Executive Order in May ... Read More
Justice Thomas Wants to Limit Section 230
On October 13, the Supreme Court denied cert to a case implicating Section 230, but Justice Thomas released a statement stressing the importance of walking back the broad Section 230 immunity that lower courts have granted. Justice Thomas detailed how the courts ... Read More
Google Excludes Australia from News Showcase in Latest ACCC Retaliation
Google is delaying Australia’s inclusion in its latest news resource, after the ACCC announced its mandatory news media bargaining code requiring Google to fairly compensate news publishers. Since then, Google has spread misinformation about the Code and released a statement condemning the code. The ACCC remains ... Read More
French Court Requires Google to Negotiate with News Publishers
On October 8, a French appeals court ruled against Google, requiring them to negotiate with news publishers to pay them for their content. Prior to this ruling, reports indicate a deal was tentatively struck with a French news publishers association ... Read More
House Antitrust Subcommittee Releases Report on Big Tech
House Antitrust Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) and the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law concluded their year-long, bipartisan investigation of big tech’s market power by releasing their comprehensive report. The report discusses the online platforms’ anticompetitive actions against news ... Read More
Final Big Tech Antitrust Hearing Calls for Regulation
On October 1, the House Antitrust Subcommittee held the last of seven hearings to investigate Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple for possible antitrust violations. The witnesses clashed over what Congress should do, with some suggesting major overhauls of antitrust law ... Read More
Senate Subpoenas Big Tech CEOs
On October 1, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to issue subpoenas to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai if they do not agree to testify voluntarily. The CEOs will testify about Section 230 ... Read More
DOJ Proposes Section 230 Changes to Congress
On September 23, the DOJ submitted its proposed Section 230 changes to Congress. The legislation would make it more difficult for big tech to escape liability for content moderation, requiring an “objectively reasonable belief” that the content they remove falls ... Read More
Google Continues Attack on ACCC News Bargaining Code
On September 13, Google released its latest statement about its grievances with Australia’s newest proposed regulation to compensate news publishers. While Google again claims that they “simply help people find what they’re looking for on the internet,” their use and ... Read More
ACCC to Examine App Store Competition
On September 8, the ACCC announced that it is opening an investigation into “the extent of competition between Google and Apple’s app stores.” They will be informed by Australian consumers, developers, suppliers, and others’ experiences with the app stores. Because apps have ... Read More
Australian Treasurer Supports News, Condemns Facebook Threats
Following Facebook’s recent retaliation against the ACCC’s news media bargaining code, Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg refuses to back down, saying, “Australia makes laws that advance our national interest, and we won’t be responding to coercion or heavy-handed tactics, wherever they come from.” ... Read More
French Publishers Fail to Reach an Agreement with Google on Compensation
According to news reports, Google and French news publishers failed to reach an agreement on compensation for the use of news content under the new Publishers’ Right adopted by the European Union last year. France is the first EU member ... Read More
Alliance Calls on Congress to Abrogate State Sovereign Immunity in Copyright Cases
On September 2, the News Media Alliance filed comments with the U.S. Copyright Office regarding state sovereign immunity in copyright suits. The Copyright Office is conducting a study into instances of state infringement of copyrights, in response to a request ... Read More
Alliance Submits Comments with the European Commission on Google’s Abusive Business Practices
On September 3, the News Media Alliance submitted comments in response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the proposed Digital Services Act package. The consultation is aimed at collecting views from stakeholders regarding the future of digital services in ... Read More
Apple’s New Privacy Policy Bad for Ad Revenue, Says Facebook
Facebook recently alleged that Apple’s new privacy policy will cripple efforts to offer personalized ads. These changes would require that app developers obtain users’ consent before they are able to track information used to deliver personalized ads. This policy is ... Read More
Facebook Retaliates Against Australian Bargaining Code
On August 31, Facebook issued a press release saying that if the ACCC’s draft code becomes law, they will no longer allow publishers or consumers to share any news on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook alleges that the regulation “misunderstands” the bargaining ... Read More
Google Suspected in Latest Campaign Against Australian Bargaining Code
On August 26, The Australian reported that Google is suspected of using “scare tactics” to push back against the recent passage by the Australia Competition & Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) mandatory bargaining code to fairly compensate news publishers. Both Senators and ... Read More
Google Implements New Ad Blockers
Google is supposed to implement a new “heavy ad blocker” in late August, according to a Google official’s activity on a Chromium message board. Google defines a heavy ad as any ad that a user hasn’t interacted with that uses ... Read More
News Publishers Push Back on Apple Policies
On August 20, Digital Content Next (DCN) sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking about better terms for revenue sharing from digital subscriptions to news publishers’ content through Apple’s App Store. DCN represents a broad variety of news ... Read More
DOJ Attorneys Want to Delay Big Tech Lawsuit
The Wall Street Journal reported that some Department of Justice (DOJ) staffers are concerned that the lawsuit against Google is not ready to be filed, despite Attorney General Barr hoping to file by the end of the summer. While the DOJ has ... Read More
Google Spreads Misinformation About ACCC News Media Bargaining Code
Google released an open letter to Australians claiming that the Australia Competition & Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) draft news media bargaining code threatens consumer data privacy, the accuracy of search results, and the ability of Google and YouTube to remain free services. The ... Read More
ACCC Rules Facebook & Google Must Pay Australian Publishers
On July 31, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission's (ACCC) released its mandatory News Media Bargaining Code to correct the power imbalance between big tech and news publishers. The Code ensures publishers’ ability to be meaningfully compensated for news content through ... Read More
Congress Considers Extending PPP Options to More News Publishers
Congressional leaders and the White House are continuing their discussions on the next stimulus bill, including an extension of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Both the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act released by the Senate Republicans ... Read More
Top Tech CEOs Testify Before Congress Regarding Antitrust Investigation
On Wednesday, the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google all testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee on Antitrust as part of the Subcommittee’s investigation into the anticompetitive practices of online platforms. The hearing was the sixth hearing ... Read More
European Publishers Unite to Negotiate with the Dominant Online Platforms
On July 30, French and German news publishers announced that they were working together to form a new joint venture to license news content to online platforms under the EU’s recently adopted Copyright Directive. Article 15 of the Directive created ... Read More
