Two hours into its Thursday markup, Republicans inserted provisions designed to limit the platforms’ abilities to moderate content, over the objections of lead sponsor Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who then withdrew the bill.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Wednesday blasted large tech companies for “taking” news organizations’ content without paying them. Her remarks came at a hearing on her proposed Journalism Competition and Protection Act, which would grant a four-year antitrust exemption to news organizations (including print, television and online companies) in order to allow them to negotiate collectively with online platforms that draw at least 1 billion monthly active users.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a markup Thursday (Jan. 13) for a tough new online antitrust bill, and computer companies are not happy. The bill, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, was introduced back in October by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), chair of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee and a self-described leading antitrust reformer, and Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. It‘s one of many proposed bills to rein in Big Tech, and not the only one backed by Klobuchar.
The incoming head of the Senate antitrust subcommittee favors broad changes as Democrats press the issue of perceived monopoly power.
Exclusives
Sen. Amy Klobuchar will follow Sen. Bernie Sanders as the second Democratic presidential candidate to hold a town hall meeting on Fox News, while Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro and Sen. Cory Booker are also considering the same move. Sanders’ town hall meeting reached 2.55 million viewers on Fox.
Lawmakers plan to introduce a bill Thursday that would impose new requirements on online platforms that run political ads. The measure, first floated by Senate Democrats Mark Warner (Virginia) and Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota), has picked up Republican Sen. John McCain (Arizona) as a co-sponsor.
Concerned that the White House may meddle in the anti-trust review AT&T’s proposed $85 billion takeover of Time Warner, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked the Justice Department last Friday whether it had been contacted about the merger by any White House employee or adviser to the president.
A bipartisan trio of Senators Thursday introduced a bill that would make illegally streaming TV shows or movies a felony. The bill (S. 978) was introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.), and came the same day that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D- Vt.) re-introduced a bipartisan bill to give the government more tools to shut down websites that traffic in stolen intellectual property, including TV shows and movies.
