Congress Wants to Put the Brakes on Runaway Acquisitions by Big Tech
The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives recently released a comprehensive series of bills designed to curb the excesses of Big Tech. One of them, the Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, addresses one of the biggest, most obvious problems among the largest tech companies: that they use...
The New ACCESS Act Is a Good Start. Here’s How to Make Sure It Delivers.
Changing Section 230 Won’t Make the Internet a Kinder, Gentler Place
Tech platforms, especially the largest ones, have a problem—there’s a lot of offensive junk online. Many lawmakers on Capitol Hill keep coming back to the same solution—blaming Section 230.What lawmakers don’t notice is that a lot of the people posting that offensive junk get stopped, again and...
Emails from 2016 Show Amazon Ring's Hold on the LAPD Through Camera Giveaways
In March 2016, “smart” doorbell camera maker Ring was a growing company attempting to market its wireless smart security camera when it received an email from an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Gang and Narcotics Division, who was interested in purchasing a slew of devices.The Los...
22 Rights Groups Tell PayPal and Venmo to Shape Up Policies on Account Closures
San Francisco – Nearly two dozen rights groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), have joined together to tell PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo to shape up its policies on account freezes and closures, as its opaque practices are interfering with payment systems connected to many First-Amendment protected activities.“Companies like...
Unconstitutional Florida Law Barring Platforms from Suspending Politicians Should be Blocked, EFF Tells Court
Tallahassee, Florida—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Protect Democracy urged a federal judge to strike down Florida’s law banning Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms from suspending political candidates’ accounts, saying it unconstitutionally interferes with the First Amendment rights of the companies and their users, and forces companies to give politicians’...
Hearing Tuesday: EFF Testifies Against SFPD for Violating Transparency Policies
San Francisco – On Tuesday, June 15, at 5:30 pm PT, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will testify against the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) at the city’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force committee meeting. EFF has registered a complaint against the SFPD for withholding records about a controversial investigation involving...
The ACCESS ACT Takes a Step Towards a More Interoperable Future
When it comes to online services, there are a few very large companies whose gravitational effects can alter the entire tech universe. Their size, power, and diverse levers of control mean that there is no single solution that will put right that which they’ve thrown out of balance. One thing...
1000 Californians Have Asked Their Representatives To Fix Our Broken Broadband System. Have You?
The California legislature has been handed what might be their easiest job this year, and they are refusing to do it. Californians far and wide have spent the pandemic either tethered to their high-speed broadband connections (if they’re lucky), or desperately trying to find ways to make their internet...
The GDPR, Privacy and Monopoly
In Privacy Without Monopoly: Data Protection and Interoperability, we took a thorough look at the privacy implications of various kinds of interoperability. We examined the potential privacy risks of interoperability mandates, such as those contemplated by 2020’s ACCESS Act (USA), the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act (EU),...
