LAST month, Facebook and Google came out forcefully against a bill that would hold companies accountable for hosting sex trafficking on their websites. They said that while they worked hard to combat sex trafficking, changing the law “jeopardises the bedrock principles of a free and open Internet” that have been crucial to innovation for decades.
By this week, the two companies were hoping to reach a compromise with lawmakers, an acknowledgment that they could not stop the bill entirely because of strong political headwinds.
The shifting position illustrates the changing political reality in Washington for some of the country’s biggest technology companies. After years of largely avoiding regulation, businesses like Facebook, Google and Amazon are a focus of lawmakers, some of whom are criticising the expanding power of big tech companies and their role in last year’s election.
The attacks cover a smattering of issues as diverse as anti-trust, privacy and public disclosure. They come from both sides, from people like Stephen K. Bannon, United States President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, as well as Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat-Massachusetts), a liberal.
Many of the issues, like revising anti-trust laws, have a slim chance of producing new laws soon. But, they have become popular talking points nonetheless, amplified by a series of missteps and disclosures by the companies, including Facebook telling congress this month that fake accounts linked to Russia had bought more than US$100,000 (RM420,000) in political ads on the service.
“There is much stronger agreement among my colleagues and I that there needs to be more aggressive enforcement action on tech companies like Google,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat-Connecticut), a sponsor of the sex trafficking bill.
The companies, recognising the new environment in Washington, have started to fortify their lobbying forces and re-calibrate their positions.
In the last year, Amazon has added anti-trust to its roster of issues, hiring a former senior senate staff member who helped shape anti-trust policies. Google has paid several outside lobbying firms to argue against the sex trafficking bill, according to recent federal filings.
“We are disruptive, and that creates a lot of tension, concern, worry and jealousy, and sometimes, rightfully identifies real problems that need solutions,” said Ed Black, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which represents Facebook, Google, Amazon and other tech companies
Perhaps, no issue in Washington has exposed the vulnerability of the tech companies as much as the sex trafficking bill. At the heart of the debate for the tech companies is a change to a 20-year-old law that prevents people from suing Internet companies for things people post on websites. The companies, supported by some civil liberties groups, say the existing law has protected free speech and allowed Internet companies to grow without fear of lawsuits.
The bill being debated, written by Senator Rob Portman (Republican-Ohio) and Blumenthal, would allow state and local authorities to prosecute sites that host content related to sex trafficking. Their bill, which has bipartisan support from dozens of members in the senate, would also enable people to sue websites.
Companies like Google and Facebook vehemently opposed the law when it was introduced, warning that it would expose web companies to numerous lawsuits because the actions of users are hard to police. The bill had provisions that would shield companies like Google and Facebook that have policies to combat sex trafficking, but the companies pushed back nonetheless.
Starting about two weeks ago, as politicians stepped up their attacks against their businesses, Facebook and Google realised that the political landscape had changed, according to two people with knowledge of the decisions who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the internal corporate decisions were private.
So instead, the companies began trying to negotiate changes to the bill with Portman and other senators instead of trying to stop it entirely.
As of Tuesday, Facebook and Google were still trying to negotiate changes with Senate staff members. One effort, by Google, would block state attorneys general from prosecuting web platforms for hosting any third-party sites that aided sex trafficking. Google said the Justice Department should be the sole agency in charge of enforcing sex trafficking laws.
Portman has viewed enforcement by state attorneys general as the centrepiece of the legislation. He will not agree to weakening the enforcement role of local and state prosecutors, according to his spokesman, Kevin Smith.
“We’ll continue to engage members of Congress, anti-trafficking organisations and the industry to try and get to a resolution that addresses the problem without creating unintended side effects,” Susan Molinari, Google’s vice-president of public policy, said in a statement.
Facebook appeared more eager to reach a deal with lawmakers, according to two senate staff members and a tech industry official, who all said the company had expressed a willingness to allow state law enforcement. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because Facebook’s discussions with the lawmakers were private.
“We strongly believe that there is a legislative solution that can address this terrible problem while ensuring that the Internet remains open and free and that responsible companies can continue to work to stop sex trafficking before it happens,” Erin Egan, a vice-president of public policy at Facebook, said in a statement. NYT
**The writer is a technology regulation reporter for the ‘New York Times’