INTERNET GIANTS FACE NEW POLITICAL RESISTANCE

Tech firms are against move to allow people to sue for things posted online, writes

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 20year-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’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. Technology firms have claimed that the proposed sex trafficking bill will ‘jeopardise the bedrock principles of a free and open Internet’ that have been crucial to innovation for decades.

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