Week of July 1, 2024
State of Play: We wanted to provide a special Fourth of July edition of the Franklin Square Group Tech Weekly. While Washington is quiet this week due to Congressional recess, the Supreme Court is out with several monumental decisions that could provide shake-ups for the tech industry and beyond. Not to mention last week’s privacy markup cancellation in the House Energy and Commerce Committee that had Washington on bated breath.
Three Things to Watch In Tech:
Content Moderation Practices Upheld in Supreme Court Cases: The Supreme Court also released its decision, or lack thereof, in the joint case concerning NetChoice’s challenge to state social media laws in Texas and Florida. The Court did not make a definitive decision as to how states are able to challenge social media companies’ content moderation practices, sending the cases back to the lower courts. However, the majority opinion written by Justice Elena Kagan upheld the First Amendment right to content moderation and curation as editorial activities, noting that the lower appellate courts had not properly analyzed the First Amendment challenges to the Florida and Texas laws. The cases, Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, were merged together last year when the Court decided to hear the case. Ultimately, both cases argued that political discourse is being controlled by a group of social media companies. Tech groups pushed back saying that harmful extremism could run rampant online without any sort of regulation, especially in an election year. Additionally, the Court issued a ruling in the case Murthy v. Missouri, siding with the Biden Administration in a claim that officials unlawfully pressured social media platforms to remove content flagged as disinformation.
House Energy and Commerce Cancels Privacy Markup: House E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (D-WA) canceled a markup of 11 bills last Thursday just five minutes before it was scheduled to begin. The legislation to be considered included the American Privacy Rights Act of 2024 (APRA) and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). GOP leadership pushed back on a revised version of the APRA, citing concerns that the bill needs more work before being marked up. The future of the legislation is unclear without a path to consensus in the bills, and there has been no indication that the markup will be rescheduled before the August recess.
Supreme Court Overturns Chevron Deference: A 6-3 decision in the Supreme Court’s ruling of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo has pulled power from the Executive Branch and given it to the Legislative Branch. By eliminating the “Chevron deference”, Chief Justice John Roberts said that an impediment on judges deciding the law has been lifted. Justice Elena Kagen, who led the dissenting opinion, argued that courts are not suited to overturn agency expert judgements, in areas such as AI.
What's Happening This Week:Tech Hearings
House and Senate are in recess.
Tech Events
The Association of the U.S. Army - Hot Topic forum on "Cyber & Information Advantage" -Tuesday, July 2 at 8:00 AM EST
