National & Minnesota Report
There is quite a lot of buzz circulating about S 2992- American Innovation and Choice Online Act US authored by Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). The pushback seems to be a multi-headed hydra and crops up over a variety of issues.
First, there are political questions of whether the slim 50 vote Democratic Majority, which is buttressed by Vice-President Kamal Harris’ (D) tiebreaking votes, should use its remaining time. Secondly, if this regulatory action is unfairly targeting Silicon Valley and companies like Facebook, Meta, Amazon and Google, of which, the state of California, were a country, it would have the world’s 5th largest economy. The issues surrounding these questions are being broached by more vulnerable Democratic Senators and staff, while Klobuchar is not facing reelection again until 2024.
We have always thought the issues of social media companies stem from the End User Licensing Agreements (ELUA) because of the forced position technology costumers are in when they are only allowed to answer Accept to any update or “product improvement” on devices or social media platforms. Since it’s a contract why do the providers carry all of the decisions on the provision of services?
To see how this issue plays out will be interesting to watch.
Read the Politico story, In private, vulnerable Senate Democrats back off tech bill and another article entitled Amy Klobuchar’s Antitrust “Pet Project”: New Version, Same Old Mistakes the industry position from the Computer and Communications Industry Association, specifically the state-by-state breakdown of impact on pension funds, and where Minnesota lands regarding The Cost of Tech Regulatory Bills to State and Local Pension Plans.