Partisan bickering may doom efforts to regulate social media
WASHINGTON — Industry representatives are accusing Republicans and Democrats of attempting to intimidate social media companies ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
That comes as a brief period of bipartisan momentum behind legislative efforts to regulate companies like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter appears to have passed, with Republicans and Democrats reverting to partisan differences and bickering.
After the disclosure this fall of tens of thousands of internal documents by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, including those that showed the company knew its products were harming the mental and physical health of teenage users, lawmakers from both parties said the time had come for federal regulation.
Many of the proposals that lawmakers considered took aim at Section 230, a provision of a 1996 law that protects social media companies from being sued for content posted on their platforms by third parties. The companies and the algorithms that power them had become too powerful to benefit from a liability shield like Section 230, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle argued.
But even trying to protect children online may not be enough for Democrats and Republicans to build a bipartisan bridge to amending the law.
At a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing last week, Republicans balked at Democratic bills that would carve out exceptions to Section 230’s protections for civil rights violations or cases in which algorithms suggest content that causes emotional or physical harm.
—CQ-Roll Call
DeSantis offers plan for rising seas without ‘left-wing stuff’
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a series of steps to defend Florida against rising sea levels Tuesday, even as he denounced the use of the term “global warming” as a “pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things.”
The governor submitted 76 projects to the state Legislature to improve drainage, raise sea walls and take other steps to fight flooding across the state. The state would spend about $270 million, with local matches typically required.
“We’re a low-lying state, we’re a storm-prone state, and we’re a flood-prone state,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Oldsmar, just outside Tampa.
The projects include new pump stations, stormwater sewers, sea walls, canal bank improvements, the elevation of fire stations and other steps to cope with the increased risk of flooding.
As his news conference, the governor avoided terms like sea-level rise or climate change. Despite a strong scientific consensus that climate change is happening and that it’s due largely to emissions from industry, power plants, agriculture and vehicles, many Republicans consider it to be either a hoax or a minor problem that’s been exaggerated for political purposes.
Asked by a reporter about global warming, the governor said, “What I’ve found is when people start talking about things like global warming they typically use that as a pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things that they would want to do anyways. And so we’re not doing any left-wing stuff.”
—South Florida Sun Sentinel
Temple to boost police force after shootings near campus
PHILADELPHIA — After two shooting deaths near the Temple University campus in the last three weeks, a group of students, parents and community members rallied on Monday to call on the city to beef up security at the school. But at a forum hours later, some students questioned whether overpolicing would damage Temple's relationship with the surrounding neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, on Monday evening, about 1,000 people attended a vigil on the campus to commemorate Temple students who have died this year, including senior Samuel Collington, who was fatally shot in the chest on Nov. 28 just after 1:30 p.m. during a carjacking on the 2200 block of North Park Avenue
That incident came 12 days after Ahmir Jones, 18, was fatally shot during a robbery in the early morning hours three blocks from campus in the 1800 block of Cecil B. Moore Avenue.
In the aftermath, some students felt scared walking home from campus, and hundreds of parents called and emailed university officials with concerns.
In the wake of the killings, Temple has committed to increasing its police force by 50%, adding approximately 40 new officers, as well as improving lighting, safety technology and student escort services.
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Bannon trial set for July 18 in Capitol-riot contempt case
WASHINGTON — Former Trump campaign chairman Steve Bannon is set to go on trial in July on criminal contempt charges over his refusal to cooperate with the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol riot, a judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said Tuesday a two-week trial in Washington will begin with jury selection July 18, months earlier than the October start sought by Bannon. The judge rejected what he called the government’s request for a “light speed” trial in April.
Bannon’s lawyer David Schoen had argued he needed more time to prepare a wide array of defenses, including that the grand jury that handed down the indictment was given bad instructions on the law and that the House select committee probing the Jan. 6. assault on the Capitol is biased.
Schoen said he has a right to seek evidence about the conduct of the committee because it’s led by Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, who sued former President Donald Trump for allegedly conspiring with far-right groups to incite the attack. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, dropped the lawsuit in July to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
No “reasonable person living in a democracy” would support the committee being led “by a person who filed a personal lawsuit against President Trump before heading that committee,” Schoen said.
“That raises the antennae,” the lawyer said. “We have reason to question his motivation.”
—Bloomberg News
