Klobuchar, Warner target political ads online Presented by Ericsson

With help from Eric Engleman, John Hendel and Steven Overly

KLOBUCHAR, WARNER TARGET POLITICAL ADS ONLINE — Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) are seeking co-sponsors on proposed legislation that would require Facebook, Google and other digital platforms to disclose more information about political advertisements and the buyers behind them, Steven reports. They are writing legislation that would require web platforms with more than 1 million users to publicly disclose the names of individuals and organizations that spend more than $10,000 on election-related advertisements, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO. Klobuchar and Warner say digital platforms merit further scrutiny because they reach much larger audiences than broadcasters, and yet are not subject to the same disclosure requirements. The FEC has "failed to take sufficient action to address online political advertisements and our current laws do not adequately address online political advertisements published on platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter," the letter states.


— Lawmakers see FB move as 'first step': Warner, the vice chairman on the Senate Intelligence Committee, heralded the company's plan to share details about the thousands of ads from its site that have been linked with a Russian troll farm. "Important & absolutely necessary first step. The American people deserve to know the truth about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election," he said in a tweet. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, echoed that sentiment while reiterating the need for a public hearing with tech companies. "The data Facebook will now turn over to the Committee should help us better understand what happened, beyond the preliminary briefings we already received," he said in a statement. "As we continue our investigation to get to the bottom of Russia’s multifaceted attack on our democratic process, I believe it will be necessary to hear directly from Facebook, Google and Twitter, as well as others in the tech sector, including in open hearings that will inform the American public."

— Facebook struck a deal with Capitol Hill investigators to release advertisements purchased by Russians to influence the 2016 campaign and some associated information with them, POLITICO's Nancy Scola, Josh Dawsey and Ali Watkins report. "After an extensive legal and policy review, today we are announcing that we will also share these ads with congressional investigators," Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch said in a statement. "We believe it is vitally important that government authorities have the information they need to deliver to the public a full assessment of what happened in the 2016 election."

— CEO Mark Zuckerberg, during a Facebook Live on Thursday, said the company plans to work with the government's investigation even as it reviews the activity of additional groups and that of the campaigns themselves during the presidential election. "I wish I could tell you we're going to be able to stop all interference, but that wouldn't be realistic," Zuckerberg said. "But, we can make it harder." He went on to detail nine steps the social network is taking to curb this kind of interference, including providing clear labels of who paid for political ads and working with other tech companies to combat bad actors. "We are in a new world," Zuckerberg said. "It is a new challenge for internet communities to have to deal with nation-states attempting to subvert elections. But if that's what we must do, we are committed to rising to the occasion."

— Facebook isn't the only one: Twitter is set to brief Capitol Hill on the matter next week, and Google has already done so. In addition to concerns about election-related interference on larger platforms, Warner is also interested in reviewing how misinformation could have potentially spread on Reddit, Recode reports.

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USTELECOM URGES AGAINST DROPPING BROADBAND BENCHMARK — Comments poured in to the FCC on Thursday in response to the agency's Section 706 inquiry into broadband deployment, which has raised Democratic ire over questions about dropping the broadband standard from 25/3 Megabits per second to 10/1 and considering mobile broadband as a substitute for home service. “At this time, lowering the current fixed service benchmark would be unduly disruptive,” USTelecom told the commission, urging no change to the standard. NCTA, representing cable companies, urged the agency to consider multiple speed thresholds and to consider 10/1 Mbps for mobile services. Meanwhile, Incompas, a trade group repping Google Fiber, Sprint and T-Mobile, said that when there are more than two providers, the FCC may want a threshold that’s even higher. Other commenters, including Public Knowledge, warned the inquiry’s framing could end up “hiding the true state of broadband” in the U.S.

EVEN MORE ON ZUCK AND POLITICS — Bloomberg Businessweek has a well-written recap of Mark Zuckerberg's recent activities and the growing "fake news" problem in Washington, and there were some new details and insights sprinkled throughout. Here are a few that caught MT's eye:

— Zuckerberg's highly curated road trip across the country, which many have observed has the trappings of a presidential campaign, was partly organized by David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager who's now the policy and advocacy lead at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

— Despite the CEO's protestations that he's not running in 2020, one Republican operative says he'd be "formidable" if he chose to do so. “It’s as if, 50 years ago, the publisher of the New York Times ran for president. Except that Facebook is even more powerful than the Times ever was," said Alex Conant, a former spokesman for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a 2016 Republican presidential candidate.

— Zuckerberg dates his "political awakening," as Businessweek puts it, to the 2016 presidential campaign. “I guess it was while the primaries were going on,” he told the magazine. The report notes: "Trump was on the ascent, thanks to a nationalist message Zuckerberg saw as an attack on the global connectivity Facebook has long promoted."

— The CEO, speaking of a provision that would let him control Facebook if he took a break to serve in government, said he wasn't eyeing the White House but instead imagined "a temporary role in government related to technology or science," such as, according to Businessweek, "if the U.S. needed to improve a critical part of its technology infrastructure."

OBAMA, GATES TALK HEALTH CARE — Former President Barack Obama expressed his frustration about the possibility of an Obamacare repeal, while speaking with Bill and Melinda Gates at a Gates Foundation event on Wednesday, Reuters reports. "It’s certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple of months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents," he said. Obama, during the conversation, also said the U.S. could not effectively address issues like climate change and mass migration on its own and pushed people to remain optimistic as they tackle such issues.

CHINESE OFFICIAL ON AI AND SOCIAL UNREST — China's domestic security and intelligence head says artificial intelligence can have the potential to help predict terrorism and social unrest and could be a major boon to law enforcement, The South China Morning Post reports. "Artificial intelligence can complete tasks with a precision and speed unmatchable by humans, and will drastically improve the predictability, accuracy and efficiency of social management,” Meng Jianzhu said. Meng is urging security forces throughout the country to leverage AI to help monitor and project the occurrence of public security incidents.

SILICON VALLEY MUST-READS

— YC's testing a universal basic income program: Former Vice President Joe Biden may not be so supportive of the concept of universal basic income, but that's not deterring some of its Silicon Valley fans. Y-Combinator, the startup accelerator led by Sam Altman, is testing the effect of giving 3,000 randomly selected individuals across two states a basic monthly income payment, according to a blog post. "1,000 will receive $1,000 per month for up to 5 years, and 2,000 will receive $50 per month and serve as a control group for comparison," Elizabeth Rhodes, research director of YC's Basic Income Project, writes.

— Google talks AI tools for publications: "Google is working with three publishers to improve their subscription services using data and artificial intelligence in a move that signals a new willingness by the search company to help news organizations generate revenue from their journalism," The Financial Times reports. "The company is in discussions with News Corp, the New York Times and the Financial Times on developing new AI tools that will make it easier to market and sell subscriptions online by using Google’s user data to recognize potential subscribers and tailor subscription offers, according to people briefed on the plans."

— Another Benchmark dispute at Uber: "As Uber works to nail down a multibillion-dollar investment from Japan’s SoftBank, one of the ride-hailing giant’s earliest and biggest shareholders has indicated it doesn’t intend to sell," The Wall Street Journal reports. "The opposition by Benchmark Capital is complicating a proposal by SoftBank and its $93 billion tech-focused Vision Fund, along with partners, to buy 17% to 22% of Uber—mostly through purchasing shares from existing shareholders."

SLICE OF PI — Via POLITICO Influence: Ballard Partners, the Florida lobbying firm that opened a Washington office after the election, has signed two new federal clients, including Sprint. Ballard joins a regiment of lobbying firms working for Sprint in Washington, including the Cormac Group, EFB Advocacy, Fierce Government Relations, the Fritts Group, the Joseph Group, Northfork Strategies, Putala Strategies, the Raben Group, TwinLogic Strategies and Winn Strategies. Ballard also signed Windstorm Mitigation, a disaster-relief company. Ballard's founder and president, Brian Ballard, was a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump during the campaign and is now a Republican National Committee regional vice chairman. Ballard has signed 32 lobbying clients since setting up shop in Washington.

TRANSITIONS — Rob Strayer is the new deputy assistant secretary of State for cyber and international communications and information policy at the State Department. He has worked for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, serving as general counsel for Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). … Angel Nguyen Swift has joined Enigma, a NYC-based data and tech startup, as vice president of compliance and financial crimes solutions. Swift previously worked as vice president of global financial crimes compliance at American Express.

QUICK DOWNLOADS

Snap shuffle: " Snap Inc.’s lab for making hardware, including its Spectacles video-camera glasses, cut some jobs Thursday morning after changing leadership earlier this month," Bloomberg reports.

Appeals court reaffirms limits of patent venues: It demonstrated an application of the TC Heartland decision, Ars Technica reports.

HPE has layoffs in the works: "Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. is planning to cut about 10 percent of its staff, or at least 5,000 workers," Bloomberg reports.

Hyperloop picks up some more backing: "Hyperloop One announced it raised an additional $85 million in financing, bringing its total haul to $245 million and a likely valuation of more than $700 million," The Verge reports.

A smart breast pump struggles with VC funding: Despite positive reviews from mothers, the product has been misunderstood and mocked by a number of male investors to the point that the female CEO started bringing her husband with her to venture capitalist meetings, Bloomberg reports.

Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Eric Engleman ([email protected], @ericengleman), Angela Greiling Keane ([email protected], @agreilingkeane), Nancy Scola ([email protected], @nancyscola), Margaret Harding McGill ([email protected], @margarethmcgill), Ashley Gold ([email protected], @ashleyrgold), Steven Overly ([email protected], @stevenoverly), John Hendel ([email protected], @JohnHendel) and Li Zhou ([email protected], @liszhou)

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