The group at the center of the antitrust storm Presented by Ericsson

With help from Margaret Harding McGill, Steven Overly, Cristiano Lima and Nancy Scola

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Quick Fix

— An early mover: Tiny nonprofit Open Markets Institute is shaping the debate over big technology companies in Washington and on the campaign trail.

— An evolution: Antitrust enforcers at the federal and state level are considering new metrics for consumer harm, a trend that could be bad news for the tech industry.

— An education: Progressive groups want House lawmakers to ask better questions at their next tech hearing, hoping to avoid the spectacle of the Zuckerberg session last year.

A message from Ericsson: 5G will accelerate innovation and provide transformative use cases across multiple global sectors. It will also bring new security challenges with broader attack surfaces, more devices and increased traffic loads. We must have networks that are trustworthy, resilient, and secure by design – all on day one. Learn more.

HAPPY FRI-YAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING TECH. I’m your host, Alexandra Levine. Since the last time I landed in your inbox, I re-watched “Homeward Bound” for the first time since the ’90s and boy was it a hoot. Do the same, and then let me know which character you most identify with. (I think like Shadow but behave like Chance.)

Got a news tip? Write me at [email protected] or @Ali_Lev. An event for our calendar? Send details to [email protected]. Anything else? Full team info below. And don’t forget: add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.

Tech of the Town

INSIDE THE CAMPAIGN TO ‘BRING ANTITRUST BACK’ — Nancy has the story of one organization at the heart of it all: “A small liberal think tank has spent years urging Washington to crack down on the United States’ biggest tech companies — a lonely crusade that barely registered with the political establishment,” she writes. “Now the Open Markets Institute has become one of the most influential drivers of Democratic politics in the fight to rein in Facebook, Amazon and Google, seeing its ideas embraced by Elizabeth Warren and forcing presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Joe Biden to take a side.” Read her full profile of the group and its impact here.

TREND-SPOTTING — The go-to metric for antitrust enforcers has long been increasing prices. Critics, however, have begun to question whether that approach needs an update, given that tech giants like Google and Facebook offer free services. And this week, some of the nation’s leading antitrust enforcers made clear they’re willing to take a broader view. Justice Department antitrust chief Makan Delrahim said his office will consider factors like privacy violations or free speech restrictions as signs that product quality and market competition have deteriorated. And a group of 43 state attorneys general echoed that idea in comments to the FTC this week, saying the agency should scrutinize proposed mergers for harms to privacy or innovation.

— Looking beyond dollar signs does not require new antitrust laws, Delrahim argued, saying past enforcement actions like the breakup of Standard Oil show it can be done. But members of Congress may be seeking legislative changes. Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), chairman of the House antitrust subcommittee, told reporters this week he sees potential to modernize statutes “written more than 100 years ago” to keep large technology companies accountable.

— But will the new thinking produce wins in the courtroom? "It is important that non-price factors are drawing attention, but still unclear exactly what it will mean for enforcement overall,” said Gene Kimmelman, a former DOJ official who now runs Public Knowledge. “It is one thing to take note of harms not related to price increases, but that doesn't mean it makes it any easier to bring a case and convince a judge that the law has been violated."

SENATE PANEL WEIGHS NEXT STEPS — Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday he’s talked to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who heads the panel’s antitrust subcommittee, about launching a probe into competition in the tech sector. But Graham acknowledged that there’s daylight on the issue between himself and Lee, who last week said such an investigation would be best left to federal regulators. “He has sort of a different view,” Graham told reporters. “I respect his opinion.”

— Graham said plans are still up in the air. “I’ve got to sit down with my staff and the committee and see, where do the Democrats want to go with this, where do most people want to go with this,” he said. But Lee is “on top of it,” Graham added. Lee’s panel this week announced an upcoming hearing on oversight of antitrust enforcement, but the release did not detail witnesses or a specific focus.

HOUSE GETS SCHOOLED ON ANTITRUST — Progressive advocacy groups critical of Silicon Valley told MT they've lined up meetings with the majority of House antitrust subcommittee members ahead of expected further hearings on the market power of online tech companies. The goal? To equip Congress to ask better questions than it managed during this spring's oft-painful Zuckerberg sessions.

— “We're doing grass-roots work in the service of making a hearing go well,” said David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress, which along with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance is making the Hill rounds. Segal said the goal is to connect the dots for members between the ad-driven and acquisition-heavy business models of companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon and the choices those companies make on issues like privacy and election protection.

A message from Ericsson: Network security = national security. With any nascent technology, security cannot be an afterthought. Networks must be trustworthy, resilient, and secure by design – all on day one. Ericsson is working with the O-RAN Alliance and others to incorporate security best practices into our integrated and open network solutions built upon a flexible, high-integrity supply chain, which will allow our customers to deploy robust, secure and trusted 5G networks. Learn more.

‘DEEPFAKE’ DEFENSE 101 — Cracking down on deepfakes between now and the 2020 election will be nothing short of a game of “cat-and-mouse” or “whack-a-mole,” as lawmakers so aptly put it at the House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday. So what to do if deepfake disaster strikes? Read on.

— Fact-checkers and communications specialists had a simple tip for campaigns looking to get ahead of potential phony footage of their candidates: film everything. “It may not even be overly cautious to collect and curate official video of every public appearance and statement that a candidate makes, in order to help the public easily find authentic material and to rule out fake footage,” Ian Lipner, senior vice president at communications firm LEVICK, told Cristiano.

— What about tech companies? Alexios Mantzarlis, who ran the International Fact-Checking Network, said social media platforms like Facebook should more prominently label fake videos and be more transparent about whether that tactic is working. “They should be sharing whatever they know of users’ reactions to being told that something is false,” he said.

— And we, the people? Talk about it more, and find ways to educate. Danielle Citron, a University of Maryland law professor who testified Thursday, said that just as schools a decade ago had to teach children not to take everything they find in a Google search or on a Wikipedia page as fact, the same lessons apply today to deepfakes.

IN THE CLOUDS — Workplace tech companies Box, Dropbox, Okta, Slack, Twilio, Workday and Zendesk have launched the Enterprise Cloud Coalition, an industry group that will seek to advise policymakers on the enterprise cloud computing space. Andrew Howell of Monument Advocacy will serve as the coalition’s executive director, and core activities include urging Congress to pass federal privacy legislation, pushing for the free flow of data across borders, and promoting AI growth. Some of the biggest names in cloud — including Amazon, Microsoft and Google — are notably not part of the effort.

Transitions

Brian Kenner, D.C. deputy mayor for planning and economic development, will in July join Amazon’s D.C. policy shop.

Silicon Valley Must Reads

Professional trolls: LinkedIn has become a ground zero for espionage efforts, rife with phantom profiles that are often foreign spies, The Associated Press reports.

Crypto party: “Facebook’s new cryptocurrency gets big backers,” via The Wall Street Journal.

Quid pro quo: As part of Comcast and Charter’s deal to carry the iPhone on their mobile plans, Apple has compelled the cable companies to also sell large numbers of other Apple devices, CNBC reports.

TTYL: “Unhappy at Twitter, thousands of Saudis crash pro-Trump social network,” via Reuters.

Quick Downloads

Dems’ airport angst: Two dozen House Democrats are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to implement new privacy protocols addressing U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s use of facial recognition technology, Cristiano reports.

Huawei and trade war, muddled: GOP senators pushed back against President Donald Trump’s talk of easing restrictions on Huawei as part of trade negotiations with China, John Hendel reports for Pros.

Merger movement: “U.S. judge sets pre-trial hearing next week for Sprint/T-Mobile deal,” via Reuters.

Spotted: Trump met with Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday “to discuss trade, U.S. investment, immigration and privacy,” a White House spokesperson told MT.

ICYMI: An encrypted messaging app used by protesters in Hong Kong was hit by a massive cyberattack originating in China, The South China Morning Post reports.





Tips, comments, suggestions? We’re all ears: Eric Engleman ([email protected], @ericengleman), Kyle Daly ([email protected], @dalykyle), Nancy Scola ([email protected], @nancyscola), Margaret Harding McGill ([email protected], @margarethmcgill), Steven Overly ([email protected], @stevenoverly), John Hendel ([email protected], @JohnHendel), Cristiano Lima ([email protected], @viaCristiano) and Alexandra S. Levine ([email protected], @Ali_Lev).

TTYL.

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