Silicon Valley's leading lobby, the Internet Association, is struggling to manage the competing interests of the companies it represents just as the industry faces a tide of bipartisan anger, Axios' Ashley Gold and Margaret Harding McGill report.

Why it matters: Tech will fight policy battles around antitrust, content moderation and privacy without a unified industry voice.

Where it stands: Major tech firms have drawn attention in recent days for pressing pause on political donations in the wake of last week's deadly attack on the Capitol.

• But lobbying, the other major path for currying favor in Washington, hasn't been working for tech for a while.

Tech's biggest problem: Too many firms working at cross purposes.

• The Internet Association's biggest members — companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon — increasingly bump heads as they each seek to channel policymakers' fury away from themselves, and they can have wildly different goals from smaller members.
• Facebook, for instance, has signaled that it's open to federal privacy rules and modest updates to Section 230, tech's liability shield. Smaller companies worry they'd struggle to survive such changes.

Meanwhile: IA faces several challenges specific to the organization:

• A leadership vacuum it may only now be emerging from. It just named a new president and CEO this week, Dane Snowden, formerly the COO of NCTA, a cable lobbying group, after losing former president Michael Beckerman to TikTok a year ago. IA's top lobbyist, Michael Bloom, also went to TikTok.
• Insufficient funds. Despite its members' deep pockets, it has a lot less money to throw around than groups repping comparably moneyed industries. In 2019, it took in more than $9 million in membership dues — a fraction of the $63 million in dues that NCTA collected that year.
• Disengaged members. Unlike wireless or cable lobbying groups, IA has a board mostly comprising government relations leads, not company leaders. "You don’t actually feel like they have the weight of the companies behind them," one Hill aide told Axios. "If you actually want to do something you call up the companies directly."

The other side: "The Internet Association is an organization in transition, but despite the headwinds we faced in 2020, we have continued to evolve," including by retaining and recruiting subject-matter experts, said Jon Berroya, IA's interim CEO.

• "Bringing in Dane as IA's new CEO presents a natural opportunity for us to take a fresh approach," he said.

IA isn’t the only game in town, but other tech lobby groups focus on the relatively narrow interests of their slice of the industry, such as enterprise software or consumer electronics. That's putting all of tech in a tight spot as bipartisan anger bears down indiscriminately.

• "The tech industry has said it likes having a hall of mirrors and picking where to go with what issue," one former industry executive said. "That was fine pre-techlash. It's not now."

Big Tech companies are racing to take action to prevent Inauguration Day violence, taking matters into their own hands after the government was caught ill-prepared for last week's Capitol siege, Axios' Margaret Harding McGill and Sara Fischer report.

What's happening: Major firms are taking a range of steps to stop their platforms from being used to plan, incite or carry out violent acts in Washington, D.C., as worries rise that President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration will be a target for insurrectionists.

Driving the news:

• Airbnb said Wednesday it is canceling existing reservations and blocking new ones in and around Washington, D.C., during inauguration week.
• Facebook, as it sees rising calls for violence on other websites, said it’s working to immediately remove content that could encourage future violence, including praise of the Capitol attack. The company told Bloomberg it’s been taking down a growing number of concerning images and digital fliers promoting events ahead of and on Inauguration Day.
• Google told advertisers Wednesday that it's banning political ads, as well as any ads related to the Capitol insurrection.

That's on top of more general efforts to come down on accounts and rhetoric the companies fear could stoke violence.

• Snapchat decided to permanently ban President Trump, citing risks to public safety, Sara scooped Wednesday night.
• YouTube took down a new video from Trump for violating its policies against inciting violence, suspending the president for a week.
• Twitter is suspending QAnon accounts en masse and has blocked certain keywords linked to undermining civic integrity and glorifying violence from its search and trending features.

Yes, but: There are signs that extremists could be exploiting online platforms in ways the companies are overlooking or outright ignoring.

• BuzzFeed reported Wednesday that body armor and other military gear is being advertised against right-wing content involving the election and the Capitol siege. Employees have flagged the ads internally but they continue to pop up, according to the report.

Between the lines: The efforts to counter the risk of violence aren't entirely altruistic. Companies are also trying to avoid blame for potentially providing platforms for domestic terrorists to plot attacks.

Although most eyes were on the impeachment and other Washington goings-on, Wednesday was a big day for the chip industry, which produced a 10-figure deal and a major leadership shakeup.

The big picture: Legacy chip players Intel and Qualcomm have watched other companies eat into the business lines that got them where they are. They're now seeking to seize control of their own fates.

Driving the news: First, Qualcomm said it's paying $1.4 billion to buy Nuvia, a semiconductor startup founded by ex-Apple engineers.

• Then Intel announced that former executive Pat Gelsinger was coming back to be CEO as the company tries to address the many manufacturing and competitive challenges it faces.

Background: Historically, chip players have largely played particular roles. Intel was big in PCs and servers. Qualcomm was big in mobile phones. AMD has oscillated between giving Intel a run for its money and just plain losing money.

Where it stands: It's currently Intel that's facing manufacturing challenges and competitive threats, while AMD is enjoying its strongest position in years, even winning server business.

• Meanwhile, Qualcomm is looking to expand its business in PCs and cars as it faces a saturated smartphone market whose largest players — Apple and Samsung — are increasingly turning to homegrown processors.

Between the lines: Buying Nuvia gives Qualcomm the opportunity to further differentiate its Snapdragon chips since Nuvia uses a custom core, rather than the standard off-the-shelf ARM processor.

• Nuvia could also give Qualcomm another shot at the data center market. Qualcomm abandoned its most recent server chip effort, but Nuvia was focused on servers before the acquisition, with plans to finalize its first server chip design this year.

Intel, despite its struggles, is still making plenty of money. And although Apple has decided to go in-house, Windows machines still mostly run on Intel or AMD processors.

• Gelsinger has his work cut out for him, but also knows Intel well, having spent three decades at the company.

A fertility app with more than 100 million customers on Wednesday settled a Federal Trade Commission investigation into allegations that it shared health information with Google, Facebook and other companies without users' consent, Margaret reports.

Details: The FTC said Flo promised users of its Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker app that their health information would be kept private, but instead shared data, including whether a user was pregnant, with companies that provided marketing and analytics services.

• Flo did not stop sharing this data until a February 2019 Wall Street Journal article revealed the practices, the FTC said.

What's next: Flo will get users' consent before sharing their health information and obtain an independent review of its privacy practices as part of the terms of the settlement.

• The FTC also is requiring Flo to notify users that it shared period and pregnancy information with the analytics divisions of Facebook, Google and others.

What they're saying: In a statement, Flo said the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, and will allow the company to avoid the "time and expense of litigation."

On Tap

• CES is winding down, while Samsung is holding its own online event today, where it is expected to introduce several flavors of the Galaxy S21 along with various accessories.

Trading Places

• Dropbox COO Olivia Nottebohm is leaving the company, a move announced along with layoffs affecting 315 people, or about 11% of Dropbox's staff.

ICYMI

• American Tower is paying $9.4 billion to acquire Telefonica's cell phone tower business. (Axios)
• Axios' Dan Primack interviewed Max Levchin as the company he heads, Affirm, went public Wednesday. The stock nearly doubled in its Nasdaq debut, closing at $97.24. (Axios)
• Parler CEO John Matze said his platform may never come back online. (Reuters)
• Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey took to his own platform to talk about banning Trump — and why he hopes his and other companies can avoid taking similarly drastic steps in the future. (Twitter)
• Some rioters used walkie-talkie app Zello to communicate during the Capitol siege, prompting a takedown of more than 2,000 channels after The Guardian alerted the company to the findings. (The Guardian)

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