Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
Let's take advantage of April recess to catch up on some tech policy bills that have been introduced or reintroduced in the past weeks.
1) The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act: This bill would allow news organizations to band together to negotiate for compensation when their content appears on large tech platforms like Google and Facebook. A similar bill is law in Australia.
- It's the fourth time this bill, led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and John Kennedy, has been reintroduced in four years. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last Congress but faces many criticisms, and digital platforms and other groups have lobbied hard against it.
- And this Congress, there's not a lot of juice behind the companion House bill.
2) The AMERICA Act: Reintroduced for this session, this Sen. Mike Lee-led bill would require Big Tech platforms to divest parts of their ad business if they make more than $20 billion in digital ad revenue.
- The bill has many co-sponsors, and the idea that platforms should not be able to profit unfairly off of the ad platforms they run is bipartisan and popular.
- Still, don't expect much movement on this bill, and expect tons of lobbying against it.
3) The CALM Modernization Act: Now this is a funny one — a bill to update a 2010 law to limit the loudness of TV ads in the streaming age, introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Anna Eshoo.
- Honestly, it's hard to see who might oppose this one. No one likes to be shocked by a loud ad while streaming their favorite show. We'll be watching! (And holding our ears if it gets too loud.)
4) The DATA Care Act: Sen. Brian Schatz is leading the reintroduction of this online personal privacy bill, co-sponsored by 18 senators.
- According to Schatz's office, it would "require websites, apps, and other online providers to take responsible steps to safeguard personal information and stop the misuse of users' data."
- The legislation would impose a "duty of care" on internet platforms for securing personal data and give the FTC authority to make a rule for enforcing it.
- The "duty of care" idea is popular among proposals for protecting personal data online, but Schatz's effort is unlikely to be the frontrunner for a national data privacy law; that mantle goes to the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (still not reintroduced).
5) The PACT Act: Sens. Schatz and John Thune reintroduced this bill to update Section 230 last month.
- It would uphold the internet law while trying to enable more transparency about content moderation practices through various requirements for companies.
- It would also exempt enforcement of federal civil laws from Section 230 and give state attorneys general more power to prosecute platforms.
- It's hard to see Congress moving on this one unless the Supreme Court upends Section 230 and lawmakers are forced to respond. Then, it may be a viable option.
