Regulation

The Danish minister feared by Big Tech and who Donald Trump called the EU’s “tax lady,” will not be reappointed for a third term, the FT reports. 

“She is astonishing in terms of stamina,” said one EU official who regularly worked with Vestager. “It’s absolutely crazy. She read all the stuff . . . round the clock and had hundreds of meetings and she is still alive.”

US tech CEOs shouldn’t celebrate too quickly, though, as the attention-seeking Musk-baiting French commissioner Thierry Breton is said to be in contention for the role

After Fubo filed an antitrust lawsuit against the trio for its upcoming Venu streaming service, Puck’s Eriq Gardner sat in on an evidentiary hearing overseen by NY District Judge Margaret Garnett:

From the several days of testimony I witnessed — packed with executives, consultants, and economists — it feels like a preliminary injunction might just be on the table... Garnett seems genuinely concerned by the extraordinary influence that could be wielded by an alliance of the sector’s behemoths. 

The most likely targets to be spun out are Google’s Android mobile operating system or its Chrome browser, Bloomberg reports. DOJ’s antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter has long signaled he prefers structural remedies (legal speak for breakups) in many cases. Either way, Bloomberg says DOJ is likely to ask for a ban on exclusive contracts the judge found helped reinforce Google’s monopoly. A DOJ spokesperson said it’s evaluating the ruling and “No decisions have been made at this time.”

This time, it’s not House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) calling for a probe of platform censorship. His ranking member, Jerry Nadler (D-NY), is the one calling on Jordan to probe Elon Musk’s X for political censorship of Democrats on the platform. Jordan is typically the one raving about conservative censorship by Meta and others. I guess two can play that game.

EU Commissioner Thierry Breton says the EU will watch for “spillovers” that violate the Digital Services Act, such as “content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political - or societal - events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections.”

The Competition and Markets Authority says it has “sufficient information” to launch a merger inquiry into Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic. The regulator has until October 4th to launch a more in-depth probe.

Amazon told the Financial Times that its Anthropic deal “does not raise any competition concerns or meet the CMA’s own threshold for review.”

The program, which paid users around 38 cents a day to engage with videos, was already suspended in the region after the bloc opened an investigation in April.

A separate EU Commission probe into TikTok’s allegedly addictive design, and its content moderation rules for minors remains open.

Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) updated their discussion draft that seeks to prevent debacles like that between Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI. It’s gained the support of SAG-AFTRA and the Recording Industry Association, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which counts tech companies among its donors, previously raised concerns that the draft bill was overly broad.

The vice president and likely Democratic presidential nominee applauded the Senate’s vote to pass the Kids Online Safety Act and urged full passage through Congress.

Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed the state’s own laws to protect kids online, exemplifying how states have been the first to move on this kind of legislation. Hochul said in a statement that when she signed those bills, “we were sending a message to the nation. Now, I’m excited to see the Senate take steps to help safeguard more young people nationwide.”

The bill they’re contained in passed the 60 vote threshold to close debate, but the Senate must still vote to fully pass it. Schumer indicated that could happen early next week. Should it pass, it goes to the House – but that could take a while considering members are leaving early for summer recess.

“Once the Senate clears today’s procedural vote, KOSA and COPPA will be on a glide path to final passage early next week,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said ahead of the cloture vote, which closes debate and sets up the bills for a full vote.

That bill is being used as the vehicle for KOSA and COPPA 2.0. They’re basically tucked in as an amendment to this unrelated bill that deals with duplicative reporting requirements for federal agencies.

The Tennessee Republican, another of the bill’s lead sponsors, began her remarks with what KOSA doesn’t do. It doesn’t cover nonprofits, it doesn’t include rule-making, it doesn’t include news outlets, and it doesn’t give the government new authority, she said.

“There’s no censorship in this bill. None. Zero,” the Connecticut Democrat who’s the bill’s lead sponsor said on the Senate floor. “It is about product design. Much as it would be about a car that is unsafe and is required to have seatbelts and airbags.”

The Kentucky Republican said the bill “promises to be pandora’s box of unintended consequences.” He added that “there’s enough to hate this bill from the right and left,” describing, for example, how discussion of sexuality, climate change, and abortion could cause anxiety, which the duty of care mandates platforms try to mitigate.