The Biden administration arrived in Washington with an formidable agenda for taming Massive Tech, which it portrayed as concentrating an excessive amount of energy within the fingers of some billionaires — the moguls of a brand new, digital Gilded Age.
Washington
Biden’s tech agenda gets a reality check as Elon Musk buys Twitter
The world’s richest particular person has purchased considered one of its most influential social media platforms — and Washington’s fingers are largely tied.
Musk, infamous for flouting regulators and working afoul of the Securities and Alternate Fee, will wield huge discretion over thorny choices about what content material stays on and off the social community, and the way the corporate handles the info privateness of its thousands and thousands of customers. By taking the corporate personal, Musk will probably be topic to even much less scrutiny than highly effective executives of different publicly traded firms, akin to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Lawmakers now discover themselves stymied, after failing for years to implement guardrails on social media firms which may pressure higher accountability of Musk. The deal doesn’t current apparent antitrust conflicts, exposing the boundaries of Congress’s latest give attention to regulating the most important tech platforms.
“We’ve been asleep on the wheel,” stated Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents Silicon Valley and has advocated higher regulation of the tech business. “It’s unsettling {that a} change in possession can create that sort of change in public discourse.”
Activists, teachers and lawmakers who as soon as pinned their hopes on a extra assertive federal authorities now are more and more wanting overseas — primarily to Europe — within the hopes that international regulators might need the clout to curb Silicon Valley’s worst abuses. European policymakers appeared desperate to take up that mantle, responding with a warning for Musk.
“Be it automobiles or social media, any firm working in Europe must adjust to our guidelines — no matter their shareholding,” tweeted Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for the inner market. “Mr. Musk is aware of this effectively. He’s conversant in European guidelines on automotive, and can shortly adapt to the Digital Companies Act.”
The rhetoric throughout the Atlantic stood in distinction to the White Home, the place press secretary Jen Psaki declined to touch upon the deal. She stated that President Biden has “lengthy been involved concerning the energy of huge social media platforms.”
Musk has sought to painting himself as a “free speech” absolutist, saying in a Tuesday tweet that he’s in opposition to “censorship that goes far past the legislation.”
“If individuals need much less free speech, they’ll ask authorities to go legal guidelines to that impact,” he wrote.
However regardless of the vast majority of Individuals supporting higher regulation of tech firms, Washington has not handed complete laws on the tech business in a long time.
The Biden administration and Democrats promised an unprecedented regulatory assault on Silicon Valley once they regained energy in Washington in 2021. Motivated by the function they stated Fb, Twitter and different social networks performed in spreading falsehoods throughout the 2020 election and inflaming extremism, they proposed adjustments to an Web legal responsibility legislation often known as Part 230, privateness protections and new competitors guidelines. Biden named distinguished tech business critics to key antitrust enforcement roles. Following revelations from Fb whistleblower Frances Haugen later final yr, they expanded their imaginative and prescient — promising kids’s security laws and higher transparency across the black field algorithms that energy main tech platforms.
But because the midterm elections strategy, many Democrats are fearful their social gathering will lose management of the Home and probably the Senate — closing their window to go important tech laws.
The social gathering’s ambitions have collided with the realities of governing in a deeply polarized Washington. Lawmakers in america are extra constrained than their European friends in regulating social media, due to First Modification protections that restrict authorities regulation of speech. Tech regulation has additionally taken a again seat to urgent coverage dilemmas because the pandemic stretched into its third yr, inflation rose and warfare broke out in Europe. And with a fragile majority damaged solely by Vice President Harris’s tiebreaking vote within the Senate, Democrats have struggled to realize even fundamental tech coverage targets — akin to breaking the 2-to-2 impasse on the Federal Commerce Fee, the regulatory company tasked with overseeing competitors and privateness points in Silicon Valley.
“I haven’t seen a lot of something from the Biden administration,” stated Katie Harbath, a former Fb public coverage director and CEO of consultancy Anchor Change. “Europe’s consuming america’ lunch on this.”
The laws that has essentially the most momentum within the Senate are payments that might regulate app shops and stop massive tech platforms from boosting their very own services and products over these of their rivals. However neither would apply to Twitter, which has a considerably smaller footprint than Fb, Apple, Google or Amazon. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Submit.)
“They’ve achieved nothing to this point besides speak about it,” stated William E. Kovacic, a former Republican chair of the FTC. “In the event that they need to effectuate fundamental change, they’ve to vary the legislation.”
Musk will probably be required to report his buy of Twitter to the FTC and the Justice Division, which may decelerate the deal by requesting detailed details about the transaction, Kovacic stated. However Kovacic stated he didn’t see a aggressive hyperlink to Musk’s different companies, making it unlikely the companies would block it.
Tech regulation is at instances introduced as a bipartisan coverage difficulty, with Republicans and Democrats alike bashing the business. However regardless of a flurry of payments and dozens of hearings, the events are basically at odds over how they imagine social networks needs to be regulated, with Democrats pushing firms to deal with misinformation, whereas Republicans critique these limits.
This split-screen actuality was on show within the fallout of the Musk deal. The identical Republicans who had as soon as criticized former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for wielding an excessive amount of energy over Twitter celebrated Musk taking the corporate into personal fingers, suggesting that it was a victory for “free speech.” In the meantime, Democrats criticized the deal as an indication that billionaires have an excessive amount of affect over the economic system, calling for higher tech regulation and wealth taxes.
“Republicans are claiming Musk as their digital Paul Revere, that he’s going to avoid wasting them and provides them a voice once more, and the Democrats are expressing issues about that,” stated Jeffrey Chester, the manager director of the digital rights advocacy group Middle for Digital Democracy. “It mirrored all of the deep divisions that our nation is enmeshed in.”
Within the absence of laws, lawmakers have largely used congressional hearings and their media megaphones to maintain strain on tech moguls, hauling in Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Bezos and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Khanna stated Congress ought to have a listening to with Musk to press him on his plans for Twitter, particularly how the corporate’s company governance can be structured.
Coverage specialists largely anticipate such a listening to with Musk, who is thought for his brusque criticism of lawmakers, would devolve right into a media frenzy. Musk has bashed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as “Sen. Karen” throughout a Twitter feud about tax coverage, and vulgarly prompt that the profile image of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) appears like he simply had an orgasm.
“I’m certain it’ll make nice TV, however not good, substantive dialog,” stated Evelyn Douek, a senior analysis fellow on the Knight First Modification Institute at Columbia College.
Musk appeared to acknowledge the chance that he can be known as to Capitol Hill, tweeting a smiling emoji in response to Field chief government Aaron Levie, who tweeted that Musk would “prefer to be the one human that may be known as to congress for as much as 63 completely different matters.”
The problem of regulating Silicon Valley is compounded as a result of essentially the most controversial developments round social media — such because the Musk deal or social networks kicking off Donald Trump — get the lion’s share of public consideration. However areas the place there’s extra consensus, akin to passing privateness laws or transparency necessities for tech platforms, don’t get as a lot traction.
“We get distracted by these shiny, fantastical, movie-like storylines, whereas the elemental, boring systemic points that want fixing simply chug alongside,” Douek stated. “It could be nice if we may decide up among the low-hanging fruit.”
Some coverage specialists say the challenges in regulating social media firms are indicative of the broader ineptitude in Washington, the place Biden’s efforts to go a signature social spending initiative have been stalled for greater than a yr.
“We’re paralyzed in lots of, some ways proper now,” stated Ethan Zuckerman, an affiliate professor of public coverage, data and communication at College of Massachusetts Amherst.
Washington
Washington Post Editorial Cartoonist Says She Quit After Brass Rejected Her Donald Trump Sketch
It appears that another high-profile member of The Washington Post‘s editorial staff has left the paper: Cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who’s been at the outlet for 16 years, announced via Substack Friday that she was quitting after the brass killed her latest illustration featuring president-elect Donald Trump.
“The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump,” the Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist wrote on Substack under the title “Why I Quit The Washington Post.”
“There have been multiple articles recently about these men with lucrative government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations making their way to Mar-a-lago,” she wrote. “The group in the cartoon included Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/AI CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner.”
Telnaes wrote that she first joined the Post in 2008 as an editorial cartoonist and has had “editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some differences—about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now.”
“While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon,” she continued. “To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a game changer…and dangerous for a free press.”
She included a “rough of the cartoon killed” in her Substack column. You can read her full column here.
Telnaes is the latest journo to depart the Bezos-owned newspaper. Before the election, three Post journalists stepped down from the editorial board in protest over the publication’s controversial decision not to endorse a presidential candidate, with concerns that it was a way for Bezos to placate Trump. More than 200,000 readers also canceled their digital subscriptions.
Several more staffers have since departed, including managing editor Matea Gold, who’s set to become second-highest ranking leader of the New York Times Washington bureau.
At the New York Times DealBook Summit in NYC last month, Bezos said he may not be the best owner for the paper from the perspective of “the appearance” of conflict of interest, but defended the decision not to support a candidate in the Post’s editorial pages.
“The pluses of doing this were very small and [endorsements] added to the perceptions of bias if news media are going to try to be objective and independent,” Bezos said, adding that media “is suffering from a crisis of trust.”
It should behave like a “voting machine. They have to count the votes accurately and people have to believe that they count the votes accurately.”
“Not all of it is the media’s fault,” he continued. “But where we can do something we should … We made this decision. I am proud of this decision.”
Bezos then went on to acknowledge that “I am a terrible owner for the Post from the point of view of the appearance of conflict … Probably not a single day goes by where some Amazon executive or Blue Origin executive or some Bezos Earth Fund leader isn’t meeting with a government official somewhere. And so there are always going to be appearances of conflict.”
The Dallas Cowboys (7-9) close out the season on Sunday against the Washington Commanders (11-5), who are headed to the playoffs under first-year coach Dan Quinn.
Washington is on a four-game winning streak since losing to Dallas as a double-digit favorite at home just before Thanksgiving.
Will the Cowboys claim the season sweep? The Dallas Morning News’ columnists and beat writers make their predictions:
Tim Cowlishaw
The Commanders went from last in the NFC East to first for much of the season before settling behind Philly and clinching a wild card spot last Sunday. With Jayden Daniels as the obvious Rookie of the Year at QB, this is a team on the rise. The Cowboys might spring Trey Lance on us for a while Sunday, which could be a fun show if a bit of a roller coaster. Dallas will be trying to win because it has too many coaches and players hoping to save jobs, but a sweep of Washington doesn’t seem like a fitting ending to this lost season.
Commanders 27, Cowboys 19
Damon Marx
The Cowboys’ playoff hopes were realistically extinguished when QB Dak Prescott was injured in Week 9. We’ve been playing out the string and waiting to hear about coach Mike McCarthy’s fate ever since. That decision will come soon enough, but for now there is one more game against the Commanders, who still have postseason goals within reach. About the only intrigue for the Cowboys will be whether backup QB Trey Lance makes an appearance.
Commanders 27, Cowboys 17
David Moore
An argument can be made that the Cowboys would be better off losing this game since they won’t make the playoffs. It will improve their draft position. Washington, meanwhile, has the potential to improve its playoff seed with a win. Motivation is clearly on the Commanders’ side. But when has logic ever applied in this rivalry?
Cowboys 24, Commanders 21
Abraham Nudelstejer
The best thing that could happen in this game is the Commanders let quarterback Jayden Daniels work some of his magic before benching him to protect him from a playoff-preventing injury. Washington’s rookie is a sight to behold, running or passing the ball, and seeing him on the field will make the ticket price well worth it. The Cowboys will want to go home with a win, but the Commanders are best equipped, emotionally and physically, to win the regular season’s final game.
Commanders 24, Cowboys 14
Kevin Sherrington
The fact that the most intriguing aspect of the Cowboys’ final game is whether Trey Lance will play tells you all you need to know about this season. No one should care about a third-string QB. We shouldn’t even know who he is. But here we are. Dan Quinn will beat the Cowboys and Jerry Jones will say nice things about his former defensive coordinator and soon we’ll get to the real business of the next head coach. The most disappointing Cowboys season of this century is about to be a wrap, and it can’t come soon enough.
Commanders 27, Cowboys 20
Calvin Watkins
The season is finally over and the next two weeks will show us what the future holds for the Cowboys. Before we get to that point, Dallas and Washington will play a wild game. We say this because that’s just something we want to see in the regular season finale. Washington is moving on to the postseason and Dallas is moving toward the draft and making decisions on the coaches. As for the game, we’ll take the visiting team.
Commanders 31, Cowboys 27
Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Tonight was technically UW’s 3rd conference game in the Big Ten but you’ll be forgiven if it didn’t feel like it after playing only the traditional L.A schools in December. It was the start of a brutal stretch for the Huskies in conference play with the Dawgs taking on a Maryland team that entered 10th nationally in points for and points against per game. But the Huskies stymied Maryland’s 5-star freshman center and pulled away in the 2nd half behind Great Osobor and Zoom Diallo for a 75-69 win and their first ever in a Big Ten conference game. The victory moves the Huskies to 10-4 (1-2) on the season and drops Maryland to 11-3 (1-2).
The Huskies got on the board first as Wilhelm Breidenbach was left open at the three-point line and knocked down the shot from deep. Washington seemed hesitant to attack Maryland’s twin towers lineup inside and were generally content to shoot it from deep. Mekhi Mason missed a trio of 3’s in the first 70 seconds of the game though and Maryland went to the first media timeout up 6-5.
Both teams seemed evenly matched for much of the first half as no team led by more than 3 points until a pair of Julian Reese free throws put the Terps up 25-21 with 5:27 left until the break. The Huskies tied the game back up at 25 but Maryland went on an 8-0 run and led 33-25 with 1:51 remaining in the half.
Washington could have easily shied away at that point but finished strong. Great Osobor made a pair of baskets assisted by freshman Zoom Diallo and then Diallo was fouled with 1.8 seconds remaining and split a pair at the line to make it 33-30 at halftime.
Things got a little chippy after the break. Those Diallo free throws in the final seconds were UW’s only of the first half while Maryland was just 5/5. There were many more to come as fouls largely dictated the rest of the game.
Maryland came out strong and got off to a 41-32 lead early but Great Osobor answered with a bucket (again assisted by Diallo) to stop the run and then split a pair of free throws. DJ Davis went on a personal 5-0 run to bring the Huskies within a single point and Zoom Diallo knocked down a pair of free throws to give UW their first lead of the 2nd half at 45-44.
With Wilhelm Breidenbach in severe foul trouble, seldom-used center KC Ibekwe got into the game at center and went 2/4 at the free throw line on the same possession after UW rebounded the first miss. Ibekwe is…not known for his free throw shooting and both makes bounced off multiple surfaces before going in the hoop. Nonetheless, it gave UW a 47-46 lead.
UW continued to search for answers with both Breidenbach and Ibekwe saddled with fouls. Luis Kortright saw expanded playing time in the 2nd half and repeatedly muscled Maryland’s guards under the basket for layups. He also ended up guarding 6’10 star freshman Derek Queen for extended stretches. Being unable to push around such a smaller player seemingly bothered Queen who had his worst game in college with just 4 points and 1 rebound despite often having major size advantages. He came in averaging 17 points and 9 rebounds per game.
The fouls continued as Breidenbach fouled out shortly after re-entering with 4 (on a dubious call) but so too did Maryland’s starting point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie. DJ Davis made a pair at the free throw line to put the Dawgs up 59-58 and take the lead for good.
With 1:31 remaining Maryland was able to get an alley-oop slam off an inbounds pass which cut UW’s lead to just 2 points but Great Osobor answered with an and-1 layup (off an assist from, you guessed it, Zoom Diallo) to stretch it back out to 5. Maryland pressed all game and it caused some late problems as UW had to take a timeout to avoid a 5-second call and threw it away in the final 30 seconds. But the Huskies were able to get the ball to DJ Davis just enough to make the free throws to keep it from ever seriously getting in doubt in the closing seconds.
The margin of victory may not reflect it but this was clearly the best win of the season for Washington. Maryland was ranked 24th in the coaches poll and was 17th at KenPom coming into the contest. Prior to this, UW’s best win was over KenPom’s #73 ranked team in Washington State. Despite students still being on break, the crowd filtered in eventually and Hec Ed got truly loud over the final 10 minutes of game clock once it was clear that Washington had a real shot to pull off the upset.
Washington won the game despite shooting just 5/24 on three-point attempts in part because Maryland was just 2/11. The Terrapins had come into the game with 2 starting guards shooting over 42% from deep on the season.
Great Osobor struggled with turnovers (6) and had several throw aways but generally played good defense against Maryland’s two all-conference caliber centers while putting up 20 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. He made a 3-point shot for the 2nd straight game and had one of his most efficient games from the field. Zoom Diallo didn’t start and had a few freshman moments but was incredible leading the show for most of the night with 18 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds. DJ Davis finished with an incredible stat line of 17 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals, and 0 turnovers.
The Huskies are back on the court on Sunday against a ranked Illinois team that evaporated Oregon in Eugene 109-77 (haha).
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