Digital Content

Nearly every major social platform has recently introduced some form of tipping, allowing users to directly support their favorite personalities in real time. The popularity and availability of payment platforms such as Venmo, CashApp and Stripe are making it easier for tech companies to enable peer-to-peer payments on their platforms. For creators, getting money from users directly is critical because platforms are not financially incentivized to pay out most people directly.

Around the world, governments are moving simultaneously to limit the power of tech companies with an urgency and breadth that no single industry had experienced before. Their motivation varies.

California’s 2018 net neutrality law, SB-822, recently went into effect and concerns have been already raised about the legality of “zero-rating,” the practice by which commercial arrangements and unilateral decisions by network operators are exempted from consumer pricing. Under California’s net neutrality law, zero-rating and sponsored data programs violate the new law because certain content cannot be excluded from consumer data caps, or usage-based pricing. Turner Lee offers the following recommendations to state and federal leaders:

California’s net neutrality law, which a federal district court upheld in February, is already wading into the regulatory morass that brought down past regulatory regimes charged with maintaining neutrality in rail transport and energy.

House Commerce Committee Republicans, led by Committee Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Republican Leader Bob Latta, sent a letter urging Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Rosenworcel not to impose stringent net neutrality regulations, which could result in Americans losing their internet offerings. Almost immediately after California enforced its new net neutrality law, two Internet providers reportedly told the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that the law could force them to end arrangements with US wireless carr

A group of leaders with direct lines to the Biden administration—including Common Sense Media’s Jim Steyer, former Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA), and former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings—is launching a commission that will assemble a “blueprint” for a comprehensive tech policy agenda under President Biden, with a focus on soliciting input from people inside as well as outside DC. There’s still a ton we don’t know about where the Biden administration will come down on issues at the heart of the tech industry, like privacy and Section 230 reform.

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking comment on topics related to the use of digital “dark patterns,” a range of potentially deceptive or unfair user interface designs used on websites and mobile apps, that will be discussed at the agency’s April 29, 2021 workshop. The FTC is seeking comment on several topics that will be discussed at the workshop, Bringing Dark Patterns to Light: An FTC Workshop, including:

The Supreme Court said Google did not violate copyright law when it developed its Android mobile operating system using code from Oracle, a much-anticipated ruling in the tech world that saves Google billions of dollars in potential damages. The court ruled 6 to 2 for Google in the case, which has major implications for the software industry. Matt Schruers, president of the trade group Computer and Communications Industry Association, said the court’s ruling “that fair-use extends to the functional principles of computer code means companies can offer competing, interoperable products.”

The Supreme Court vacated a lower court opinion that said President Donald Trump could not block critics from his Twitter feed, which since has been suspended by the company. The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York had ruled that because the president had used the forum to regularly communicate with the public, he could not block critical individual users.

The Biden administration’s point man on the telecom industry, National Economic Council official Tim Wu, is known as the father of “net neutrality.” Now he finds himself in the awkward position of pushing back against the law he’s fought so hard to promote. FOX Business has learned that Wu is lobbying the telecom industry to find what has been described as a “work around” so the service to veterans can be saved.