© Greg NashHillicon Valley: Democratic senators unveil bill to reform Section 230 | Labor board denies Amazon request to delay local union vote | Robinhood lifts restrictions on GameStop, other stocks
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NEW SECTION 230 BILL ON THE BLOCK: Senate Democrats unveiled the latest bill aimed at reforming Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act on Friday.
The measure, introduced by Sens. Mark Warner (Va.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), seeks to rein in the power of the controversial landmark internet law by allowing lawsuits to be brought against tech platforms for some third-party content posted on their sites.
The bill would remove some of those protections by allowing users who face cyberstalking, targeted harassment and discrimination to seek legal action against the platforms.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Anti-Defamation League said they support the Democratic proposal, but it is already facing some opposition from progressives with the digital rights group Fight for the Future saying the bill would solidify the market power of tech giants and harm smaller sites.
Read more about the bill here.
AMAZON DENIED: The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Friday denied Amazon's request to delay a union election at one of its fulfillment centers in Alabama.
Amazon had argued the election should take place in person, but with the NLRB's ruling in place union election ballots will be mailed to workers at the Bessemer, Ala., warehouse starting Monday.
If successful, the workers would establish the first labor union representation at an Amazon facility in the U.S.
Read more here.
OPEN FOR TRADING: Stock trading app Robinhood late Thursday announced that it had lifted all temporary restrictions on stocks, following days of backlash from users and lawmakers after the company placed limits on GameStop, AMC and other stocks last week.
Robinhood announced the change in a blog post on Thursday, telling app users, "There are currently no temporary limits to increasing your positions."
The trading platform last Thursday blocked users from buying or trading stocks that had been targeted by members of the Reddit subforum r/WallStreetBets to drive up the price of stocks that traditional hedge funds have shorted, including GameStop, AMC and BlackBerry.
Read more here.
BRING BACK THE CEOS: Top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are reissuing a call for Democrats to call the CEOs of tech giants in for a hearing.
The Republicans wrote to committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) calling for a hearing with the CEOs of Twitter, Google, Facebook and Apple.
There may be some bipartisan support for the executives to return to Capitol Hill. A Democratic spokesperson for the committee said they are looking to schedule a hearing with the CEOs of the companies and "hope to have something to announce soon."
Read more here.
ICYMI - STUMBLING BLOCK: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Tuesday night formally put a hold on the Senate voting on Gina Raimondo, President Biden's pick for Commerce secretary, until she clarifies her stance on Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
"I'll lift the hold when the Biden admin commits to keep the massive Chinese Communist Party spy operation Huawei on the Entity List," Cruz tweeted in response to a report from Bloomberg Business that he had blocked a vote on Raimondo.
Cruz and other House and Senate Republicans have repeatedly press Raimondo to clarify whether she will keep Huawei on the Commerce Department's entity list if confirmed. Raimondo has said she will review the policy, but has not directly said if she would support the company staying on the list.
Read more about the nomination drama here.
Lighter click: So long, farewell to one of the true greats
An op-ed to chew on: States are failing on Big Tech and privacy--Biden must take the lead
NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
They stormed the Capitol. Their apps tracked them (New York Times Opinion / Charlie Warzel and Stuart Thompson
Hackers post detailed patient medical records from two hospitals on the dark web (NBC News / Kevin Collier)
Russian campaigns promotes homegrown vaccine and undercuts rivals (The New York Times / Sheera Frenkel, Maria Abi-Habib, and Julian Barnes)
FBI leaned on Dutch cops' hacking in Emotet disruption (CyberScoop / Sean Lyngaas)