Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill’s newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you don’t already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter with this LINK.
Welcome! Follow our cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), for more coverage.
RAIMONDO WEIGHS IN ON SECTION 230: President Biden’s pick to serve as the secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, said during her confirmation hearing Tuesday that there needs to be some reform for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
“I would agree that we need some reform in Section 230 and I would look forward to working with you on that,” said Raimondo, who is currently the Democratic governor of Rhode Island.
The landmark online law that provides tech companies a legal liability shield from third party-content posted on their platforms. Former President Trump’s plans to repeal the law were abandoned shortly before Biden took office.
Biden said during his presidential campaign that Section 230 should be revoked, but he has largely not detailed plans moving forward.
GOOGLE SUSPENDS DONATIONS: Google late Monday announced that its political action committee will not make donations this election cycle to members of Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results.
The decision comes after the tech giant implemented an internal review on its political contributions following the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, which was spurred by unsupported claims from former President Trump and his allies that the 2020 election was rigged in favor of President Biden.
“Following that review, the NetPAC board has decided that it will not be making any contributions this cycle to any member of Congress who voted against certification of the election results,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda told The Hill.
GOP’S ‘BIG TECH’ PLAN: Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, on Tuesday said Republicans will expand on work they began last year to promote American “global leadership” on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
The congresswoman also indicated Tuesday that Republicans on the committee will continue to target social media giants over allegations of anti-conservative censorship, although such claims have not been substantiated.
“I’m certainly not happy with big tech, but I believe we can still promote American global leadership, while not turning a blind eye to problems we see here at home,” McMorris Rodgers said in a keynote address at the virtual State of the Net conference.
NEW CISO IN IN TOWN: The Biden administration has picked Chris DeRusha, the former top cyber official on the Biden campaign, to fill the role of federal chief information security officer.
DeRusha’s appointment, first reported by CyberScoop, was made public on his LinkedIn profile on Monday night, and confirmed by acting Federal Chief Information Officer Maria Roat on Tuesday.
“Welcome aboard Chris DeRusha, our new Federal CISO!” Roat tweeted. The White House did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment on the appointment.
MARKEY PRESSES FACEBOOK: Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Facebook on Tuesday asking the platform about reports that it has continued to recommend political groups to users despite claiming it would stop doing so.
He underscored his push for Facebook to follow through on its commitment by noting that the platform played a role in users planning the deadly insurrection at the Capitol earlier this month.
“Unfortunately, it appears that Facebook has failed to keep commitments on this topic that you made to me, other members of Congress, and your users. You and other senior Facebook officials have committed, and reiterated your commitment, to stop your platform’s practice of recommending political groups,” he wrote.
LET’S WORK TOGETHER: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday urged President Biden to join the 27-nation bloc in creating a common rule book designed to rein in the power of Big Tech companies and combat the spread of misinformation.
At a speech to the Davos World Economic Forum that the “darker sides of the digital world” were partly behind the violent riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and called on the Biden administration to join the EU in regulating the tech industry.
“The business model of online platforms has an impact and not only on free and fair competition, but also on our democracies, our security and on the quality of our information,” von der Leyen said, according to The Associated Press. “That is why we need to contain this immense power of the big digital companies.”
NO, IT WASN’T JUST YOU: Users reported widespread Verizon internet outages from Washington, D.C., to Boston on Tuesday.
Verizon said on Twitter that it attributed the outage to “a fiber cut in Brooklyn.” Verizon has not given a timeframe for when the issue would be resolved.
The number of problems reported on Downdetector spiked to more than 22,000 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
Lighter click: Watch out for dysentery
An op-ed to chew on: To fix social media now focus on privacy, not platforms
NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
Silicon Valley’s White-Collar Workers Aren’t Done Yet (New York Times / Ben Tarnoff and Moira Weigel)
Apocalypse Later (Logically / Tom Whyman)
Newsweek’s opinion editor has an anti-tech side gig (Axios / Ashley Gold)
YouTube suspends Giuliani from partner program, cutting access to ad revenue (NBC News / David Ingram)