Maureen K. Ohlhausen: Should Antitrust Law Rein in Big Tech? (Ep. 179)

Maureen K. Ohlhausen joined Joe Miller to discuss whether U.S. antitrust law is the appropriate mechanism by which to rein in big tech.

Bio 

Maureen K. Ohlhausen (@M_Ohlhausen) is the Antitrust and Competition Law Practice Chair and Partner at the law firm of Baker Botts. Previously, she served as Acting Chairman at the Federal Trade Commission for 2 years and prior to that as a Commissioner for 6. She directed all aspects of the FTC's antitrust work, including merger review and conduct enforcement, and steered all FTC consumer protection enforcement, with a particular emphasis on privacy and technology issues. A thought leader, Maureen has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, IP, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications and has testified over a dozen times before the U.S. Congress. Maureen has relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad, with a particular emphasis on Europe and China, and has led the U.S. delegation at the international antitrust and data privacy meeting on many occasions. She has received numerous awards, including the FTC's Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award. Prior to her role as a Commissioner, Maureen led the FTC's Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the area of broadband and internet. In private practice, he headed the FTC practice group at a leading telecommunications firm, representing and counseling telecommunications and technology clients on antitrust compliance, privacy, and consumer protection matters before the FTC and the FCC. She also clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Resources

Baker Botts – Antitrust and Competition Law Practice Group

Here’s how we can break up big tech by Elizabeth Warren (Ms. Ohlhausen argues against.)

News Roundup

Facebook blocks race, age, gender, ZIP code ad targeting for housing, employment, credit

Facebook is no longer permitting housing, employment and credit advertisers to target users based on their age, race, gender or zip code. This brings Facebook in line with federal rules preventing broadcasters from discriminating in ad sales contracts on the basis of race or gender. The new prohibitions are part of a settlement with several advocacy organizations that filed discrimination lawsuits against Facebook after ProPublica published an investigative report showing its ability to exclude certain ethnicities from seeing housing ads.

Dems plan to vote on net neutrality bill on April 8^th

House democrats plan to vote, on Monday, April 8^th, on the bill that would reinstate the 2015 net neutrality rules—the Save the Internet Act. Opponents are trying to tack on a bunch of Amendments even though the bill is pretty straight forward in terms of its intended scope. Even if the bill passes the House though, it faces an uphill climb in Mitch McConnel’s lair high up on the mountain  -- I mean the Senate. And the president would also have to sign it – we’ll see what happens.

Security firm: Facebook stored user data in plain text for years

This time, the security firm KrebsonSecurity found that, for years, Facebook stored hundreds of millions of user names and passwords in a text file. What’s the problem with this you ask? Well the text file was searchable by any of Facebook’s 20,000 employees. So let’s say a date didn’t go so well with some brah who happens to work at Facebook? Well guess what he could just go ahead and search for your password. Facebook has allegedly used this method dating back as far as 2012.

Cummings demands documents related to Kushner’s use of encrypted app for official business

House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings has demanded documents from the attorney representing Jared Kushner regarding Kushner’s use of a private email address and What’s App to conduct official business. This of course is the same thing Republicans went after Hillary Clinton for during the 2016 presidential campaign.

FCC to pay $43k in settlement for not releasing fake comments records

The FCC will pay $43,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs to a New York journalist named Jason Prechtel for failing to turn over information, under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, related to fake comments filed in the net neutrality proceeding. The case was settled without prejudice which means the FCC won’t admit to any wrongdoing—even though it didn’t respond to the journalist within the statutory timeframe.

Nunes suing Twitter

California Republican Representative Devin Nunes is suing Twitter and 3 users for $250 million saying he was “defamed” and claiming that Twitter bans conservative viewpoints.

Trump finally names a CTO

After two years, President Trump has finally named a Chief Technology Officer. Michael Kratsios is just 32 but well-connected and worked for Thiel Capital. Peter Thiel as you’ll recall is a Donald Trump Supporter

Events

Tuesday March 26^th

Hudson  Institute

How Does the U.S. Maintain its Competitive Edge in 5G?

9:15AM-11:00AM

1201 Pennsylvania Ave.

It will be livestreamed

Senate Commerce Committee

Hearing on Small Business Perspectives on the Federal Data Privacy Framework

2:30pm – Dirksen 562

Wednesday March 27^th

House Judiciary Committee

Lost Einsteins: Lack of Diversity in Patent Inventorship and the Impact on America’s Innovation Economy

10AM

2141 Rayburn

March 29^th

Brookings

Stephen Bryer Lecture: Digital Technology in the age of artificial intelligence: A comparative perspective

10:30-12 noon

Falk Auditorium @ Brookings

1776 Massachussetts, NW

There will be a webcast for this as well.