‘STEP UP’ OR SECTION 230 IS OUT: House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson
Thompson said during a hearing on the threat of domestic terrorism that there appears to be bipartisan support to look at reforming the landmark law that provides companies a legal liability shield over content posted on their platforms by third parties.
“So for those companies that might be listening to this hearing, it’s absolutely essential that they step up in a big way, because obviously from a question and responses there s interest on the right and left Democrat and Republican that we have to look at it. And I assure you as chair we will,” he said.
Source: Hayato Huseman / Android Central
The Galaxy S21 Ultra is a phone that has a lot going for it, and for a lot of people, one of its biggest draws is the display. Samsung went all-out with the S21 Ultra s screen, allowing you to run a Quad HD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate
at the same time.
This obviously puts more strain on battery life, but if you want the sharpest and smoothest display experience possible, you can get exactly that on the S21 Ultra. Alternatively, you can keep that smooth 120Hz setting and lower the resolution to Full HD+ for a more modest experience.
Source: Senate.gov
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), the incoming head of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, has introduced a bill that would bring wide reforms to competition laws and antitrust enforcement that puts companies that sell the tech we love directly in its anti-competitive crosshairs.
The proposed Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act outlines the new administration s policies and attitude towards anti-competitive behavior in several key areas. One is the idea of projecting more of the investigation costs to the companies defending their practices; the other is a set of consumer protections like requiring companies that are given permission to merge or buy another one to show how they have kept their relevant industries competitive since initial the hearings.
The Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act combines a bevy of existing proposals into one omnibus bill that lays out Democrats’ strategy for tackling monopolization across the economy.
The first proposal of the lengthy legislation is focused on making anticompetitive mergers more difficult by amending the Clayton Act.
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It would add a risk-based standard to the foundational antitrust law and clarify that mergers that create a monopsony violate it.
The bill introduced by Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, would also seek to shift the burden to parties seeking a merger to prove that they would not create a risk of lessening competition.
Antitrust legislation seeks to disrupt big tech
Apple, Facebook, and Google have been the target of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee in recent antitrust investigations. They all make the claim that their businesses are lawful and not monopolies, but the government is fighting back.
Now that the Democratic party has majority control of the House and Senate new bills will be introduced to combat antitrust cases. One new bill introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar will give the government more power to penalize anti-competitive practices and prevent unlawful mergers.
Protocol the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act of 2021 offers sweeping reforms to antitrust laws, but are not as extreme as some have expected. Other legislators have called for a breakup of Facebook or other extreme action.