| Happy Friday! I'm finally seeing the somber-looking "Oppenheimer" today. Send news tips and cheerful memes to: cristiano.lima@washpost.com. A quick programming note: The newsletter will be going into a Tuesday to Thursday schedule during the August recess, starting next week. Below: A new study sheds light on social media and political polarization, and Microsoft faces an E.U. investigation. First: | A key Senate panel has big plans on tech for the fall |  Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) speak during a Senate hearing on March 22. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | Senate Commerce Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) on Thursday outlined plans to consider a flurry of major tech proposals when lawmakers return from recess in September, teasing what could be one of the committee's most active periods on that front to date. Cantwell said that after the committee voted out a pair of children's online safety and privacy bills this week, it plans to turn its attention to other social media restrictions, work on artificial intelligence and concerns over TikTok. The targets will have to compete with a crowded Senate agenda, including passing numerous spending bills and averting a government shutdown. The committee has long been seen as a critical linchpin to efforts to rein in the technology sector. But aside from clearing the same children's online safety bills for the first time last Congress, the panel has been relatively dormant on key issues, including data privacy. That's poised to change if Cantwell delivers on the expansive agenda she described Thursday. Here's a look at what the panel is planning for the fall. | Not done on children's online safety | | Cantwell and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) expressed optimism that as early as this fall the committee could soon take up his bipartisan bill to ban kids under 13 from accessing social media and requiring that those 13 to 17 get parental consent to use the platform. | | | | | | | | Social media is putting our kids at risk. We have a right to know how Big Tech is collecting their information and feeding them addictive content. Congress must adopt responsible safeguards now. | | | |  | | | | | Cantwell called it "an important concept" and said she wants to work with Schatz "to mark up your legislation in the future." Several states including Utah and Arkansas have placed similar restrictions on kids and teens accessing social media, but if Cantwell follows through it would mark the first time such a proposal has been taken up at the federal level. Civil liberties advocates and tech groups have assailed the laws, which they say could force companies to implement sweeping new data collection practices to verify the ages of all users, not just kids and teens, and shut many of them off from positive online resources. | Back to the table on data privacy? | | Cantwell, who last year forcefully rejected a bipartisan House bill that would set long-awaited federal privacy standards for all consumers, signaled interest in returning to the topic. Cantwell said the committee has been bogged down by efforts to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, but is now looking to shift the focus back to data privacy. "We really had wanted to get the FAA bill done and turn to that, and obviously, all the consternation over that has delayed us, but it was always next on our agenda," Cantwell said during a lengthy interview with reporters after Thursday's committee markup. While Cantwell declined to say whether there's still significant daylight between herself and House leaders, she said there "have been a lot of discussions" between herself and the three other key lawmakers in the debate, Senate Commerce ranking Republican Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the chair and ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The House panel last year became the first to advance a so-called comprehensive data privacy bill. Cruz told me he still thinks getting a children's privacy bill over the finish line would be more achievable, but he said he still has "some hope and optimism" about a broader bill. | | In a surprise move, Cantwell told reporters she plans to introduce and mark up an alternative bill seeking to address concerns about foreign-linked apps, such as TikTok, as I reported Thursday. | | The White House earlier this year endorsed a separate bill led by Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) that would give the Commerce Department more leeway to ban or restrict apps with foreign ties, but the measure has not moved since being referred to Cantwell's panel. Cantwell said Warner's bill "needs work" and said she's working on a measure that would create more oversight mechanisms for any action against companies such as TikTok. Some House Republicans have argued Warner's bill gives the White House overly broad powers. "You want to give people tools that they can use and you want to set parameters that give somebody the oversight," said Cantwell, who noted that she introduced an initial version of the bill as an amendment to the Senate's defense policy bill. Warner spokeswoman Rachel Cohen said the senator "welcomes the opportunity to work with" Cantwell's panel to "address threats from foreign-based technology." | | Cantwell said the committee is also looking to dial up its work on AI, joining Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other lawmakers in turning more attention to the topic. Cantwell said the panel is considering holding a field hearing in her state of Washington on AI during the August recess after unsuccessfully lining up a session in the Senate this summer. | | |  | Our top tabs | | Changing Facebook algorithms won't fix political polarization, new research says |  The findings are likely to help boost social media companies' arguments that their algorithms do not contribute to political polarization or upheaval. (Richard Drew/AP) | | | A mass study found that while Meta's Facebook and Instagram platforms play a central role in directing partisan content to users with which they are likely to agree, strategies the social networks can use to dial back content virality and engagement won't significantly affect users' political beliefs, our colleagues Naomi Nix, Carolyn Y. Johnson and Cat Zakrzewski report. | | "The first four studies, which were released on Thursday in the journals Science and Nature, are the result of a unique partnership between university researchers and Meta's own analysts to study how social media affects political polarization and people's understanding and opinions about news, government and democracy," our colleagues write. The findings are likely to help boost social media companies' arguments that their algorithms do not contribute to political polarization or upheaval, though "tech companies' critics and some researchers who had seen the research before its release caution that the results do not exonerate tech companies for the role they play in amplifying division, political upheaval or users' belief in conspiracies," the report notes. "The experimental findings add to a growing body of research showing there is little evidence that key features of Meta's platforms alone cause harmful 'affective' polarization or have meaningful effects on these outcomes," Meta Global Affairs President Nick Clegg said in a Thursday blog post. | Twitter under fire for restoring account that posted child abuse material |  A partially removed sign at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News) | | | Twitter faced renewed scrutiny on Thursday after it reinstated the account of a right-wing influencer who tweeted a redacted image of a toddler being tortured, our colleagues Joseph Menn and Drew Harwell report. Our colleagues write: "After some of the account's more than 500,000 followers complained that the account had been suspended for its political messaging, Twitter owner Elon Musk responded Wednesday by saying that it was because of the image." "Only people on our CSE team have seen those pictures," Musk tweeted in reference to the company's child sexual exploitation staff. "For now, we will delete those posts and reinstate the account." The image received over 3 million views and 18,000 retweets, according to statistics from a cached version of the tweet from Tuesday. Such material, even if partially obscured, still qualifies as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), experts told our colleagues. "Generally speaking, even if it is redacted, if it's clear it's a child, it's still CSAM," said Gavin Portnoy, vice president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. | Microsoft faces E.U. antitrust investigation over Office, Teams bundling |  The E.U. is investigating Microsoft for possible violations of the bloc's competition laws for the bundling of its Teams video conferencing service with its suite of office tools. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters) | | | The E.U. is investigating Microsoft for possible violations of the bloc's competition laws for bundling its Teams video conferencing service with its suite of office tools, our colleague Aaron Gregg reports. "The E.U. said Microsoft's strategy of offering those products as part of a unified software package 'may constitute anti-competitive tying or bundling,'" Aaron writes. "The investigation stems from a complaint submitted by the workplace communications platform Slack, which also offers videoconferencing services." Slack in 2020 filed an initial complaint with E.U. regulators as covid-19 conditions spurred people to work at home and communicate over messaging platforms like Zoom, Slack and Teams. Slack alleged that Microsoft "had illegally forced users to install certain products and had blocked their removal" and asked the bloc to order Microsoft to separate its Teams product from its other Office products and charge a market rate to use Teams, Aaron writes. "We respect the European Commission's work on this case and take our own responsibilities very seriously," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. "We will continue to cooperate with the Commission and remain committed to finding solutions that will address its concerns." | | |  | Hill happenings | | | |  | Inside the industry | | | |  | Competition watch | | | |  | Workforce report | | | |  | Trending | | | |  | Before you log off | | | That's all for today — thank you so much for joining us! Make sure to tell others to subscribe to The Technology 202 here. Get in touch with tips, feedback or greetings on Twitter or email. | |
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