Musk trolls another prominent Democrat | | Washington, DC - May 16 : Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks to reporters during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing examining the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | Elon Musk's legal team on Thursday disclosed plans to force Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to turn over communications with regulators about his ownership of Twitter, days after the lawmaker urged an agency to investigate him for potential conflicts of interest. It marked the latest time Musk has lashed out at a high-ranking Democrat after they applied pressure over his business practices — and it's an effort that legal experts say is unlikely to pay off. The move comes after Warren wrote a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday calling for an investigation into Musk's "apparent conflicts" owning both Tesla and Twitter. Warren cited reports that Musk enlisted Tesla staff to help with his Twitter takeover, and "Twitter's reliance on advertising revenue" from Tesla competitors as evidence of conflicts. Musk mocked the efforts on Wednesday, tweeting a slew of messages at Warren reading: "What's your favorite Hallowen outfit?", "Not you again" and "Can we please be friends please please." Musk also endorsed a tweet calling the move a "personal vendetta" and "a massive waste of taxpayer dollars due to you being a human turd." A Warren spokesman declined to comment. Twitter did not return a request for comment. | | Musk's attorneys are now seeking Warren's contacts with the SEC and the Federal Trade Commission as part of the company's bid to scrap a data privacy pact with authorities. Legal experts said Musk's effort is likely to fail. Courts rarely order lawmakers to fork over internal communications, and under the Constitution they are largely exempt from prosecution or from being "questioned" in court over "any Speech or Debate" conducted as a part of their congressional business. Academics who specialize in constitutional law said Warren's activity likely fell within that scope. "Especially absent some evidence that Senator Warren has some personal vendetta against Musk or some financial interest in a rival business, I don't think it likely that Musk's subpoena is likely to succeed," said John Vile, Middle Tennessee State University political science professor. Anthony Michael Kreis, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University, said that if the communications "are in furtherance of oversight or fact-finding to craft legislation, Warren would be on strong grounds to quash the demand." Kreis added that since Warren's letter to the SEC is only a few days old, her office may not have much to share if the subpoena was successfully issued. "I doubt Musk's lawyers get very far with this at the end of the day," he added. Musk has a long history of either brushing off or openly mocking scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers, and the tiffs have seemingly picked up since he took over Twitter. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized Twitter on Tuesday over reports of rising harassment since Musk's takeover. Musk replied, "Methinks somebody doth protest too much." Musk last year traded bars with Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) after he criticized the mogul over Tesla's safety report and over reports of rising impostor accounts on Twitter. | | Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Senate Democrats, tweeted in 2021 that we "must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share," without mentioning Musk. Musk replied, "I keep forgetting that you're still alive." In 2021, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) blasted Musk for asking his followers in a Twitter poll whether he should sell off 10 percent of his Tesla stock in a bid to avoid some tax obligations. Musk replied with a crude tweet regarding Wyden's appearance. Musk's subpoena for Warren's documents comes as he seeks to fend off a deposition in his case against the FTC, stemming from a probe that preceded his takeover. The FTC has said it would consider Twitter in violation of a 2011 consent decree if Musk does not appear for a deposition July 25 in San Francisco, as my colleague Cat Zakrzewski reported. Twitter sought a stay of that appearance in a recent complaint. | | |  | Our top tabs | | Tech firms pledge voluntary AI safety commitments to White House |  President Biden speaks about his administration's commitment to seizing the opportunities and managing the risks of AI in San Francisco in June. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) | | | The White House announced Friday that seven influential tech and AI companies voluntarily pledged to manage various risks, our colleague Cat Zakrzewski reports. Cat writes: "The companies — which include Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Chat GPT-maker OpenAI — vowed to allow independent security experts to test their systems before they are released to the public and committed to sharing data about the safety of their systems with the government and academics." The companies also pledged to develop "watermarking" techniques to notify the public of when images, videos or text are AI-generated. A senior White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the pledge added the administration is crafting an AI-focused executive order, though the official provided few details about its contents or when it would be released. "Despite broad concerns about the growing power and influence of the tech sector, Congress has not passed comprehensive regulations of Silicon Valley and the Biden administration has attempted to use voluntary pledges as a stop-gap measure," the report adds. | Senate panel to take up kids safety, privacy legislation — again |  Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), its chair, speak during a panel hearing on March 22. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | The Senate Commerce Committee announced Thursday it will take up legislation to expand safety and privacy protections for children online again next week, after the proposals failed to reach the Senate floor last year. The panel scheduled a Thursday markup for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), S.1409, and the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act, S.1628, which together would expand existing privacy protections for kids and give parents greater control over their online activity. The proposals, which cleared the committee last Congress, mark the chamber's most significant efforts to create new safeguards for children online in decades. But KOSA has faced pushback from industry groups and some digital and civil rights advocates, who say some of its provisions could lead to greater surveillance and hurt marginalized groups. And some Republicans have argued that Congress should focus on passing protections for all consumers rather than advancing a measure targeted at children. Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), the committee's ranking Republican, told reporters Thursday he was confident in the chances of children's safety legislation clearing the Senate. "I think if we do the work in committee to get bipartisan agreement, I think we're close on that, I think its prospects on the floor are very positive," he said. Even if the bills clear the Senate, they face major political hurdles in the House, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers have focused on a broader privacy bill that includes some heightened protections for kids. | FTC pauses in-house Microsoft-Activision merger trial |  The move brings the deal one step closer to completion as the two companies simultaneously work to convince U.K. antitrust regulators to approve the purchase. (Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images) | | | The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday paused its in-house trial against Microsoft's planned $69 billion purchase of video game company Activision Blizzard, Leah Nylen reports for Bloomberg News. "With the administrative case now withdrawn, Microsoft and Activision can seek to persuade the FTC's commissioners to accept a settlement or drop their opposition to the deal altogether," according to the report. "The FTC is appealing a federal court ruling last week in favor of the deal, though the appeals court declined to halt Microsoft's merger while that is underway." The move brings the deal one step closer to completion as the two companies simultaneously work to convince U.K. antitrust regulators to approve the purchase after agreeing to a three-month extension of the original transaction deadline. "The FTC can opt to restart its in-house case even if the merger closes, though the agency normally dismisses the administrative case if it loses in federal court," the report notes. | | |  | Rant and rave | | | Apple threatens to remove FaceTime and iMessage in the U.K. over proposed updates to a security bill. Johns Hopkins University professor Matthew Green: | | British tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker: | | IBM software engineer Nigel Jones: | | |  | Agency scanner | | | |  | Inside the industry | | | |  | Competition watch | | | |  | Privacy monitor | | | |  | Workforce report | | | |  | Trending | | | By Gerrit De Vynck, Elahe Izadi and Paul Farhi ● Read more » | | | | | |  | Mentions | | | FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel made the following changes to her leadership team: | - Priscilla Delgado-Argeris to serve as Chief Counsel
- Ramesh Nagarajan to serve as Chief Legal Advisor
- Rashann Duvall to serve as Acting Legal Advisor on the Affordable Connectivity Program and other wireline issues
| | |  | Daybook | | - Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and others speak at the Aspen Security Forum around 11 a.m.
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