Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are now reportedly collaborating on legislation to establish a new agency with the authority to oversee digital firms.
The Digital customer Protection Commission Act, presented on Thursday by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, would establish a body in charge of monitoring Meta, Google, Amazon, and other big internet firms while attempting to foster industry competition and online customer privacy.
According to the plan, the commission would collaborate with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ), the organizations that presently serve as antitrust enforcers.
Additionally, the Act would establish rules requiring “dominant platforms” to get licenses and allowing licenses to be revoked in cases of persistent anticompetitive and anti-consumer behavior.
The American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the Open App Markets Act, two initiatives for bipartisan antitrust reform, moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last year but were never put to a vote.
Companion measures that passed the House Judiciary Committee did not make it to the full floor for a vote.
By establishing a commission with special responsibility for the regulation of the burgeoning sector, Warren and Graham’s plan aims to target tech regulation more widely.
The measure would also give the new commission control over how to handle dangers that are emerging, such as those posed by artificial intelligence (AI), an area that politicians and regulators have been trying to comprehend and regulate.
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It’s time for Graham to step down. He’s a Democrat in our Republican party. Hope he is voted out.