Regulation
2024 Republican platform would roll back tech regulations on AI and cryptography
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Below: Meta will remove more posts about “Zionists”. First:
GOP 2024 platform seeks to boost crypto, AI and Elon Musk.
For a party whose leaders, including the former president Donald Trumphave often criticized big tech, The Republicans’ New Program The report doesn’t have much to say about tech regulation. And what it does say reflects a lax, if not downright cozy, approach to emerging sectors that have caught the Biden administration’s attention.
THE 16-page platformThe Trump bill, which Republican delegates adopted Monday ahead of next week’s Republican National Convention, calls for boosting rather than restricting cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence. “Republicans will lead the way to future economic greatness by leading the world in emerging industries,” it promises.
Critics counter that the platform’s policies could harm consumers while encouraging the worst players in emerging industries, to the detriment of real innovation.
According to the document, the Republican Party’s top technology priority appears to be promoting cryptocurrency.
“Republicans will end the Democrats’ illegal and anti-American crackdown on cryptocurrencies and oppose the creation of a central bank digital currency,” the platform states. “We will defend the right to mine bitcoin and ensure that every American has the right to own their digital assets and transact without government oversight or control.”
Trump’s Position as Pro-Crypto Candidate Could Be a Smart Move, Some Say Chris MacKenziesenior communications director at the Chamber of Progress, a center-left trade group that receives funding from tech companies. open letter On Tuesday, his group called President Biden to support bipartisan cryptocurrency legislation that is widely regarded as industry-friendlynoting that 18 million Americans hold or trade cryptocurrencies.
“We see this as an opportunity for him to… remove Trump from the role of being the crypto-positive candidate, who really worked to make that part of his campaign,” MacKenzie said.
That would be a mistake, some consumer advocates say.
Boosting cryptocurrencies is an odd move for a major party, given the relatively minor role they play in the broader economy, he said. Robert Weissmanchairman of consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. He said the cryptocurrency’s prominence in the Republican agenda likely reflects the heavy lobbying efforts of cryptocurrency interests, which he said “clearly influence politicians in both parties.”
“The enforcement standards that Republicans are proposing to repeal or eliminate are designed to protect Americans from the scams, the scams, and the fraud that are rampant in the cryptocurrency industry,” Weissman said. “In fact, it should be interpreted as, ‘We’re aiming to promote more fraud against ordinary Americans.’”
The Republican platform also calls for the repeal of Biden’s executive order on AI.
“We will repeal Joe Biden’s dangerous executive order that stifles AI innovation and imposes radical leftist ideas on the development of this technology,” the platform reads. “Instead, Republicans support AI development rooted in free speech and human flourishing.”
The general order, which Biden signed in October 2023imposed new security requirements on AI developers and called on federal agencies to mitigate risks associated with the technology while encouraging its responsible development. My colleagues Elisabeth Dwoskin, Drew Harwell And Zakrzewski Cat It was reported in May that an influential tech lobbying group had laid the groundwork for a possible future Trump administration to dismantle these rules and channel the money into AI grants and contracts instead.
But it’s unclear how many AI companies actually want the order repealed.
“For American companies to continue to grow and lead innovation domestically and internationally, U.S. policymakers must help set the global standards for AI,” said Julia Massiminoexecutive vice president of government affairs at the Information Technology Industry Council, a global trade association for the technology sector, in an emailed statement. She said the group urges policymakers to prioritize policies that “build trust in technology” while supporting its beneficial uses.
Suresh VenkatasubramanianA Brown University computer science professor who has helped shape the Biden administration’s thinking on AI, told Tech Brief that a hands-off approach to AI development “might have made sense” in the technology’s formative years. But he added that “we’re way past that point today.”
“We have mountains of evidence about why and how we should govern AI systems that affect people’s rights, opportunities and access to vital services,” Venkatasubramanian said.
The GOP platform includes another technology-related priority: boosting commercial space exploration.
“Under Republican leadership, the United States will build a robust manufacturing industry in near-Earth orbit, return American astronauts to the Moon and then to Mars, and strengthen partnerships with the growing commercial space sector to revolutionize our ability to access, live, and develop assets in space,” the document states.
One of the main beneficiaries of government investment in commercial space exploration would likely be Elon Muskthe billionaire who controls SpaceX, Tesla and X. In recent years, Musk has been more and more vocal about his conservative views, and in 2022 he urged his many followers on X to vote republican in the midterm elections. He did not endorse a presidential candidate, although he said After an impromptu meeting in March with Trump, he said he was “walking away from Biden.”
The platform did not mention Section 230, the tech liability shield that Trump sought to repeal as president, or antitrust enforcement against tech giants, which intensified under the Trump administration before the Biden administration took an even tougher line.
Meta to remove more posts about ‘Zionists’ in fight against anti-Semitism
Meta is more aggressively removing some social media posts containing the word “Zionist” when it appears to be a substitute for Jew — an effort to counter a wave of online anti-Semitism following the start of the Israel-Gaza war, our colleague said. Naomi Nix reports for Tech Brief.
Meta announced Tuesday that it is expanding its existing hate speech policy to remove more content attacking “Zionists” when it does not criticize the political movement but appears to spread anti-Semitic stereotypes or call for harm to Jews or Israelis “under the guise of attacking Zionists,” the company said in a statement. blog post.
The social media giant currently prohibits all attacks on people based on their race, religion, nationality or sexual orientation, including posts that spread “harmful stereotypes” or dehumanize people. Under that policy, Meta has treated the word Zionist as a substitute for Jew or Israeli in limited circumstances, such as comparing them to rats, a well-known anti-Semitic trope.
From now on, Meta will remove more content that includes the word “Zionist,” such as posts claiming that Zionists run the world or control the media, or posts comparing Zionists to pigs, dirt, or vermin.
Meta has been discuss potential policy change The company has been working with civil society groups for months. And while the move has already won the company support from some Jewish groups, it is likely to draw criticism from some digital rights activists and pro-Palestinian groups, who have argued that the new approach would stifle legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and Zionism during a catastrophic war.
US, Allies Dismantle Russian AI-Powered ‘Robot Farm’ (Joseph Menn)
First, federal regulators ban messaging apps from hosting minors (Cristiano Lima)
US plans $1.6 billion in funding for computer chip packaging (New York Times)
Microsoft raises Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price, launches new ‘Standard’ tier (The edge)
Google no longer claims to be carbon neutral (Bloomberg)
Amazon says it met its climate goal seven years early (New York Times)
Microsoft and Apple abandon OpenAI amid antitrust investigation (Financial Times)
Google Maps speedometer finally comes to iOS and CarPlay (Engadget)
Kamala D. Harris’ Awkward Quotes Are Being Turned Into Memes Across the Internet (Taylor Lorenz)
Your partner wants to know your online passwords. Say no. (Hunter Tatum)
Tesla’s Secret: Elon Musk’s Car Gets VIP Treatment for Self-Driving AI (Business Insider)
Victor PengPresident of Santa Clara, Calif.-based semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices has been selected to join the steering committee of the National Semiconductor Technology Center Consortium, where he will represent the private sector on a volunteer basis.
- The Federalist Society organize a fireside chat with the FTC’s Melissa Holyoak on Wednesday at noon.
- Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing“The Need to Protect Americans’ Privacy and the AI Accelerator,” Thursday at 10 a.m.
- The Congressional Internet Caucus Academy organize an event“Tech Platforms and the 1st Amendment: The Impact of Supreme Court Decisions,” Friday at noon.
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