Media Type Politico

Do it for the kids

Giliann Karon

The unlikely alliance bringing the tech giants to heel

An alliance of little-known advocacy groups has convinced five states to pass laws to protect kids online and is now making inroads in Washington. The nonpartisan coalition has done it by delivering parents’ and kids’ stories about bullying and exploitative content on Facebook, TikTok and other platforms. By focusing on the harms to kids’ health, these organizations have helped enact laws in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland and New York meant to regulate social media for minors.

Q Chaghtai

Biden campaign: Twitter, er X, is ‘an increasingly hostile place’

“Given the stakes of this election, I just think that you have to be part of the conversation wherever it’s playing out, even if in the long run you would like to see platforms that facilitate healthier political discourse,” said Jesse Lehrich, a spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and cofounder of Accountable Tech. “When democracy is on the line, you don’t want to lose democracy for the sake of taking a principled stand.”

Zach Praiss

New studies: Facebook doesn’t make people more partisan

Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of Accountable Tech, an advocacy group focused on information controls for social media, said it was “a little bit absurd” to draw conclusions from studies that altered a single facet of a user’s social media experience over a three-month period.

Victoria Vinall

Score one for ‘the algorithm’

Social media critics — many of whom have spent years sounding the alarm about the ways it has changed American politics — suggested the studies were too limited, and too close to Meta itself, to be persuasive, including Frances Haugen, the former Facebook executive who leaked internal company files in 2021, and Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of Accountable Tech, an advocacy group focused on information controls for social media.

Victoria Vinall

Big Tech carves loopholes out of state kids’ safety laws

Nicole Gill, co-founder and executive director of tech watchdog group Accountable Tech, said companies are running a two-track campaign. She said they’re making design changes that may make minor safety improvements for kids, “while at the same time, their government relations teams — up to their CEOs — are directly lobbying Congress and state legislatures to do absolutely nothing to regulate them.”

Victoria Vinall

The Covid passport expires

Critics’ say: Nicole Gill, executive director of tech watchdog group Accountable Tech, said the companies “are directly lobbying Congress and state legislatures to do absolutely nothing to regulate them.”

Victoria Vinall

Google hires Costello

“No parent should have to deal with the horrific reality of losing a child to online bullying, illegal or harmful substances sold over social media, or from falling prey to dangerous online communities,” the groups wrote. Tech Oversight Project, Accountable Tech, the Center for Digital Democracy, Fairplay, Parents Together, Common Sense Media, Tech Transparency Project, Eating Disorders Coalition and Friends of the Earth.

Victoria Vinall

Meta to reinstate Donald Trump’s Facebook account

Watchdog group Accountable Tech criticized Facebook for prioritizing its bottom line. “Today, Meta chose to put its own profits above American democracy and the real-world safety of its users,” said Nicole Gill, the group’s executive director, in a statement.

Victoria Vinall

Musk’s Twitter gets weird and wild, but Washington is sticking around

Nicole Gill, executive director of tech watchdog group Accountable Tech, said Musk’s reinstatements “are actively threatening the safety of Twitter users.”

Victoria Vinall

Social media platforms on the defensive as Russian-based disinformation about Ukraine spreads

More broadly, the tech companies have not been transparent about real-time actions they’ve taken to dispel Russian state-run disinformation, according to Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of Accountable Tech, a watchdog group, and former spokesperson for Hillary Clinton.

Victoria Vinall

House Science debates how to boost U.S. microelectronics

"A coalition of advocacy groups — including Fairplay, Accountable Tech, the Center for Digital Democracy and Common Sense — are today launching Designed With Kids in Mind, a campaign calling for a design code to protect children online."

Kenya Juarez

Lawmakers fighting ‘Big Tech’ flock to Oracle’s townhouse

"Accountable Tech has launched a database that compiles news outlets’ coverage of the Facebook Papers leaked by Haugen."

Kenya Juarez

Senators go for tech, telecom goodies in defense bill

"'We are writing to encourage your offices to focus next on the monopoly power wielded by Big Tech,' a coalition of 13 groups, including Accountable Tech, the American Economic Liberties Project and Demand Progress, said in a letter this morning to Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer."

Kenya Juarez

Facebook looking for its voice at a ‘watershed moment’

“I do think they’ve burnt a lot of bridges,” said Jesse Lehrich, the co-founder of advocacy group Accountable Tech.

Kenya Juarez

Facebook staff complained for years about their lobbyists’ power

"'It is a fatal flaw of Facebook as a company that their team in charge of lobbying governments clearly is empowered to intervene on product and content decisions in ways that make it impossible to do good work,' said Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of advocacy group Accountable Tech and former spokesperson for Hillary Clinton."

Kenya Juarez

Will tech provisions make the cut in Democrats’ spending bill?

"Accountable Tech is launching Main Street Against Big Tech, a project aimed at highlighting the impacts of major tech companies on small business owners."

Kenya Juarez

Senators unveil long-awaited antitrust bill

"More than 40 human rights organizations have launched HowToStopFacebook.org, a campaign calling on legislators to investigate the company using subpoena power...Members include Fight for the Future, Accountable Tech, the Center for Digital Democracy and Fairplay."

Kenya Juarez

Senators vs. Facebook, Round 2

"Accountable Tech launching a six-figure national TV ad buy this morning and planning a post-hearing rally with other groups, including Fairplay and the so-called Real Facebook Oversight Board."

Kenya Juarez

House Judiciary mulls how to juice tech competition

"Dozens of civil society groups, including Accountable Tech...urged leaders of the House Science Committee in a letter dated Monday to take action against Facebook over its decision to revoke access to the NYU researchers."

Kenya Juarez

Biden’s vaccine misinformation road not taken

“This includes appointing a senior White House official who would be exclusively dedicated to mobilizing a whole-of-government response to this crisis, in close cooperation with Congress, civil society, and federal agencies,” wrote Rebecca Lenn, a senior adviser for the online activist group Avaaz, in an email to POLITICO. In late December, Avaaz and Accountable Tech led a coalition of 50 nonprofits and consumer advocacy groups in urging Biden to place a disinformation specialist on his pandemic team.

Victoria Vinall

Can 5G pay for infrastructure?

But Warner and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a joint statement that the bill would allow consumers to move their data away from dominant platforms that are “often insensitive to consumers’ privacy, content or platform security expectations,” and advocacy group Accountable Tech shared similar sentiments in a memo Tuesday.

Victoria Vinall

Lawmakers set sights on boosting patent quality

The group Accountable Tech is launching a $50,000 digital ad buy today to thank eight original cosponsors who support multiple pieces of the House antitrust package, while urging three House Judiciary Democrats — Reps. Greg Stanton of Arizona, Ted Lieu of California and Deborah Ross of North Carolina — to declare their support. The ads will run in D.C. and the lawmakers’ congressional districts.

Victoria Vinall

SCOTUS decision fuels calls to update anti-hacking law

To mark the occasion, the groups Accountable Tech and Media Matters for America are running a full-page ad in today’s New York Times, as well as digital ads, calling on Facebook to keep the former president off its platform permanently. Mobile billboards paid for by those two groups will also circle Facebook’s D.C. office and Capitol Hill — a sign that progressive groups are concerned the social media company could allow Trump back on as soon as today.

Victoria Vinall

Takeaways from tech giants’ latest lobbying disclosures

Nonprofit group Accountable Tech is running a new ad campaign urging users to opt out of Facebook tracking their activity across the internet. The ads, which will run on Facebook and target iPhone users in D.C. and the Bay Area, are timed to coincide with a new Apple software update that will prompt users to opt out of cross-app tracking.

Victoria Vinall

Coronavirus scams (back) in the spotlight

“A new policy-focused nonprofit that emerged from the recent wave of big tech scrutiny is calling for members of Facebook’s Oversight Board to either step up or step down,” TechCrunch reports on the group Accountable Tech.

Zach Praiss