*By Michael Teich*
Democrats led by Senator Mark Warner are stepping up the charge against big tech, but they may not accomplish anything unless the party makes major gains in the midterm elections, according to Axios reporter David McCabe.
Disinformation and privacy concerns on social media platforms have become a major concern of many lawmakers after Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election was uncovered.
"It's not hugely surprising to see Democrats engaging on the disinformation piece because of the concerns about 2016," McCabe said Tuesday in an interview with Cheddar.
Facebook has spent nearly two years working to counter political misinformation campaigns on its platform. The company announced Tuesday it found and removed 32 pages and accounts linked to an influence campaign on Facebook and Instagram. Warner said in a statement Tuesday that "the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to sow division and spread disinformation."
Before Facebook's announcement, McCabe had obtained Warner's policy papers, which propose 20 ways to address disinformation online, protect user privacy, and encourage greater competition.
McCabe said he's skeptical that Warner's proposals can be enacted in the near-term. Despite a growing tech-lash and heightened concerns over data privacy that resulted from Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, the issues are not priorities for Democrats or Republicans.
"Going into midterms, this hasn’t proven to be a big election issue," McCabe said before Facebook's latest revelation.
If Democrats can shift party control of Congress in November, they may be able to get enough momentum behind Warner's ideas, said McCabe. But even if they do well in midterms, the Democrats will have to go up against big tech's robust lobbying efforts. McCabe said the Democrats' intentions, as outlined by Warner, may prompt tech companies to spend even more on lobbying lawmakers in Washington.
In September, legislators will question social media executives including Twitter's Jack Dorsey in order to evaluate how government regulations might prevent the spread of misinformation and propaganda on social platforms.
For more on this, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/mark-warners-uphill-battle-against-big-tech).
Columbus, Ohio, may not have won the bid for Amazon's HQ2, but the city isn't ready to retire its proposal quite yet. Mayor Andrew Ginther said the city's leaders plan to use their application as a road map to transform Columbus from a Midwestern destination into a national one.
Greg Hewitt, CEO of DHL Express in the U.S., told Cheddar that Cyber Monday ー its biggest shipping day of the year in terms of "outbound" packages ー saw a 40 percent lift in packages moved year-over-year, as more overseas consumers took advantage of deals on U.S.-based websites like Amazon.
The cannabis industry's go-to packaging supplier KushCo Holdings is taking full advantage of the green rush. And when marijuana finally goes fully legal in the U.S., the company plans to re-emerge as the leader in ancillary products.
Amazon made company history and recorded its biggest shopping day yet on Cyber Monday following an already-lucrative five-day holiday weekend that totaled over 180 million in products sold.
Christine Sandler, Coinbase's head of coverage, told Cheddar's Tanaya Macheel that the crypto exchange has released an agency-only OTC desk in response to demand from large, institutional investors. Unlike other offerings, Coinbase will not act as a counterparty to trades and will instead match client orders.
Sarah Lewin, associate editor at Space.com, discusses InSight's successful seven month journey to Mars. InSight will drill into the red planet to learn more about its origins and monitor for Marsquakes.
Richard Allan, Facebook's vice president of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, answered inquiries from representatives of nine countries, sitting next to an empty chair left open for Zuckerberg. Early on, Allan, who is a former member of the British Parliament, admitted that the chief executive's absence was "not great."
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018.
As Apple waits for a ruling from the Supreme Court, other tech companies may have cause to worry about their own legal futures. Jimmy Hoover, a legal reporter for Law360, said a ruling that favors consumers over Apple would be "an anathema to these companies."
Former wide receiver Walter Powell Jr. played for three NFL teams over a span of four years. But now, a year into his retirement, he's decided to tackle a new challenge ー creating a more informed electorate. The athlete created a new an app, Politiscope, to educate political newcomers like Powell with a tool that "broke down politics so people like me could understand it," he told Cheddar Monday.
