Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a potential presidential candidate down the road if some in his party have their way, has advised Elon Musk not to back off the fight against disinformation.

Musk struck a deal to buy the social media giant with a promise of greater free speech, which some fear could mean less moderation of disinformation, misinformation or hate speech.

Also: Musk Makes Twitter Bid

In a statement on the deal, Warner, who has pushed social media to better protect users by, among other things, curbing disinformation, said Twitter has been leaning forward "to tackle false, deceptive and manipulated content." That included banning Donald Trump.

But Warner said Twitter still has room for improvement, and suggested Musk needs to continue leaning forward, rather than "backslide" from reforms to a place that is "harmful to Democracy and to the important discourse that takes place on Twitter across the world every day."

Also: Twitter Pushed to Adopt Political Ad Disclosures

Musk has argued that Twitter needs to allow more discourse, but the key will be the degree to which that conversation strays into the kind of speech Democrats, including Warner, argue is dangerous to the Republic and its citizens. ■

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), co-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a former tech exec, is calling on Facebook, Twitter and Google to implement "robust accountability and transparency standards" in the run-up to the November election. 

He said that should include requirements in his Honest Ads Act, which has yet to pass the Congress.

Warner sent individual letters to the companies' CEOs outlining the ways he thinks they continue to contribute to the spread of "disinformation, viral misinformation, and voter suppression."

The companies appeared to have already gotten the message. Twitter flagged a COVID-19-related tweet from the President as misinformation and Facebook restricted the account of conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin for "repeatedly sharing false news," a charge Levin disputes.

Warner warned of the "imminent risk of bad actors once again weaponizing American-bred social media tools to undermine democracy ahead of the November election."

Warner's committee conducted an extensive investigation into Russian election meddling in the 2016 election, including via social media.

“The pervasiveness of political misinformation on Facebook – and the ways in which your company chooses to amplify it – was on display just this week, when a baseless conspiracy about Vice President Biden was highlighted on Facebook’s own News Tab, a result of Facebook choosing to amplify The Daily Caller as a verified news publisher and fact-checker despite its long track record of promoting false information,” wrote Warner in the letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Warner gave Twitter props for the efforts it has taken to flag content, but wanted more. “I appreciate the leadership Twitter has demonstrated to take steps against the promotion of false, deceptive, and manipulated political content," he wrote CEO Jack Dorsey. "[H]owever, more must be done to secure our political discourse from disinformation on digital platforms like yours."

Warner praised Facebook for another move, its banning of accounts connected to the QAnon conspiracy theory, but with a caveat.

“I’m pleased to see Facebook take action against this harmful and increasingly dangerous conspiracy theory and movement," said Warner, pointing out he had encouraged the company to take the threat of QAnon more seriously since Facebook had a role in its growth. "Ultimately the real test will be whether Facebook actually takes measures to enforce these new policies – we’ve seen in a myriad of other contexts, including with respect to right-wing militias like the Boogaloos, that Facebook has repeatedly failed to consistently enforce its existing policies.”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said the U.S. has to start re-imbedding its values of openness, transparency, and respect for human and civil rights into global tech standards or let China continue its march toward using new tech for authoritarian control and market domination.

Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a former tech exec, was speaking to the National Democratic Institute Wednesday (Sept. 16), where he made clear he thought that such necessary re-imbedding would not happen if Donald Trump remained president.

Warner said U.S. leadership in setting tech standards had diminished under Trump, as well as the Obama and Bush Administrations, partly because he and others had been wrong in assuming that bringing China into the liberal international order would lead it to open up to Democracy.

Related: TikTok Set to Sue Trump Administration

He said he and others thought the Chinese people would balk, innovation would suffer, and the government would be forced to accept greater openness, if only in its own self-interest. "That consensus was clearly wrong," he conceded.

Instead, he said, China showed that innovative new tech could develop within an authoritarian state to help monitor and repress the Chinese people with tools that "would make Orwell blush." He said the idea that the Chinese people's yearning for freedom would lead to the failure of that authoritarian regime and grater openness was misplaced and that, instead the Chinese Communist Party had harnessed that new tech.

Related: Sen. Warner Urges Internet Device Makers to Protect Products

Warner argues that the U.S. needs to fight industrial policy with industrial policy to help U.S. companies and others that share our values compete with a Chinese tech model in which the government picks winners and losers, gives the winner dominant market share, then subsidizes it so it can grab dominant global share. 

Warner is not suggesting the U.S. follow suit, but that the government needs to help companies compete on a more level playing field. He says part of the effort will be to assemble a coalition of the tech willing to reclaim tech standards leadership for democratic values.

But putting on his party hat, Warner said that would not happen Under a President Trump, citing was he said was Trump's inconsistent policies toward China, scattershot approach to TikTok and tariffs that hurt friend and foe alike. 

So, now what?

Warner said that complacency toward the problem under the Trump Administration potentially has permanently harmed the U.S. global leadership position in standards-setting with other governments, not just China, moving in to fill the void.

He said the government, private industry, and the people need to work together for human civil rights, which includes U.S. companies not "collaborating" with authoritarian regimes on tech like AI and facial recognition. He also said the U.S. needs to rebuild its relationship with global allies, saying China could not be countered without help. 

Related: Commerce Expands Huawei Restrictions

Warner also put in a plug for his USA Telecom Act, which would invest about a billion dollars in helping level the playing field for companies from the U.S. and its allies, including creating a multilateral security consortium to develop competitive alternatives to Chinese telecom Huawei, which the U.S. has begun to try to weed out of its 5G networks.

While there has been some focus on identifying current issues with Huawei tech, Warner called that a fools errand. He said even if there were not security back dorrs currently, that does not preclude the possibility, which he changed to probability, of malicious updates in the future. 

The issue is also as Huawei's market share grown, subsidized by the Chinese Communist government, it threatens the viability of potential competitors. If Huawei can get 50% market share,  he said, that could send Erickson and Nokia into a tailspin, he said. "Imagine being dependent on a single source from China on 5G," he added.

Warner said the country needs to "draw lines" about what tech can enter the U.S., but in a way that doesn't smack of protectionism. He said that means evaluating foreign product that runs counter to U.S. values based on transparent criteria. So, somewhere between a hands-off approach and the "everything is a threat" approach he says the Trump Administration has taken, leading to tariffs on aluminum and steel from allies Canada and Mexico, the sort of approach that undermines arguments against products that pose an actual threat.

Asked by NDI's Derek Mitchell whether Congress was prepared to engage in the effort, Warner was not sanguine about the prospects beyond what he said was a bipartisan recognition there is a problem.

Related: Sen. Warner Praises Passage of Device Security Bill

He said Congress' tech expertise level is fairly limited, which was reflected by the fact that despite the abuse of social media by foreign actors to try and affect the outcome of the 2016 election, Congress has not passed a single law to set up some guard rails, not even privacy legislation, or address issues like standards on data portability and interoperability. Then there is what he called the "totally low hanging fruit" of legislation requiring a campaign to tell the FBI if it has been approached by a foreign actor, which has failed to pass. 

Warner also took aim at social media's Sec. 230 immunity from civil liability for most third-party content. He said he was all for that protection when those sites were in their infancy, but that given their current size and influence on what news people are getting, that needs reexamining, as he said is definitely happening in other countries.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is praising House passage of his Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act, which requires minimum security requirements for IoT devices bought by the U.S. government, saying that there are not enough market incentives to secure devices.

Related: Sen. Warner Urges Internet Device Makers to Protect Products

The latest incarnation of the bill was introduced in March 2019 by Warner joined by Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), co-chair of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus with Warner, and in the House by Reps. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) and Will Hurd (R-Texas).

The bill has yet to pass the Senate, but did pass the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in June 2019.

It would:

1. "Require the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to issue recommendations addressing, at a minimum, secure development, identity management, patching, and configuration management for IoT devices.

2. "Direct the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue guidelines for each agency that are consistent with the NIST recommendations, and charge OMB with reviewing these policies at least every five years.

3. "Require any Internet-connected devices purchased by the federal government to comply with those recommendations.

4. "Direct NIST to work with cybersecurity researchers, industry experts, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to publish guidance on coordinated vulnerability disclosure to ensure that vulnerabilities related to agency devices are addressed.

5. "Require contractors and vendors providing information systems to the U.S. government to adopt coordinated vulnerability disclosure policies, so that if a vulnerability is uncovered, that can be effectively shared with a vendor for remediation."

“The House passage of this legislation is a major accomplishment in combating the threats that insecure IoT devices pose to our individual and national security," said Sen. Warner. "Frankly, manufacturers today just don’t have the appropriate market incentives to properly secure the devices they make and sell – that’s why this legislation is so important."

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is worried that there is still confusion and potential delay in getting unemployment checks to gig workers, the self-employed and independent contractors, like many working in the entertainment business, that he wants to make sure don't get left out. 

Unions representing performers in TV, movies, theater, concerts and other venues had sought inclusion of their members in the aid package, and Congress delivered. 

Related: Performers Groups Seek Piece of Massive Coronavirus Aid Package 

He said Friday (April 3) that a week after the $2 trillion COVID-19 aid bill was signed and despite new guidance from the Department of Labor, states are still struggling to get the money to those workers and it could be weeks before some can access the aid Congress intended and they desperately need. 

“The CARES Act directs states to stand up a new program, the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) Program, to disburse benefits to workers who would normally not be eligible for unemployment assistance, such as gig workers or freelancers," he wrote to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia. "Unfortunately, we are already hearing reports from unemployment officials from around the country that it will likely take weeks to stand up a new program and disburse benefits to these newly eligible workers." 

Warner wants the department to streamline the PUA process by removing "burdensome regulatory barriers"--a phrase more associated with Republicans in normal times--limiting worker participation, "require states to accept electronic documentation" and "allow them flexibility to make determinations on eligibility for the program on a case-by-case basis." 

He would also like to see "innovative technologies to implement the program"--Warner is a former tech executive--and allow states to disburse the weekly benefits.