{"id":1223776,"date":"2022-01-19T05:07:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T10:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1223776"},"modified":"2022-01-19T09:09:04","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T14:09:04","slug":"us-senate-considers-app-store-reform-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-senate-considers-app-store-reform-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"US Senate Considers App Store Reform Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fus-senate-considers-app-store-reform-bill%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1223776&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have partnered to deliver an antitrust bill addressing Big Tech, which is due to be debated by the Senate on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/117th-congress\/senate-bill\/2710?s=1&amp;r=23\">Bill S.2710<\/a>, the Open App Markets Act, targets Apple and Google in particular, two companies that mediate access to apps for the great majority of smartphone users through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-app-store\">App Store<\/a> and Google Play Store, respectively. The proposed law would prevent companies from privileging their own in-house applications over competitors and open up avenues for third-party app stores.<\/p>\n<p>App store access has been one of the primary means by which digital industries exert control over platforms they do not own. At different points in 2018, Apple banned both Tumblr and Telegram, citing the availability of child pornography on these platforms as the reason for their removal. Both have since been reinstated in the App Store. This action was widely seen as the catalyst for Tumblr\u2019s adoption of a universal ban on adult content, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/a3mjxg\/apple-tumblr-porn-nsfw-adult-content-banned\">criticized by progressive media outlets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, alternate platforms such as Gab and Parler have faced exclusion from the two major app stores. Gab has been permanently removed from both major app stores, whereas Parler was\u00a0temporarily removed from the App Store and indefinitely removed on Google Play in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol incident. The InfoWars app has also been banned by both platforms.<\/p>\n<p>Even giants like Facebook and Twitter are at the mercy of Apple and Google to provide access to their applications. In 2020, Facebook added a note to the checkout page for paid Facebook events, saying that Apple would take a 30 percent cut of the cost of entering these events. The note was removed as a result of pressure from Apple, which cited a policy against \u201cirrelevant\u201d information.<\/p>\n<p>Previously there has been virtually no oversight for these companies as they decide which apps will be available to smartphone users\u2014an oversight which the new bill seeks to address.<\/p>\n<p>Apple has responded to the looming legislation with a letter addressed to multiple U.S. senators, which was obtained by <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2022\/01\/18\/apple-responds-to-antitrust-bills-app-store\/\">9to5Mac<\/a>. In the letter, the company alleges that the Open App Markets Act and the American Innovation and Choice Online Act will compromise the security of users on their platforms and make consumers vulnerable to malware attacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese bills will reward those who have been irresponsible with users\u2019 data and empower bad actors who would target consumers with malware, ransomware, and scams,\u201d says the letter, signed by Apple executive Timothy Powderly. \u201cThe most glaring problem with these bills is the risk they pose to the privacy and security of Americans\u2019 personal devices.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-nicholas-dolinger\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/WEB_NicholasDolinger.jpg\" alt=\"Nicholas Dolinger\" \/><\/a>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nicholas Dolinger is a business reporter for The Epoch Times and creator of &#8220;The Beautiful Toilet&#8221; podcast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have partnered to deliver an antitrust bill addressing Big Tech, which is due to be debated by the Senate on Thursday. Bill &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1223776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1223776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1223776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1223776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1223776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}