{"id":1268109,"date":"2022-02-03T12:08:25","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T17:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1268109"},"modified":"2022-02-03T12:08:43","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T17:08:43","slug":"blackburn-klobuchar-join-forces-to-pass-bill-targeting-big-tech-monopolists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blackburn-klobuchar-join-forces-to-pass-bill-targeting-big-tech-monopolists\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackburn, Klobuchar Join Forces To Pass Bill Targeting Big Tech \u2018Monopolists\u2019"},"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\">22<\/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%2Fblackburn-klobuchar-join-forces-to-pass-bill-targeting-big-tech-monopolists%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=1268109&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>The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday aimed at tackling the dominance of major tech companies, particularly Apple and Google, in mobile app stores.<\/p>\n<p>The Open App Markets Act, <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/08\/11\/marsha-blackburn-richard-blumenthal-apple-google\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">introduced<\/a> in August 2021 by Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut&nbsp;and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, would prevent app stores such as Google Play and Apple\u2019s App Store from requiring developers to use the tech giants\u2019 in-app payment systems as a condition of distribution. This requirement, the bill\u2019s authors argue, allows Apple and Google to collect large commissions on in-app payments, to the detriment of app developers.<\/p>\n<p>The panel passed the bill 21-1, with only Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn voting against approval. The bill will now head to the Senate floor.<\/p>\n<p>Republican Colorado Rep. Ken Buck and Democratic Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson have also <a href=\"https:\/\/buck.house.gov\/media-center\/press-releases\/ranking-member-buck-congressman-johnson-introduce-bipartisan-plan-rein\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">introduced<\/a> a House companion to the legislation. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/15\/bible-quran-apple-app-store-china\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Popular Bible, Quran Apps Deleted From Apple\u2019s Chinese App Store After Government Pressure)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is important that our legislative agenda adapts with the times, and technology has outpaced legislation to such a grave extent that more burdensome measures are now necessary to reign in big tech,\u201d Blackburn said in her prepared remarks. \u201cI\u2019m not here to break up companies, but I am here to put executives and boards on notice.<\/p>\n<p>The committee approved a manager\u2019s amendment to the bill introduced by Blumenthal that aims to clarify language allowing tech companies to enforce certain privacy and cybersecurity requirements on app developers. Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis proposed three amendments, each of which were rejected, while Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz withdrew one amendment after being assured the bill would be focused on \u201cmonopolists.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7221880\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7221880\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks with former TIME managing editor Nancy Gibbs at the TIME 100 Summit on April 23, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein voiced her opposition to parts of the bill, arguing that as the legislation only covered companies with over 50 million users a month, it was intended to target Apple, Google and Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m concerned this number was selected as a way to single out particular companies, three California companies,\u201d Feinstein said.<\/p>\n<p>Cornyn stressed the need for a hearing on the bill, arguing that cybersecurity and privacy concerns posed by the legislation were not properly addressed and focusing on the national security threat posed by Chinese hacking of devices. Klobuchar dismissed these concerns as \u201canother argument by the tech companies\u201d much to the chagrin of several Republican senators.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m being told that every time I ask a question I\u2019m in the pocket of Big Tech,\u201d Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said, referring to Klobuchar\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n<p>Apple and Google, the two companies most affected by the legislation, echoed Cornyn\u2019s arguments, <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/01\/19\/apple-google-chuck-grassley-amy-klobuchar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">arguing<\/a> the bill would degrade consumer privacy and security. Apple maintained that by allowing \u201csideloading\u201d of apps, or the downloading of apps on Apple devices from outside the App Store, consumers could inadvertently download dangerous apps or malware.<\/p>\n<p>Apple senior director of government affairs Tim Powderly reportedly sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/app-store-crackdown-senate-apple-google-3b1a7028-0037-42e1-a116-f9e653ded82c.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">letter<\/a> to Senate Judiciary Committee members Wednesday arguing the bill would force app stores to allow unvetted apps, which \u201cerects a nearly insurmountable obstacle for all but the most basic [privacy] safeguards\u201d and risks allowing malware.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday aimed at tackling the dominance of major tech companies, particularly Apple and Google, in mobile app stores.The Open App Markets Act, introduced &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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-1268109","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\/1268109","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1268109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268109\/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=1268109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1268109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1268109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}