It is no secret that freshman Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is no fan of Big Tech, but the name of a cybersecurity hearing he has called for next week leaves no doubt, and ads Big Corp. to the list: "How Corporations and Big Tech Leave Our Data Exposed to Criminals, China, and Other Bad Actors.”
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"Big corporations, cooperating with foreign adversaries, are leaving our data vulnerable to malevolent actors," Hawley signaled.
The Nov. 5 hearing in the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism that Hawley chairs will look at:
1. "The unique vulnerabilities Americans face in the modern digital landscape.
2. "The growing security concerns created by social media companies and other companies harvesting enormous amounts of user data.
3. "The threat posed when foreign nation-states can easily access data held by private companies; and
4. "The techniques used in cyberattacks and how individuals, private companies, and government officials can guard against those attack."
Hawley has teamed with several veteran senators on legislation to rein in edge providers.
In an op ed in The Wall Street Journal, he suggested that while Big Tech helped the U.S. land on the moon 50 years ago, today edge giants are probing the inner spaces of the dark side of the Web, culling data for a bombardment of targeted ads.
Hawley has also proposed legislation to combat social media "addiction" has teamed with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to call for an investigation into alleged social media bias against conservative speech, and teamed with Democrats Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on updating children's online protection laws and Mark Warner (D-Va.) on a social media data monetization dashboard.
