'It's Embarassing That We're Even Debating Adequately Funding' The FTC: Lori Trahan

2 months ago

During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) questioned FTC Chair Lina Khan and the FTC Commissioners about their capabilities with reduced funding and their efforts to protect consumers.

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Transcript

00:00We will recognize Ms. Trahan for her five minutes of questioning.

00:05Thank you, Chair Barakas and Ranking Member Schakowsky, and thank you for the full slate

00:09of FTC Commissioners for being here today.

00:12While I am glad that this Committee is continuing to work hard to protect consumers' privacy,

00:18I am shocked once again that Republican appropriators are suggesting that we hamstring the FTC

00:23by slashing its budget.

00:24It is important to remember that while Congress fails to pass legislation to rein in bad actors

00:29regulators, like the FTC, are making a meaningful difference protecting consumers from harm.

00:36In the past year alone, the FTC has taken major actions against big techs, privacy abuses,

00:41online scammers, data brokers, junk fees, and pharmaceutical price gouging.

00:47Every dollar that Congress appropriates for the Commission results in $14 of benefits

00:51to our constituents by driving down inflationary prices and penalizing bad actors for breaking

00:56the law.

00:57Given the Commission's track record of delivering for the American consumer, it is embarrassing

01:02that we are even debating adequately funding the agency.

01:06Commissioner Bedoya, we are considering numerous proposals to protect children's privacy and

01:10safety online, an issue that I know you have worked exceptionally hard on.

01:14It is great that the FTC is updating the COPPA rule, and I support your proposals to require

01:19opt-ins to targeted advertising, stop platforms from retaliating against minors who exercise

01:25their privacy rights, and limit the use of minors' data to drive addictive features and

01:31notifications.

01:33Given the Supreme Court's recent decisions in NetChoice, Commissioner Bedoya, how do

01:37you believe that Congress and the Commission can best act to further protect children's

01:41safety and privacy online?

01:44Additionally, do you believe that greater research, transparency, and accountability

01:48into the content moderation and algorithmic amplification decisions made by online platforms

01:54would be helpful in that goal?

01:57Thank you, Congresswoman.

01:58Thank you for your leadership on this.

01:59To answer that last question, absolutely yes.

02:02Let me offer two other thoughts.

02:04First, NetChoice is fundamentally about content moderation, and I think what we cannot forget

02:09is that if you look at the allegations of mental health harm against teens, that is

02:13just one source.

02:14You also have research suggesting that the sleep deprivation and anxiety that comes from

02:19extended use, quote-unquote, designs that many people consider promoting addiction in

02:25the technology.

02:26That is another source.

02:27And then a final source is harassment that is made possible online, and I'm really proud

02:32that the Commission has voted out cases from our staff, shutting down, making sure that

02:38there is a maximum of privacy settings that prevent strangers from harassing our teens.

02:42Commissioner Holyoak mentioned a terrific case came out today where teens were being

02:45falsely told that their peers wanted to know, have you had any surgeries?

02:50Are you straight?

02:51When in reality, it was the company that would then charge those teens money to try to find

02:56out who that was.

02:58And so the Commission feels strongly, I think I can say, that these companies shouldn't

03:02profit off of harassing teens online.

03:04The second item is expertise expansion.

03:07You look at the rosters of these companies, they don't just have lawyers, they don't just

03:11have economists, they don't just have technologists.

03:14They have psychologists and brain experts.

03:16Last year, I talked to a law clerk, she looked at just one of these companies.

03:19They had 140 PhDs in psychology and brain science.

03:24And so one thing we're moving to do with Chair Kahn's support is to expand our roster of

03:28in-house expertise to include pediatricians, psychologists, and I hope to have, that we're

03:34able to share more about that in the fall as we assemble this team.

03:37Well, thank you for that, Commissioner Bedoya.

03:39As a mother of two young girls, I really appreciate the work.

03:45Chair Kahn, as the FTC has been the most aggressive agency in terms of regulating tech platforms

03:51and products, I'd like to ask you about the Commission's effort to bring in technological

03:58expertise in-house.

03:59We just heard about the expansion, but I do think the technological expertise is important.

04:06In February 2023, the Commission stood up the Office of Technology, which, according

04:10to your budget request, now employs a wide range of experts who assist both the bureaus

04:15of competition and consumer protection in their law enforcement missions.

04:20Chair Kahn, how has the Office of Technology helped the FTC hold technology companies accountable,

04:25and how does it work with the FTC's other branches to lend expertise to the agency's

04:30investigations and enforcement actions?

04:34Thank you.

04:35I'm thrilled that we've been able to stand up this office.

04:37We'd had previously some technologists, but putting this office together and being able

04:40to hire has been a game-changer.

04:43We had heard we might face challenges when looking to hire because we can't compete with

04:47private sector salaries.

04:49But when we put out these postings, just within a week, we actually got 600 applications.

04:54I mean, there's just enormous hunger among technologists to come serve the public and

05:01make sure that these technologies are not harming people, be it kids, be it facilitating

05:06fraud.

05:07And so these technologists are on board.

05:09They're embedded across our investigative teams.

05:12They're working side-by-side, looking at the documents, looking under the hood, trying

05:16to figure out how are these algorithms working.

05:18And that's already paid off.

05:19I mean, it's making a difference in the lawsuits we file, the counts we're able to include,

05:24and it's just really fantastic to be able to continue to build that expertise.

05:28I also really appreciate Commissioner Bedoya's encouragement for us to further think about

05:33other forms of expertise that are going to be needed as we continue this work.

05:38Thank you.

05:39Oh, yeah.

05:40You'll bet.

'It's Embarassing That We're Even Debating Adequately Funding' The FTC: Lori Trahan

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