It’s blistering outside here in central Illinois. I must have lost the weight of a small child mowing my lawn alone.
The tone of the update in this newsletter is also a little more blistering than normal in the coverage of yesterday’s hearing as well (see below).
Stay cool everyone, we’ve got only one more week until the holiday (by which I mean the start of college football…)
Session Update
The House and Senate will return to Springfield on Tuesday, August 31st for a special session. Two main items are on the agenda: changes to the legislative redistricting plan (recently, uh, heavily encouraged by a federal judge) and attempting to take up a widespread energy bill. Draft language for the energy bill has yet to surface but of interest to infrastructure council members it is rumored to contain funding for EV charging stations.
Additional special session dates have not been announced at this time. Senate President Harmon and House Speaker Welch have announced statewide hearings on the maps in the next several days.
Both Chambers will also be in session October 19th-21st and October 26th-28th for veto session.
House Cybersecurity Hearing Held on Thursday
On Thursday, the House Cybersecurity, Data Analytics & IT Committee held a subject matter hearing on digital media disinformation and misinformation. Committee Chair Robinson said that misinformation, disinformation and manipulated media are poisoning democracy, commerce, and individual reputations.
A representative from the technology company Adobe spoke primarily on the issue of “Deep Fakes” and what businesses in the space are doing in response. Deep Fakes can be understood as manipulated media, often spread on social media, that uses professional AI software to artificially depict individuals speaking or performing actions. The witness mentioned viral deepfakes of celebrities like Tom Cruise. Many of you will remember a video of Nancy Pelosi that made her look drunker than a college freshman on Spring Break.
My take: Let me add some context as to why this issue matters. Potential video manipulation is worrisome as video is one of the last true mediums that the public can trust. A decade or so ago, if you saw a photograph, you knew it was likely authentic. Today a video purporting to show something the viewer doesn’t like is automatically dismissed as photoshopped. If the same thing happens to video, all forms of media will lose major credibility. A democratic society can’t function when both sides retreat further into echo chambers, and nobody can trust any set of facts. Differences of opinion are healthy. Inability to ferret out factual information is devasting.
The real beauty of the internet was the democratization of information. People no longer had to receive their news through the lens of a third-party news anchor or reporter. However, if those sources are easily falsified the internet goes from a tool of liberation to one of deceit. Solving this is one of the most important goals of the next few years.
The witness from Adobe said that, amongst other things, their company is developing “content contribution” where the edit history of an image or video can be observed by the viewers of media as it is shared across platforms and pages. Adobe has already launched a content attribution program where tamper data can be attached to an image or project. These initiatives are in coordination with many other leading tech companies.
My take: This approach makes a lot of sense. It’s a free-market solution that doesn’t seek to regulate content. Instead, it provides additional information to allow viewers to make a better-informed decision. This is the way. This guy was the best of the witnesses and frankly, I wished the hearing would have ended after him.
On the state level, consumer protections and digital literacy campaigns were suggested as solutions.
My take: Scant details were given here and frankly this area should make you nervous. Allowing the government to be a truth arbiter is dangerous and smacks of China’s credit system.
A Professor from the University of California, Berkely who specializes in digital forensics also provided testimony. The Professor highlighted misinformation spread online, such as information connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Professor also mentioned the ethical implications of technological innovations and the societal and regulatory “responsibility” that tech companies share. The witness also discussed potential changes that could be made to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
My take: Of course, this guy was from Berkely. He was enough to make me miss Senator McCarthy and his hunt of Reds. He repeatedly encouraged the State or the Federal Government to force tech companies to regulate the speech on their platforms. Repeatedly, he would declare “the First Amendment doesn’t apply to private companies”. There is well settled case law that the government cannot violate the tenants of the First Amendment through force against private actors. The professor’s idea of using government suppression of speech via private agents would gut the protections of our constitution. Perhaps the panel should have recruited a professor from the law school…
The good part about this witness’s testimony was the pushback it received from the elected officials of both parties. Rep. Robinson and Rep. Wheeler particularly acquitted themselves well here.
The Director of the Network Contagion Research Institute also provided testimony about online extremism. He pointed out that suppressing speech on larger, more popular platforms tends to push that speech to smaller platforms. This ends up greatly increasing the probability for radicalizing users- the exact opposition of the intention of the speech suppressors.
Bills Recently Signed Into Law
HB 645 (Evans) Future of Work Taskforce was signed into law. This bill creates the Illinois Future of Work Task Force to study the future of work and submit a final report to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than May 1, 2022. We flagged this task force as we believe it will study critical issues such as the importance of the “gig economy.”
I expect to be appointed to this task force and welcome any feedback you all have on this before the start of the meetings.
HB 665, Entrepreneur Assistance Center was signed into law. This bill Requires the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to establish and support, subject to appropriation, entrepreneurship assistance centers, including the issuance of grants, at career education agencies and not-for-profit corporations. Provides criteria for the selection and designation of centers. Provides requirements for the establishment and operation of each center. Provides requirements for grant applicants.
