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Below: President Biden gives Amazon's union push a bump, and the SEC investigates Amazon's business practices. First: | Jan. 6 committee dials up focus on social media's role in insurrection |  Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said in January that tech companies have not been fully cooperating with the investigation. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP) | | | The House committee investigating Jan. 6 is ratcheting up its inquiry into the role social media played in the attack on the Capitol, canvassing experts for research on the matter and hiring a new analyst to help lead the effort, people familiar with the matter told The Technology 202. In recent months, the panel has asked an array of top social media researchers and experts on misinformation and online extremism to submit briefs and official statements analyzing how the attack unfolded on platforms and looking into the role of key instigators, according to three people with knowledge of the outreach who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks. The panel has also recently brought on a prominent disinformation scholar, Dean Jackson of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as a lead analyst — a signal that it is beefing up its social media expertise, according to one of the people and a review of Jackson's LinkedIn page. The previously unreported moves are the latest indication that social media is a significant focus for the committee as it wraps up its highly watched probe. The panel dramatically escalated its investigation into how social media factored into the Jan. 6 attack earlier this year, issuing subpoenas for information to Twitter, Reddit and the parent companies of Facebook and YouTube. Since then, the panel has asked outside experts to provide takeaways from their independent findings about social media activity during the lead-up and day of the attack, the people said, and in some cases has asked for input on potential lines of questioning for tech executives, one of the people said. It's unclear what exactly the panel intends to do with the information. Jackson brings deep research bona fides to the panel. At Carnegie, he has served as the project manager for its Influence Operations Researchers' Guild, which investigates disinformation campaigns. Previously, he oversaw projects related to disinformation at the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit that promotes democratic ideals, and worked on external relations at the Atlantic Council, a prominent international affairs think tank. | | According to his LinkedIn page, Jackson began a contract position in March as an "investigative analyst" for the House of Representatives, though it does not specify for whom. Carnegie spokesperson Clarissa Guerrero said Jackson is currently on leave at the organization but will return at the end of May. Jackson and a spokesperson for the Jan. 6 committee declined to comment. The moves arrive as the panel prepares for the two most visible portions of its investigation: a series of public hearings and final report outlining its findings. It's unclear to what extent the final report or public hearings may explicitly focus on social media. But part of Jackson's role, according to one person, is crafting potential questions for tech executives and identifying targets at the companies to press for more information. Lawmakers are turning to external researchers after spending months battling with tech companies to fork over more data related to the attack. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), who chairs the Jan. 6 committee, said they opted to issue subpoenas after receiving "inadequate responses" from social media companies to their informational requests. "We cannot allow our work to be delayed any longer," Thompson said in a statement in January. He added, "Two key questions for the Select Committee are how the spread of misinformation and violent extremism contributed to the violent attack on our democracy, and what steps — if any — social media companies took to prevent their platforms from being breeding grounds to radicalizing people to violence." It remains unclear whether tech companies have complied with the subpoenas and what data the panel was able to obtain. The committee had set its sights on social media's role in the attack from the get-go. | | Part of panel's mandate, according to the legislation that created the special committee, was to investigate "influencing factors that contributed to the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol and how technology, including online platforms … may have factored into the motivation, organization, and execution." Silicon Valley companies have also been accused of helping to foment the violence that took place on Jan. 6 by a slew of prominent Democratic lawmakers. By continuing to zero in on the issue, the panel is creating yet another avenue to scrutinize tech companies' actions related to Jan. 6. | | |  | Our top tabs | | Biden seemingly backs Amazon union push |  President Biden speaks at the North America's Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference in Washington on April 6. (Carolyn Kaster/AP) | | | Speaking at a union event Wednesday, President Biden appeared to throw his support behind the Amazon unionization efforts that recently notched a major win, my colleague Jeff Stein reports. "The president did not directly call on Amazon workers to form a union but gave his most explicit endorsement to date of the attempts to unionize the company's massive workforce," Jeff writes. "Biden had previously called on Amazon to respect workers' choice during a union vote in Alabama, and White House officials had spoken positively of the result of the vote in Staten Island." "Unions are about providing dignity and respect. … That's why I created the White House task force to make sure the choice belongs to workers alone," Biden said, before lowering his voice and adding: "By the way, Amazon here we come. … Watch. Watch." Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island became the first to mount a successful unionization vote on Friday, marking a huge victory for the U.S. labor movement. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on Biden's remarks. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) | Google removed dozens of data-harvesting apps from its app store |  Google said it removed the apps as of March 25. (Patrick Semansky/AP) | | | Researchers say the apps were installed on millions of Android devices, the Wall Street Journal's Byron Tau and Robert McMillan report. They contained a Panamanian company's code that harvested location data and personally identifiable information. The code also had the ability to scan — but not necessarily view the contents of — users' WhatsApp downloads folders. The researchers shared their findings with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Google, which said it removed the apps as of March 25. The apps can be relisted if they remove the code that collects the data, Google spokesman Scott Westover told the Journal. Some of the apps are already back on the app store. The FTC declined to comment to the Journal on whether it was investigating, because its investigations are nonpublic. Measurement Systems, the Panamanian company, told the outlet that "the allegations you make about the company's activities are false." | SEC probing Amazon's use of third-party-seller data |  Amazon's use of third-party-seller data has been subject to intense congressional scrutiny. (Steven Senne/AP) | | | "Federal securities regulators are investigating how Amazon.com Inc. has disclosed certain details of its business practices, including how it uses third-party-seller data for its private-label business," the Wall Street Journal's Dana Mattioli and Dave Michaels report. According to the report, "The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing how the technology giant — the largest U.S. e-commerce retailer and cloud-computing company — handled disclosures of its employees' use of data from sellers on its e-commerce platform." A spokesman for Amazon declined to comment. Amazon's use of third-party-seller data has also been subject to intense scrutiny from congressional investigators, who have accused the company of misleading Congress about its practices. Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee last month issued a criminal referral to the Justice Department for Amazon and its senior executives for allegedly engaging in misleading and obstructive conduct. | | |  | Inside the industry | | | |  | Privacy monitor | | | |  | Workforce report | | | |  | Trending | | | |  | Daybook | | - The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts an event on the national defense implications of commercial wireless networks on Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
- Microsoft President Brad Smith and Accenture CEO Julie Sweet speak at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event on responsible AI on Friday at 8:30 a.m.
- The American Enterprise Institute hosts an event on content moderation and Section 230 on Monday at 9:30 a.m.
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