The Big Story: The importance of small business exports. A new study released this week highlighted how American small businesses have successfully leveraged the explosive growth of the digital economy over the past several decades to make significant contributions to the U.S. economy.
The report—conducted by Google in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—found that small business exports add more than $540 billion to the U.S. economy each year and support almost six million jobs across all 50 states. Over 3,800 small businesses across the U.S. were surveyed as part of the study, which also found that more than 900,000 additional U.S.-based jobs could be created if policymakers address the exporting challenges that small businesses still face.
In a Morning Consult op-ed, Karan Bhatia —Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy—said congressional passage of the USMCA trade deal in particular would further benefit startups and small businesses by unlocking “more digitally enabled exports in the future.”
“Digital Assets From the Ground Up” panel. Engine, the Coin Center, and the Blockchain Association will be holding the first panel in our blockchain education series next Thursday, November 7th, at 11 am. We’ll be discussing some of the core concepts of digital assets and distributed ledger technologies, including the different types of digital assets and how they differ from real assets. Learn more and RSVP here.
Policy Roundup:
Upcoming Senate hearings. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism is planning to hold a hearing at 2:30 pm next Tuesday, November 5th, to examine how companies are exposing user data to “criminals, China, and other bad actors.” The Senate Commerce Committee is also reportedly planning to hold a hearing later this month or in early December to examine a variety of data privacy proposals introduced in the Senate.
FCC, lawmaker want stronger response to Chinese tech practices. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said that the agency will vote later this month on whether it should ban communications companies from using government subsidies to purchase equipment or services from Chinese telecoms firm Huawei and ZTE because of national security concerns. Rep. Michael McCaul (T-Texas) — ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee —also wrote in a recent letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he had “deep concerns” about the slow rollout of rules designed to limit the sale of sophisticated tech to China.
Lawmakers concerned about DOJ's anti-encryption message. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) wrote Attorney General William Barr this week expressing serious concerns about the Justice Department’s “misguided, hypocritical efforts to pressure technology companies like Facebook into subverting the encryption that protects their messaging apps to enable government access.”
WhatsApp pushes back after breach. Facebook-owned encrypted messaging app WhatsApp filed a lawsuit this week accusing Israeli cyberintelligence firm NSO Group of being behind a data breach earlier this year that targeted approximately 1,400 phones and devices of human rights activists, journalists, and political dissidents in multiple countries.
House passes crowdfunding bill to support startups. The House passed legislation this week to amend the SEC’s crowdfunding rule so that investment capital can better support startups and entrepreneurs. This bill is a step in the right direction for the startup community and aligns with policy recommendations that we first proposed in 2015 when the SEC was crafting the original rule.
Senators introduce 'filter bubble' bill. Legislation filed by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) would require online search engines with more than 500 employees or $50 million in revenue to disclose the algorithms they use to filter search results, and would also provide consumers with the option to conduct searches that are not filtered by personal data such as browsing and search histories.
Senators pursuing alternative to CASE Act. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have publicly indicated that they intend to introduce alternative legislation to the CASE Act. The current bill, which we have expressed concerns over, recently passed the House. Senators Wyden and Paul's apparent commitment to improving the legislation is a promising development which will hopefully result in a law which enables small copyright holders to pursue relief from true infringement without opening up startups and their users to the CASE Act's current complex quasi-judicial system that lacks traditional legal safeguards.
Twitter to stop accepting political ads. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the social media platform will ban political advertisements beginning later this month, saying that “political message reach should be earned, not bought.”
Startup Roundup:
#StartupsEverywhere: Chicago, Illinois. Chicago has the highest concentration of female-led startups in the United States, with more than one-third of the city’s startups run by women. One of these successful women-run businesses is Cloche Invest, a recently launched investment platform focused on helping millennial women grow their wealth.
