LOS ANGELES – Consumer Watchdog has joined an alliance of more than 75 local, state and national organizations representing safety, law enforcement and first responders, public health, bicyclists and pedestrians, engineering, environmental and consumer groups, disability communities and families affected by motor vehicle crashes calling on the Senate to oppose a flawed autonomous vehicle bill. 

LOS ANGELES – Consumer Watchdog today called on Congress to enact legislation that would protect consumers’ online privacy and not merely facilitate Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s latest public-relations-driven apology tour.

“Facebook has a longtime record of violating privacy, making a show of apologizing, and then going forward to invade privacy again,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy and Technology Project director. “Hearings aren’t enough, unless Congress simply wants to be an enabler for Zuckerberg’s continued abuses.”

SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today praised the U.S. House of Representatives for passing a bipartisan bill amending a key Internet law so rogue websites like Backpage.com can be held accountable for facilitating child sex trafficking.

The nonpartisan nonprofit public interest group called on the Senate to pass a similar bipartisan bill, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, (SESTA) S. 1693, sponsored by Rob Portman (R-OH) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).  SESTA has 67 co-sponsors.

SANTA MONICA, CA – A confidential settlement in a civil suit brought in Seattle against Backpage by three of the website’s victims will not stop a bipartisan Congressional effort to amend a key Internet law so websites that facilitate sex trafficking can be prosecuted, Consumer Watchdog said today.

Word of the legal settlement came as IBM Corp. endorsed a bipartisan Senate bill to amend the law and the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the House version of the bill.

SANTA MONICA, CA -- A bill covering autonomous vehicles that the House of Representatives rushed to pass today threatens highway safety and leaves a regulatory void rather than enacting necessary protections, Consumer Watchdog warned today.

The bill, passed on a voice vote, under rules to expedite consideration, was being touted in some quarters as an example of new-found Congressional bipartisanship.

“Bipartisanship is worthless when it produces a dangerous bill,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project Director.

SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today warned that the tech industry is pressing the Trump Administration to adopt language in a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) deal that would protect websites like the notorious Backpage.com that facilitate child sex-trafficking.

SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today called on the House Commerce Committee and Judiciary Committee to hold immediate hearings on a bill amending a key Internet law so websites like Backpage.com that facilitate child sex trafficking can be held accountable by victims and state attorneys general.

Santa Monica, CA – Consumer Watchdog condemned today’s vote by the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill taking away the rights of patients harmed by medical negligence, unsafe drugs, defective medical devices and nursing home abuse. The legislation, HR 1215, would place a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages in medical negligence cases and close the courtroom door to injured patients, for example women who are permanently sterilized due to a doctor’s negligence. The bill narrowly passed, 218-210.

SANTA MONICA, CA -- Consumer Watchdog today called on Congress to ensure the adoption of federal safety standards to cover self-driving autonomous vehicles and warned that proposed House legislation that would pre-empt state safety regulations “would leave a regulatory void without meaningful safety protections.”

In a formal statement filed with the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection for its hearing Tuesday on self-driving legislation, Consumer Watchdog’s John M. Simpson warned: