#section5 — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #section5, aggregated by home.social.
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Trump FTC Threatens Apple With A Fake Investigation Into Its Nonexistent ‘Liberal News Bias’
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CW: Long thread/63
One interesting wrinkle to framing platform degradation as a failure to connect willing senders and receivers is that it places a whole host of conduct within the regulatory remit of the #FTC. #Section5 of the #FTCAct contains a broad prohibition against "unfair and deceptive" practices:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge
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CW: Long thread/4
Take #Section5 of the #FTCAct, which gives the Commission broad powers to prevent "unfair and deceptive" practices. Since the *1970s*, the FTC just acted like this didn't exist, even though it was right there all along, between Section 4 and Section 6.
Then, under the directorship of FTC chair #LinaKhan, Section 5 was rediscovered and mobilized, first to end the practice of #noncompete "agreements" for workers nationwide:
https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/antitrust-enforcers-to-ban-indentured
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CW: Long thread/7
Hypothetically there's another way to discipline Amazon's appetites as it gorges itself on all of us, buyer or seller: regulation. Much of Amazon's conduct falls under the broad terms "unfair and deceptive," which the #FTC has broad authority to prohibit and punish under #Section5 of the #FTCAct.
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge
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CW: Long thread/9
Consumer groups weren't alone in sounding the alarm over the deteriorating conditions in the airline sector. In 2022, dozens of state attorneys general - Democrats and Republicans - sent open letters to Buttigieg begging him to use his broad powers as Secretary of Transport to hold the airlines accountable.
What are those powers? Well, the big one is USC40 Section 41712(a), the "unfair and deceptive" authority modeled on #Section5 of the #FTCAct.
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CW: Long thread/15
Nevertheless, noncompetes have trundled on, with neither Congress nor the administration having courage to act - until now. Khan's proposed rule bypasses Congressional inaction by invoking powers that she already has, under #Section5 of the #FederalTradeCommissionAct.
Section 5 gives the FTC broad powers to prohibit "unfair methods of competition" - an incredibly broad power to wield, and one that the FTC hasn't bothered to use since the 1970s (!):
https://casetext.com/case/national-petroleum-refiners-assn-v-f-t-c
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