SFOF Update, Big Tech's Shadow Advocacy, and Alleged Abortion Provider Hacking
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** CfA's September 13, 2024 Newsletter
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With your support, Campaign for Accountability is working to expose corruption and hold the powerful accountable.
** This Week's Updates:
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State Financial Officers Foundation CEO Steps Down Two Weeks After CfA Complaint
In late August, CfA filed a complaint ([link removed]) with SEC chairman Gary Gensler, asking him to investigate whether members of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) were giving certain financial institutions special treatment in exchange for donations to the nonprofit. Two weeks after this complaint was filed, SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels announced ([link removed]) that he would be stepping down from his position.
SFOF is an organization representing state auditors, treasurers and controllers; although it claims to be nonpartisan, it is led entirely by Republicans, and has taken an aggressive stance ([link removed]) against environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. This anti-ESG campaign has created winners and losers, as states cut ties with some firms and make agreements with new ones. Now, CfA is urging regulators to probe whether certain donations to SFOF violated against pay-to-play deals. For more background on the complaint and SFOF’s activities, read Andrew Perez’s coverage in Rolling Stone ([link removed]) .
Breaking Down Tech-Funded Opposition to Child Safety Laws
When it comes to child safety, companies like Meta and TikTok have lost almost all of their credibility, dodging questions ([link removed]) from lawmakers and while facing federal agency crackdowns ([link removed]) and a growing flood ([link removed]) of product liability lawsuits. As the walls close in, Big Tech has two options: it can institute substantive changes to make platforms safe for children, or it can refuse to change and hope its PR efforts can prevent the public from abandoning services that continue to be unsafe. So far, the industry has picked the latter.
This week, an Atlantic article ([link removed]) by Zach Rausch, Jonathan Haidt, and Lennon Torres argued that some tech-funded third party groups are still working to kill children’s online safety laws by claiming they would harm LGBTQ youth, even though organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD have withdrawn their initial opposition ([link removed]) to the bill after regulators made changes to address previous concerns. The article cites a tech funding database ([link removed]) compiled by CfA's Tech Transparency Project, which can be used to identify advocacy organizations that are bankrolled by companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, and Apple. While Big Tech lobbyists use teens as a shield against regulation, the platforms themselves have become saturated
([link removed]) with hate speech ([link removed]) against the LGBTQ community and its allies—making it difficult to believe that the industry’s current self-governance model is the best way to protect marginalized groups.
UPC Accused of Hacking Legitimate Abortion Provider
Earlier this month, a Massachusetts-based abortion provider sued ([link removed]) a neighboring unregulated pregnancy clinic (UPC), claiming that it had hacked a patient portal in order to prevent women from accessing reproductive care. According to the lawsuit, two women who attempted to sign up for appointments through the legitimate clinic’s portal quickly received phone calls from an individual claiming to work for the UPC, who had somehow accessed their contact information. In 2017, the same UPC was the subject of a CfA complaint ([link removed]) , which accused it of engaging in deceptive practices to trick patients into believing it provided abortion services. The fake clinic, known as the “Attleboro Women’s Health Center,” eventually removed
([link removed]) some of these misleading claims from its website.
As more states criminalize abortion, it is especially important that patients have control over their personal information when seeking care. In April, CfA filed complaints ([link removed]) urging five state attorneys general to investigate UPCs that appear to have violated consumer protection laws by making misleading claims about HIPAA protections. In reality, UPCs are non-medical clinics that rarely take health insurance, and are therefore under fewer obligations to protect patient’s personal health information.
What We're Reading
Senate leaders ask FTC to investigate AI content summaries as anti-competitive ([link removed])
Legal sports betting was supposed to end the black market. It didn’t. ([link removed])
Controversial crisis pregnancy centers gain ground amid Arizona’s abortion access battles ([link removed])
** Follow Our Work:
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We thank you for your continued support. Without people like you, our work would not be possible.
Here is how you can stay involved and help us accomplish our mission:
1. Follow CfA on Threads ([link removed]) and BlueSky ([link removed])
2. Follow the Tech Transparency Project on Threads ([link removed]) and Bluesky ([link removed])
3. Tell your friends and colleagues ([link removed]) about CfA.
4. Send us a tip ([link removed]) .
5. Make a tax-deductible donation ([link removed]) .
Be on the lookout for more updates about our work in the upcoming weeks. Thanks again for signing up to be a part of CfA!
Sincerely,
Michelle Kuppersmith
Executive Director, Campaign for Accountability
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