A cybersecurity bill (H.R. 624) that the House Intelligence Committee is scheduled to mark up April 10 has received pledges of support from many telecommunications and information technology companies, but no prominent social media companies have publicly expressed their support for the measure so far.

On Feb. 13, Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), chairman and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, reintroduced H.R. 624, also known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).

The measure would give the federal government new authority to share classified cybersecurity threat information with certified companies. Companies could, on a voluntary basis, share information about cyberthreats with the federal government and other companies.

H.R. 624 is identical to H.R. 3523, which passed the House in April 2012, Rogers and Ruppersberger explained in a joint Feb. 13 statement announcing the bill's reintroduction. After passing the House, however, H.R. 3523 faced a veto threat and was not taken up by the Senate.

Advocacy organizations argue that CISPA would allow companies to share consumers' personal information with the government and other companies. "CISPA . . . bypasses existing privacy laws by giving overly broad legal immunity to companies who share users' private information, including the content of communications, with the government," Adi Kamdar, an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in a March 26 blog post.

On March 19, a coalition of advocacy groups sent a letter to White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel in which it asked President Obama to renew his promise to veto CISPA.

However, according to the House Intelligence Committee's website, telecommunications companies such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon and IT companies such as IBM, Intel, and McAfee have submitted letters supporting CISPA. But noticeably absent are any prominent internet companies, including social media companies.

Given that social media companies are in possession of a wealth of consumers' personal information, CISPA could have significant privacy implications for such companies if the advocacy groups' claims ring true. At least one social media company has pledged to protect user information while at the same time expressing support for the lawmakers' efforts.

"Protecting the private information people share on Facebook is the foundation of our service, and we support efforts to improve our ability to protect that information from cyber attack," a Facebook Inc. spokeswoman told BNA April 5. "We are encouraged by the continued attention of Chairman Mike Rogers and Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger to this important issue and we look forward to working with both the House and the Senate to find a legislative balance that promotes government sharing of cyber threat information with the private sector while also ensuring the privacy of our users."

In a Feb. 13 letter to Rogers and Ruppersberger, a coalition of organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, expressed support for the reintroduced bill. "Our organizations have consistently supported legislation that would put timely, reliable, and actionable information into the hands of business owners and operators so that they can better protect their systems and assets against nefarious actors, including rogue individuals, organized criminals, and groups carrying out state-sponsored attacks," the organizations said.

Twitter Inc., LinkedIn Corp., and Pinterest did not immediately respond to BNA's requests for comment on CISPA.

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