Hillicon Valley: Schumer pushes Trump to go on offense over 2020 interference | Facebook gets a facelift | Biden tops competitors in digital ad spending | Sri Lanka lifts social media ban

by Olivia Beavers, Emily Birnbaum, Harper Neidig and Jacqueline Thomsen - 04/30/19 6:16 PM ET

Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill’s newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you don’t already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter with this LINK.

Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers) and Jacqueline Thomsen (@jacq_thomsen), and the tech team, Harper Neidig (@hneidig) and Emily Birnbaum (@birnbaum_e).

TALK TO ME: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is calling for the Trump administration to brief the Senate on what actions it is taking to prevent interference in the 2020 presidential election.

“The Senate should be briefed directly by leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and Cyber Command, in a classified space, on what, if any, actions are underway to protect the 2020 election cycle and whether additional authorities or resources are required,” Schumer wrote in a letter Tuesday to the Senate Democratic Caucus. “We need to ensure the leaders of these organizations have their voices heard.”

{mosads}His letter comes as lawmakers have their first chance after a two-week recess to discuss in person what steps they want to take in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

What’s next: Schumer, who predicted that Senate Democrats would have a “robust internal caucus discussion,” outlined “a few bipartisan actions” the upper chamber could start on, including the briefing, ahead of the 2020 election.

“The Trump Administration is not forcefully and adequately responding to the attack on our democracy outlined in the Mueller Report. The United States Senate can and should fill this vacuum with serious debate and action,” Schumer wrote.

Schumer is also calling on the Senate to pass additional Russia sanctions legislation and include additional money in government funding bills for carrying out elections and bolstering the country’s election infrastructure. But any additional legislation potentially faces an uphill battle in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Read more here.

A STORM’S A BREWING: Google employees are planning a Wednesday morning sit-in to protest alleged instances of retaliation against workers who have spoken up critically about the company.

The sit-in comes six months after more than 20,000 Google workers participated in walkouts at offices around the world, organized to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment as well as general working conditions.

“Six months ago, we walked out,” reads a flyer posted by the Twitter account Google Walkout for Real Change on Tuesday afternoon. “This time, we’re sitting in.”

The sit-in is planned for 11 a.m. PST.

Background: Organizers of last year’s Google walkout have come out in recent weeks with allegations that they have been targets of retribution by the tech giant.

Meredith Whittaker, the founder of Google’s Open Research Group, and Claire Stapleton, who currently works for Google-owned YouTube, wrote in an internal message that they have both faced retaliation for organizing Google employees, according to a report from Wired.

Their claims sparked a windfall of other retribution claims from Google workers. “Google Walkout for Real Change,” the group of activist Google workers, posted a compilation of those claims on Medium on Monday.

The stories include an allegation that Google’s human resources department threatened the immigration status of an employee alleging unethical activity at the company. Another anonymous worker is claiming that they were passed over for promotions due to bias, and then faced retribution when they reported that discrimination to a manger.

“I was told that I was being an ’emotional woman,'” the anonymous author wrote.

Google’s response: Google in a statement said it does not condone retaliation in the workplace.

“To make sure that no complaint raised goes unheard at Google, we give employees multiple channels to report concerns, including anonymously, and investigate all allegations of retaliation,” a Google spokesperson said.

Read more here.

A NEW DO: Facebook on Tuesday announced that it had launched the latest redesign of its platform, including its Messenger app, saying that it will be simpler and faster for users to navigate.

In a blog post, the company wrote that it was redesigning its news feed to include more content from Facebook groups to which the user belongs, and will allow content from groups to be shared directly to the feed for the first time.

Users will also reportedly see recommendations for groups to join in other areas of the platform including the marketplace and gaming tabs.

“We’ve completely redesigned the Groups tab and made discovery even better. The tab now shows a personalized feed of activity across all your groups. And the new discovery tool with improved recommendations lets you quickly find groups you might be interested in,” Facebook’s blog post reads.

The company’s Messenger app, which allows users to send and receive text and video messages, has also received a redesign meant to streamline the app’s performance, according to the blog.

The redesign’s rollout coincides with Facebook’s annual conference, dubbed F8, which began Tuesday in San Jose, Calif.

Read more here.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA RACE IS ON: Former Vice President Joe Biden is outpacing his 2020 Democratic rivals in spending on digital advertisements, CNN reported Tuesday.

Biden spent about $800,000 last week on Facebook and Google ads, more than any of his competitors in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to CNN.

Biden, who announced his bid for the presidency last week, spent about $407,000 on Facebook ads, CNN reported, buying a total of 1,336 targeted ads on the platform.

His campaign’s Facebook spending was greater than the combined total of the next five candidates.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spent $100,677, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Andrew Yang, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg each spent less than $100,000.

On Google, Biden’s campaign spent $388,900 on ads last week, making him the top political advertiser on the platform, according to CNN. The next closest candidate was Buttigieg, whose campaign spent just under $50,000 on ads on the platform, according to the report.