This is the view of many Washington political experts on the prospect of a Biden presidency. This shows how, despite huge differences with Trump in style and policy, there can be more continuity between the two administrations than you might think.
Biden may not spark as many inflammatory tweets as Trump. But, according to political analysts, Biden’s approach to big tech platforms is driven by the bipartisan outcry over Silicon Valley domination – and reflects how drastically the political environment has changed for industry since 2016. Once companies like Facebook and Google were greeted as innovators who could help government run better, they now face accusations of monopoly power and of encouraging the spread of disinformation . This has led to repetitions of congressional hearings, inquiries, and even lawsuits, with some policymakers urging new regulations to contain them.
While many anticipate a divided Congress, he says, expect much of the action to come from administrative agencies and courts.
“The technological risk in Washington has always come more from the agencies than from Congress,” he said. “The Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Communications Commission. It’s the same today.”
In the wake of a Democratic House report this fall highlighting market power and alleged abuses of Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Facebook and Google, Gallant added, it is fair to expect antitrust officials “to investigate the big four tech companies under Biden in depth.”
Lawyers for Biden’s administration will likely play a major role in driving any short-term litigation against the companies. Google is already fighting a landmark DOJ antitrust action filed by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, FTC officials continue to investigate Facebook for possible violations of antitrust laws. Major events like these tend to take years to unfold, meaning they should outlive the Trump administration – and be picked up under Biden.
Biden will not be directly involved, as antitrust investigations and enforcement are supposed to proceed without White House influence. But whoever he appoints to lead the FTC, DOJ and other agencies will set the tone and could have significant ripple effects on the tech industry.
Moderation of content
The importance of agency leadership is most evident with the FCC, which under Republicans targets a key legal shield for Silicon Valley known as Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934. Section 230 is the law. federal government that grants websites and social media companies legal immunity for many of their content moderation decisions, and it has been attacked by Trump and his allies for providing legal cover for alleged anti-conservative censorship . The FCC is currently considering initiating proceedings to “clarify” interpretations of the law.
Section 230 also has its critics among Democrats and, as a White House candidate, Biden has said his protections should be revoked. Technology platforms, Biden said,
should be responsible for spreading misinformation or content they know to be false.
But given that sitting FCC Democrats have already opposed the Section 230 process as being politically motivated and potentially unconstitutional, experts say, it’s more likely for Biden to approach Congress for a solution on Article 230. Several proposals have already been introduced, and a vigorous, if sometimes unsuccessful, debate took place on the shortcomings of the law.
Telecom and broadband
Pressure for so-called net neutrality is also likely to make a comeback under a Democrat-controlled FCC, Gallant said. This policy aims to prohibit Internet service providers from blocking or slowing down websites. For years, Democrats and Republicans have fought over rules for internet providers, with GOP commissioners recently overturning regulations implemented in 2015. Expect Democrats to try to restore those rules, a Gallant said.
Perhaps an easier victory that can be achieved early in Biden’s presidency will be to expand broadband internet access nationwide, experts said, a priority Biden has championed and that various groups and legislators have endorsed it as a tool for the country’s economic recovery.
“We hope a stimulus package will include investments in digital infrastructure,” said Jason Oxman, chairman of the Information Technology Industry Council, a technology trading group. “There is bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for a pandemic response and an economic stimulus response that ensures all Americans have access to broadband when everyone needs it.
Experts also said that as California upheld its privacy law in a vote this month, pressure will mount in Congress to pass a data privacy bill that may apply. to the entire digital economy nationwide. Lawmakers have sought unsuccessfully for years to pass such legislation, but with technology regulation increasingly on the agenda, the next Congress has an opportunity to make it a reality.
Approaches to China
Other areas where the Biden and Trump administrations generally overlap include US policy towards Huawei and potentially TikTok, experts said. Indeed, both political parties agree that China and China’s affiliates could pose a cybersecurity risk, even though, according to cybersecurity experts, the threat remains hypothetical for now.
Tom Wheeler, former FCC chairman under President Barack Obama, said the US government concluded early on that companies like Huawei could pose a spy threat and persuaded major US mobile operators not to buy Chinese hardware for their own networks.
“Trump has been making a lot of noise about Huawei, but Huawei’s whistle was given under the Obama administration,” Wheeler said, indicating that the Biden administration’s stance would likely reflect a continuing trend of several years.
Meanwhile, Trump nearly forced TikTok into an unusual and complicated trade deal with Oracle and Walmart in an attempt to reduce the influence of TikTok’s current Chinese parent company, ByteDance. It’s unclear how this deal could be affected by a Biden administration, but experts say the underlying security concerns would likely be shared.
Where Trump and Biden diverge
Tech industry officials also see major starting points between Biden and Trump. Businesses that depend on immigrant workers predict that the Biden administration will overturn many of Trump’s immigration policies, such as travel bans targeting majority Muslim countries, deferred action restrictions for child arrivals – an Obama-era policy allowing some undocumented immigrants who came as children to the United States to stay in the country – and the limitations on highly skilled immigrant work visas. The tech industry needs highly skilled visas, and companies like Apple have taken public positions on DACA.
Tech companies that have made major commitments on climate change also have high hopes that the Biden administration will join the Paris climate agreement. Monday, IBM (IBM) sent a letter to Biden calling on his future administration to take these steps.
“These are definitely things that could be done under the authority of the executive,” Christopher Padilla, IBM’s vice president of government and regulatory affairs, said in an interview.
Not a continuation of the Obama program
Biden shares strong ties to Silicon Valley. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has become one of Biden’s main fundraisers this election cycle, and Cynthia Hogan, a longtime Biden aide, went to work for the campaign this year after leaving a management position at Apple. On Saturday, as news networks called the race for Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote that it was a “big step” towards creating a more diverse government and Harris’s “remarkable achievement,” which she said was “broken glass ceilings and standards around what leadership looks like.”
In many ways, Biden’s presidency might look like a repeat of the Obama administration, which has been marked by many officials rotating between Washington and Silicon Valley, frequent White House visits from tech executives and even l ‘direct involvement of engineers from technology companies who have been called. to fix the botched launch of Healthcare.gov.
Trump has sought to project comfort with Silicon Valley leaders, including inviting them to sit on economic recovery panels. But he’s also spent a lot of time criticizing tech companies for their alleged left-wing bias, accusing them of censoring conservative views, a charge that has led to frictions and targeted regulatory efforts like the type envisioned. by the FCC regarding Section 230.
Political analysts also say a lot has changed in four years. The US government and the public are more skeptical of Big Tech, and that will change the tenor of the Biden administration.
“I don’t think it will be Obama Part II,” Gallant said.
