What the Biden administration means for the future of Silicon Valley

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Among them, what to do with an extremely powerful social media industry that continues to spread disinformation and hatred widely, despite the platforms’ efforts to suppress it; how to ensure that all Americans have affordable high-speed internet access in the midst of a global pandemic; and respond to a suspected Russian intrusion into US computer networks, described as the worst government data breach in years. It is also unclear whether the government’s approach to companies linked to China, including TikTok, whose trade deal with Oracle and Walmart has yet to be approved, might change.

Here are the big tech issues that policy experts say the new U.S. government is likely to face.

Chapter 230

Policy experts say tech companies are still taking stock in Washington, even with the departure of Trump – the industry’s main antagonist for four years. Nowhere is this perhaps more evident than with Section 230, the liability shield that broadly protects tech companies from lawsuits over their content moderation decisions.

Democrats and Republicans disagree on the nature of the problem, however.
GOP lawmakers have launched baseless allegations of unconstitutional censorship by tech platforms (the Constitution does not require private companies to broadcast users’ speech). At the same time, Democrats, including Biden, say tech companies haven’t done enough to tackle disinformation and must be held accountable. One of Biden’s top technical advisers, Bruce Reed, said in December that it was “over time to hold social media companies accountable for what gets posted on their platforms.”

For their part, companies such as Google and Facebook have said they have hired thousands of human content moderators and stepped up content filters based on artificial intelligence.

With Democrats enjoying a slim margin in Congress, policy experts predict the Section 230 conversation to move away from Republican legislation aimed at perceived censorship. This is especially the case now after the Capitol Riots earlier this month, which were facilitated by online disinformation about the outcome of the 2020 election, said Carl Szabo, general counsel at NetChoice, a tech trading group.

“I believe Democrats are going to be much, much more aggressive in pushing for section 230 reforms to force tighter moderation of content,” he said.

Antitrust

The threats to big tech companies don’t stop there. Major platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google came under intense scrutiny last year for dominance, with a report led by House Democrats saying companies enjoy a “monopoly power”. Facebook and Google are battling multiple lawsuits by federal and state officials, and Apple and Amazon have been hit with private antitrust lawsuits. All of these lawsuits are expected to continue.

With Democrats in control of the House and nominally in the Senate, this allows the party to push for some of the more aggressive changes to competition law envisioned in the House antitrust report. While Republicans had expressed support for some proposals, such as giving more resources to the Federal Trade Commission, they had opposed others, such as a bill that could prevent tech companies from lading. both owning and competing with a digital platform, like Amazon is doing with its e-commerce site.

“If Congress rocks, you might end up with some sort of news [regulatory] program for large digital markets, ”predicted Tim Wu, professor of law at Columbia University, in October.

Net neutrality

One of the first actions of the Trump Federal Communications Commission in 2017 was to repeal the US government’s Net Neutrality regulations, which prohibited Internet service providers from selectively blocking, slowing, or speeding up websites. and applications. The move was widely contested by tech companies, internet activists and consumer groups, while telecom providers hailed the deregulation.

Now, with congressional and White House control, Democrats have the option of restoring those rules – either by reintroducing them to the FCC or by passing legislation to enshrine the regulations into law.

It could end what had become a ping-pong game in Washington, with different FCCs issuing different rules every time the Oval Office changed hands.

“We could find a permanent solution for Net Neutrality,” said Chip Pickering, a former US congressman from Mississippi who now heads INCOMPAS, a telecommunications business group. Pickering said a likely path would be for Congress to impose net neutrality obligations on providers like Comcast, Verizon and others without explicitly regulating them like the FCC does with traditional phone service, a loophole key in previous debates.

Broadband access

While the pandemic has pushed many Americans to work and go to school remotely, it has been highlighted that rural and low-income Americans do not have the same high-speed internet access as those who do. more resources. Bridging this digital divide has always been a rallying cry for Republicans and Democrats – making broadband investments a potentially easy bipartisan achievement, policy experts say.

Expect broadband funding to be part of the infrastructure talks on Capitol Hill, following Biden’s campaign pledge to extend broadband connectivity to “all Americans.” The FCC is likely to expand existing federal grant programs for connectivity, according to the Brookings Institute. And industry leaders have called for streamlining the rollout of 5G wireless service.

Cyber ​​security

The devastating breach of the U.S. government and corporate networks by suspected Russian hackers will be a huge challenge for the Biden administration, as investigators continue to assess the damage.

It will be up to Biden to determine how the United States responds and there are many tools at his disposal to do so, said Keith Alexander, retired general and former director of the National Security Agency. But any response will need to be carefully calibrated to avoid escalation, he said.

“You can respond by indicting individuals and with diplomatic and economic measures, which they should do,” Alexander told CNN. “But any response in physical cyberspace would likely turn into a bigger attack on us, and we’re not prepared to defend against that.”

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to say what the administration will do.

“We reserve the right to respond to any cyber attack at a time and in a manner of our choosing,” she said.

Immigration

With the executive actions of the Biden administration last week, Silicon Valley appears optimistic for a more welcoming U.S. immigration policy – one that supports the industry’s use of immigrant talent.

Companies such as Apple, Airbnb and IBM were quick to applaud Biden’s overturn of Trump’s travel ban and his efforts to preserve the program known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This program, which Trump had sought to limit, protects undocumented immigrants from deportation who arrived in the United States as children.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said last week he was “inspired” by Biden’s movements. In a blog post, Airbnb said it was celebrating management actions to reverse restrictions it said went “against Airbnb’s mission and values.” And IBM said those who benefit from the DACA program “make vital contributions to our communities and our economy”.

“We look forward to a permanent bipartite solution in the future,” the tech giant said.



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