What to expect from Biden on tech policy
When the Obama administration entered the White House in 2009, Silicon Valley was widely celebrated as both a driver of economic growth and a force for social good. A decade later as President-elect Biden prepares to return to the White House, the perception of the tech industry has changed dramatically. Many leading Democrats now view large tech firms as stifling rather than unleashing innovation. While they were once seen as a force for democracy, digital platforms are now considered a threat to democratic societies, given their role in spreading disinformation and hate speech and contributing to political polarization.
With skepticism toward Silicon Valley on the rise, the Biden administration is poised to take a far tougher stance toward the tech sector than the Obama White House. Although Biden is unlikely to push for a breakup of big tech altogether, he will almost certainly push for much greater scrutiny the tech industry around questions of antitrust, data privacy, and content moderation—all while attempting to end the regulatory chaos of the Trump years.
Antitrust. Late last month the Department of Justice sued Google for violating antitrust laws, a move that was widely viewed as the most significant antitrust action since the Microsoft case of the late 1990s. The Biden administration is likely to continue that case and may expand it. In addition, Amazon and Facebook could face antitrust cases brought by the Justice Department, and it’s likely the Biden administration would be eager to bring those cases forward.
However, the Biden administration is likely to stop short of pushing for the break-up of big tech firms altogether. The prospect of a Republican-controlled Senate makes it less likely either that Biden will try to appoint advocates of such a break-up to a cabinet position, or that antitrust reformers within the Democratic party will be able to push through a major overhaul to U.S. competition law. As a result, while the Biden administration appears poised to strengthen antitrust enforcement, that will likely take place through greater regulatory action rather than new legislation.
Content moderation. Given ongoing concerns about the spread of disinformation and hate speech on digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, the Biden administration will likely place renewed focus on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides major technology companies with a liability shield to host material posted by their users. Reforming or perhaps repealing that law is one of the few things Biden and President Trump agree on, but it’s unlikely that the Biden administration will be able to push a reform through a divided Congress. The two parties have fundamentally different views of how to fix the law: Democrats want tech platforms to assume greater responsibility for policing their platforms, while Republicans want them to assume even less.
In lieu of legislation, the Biden White House will likely adopt a strategy similar to Trump’s: namely, using a mix of public pressure and the threat of new regulatory actions by the Federal Communications Commission to push tech companies into changing their policies.
Data privacy. Overhauling federal privacy legislation represents a major piece of unfinished business on Capitol Hill. Under a Biden administration, it is possible that we will see compromise legislation on the issue move forward. Though Democratic and Republican proposals on the issue show “sharp differences when it came to federal preemption of state privacy laws and individual rights to sue” they also indicate “promising agreement on significant issues, including data minimization, individual privacy rights, transparency, and discriminatory uses of personal data,” Brookings’ Cameron Kerry wrote late last month.
Whether Democrats and Republicans will find a way forward, however, remains highly uncertain, particularly given divisions over whether federal privacy legislation should include a private right of action.
China. The Trump administration’s concerns over the security risk posed by Chinese tech companies are likely to carry over into a Biden administration. Under Trump, those concerns crystallized in the administration’s slap-dash attempt to force a sale of TikTok, the Chinese viral video app. Although Biden may maintain some pressure on the company, it’s fair to expect a less chaotic policy toward Chinese consumer applications going forward.
More broadly, how the United States should approach China represents arguably the most pressing foreign-policy question facing the incoming administration—with concerns about Chinese technology being a key reason why. Finding a way to address those concerns without unduly disrupting supply chains and global trade will be a crucial challenge for the Biden White House. How they handle it will have significant consequences for both the tech industry and the U.S. relationship with China.
— Elias Groll (@EliasGroll)
