The Ways A New US President and Congress May Rein In Big Tech

Among the issues a new administration and Congress may address perceived tech inequities are broadband access, net neutrality, gig worker protections, social media responsibility for content moderation and perhaps most significant of all, changes to the anti-trust and competition laws which have allowed big tech companies to accumulate so much power, stifle small competitors and become so profitable.  

Whatever the actual details, change and greater accountability is coming for tech's hold on power. JL

Cat Zakrzewski reports in the Washington Post:

Biden will pick people who will be more aggressive in going after tech to serve in the administration. Democratic control of the White House and Congress could force reforms to competition laws governing large tech companies’ business practices. Federal regulators are expected to continue to pursue lawsuits brought against Google and Facebook. They could also bring lawsuits against more tech giants. They believe tech companies should be held more responsible for moderating content on their sites.  “The Biden administration knows we need to update our technology regulations."

President-elect Joe Biden is inheriting a pandemic, an economic crisis, a racial reckoning and a country deeply polarized over the outcome of the 2020 election. 

As he prepares to assume the presidency, his success will hinge on his ability to address them. And each is deeply intertwined with the power and influence of the tech industry — which shapes everything from the information Americans access, to their ability to work and learn in a society that's partially shuttered by the climbing coronavirus death toll. 

That makes Biden's tech policy agenda pivotal – arguably more so than any preceding administration. My colleagues at The Washington Post and I put together a guide to some of the most pressing issues confronting the Biden administration as Inauguration Day approaches.

Biden is expected to have a very different relationship with Silicon Valley than he had as vice president. 

Silicon Valley is bracing for tougher regulation as the new administration and Democratic leaders on Congress are promising to take aim at social media companies, my colleagues Tony Romm and Elizabeth Dwoskin report. 

“The Biden administration knows we need to update our technology regulations for the 21st century,” said Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who has long called for wide-ranging reform.

Some companies, including Facebook, are scrambling to hire more Democrats after staffing up on Republican lobbyists during the Trump era. “I think for the Internet industry, in particular, it’s going to be tough sledding for the next two years at least,”  Rob Atkinson, the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank that counts companies including Google and Microsoft on its board, told my colleagues. 

The expectation is that Biden will pick people who will be more aggressive in going after tech to serve in the administration. “For a while, the tech industry took Democrats for granted,” Nu Wexler, a former Facebook, Twitter and Google communications official, told my colleagues. “Now they confront a new political reality. Tech will still be in the crosshairs. But it will be for more substantive things like privacy, data collection and competition.”

A key law that shields social media companies from lawsuits is expected to face scrutiny under Biden. 

President Trump made Section 230, once a little-known Internet law, a target as he sought to challenge social media companies that were limiting or removing his own posts. It's likely to face a nuanced review under the new administration, my colleague Rachel Lerman reports. 

Democrats have their own reasons for overhauling the law, which protects companies from liability for posts, photos and videos their users share. They believe tech companies should be held more responsible for moderating content on their sites. 

“Both sides have really used Section 230 as a proxy for their anger at Big Tech,” Jeff Kosseff, a cybersecurity law professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and the author “The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet,” a book about Section 230, told Rachel. 

Biden also is inheriting significant bipartisan momentum to challenge tech giants' power. 

Democratic control of the White House and Congress could force reforms to competition laws governing large tech companies’ business practices, as I wrote. Federal regulators are expected to continue to pursue lawsuits brought against Google and Facebook in the Trump era, and it's possible that they could also bring lawsuits against more tech giants. 

The recent violence at the Capitol and its aftermath is adding fresh urgency, as tech platforms’ role in amplifying violent rhetoric highlights the industry’s broad power and influence over American democracy.

“Basically, the Biden administration is inheriting a lot of momentum and a big opportunity to make online communications safe for democracy and fair in the commercial sphere,” said Sarah Miller, who leads the American Economic Liberties Project, told me in an interview.

Meanwhile, Internet regulation is taking on greater urgency amid the pandemic. 

The Biden administration will face immediate pressure to address access to home broadband, which has become essential for many people working or learning remotely during the pandemic, Tony and I report. 

That could set the stage for Democrats to finally make good on a long-standing effort to increase federal funding for Internet access. 

“Broadband access and deployment should be in every recovery package, in every infrastructure package,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, whose work has paved the way for emergency broadband rebates. “That’s something you can really move in the next few weeks.”

With a Federal Communication Commission is under Democratic control and victories in the Georgia Senate runoffs, Democrats are also well-positioned to undo some of Trump's efforts to deregulate the Internet. Democrats have criticized the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle Obama-era net neutrality rules, which required AT&T, Verizon and other service providers to treat all Internet traffic equally —

Lawmakers and activists are pressuring the incoming attorney general to immediately withdraw from a federal lawsuit challenging California's net neutrality law. 

The future of gig workers such as Uber drivers is expected to emerge as a divisive labor issue. 

The debate over the future of the on-demand economy could pit centrist and more corporate-friendly Democrats against their more liberal peers, my colleagues Faiz Siddiqui and Eli Rosenberg report. 

The Biden administration called for gig workers to be classified as employees — and enjoy the benefits and protections that come with that status. But those intraparty divisions and narrow Democratic majorities in both chambers could make that difficult to achieve. 

A recent California statewide ballot, called Proposition 22, was also a blow to efforts to reclassify drivers. It was the result of tech companies funneling millions to fight a law that defined many app workers as employees. 

The Labor Department and other agencies could take swift actions to support gig workers. They could reinterpret their work as employment at the federal or IRS level. They could also pursue stronger enforcement and legal options.