That’s the view that many Washington policy experts are taking on the prospect of a Biden presidency. It highlights how, despite some huge differences with Trump in terms of style and politics, there may be more continuity between the two administrations than you might think.
Biden may not launch as many inflammatory tweets as Trump. But, policy analysts say, Biden’s approach to big tech platforms is fueled by bipartisan outcry over Silicon Valley dominance, and reflects how dramatically the political environment for the industry has changed since 2016. Where before companies like Facebook and Google were welcomed as innovators who could help the government function better, now facing accusations of monopoly power and instigating the spread of misinformation. That led to repeated hearings, investigations and even lawsuits in Congress, and some lawmakers urged new regulations to control them.
With many anticipating a divided Congress, he said, much of the action is expected to come from administrative agencies and the courts.
“Technological risk in Washington has always come more from agencies than from Congress,” he said. “The Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. That’s the same today.”
On the heels of a Democratic House report this fall highlighting the power of the market and alleged abuses of Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Facebook and Google, Gallant added, it’s fair to expect antitrust officials to “thoroughly investigate Biden’s top four tech companies.”
Attorneys for the Biden administration will likely play a significant role in conducting any short-term litigation against the companies. Google is already fighting a landmark Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit filed by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, FTC officials continue to investigate Facebook for possible antitrust violations. Major events like these tend to take years to unfold, meaning they are expected to outlast the Trump administration and be picked up under Biden.
Biden will not be directly involved, as investigations and antitrust enforcement are supposed to take place without the influence of the White House. But who the FTC, DOJ and other agencies nominate to lead will set the tone and could have significant knock-on effects for the tech industry.
Content moderation
The importance of agency leadership is most evident with the FCC, which under Republicans is targeting a key legal shield for Silicon Valley known as Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934. Section 230 is the federal law that grants legal immunity to websites and social media companies. for many of its content moderation decisions, and has come under fire from Trump and his allies for providing legal cover for alleged anti-conservative censorship. The FCC currently plans to initiate a procedure to “clarify” the interpretations of the law.
Section 230 also has its critics among Democrats, and as a White House candidate, Biden said his protections should be revoked. Technology platforms, Biden said,
should be responsible for spreading misinformation or content they know to be false.
But since the FCC’s incumbent Democrats have already opposed the Section 230 procedure as politically motivated and potentially unconstitutional, experts say, Biden is more likely to approach Congress for a solution on Section 230. Already Various proposals have been tabled, and a vigorous, if sometimes unsuccessful, debate has developed over the shortcomings of the law.
Telecommunications and broadband
A push for so-called net neutrality is also likely to have a return under a Democrat-controlled FCC, Gallant said. This policy seeks to prohibit Internet providers from blocking or slowing down websites. For years, Democrats and Republicans have fought over rules for Internet providers, and Republican commissioners have recently repealed regulations implemented in 2015. Democrats are expected to try to restore those rules, Gallant said.
Perhaps an easier victory that can be achieved early in Biden’s presidency will be expanding high-speed Internet access across the country, experts said, a priority Biden has championed and one that various groups and lawmakers have endorsed as tool for the economic recovery of the country.
“Our hope is that a stimulus package includes investments in digital infrastructure,” said Jason Oxman, president of the Information Technology Industry Council, a technology trade group. “There is bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for a pandemic response and an economic stimulus response that ensures that all Americans have access to broadband at a time when everyone needs it.”
Experts also said that since California has affirmed its state privacy law in an election measure this month, pressure will increase in Congress to pass a data privacy bill that could apply to the entire digital economy across the globe. country. Lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully for years to pass such legislation, but with technology regulation increasingly on the agenda, the next Congress has a chance to make it happen.
Approaches to China
Other areas where the Biden and Trump administrations generally overlap include US policy toward Huawei and potentially TikTok, experts said. This is because both political parties agree that China and Chinese-affiliated companies could pose a cybersecurity risk, even if, according to cybersecurity experts, the threat remains hypothetical for now.
Tom Wheeler, former chairman of the FCC during Barack Obama’s presidency, said the US government had concluded early on that companies like Huawei could pose an espionage threat and convinced major US wireless carriers not to buy Chinese hardware to their own networks.
“Trump made a lot of noise about Huawei, but Huawei’s whistle had been blown during the Obama administration,” Wheeler said, noting that the Biden administration’s stance would likely reflect the continuation of a trend of years.
Meanwhile, Trump has almost forced TikTok into an unusual and complicated business deal with Oracle and Walmart in an effort 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 perceive the main starting points between Biden and Trump. Businesses that rely on immigrant workers anticipate that the Biden administration will reverse many of Trump’s immigration policies, such as a travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries, restrictions on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy from the Obama era allowing some undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to remain in the country, and limitations on work visas for highly skilled immigrants. The tech industry needs highly qualified visas, and companies like Apple have taken public positions on DACA.
Tech companies that have made major commitments to climate change also have high expectations that the Biden administration will join the Paris climate accord. Monday, IBM (IBM) He sent a letter to Biden asking his future administration to take those steps.
“Those are certainly things that could be done under executive authority,” said Christopher Padilla, IBM vice president of government and regulatory affairs, in an interview.
Not a continuation of Obama’s agenda
Biden shares close ties to Silicon Valley. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt emerged as one of Biden’s top fundraisers this election cycle, and Cynthia Hogan, a longtime Biden aide, went to work for the campaign this year after leave a senior position at Apple. On Saturday, when news networks called for the race for Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote that it was a “great step” toward creating a more diverse government and a “remarkable achievement. “from Harris, who said it was” breaking glass ceilings and norms about what leadership looks like. ”
In many ways, the Biden presidency might seem like a repeat of the Obama administration, which was marked by numerous officials rotating between Washington and Silicon Valley, frequent visits to the White House by tech leaders, and even the direct involvement of company engineers. of technology that were summoned. to fix the failed launch of Healthcare.gov.
Trump has sought to project comfort with Silicon Valley leaders, even inviting them to participate in economic recovery panels. But he has also spent a great deal of time criticizing tech companies for their alleged left-wing bias, accusing them of censoring conservative views, a charge that has generated friction and targeted regulatory efforts like the one being considered by the FCC regarding the Section 230.
Policy analysts also say that a lot has changed in four years. Both the US government and the public are more skeptical of big tech, and that is going to change the tenor of the Biden administration.
“I don’t think this is Obama’s second half,” Gallant said.
