What the Biden administration means for the future of Silicon Valley

What the Biden administration means for the future of Silicon Valley

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Among them are what to do with an enormously powerful social media industry that largely continues to spread misinformation and hatred, despite the platforms’ efforts to repress 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 invasion of US computer networks, described as the worst government data breach in years. It is also unclear whether the government’s approach to Chinese companies, including TikTok, whose deal with Oracle and Walmart has yet to be approved, could change.

Here are the major technology problems that policy experts say the new United States government is likely to face.

Section 230

Policy experts say tech companies still need to settle in Washington, even with the departure of Trump – the industry’s main antagonist for the past four years. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in Section 230, the liability shield that broadly protects technology companies from lawsuits over their content moderation decisions.

Democrats and Republicans disagree, however, on what the problem is.
Republican Party lawmakers have made unfounded claims of unconstitutional censorship in the hands of technology platforms (the Constitution does not require private companies to publish user speech). At the same time, Democrats, including Biden, say that technology companies have not done enough to combat disinformation and should be held accountable. One of Biden’s leading technology consultants, Bruce Reed, said in December that “it is past time to hold social media companies accountable for what is published on their platforms.”

For their part, companies like Google and Facebook said they have hired thousands of human content moderators and increased artificial intelligence-based content filters.

With Democrats enjoying a small margin in Congress, policy experts anticipate that the conversation about Section 230 will depart from Republican legislation aimed at perceived censorship. This is particularly the case now after the Capitol riots earlier this month, which were facilitated by online misinformation about the outcome of the 2020 elections, said Carl Szabo, general counsel for NetChoice, a technology trading group.

“I believe Democrats will be much, much more aggressive in pushing for Section 230 reforms to force stricter moderation of content,” he said.

Antitrust

The threats to big tech companies don’t stop there. Major platforms like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have received a great deal of scrutiny over the past year over their domain, with a report led by House Democrats concluding that companies enjoy “monopoly power”. Facebook and Google are facing several lawsuits by federal and state officials, and Apple and Amazon have been hit by private antitrust lawsuits. All of these processes are expected to continue.

With Democrats in control of the House and nominally in the Senate, this provides an opening for the party to push for some of the most aggressive changes in competition law contemplated in the House’s antitrust report. Although Republicans expressed support for some proposals, such as giving the Federal Trade Commission more resources, they turned down others, such as a bill that could prevent technology companies from owning a digital platform and competing on it, as Amazon does with its e-commerce site.

“If Congress turns, you could end up with some kind of new [regulatory] scheme for the big digital markets, “predicted Columbia University law professor Tim Wu in October.

Network neutrality

One of the first actions of the Trump Federal Communications Commission in 2017 was to repeal the U.S. government’s network neutrality regulations, which prohibited Internet service providers from selectively blocking, slowing down or speeding up websites and applications. The move was widely contested by technology companies, Internet activists and consumer groups, while telecommunications providers welcomed the deregulation.

Now, with control of Congress and the White House, Democrats have the opportunity to restore those rules – whether by reintroducing them into the FCC or passing legislation to enshrine regulations in law.

This could put an end to what had become a ping-pong match in Washington, with different FCCs enacting different rules each time the Oval Office changed hands.

“We can find a permanent solution to net neutrality,” said Chip Pickering, a former US Congressman from Mississippi who now leads INCOMPAS, a telecommunications trading group. Pickering said a likely way forward would be for Congress to impose network neutrality obligations on providers like Comcast, Verizon and others, without explicitly regulating them as the FCC does with legacy phone service, a major flaw in previous debates.

Broadband access

As the pandemic has led many Americans to work and study remotely, it is highlighted how rural and low-income Americans do not have the same high-speed Internet access as those with more resources. Closing this digital divide has historically been a rallying cry for Republicans and Democrats – making broadband investments a potentially easy bipartisan achievement, policy experts say.

Expect broadband financing to become part of the infrastructure talks on Capitol Hill, following the promise of Biden’s campaign to extend high-speed connectivity to “all Americans”. The FCC is likely to expand existing federal grant programs for connectivity, according to the Brookings Institute. And industry leaders called for simplifying the implementation of 5G wireless service.

Cyber ​​security

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

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

“You can respond by accusing individuals and by diplomatic and economic measures, what they should do,” Alexander told CNN. “But any cyber response in the physical space would likely become a major attack against us, and we are not prepared to defend ourselves against that.”

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to say what the government will do.

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

Immigration

With the executive actions of the Biden government last week, Silicon Valley looks hopeful for a more welcoming US immigration policy – which supports the industry’s use of immigrant talent.

Companies like Apple, Airbnb and IBM quickly applauded Biden’s reversal of Trump’s travel ban and his efforts to preserve the program known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. That program, which Trump tried 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 celebrated executive actions to lift the restrictions it said were “against Airbnb’s mission and values”. AND IBM said those who benefit from the DACA program “make vital contributions to our communities and economy.”

“We look forward to a permanent two-party solution in the future,” said the technology giant.

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