Where Bipartisan Opportunities Exist for Tech Reform by TOM ROMANOFF Big Tech is still in the crosshairs of Republicans and years exemptions have been added or proposed to Democrats, but there is little consensus on regulating hold websites more accountable for harms stemming the industry. On the one side, there is agreement from their content. Democrats, in this scenario, will that American tech is a world leader and one of our likely continue to press Big Tech through competition most vital industries. On the other hand, concerns and anti-trust policy but will seek to do so through the federal agency authorities. have been expressed about Big With Special Assistant to the Tech’s size and influence. As President Tim Wu, and Chair of technology continues to play the FTC Lina Khan leading an an increasingly dominant role activist regulatory agenda, at a in how we connect at work and minimum, we can expect to see home, we must get it right. more from the DOJ, FTC, and While Congress debates CFPB around regulating the partisan tech agendas, the EU tech sector. is passing laws that put them in Shifting back to the driver’s seat of data privacy opportunities for bipartisan and how our tech companies solutions, let’s start with the operate abroad. Russia and most difficult – Enhancing China continue to use cyberData Privacy. Congress has attacks to gain insights into spent the last six sessions classified and sensitive Tom Romanoff trying to pass a national data information while influencing privacy law. Many believe, political debates worldwide. including me, that this is the Bipartisan, pragmatic solutions Bipartisan, pragmatic root of techlash and that many are needed to keep American other legislative proposals tech innovative and robust. solutions are needed would benefit from applying Specifically, three strategies to keep American tech federal law. The American have broad support to advance innovative and robust. Data Privacy and Protection this goal: Enhancing Data Act is the latest bipartisan Privacy, Securing Cyberspace, proposal that provides a new and Funding Innovation. Before diving into those strategies, let’s look starting place for future considerations. With China at the probable next steps: Republicans will likely and the European Union passing their data governance take the House next year and have been vocal about laws and U.S. states increasingly passing their own, their interest in investigating perceived bias against data privacy is increasingly dependent on the location conservative speech online. Few Democrats share of access. This could lead to excessive compliance this priority and have instead opted to introduce costs, stalled innovation, and loss of opportunity for proposals in the 117th Congress around anti-trust and American citizens. Cybersecurity is another strategy where we have competition issues in the tech sector. If there is an opportunity for bipartisan legislation around curbing seen strong bipartisan support and success in passing bias and misinformation online, it is in reforming legislation to bolster the U.S. digital infrastructure. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, Cyber threats are a clear and persistent danger to either by adding carve-outs to the existing language Americans and must be addressed as soon as possible. or passing new laws to address issues that stem from Congress has several initiatives with bipartisan misinformation online. Section 230 provides liability support that it can prioritize moving forward. These protection for platforms hosting content, but in recent include digital identification measures to fight online RIPON FORUM August 2022
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