PARTISAN RIFTS OPEN ON TECH
Washington’s escalating scrutiny of Silicon Valley is putting into stark contrast the different approaches Democrats and Republicans are taking toward reigning in the massive tech giants.
The consensus that large tech companies have become too powerful and know too much about their users is one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill, but the two parties disagree over what to do about it.
President Trump’s social media summit on Thursday highlighted the GOP’s conviction that social media companies are out to silence conservatives.
Trump told the gathering of right-wing social media personalities and conservative lawmakers that he will be summoning tech companies to the White House to address the accusations of anti-conservative bias.
Democrats see little evidence to back up the GOP’s fears and are instead focused on an antitrust investigation into the market power of Silicon Valley’s giants. They are also pushing for tougher privacy regulations to reign in unfettered data collection.
This week on Capitol Hill: The different approaches will be on display next week when four of the largest tech companies appear before the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee to defend their market power.
At the same time, on the other side of the Capitol, Google’s vice president of public policy will testify about accusations that the company is censoring conservatives before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
Cicilline, who is collaborating with Republicans on the investigation, says Republicans’ claims of anti-conservative bias are questionable and threaten to overshadow the issues in Silicon Valley that he believes deserve the most scrutiny.
“I don’t think there is evidence to support them,” Cicilline told The Hill. “And they do, I think, interfere with a really important investigation that relates to the dominance of these technology platforms.”
Republican policy proposals: Some conservatives are using their bias accusations to push for significant changes to tech’s legal shield, Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, a provision that shields online companies from liability for content posted by their users. Republicans have derided Section 230 as a “sweetheart deal” for tech companies that allows them to shirk responsibility for their content moderation decisions.
Freshman Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has quickly become one of the Republican party’s most vocal tech critics, set off a wave of controversy last month when he introduced a bill that would require the top tech companies to submit to audits proving they are politically “neutral” in order to receive Section 230 protections.
Some bipartisan agreement: Democrats have also raised the specter of amending Section 230 over separate issues regarding big tech’s struggles to stave off the spread of misinformation and hate speech. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said earlier this year that tech companies are abusing their privilege under Section 230 and warned the law could be in jeopardy.
But Democrats are more than skeptical of Republicans’ claims of censorship and have not fully embraced their push to gut tech companies’ liability protections.
Still, top Democratic tech critics do see some room to work with Republicans, many of whom also have concerns about antitrust and data privacy.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who has pushed federal regulators to take up antitrust and privacy issues posed by Facebook and Google, told reporters on Thursday that he doesn’t think Republicans have proved their assertions about anti-conservative bias, but he sees anything that brings attention to social media companies “in a serious way” as a positive.
“I welcome scrutiny surrounding social media and about Big Tech, concerning the need for stronger accountability,” Blumenthal said.