Antitrust, content moderation to dominate tech policy in 2021
Lawmakers are expected to tackle key tech policy issues in 2021 following a tumultuous year that strained the Washington-Silicon Valley relationship.
Congress will likely introduce or move forward on legislation addressing antitrust concerns in the tech industry, while continuing its split crusade on content moderation.
Here’s a look at how those two issues could play out in the coming year.
Digital monopolies
The coronavirus pandemic has underscored and amplified the power held by the country’s biggest tech companies, all of which have seen their positions in the marketplace strengthen as millions of Americans work, shop and socialize online from home.
The industry’s strength has also increased as other sectors contract.
Congress has been laying the groundwork to start addressing that growing concentration of power. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee’s panel dealing with antitrust released a scathing report this fall, compiled over the course of a year, detailing how Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have stifled competition in the digital marketplace.
Content moderation
The 2020 election perfectly encapsulated the deep partisan divisions over how social media firms should moderate content on their platforms.
The first Senate hearing on tech after Election Day featured Democrats criticizing Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey for alleged failures to handle political misinformation.
Republicans, on the other hand, raised concerns about anti-conservative bias by tech platforms, an oft-repeated allegation that has not been substantiated.
The anger around perceived targeting of conservative voices has coalesced around the GOP push to revise or even scrap Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the landmark 1996 law which gives internet companies immunity from lawsuits for content posted on their sites by third parties and allows them to make good faith efforts to moderate content.
Ransomware cyberattacks are expected to pose a growing threat to hospitals and schools next year, putting pressure on Congress to draft a legislative response.
At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Biden administration will have its own set of challenges, mainly building a new cybersecurity leadership team at the federal level and taking stock of what aspects of election security from 2020 should be replicated in the future.
Here’s what to watch for in 2021.
Ransomware attacks
Cyber criminals have steadily stepped up attacks on critical institutions over the past two years, increasingly turning to ransomware to extort vulnerable groups for funds.
The issue has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic, with hackers targeting stressed hospital networks and school districts that have moved online, along with local governments that are more likely to pay a ransom to ensure networks are running again as quickly as possible.
Targets in recent months have included hospital systems in Vermont and New York, and school districts in Miami Dade County, Fla., and Baltimore County, Md. In all cases, operations were significantly affected, slowing critical services.
Key leaders on Capitol Hill say they are aiming to take action to address these concerns next year.
“Getting federal resources to state and local governments for their cybersecurity efforts will be one of our top priorities next year,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told The Hill.
Election security lessons
Securing U.S. election systems has been a major topic in the spotlight over the past four years after Russian agents interfered in the 2016 presidential election through hacking and disinformation efforts.
The 2020 election proved mostly uneventful and quiet on the cybersecurity front, with top officials declaring victory after four years of coordination at the federal, state and local levels to ramp up security.
Despite the relative calm, some officials are calling for more action to be taken next year to ensure the lessons learned since 2016 continue to be applied to future elections.
“You can’t take your eyes off the ball, you have to continue your diligence. The attack profile is still there,” said Christopher Painter, who was State Department cybersecurity coordinator under both the Obama and Trump administrations.
