Join to hold technology accountable

President Joe Biden has called on Republicans and Democrats in Congress to come together to pass legislation that would put new safeguards on the tech industry, writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday that the administration’s current powers to regulate Big Tech are insufficient.

“We need bipartisan action from Congress to hold Big Tech accountable,” Biden wrote.

The op-ed is among the president’s calls to Congress for action on topics including digital privacy, competition and online safety. The White House has expressed support for legislative efforts to address these issues and has placed progressive executives in key agencies. But as the last Congress draws to a close, some of the more ambitious technology proposals that gained some momentum earlier in the year are left in the lurch.

Biden’s call for bipartisanship on tech issues is noteworthy, as a divided Congress complicates the landscape for passing legislation in any domain. The op-ed’s decision to focus on technology suggests that there may be a rare opportunity for hope for progress as they work their way down the road.

Biden focused on three key areas of technology legislation he hopes to see this Congress. First, he urged lawmakers to pass federal privacy protections that would limit the collection of sensitive information and completely ban advertising targeted at children.

Then, on the campaign trail, he reiterated his call in 2020 to “fundamentally reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act,” which protects online forums from being held accountable for their users’ posts. The ability to control such content. He also called for greater transparency around the algorithms used to determine what information users see to ensure that tech companies are not pushing unsafe content to children or discriminating against groups of users.

Finally, Biden called for “fair rules of the road” when it comes to competition in the tech sector.

“As tech platforms get bigger, many have ways of promoting their own products that exclude or hurt competitors — or cost their competitors a fortune to sell on the platform,” he wrote. “My vision for our economy is one where everyone — small and medium-sized businesses, mom-and-pop shops, entrepreneurs — can compete on an equal footing with big companies.”

Quoting a line from last year’s State of the Union speech, Biden said, “We need to hold social media companies accountable for the experiments they’re doing on our children,” and emphasized the importance of protecting children online in the post. For profit.

“There will be many policy issues on which we disagree in the new Congress, but bipartisanship to protect privacy and our children, to prevent discrimination, sexual exploitation and cyberbullying, and to fight anticompetitive conduct should not separate us,” he wrote. . “Let’s unite behind our common values ​​and show that we can work together for our country.”

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

See: The Messy Business of Content Moderation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube