By John D. McKinnon and Ryan Tracy
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (September 18, 2020).
WASHINGTON -- Powerful technology companies are expected to face
increased scrutiny no matter who wins the Nov. 3 election, but
President Trump and challenger Joe Biden differ on some of the
problems posed by Big Tech and how to solve them.
In a second term, Mr. Trump and his appointees likely would
maintain -- and possibly accelerate -- the broad-scale regulatory
scrutiny of technology companies that marked his first term. That
effort has included allegations of anticonservative bias online,
antitrust investigations of internet giants such as Alphabet Inc.'s
Google and Facebook Inc., and actions against Chinese-owned apps
such as TikTok and WeChat.
Mr. Biden, the Democratic nominee, has also been critical of Big
Tech's market power. He and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D.,
Calif.) say they would support stricter antitrust oversight and
online privacy rules. But the Biden camp has emphasized forcing
social-media companies to better police their sites against false
information, and taking government action to help workers under
threat from innovations such as self-driving cars.
With Congress also focused on Big Tech, both candidates are
likely to take a hand in legislative efforts to increase
competition in digital markets, expand broadband access and protect
consumers' privacy.
"The hands-off approach is gone, regardless of who wins the
election," said Gene Kimmelman, a former Obama administration
antitrust official who recently co-wrote a paper calling for a new
agency to regulate large digital platforms.
Antitrust
The Obama administration -- in which Mr. Biden served as vice
president -- developed a tech-friendly reputation, hiring Silicon
Valley veterans for key posts and declining to pursue antitrust
complaints against Google and others. Some conservative and
progressive tech critics alike worry that a Biden administration
would take up that stance again, settling any antitrust cases
brought by the Trump administration on lenient terms.
Biden campaign spokesman Matt Hill declined to comment on the
prospect for settling antitrust cases, but suggested Mr. Biden
would be tough.
"Joe Biden has long said one of the greatest sins is the abuse
of power, " Mr. Hill said. "Many technology giants and their
executives have not only abused their power, but misled the
American people, damaged our democracy, and evaded any form of
responsibility. That ends with a President Biden."
The Trump campaign says leniency ended with the incumbent's 2016
election. The Justice Department in the Trump administration has
been investigating Google for potential anticompetitive conduct in
its search and advertising business, and is expected to file a case
before the election that likely would carry over into 2021 and
beyond. The Federal Trade Commission is also investigating tech
companies for potential antitrust violations, including preparing a
possible lawsuit against Facebook.
During the Democratic primary, Mr. Biden didn't join
progressives calling to break up Big Tech firms, saying it would be
premature to do so before a formal investigation. This summer, a
policy task force Mr. Biden created with Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders, his final Democratic primary opponent, recommended
breaking up companies for anticompetitive behavior "as a last
resort."
Nevertheless, Mr. Biden has said that antitrust enforcement
hasn't been strong enough and that tech firms deserve a hard look
from the federal agencies that oversee competition.
Mr. Trump hasn't called for tech breakups either, though that is
one possible outcome of the continuing antitrust
investigations.
Tech's liability shield
A particular focus for a second Trump term would be legislation
to scale back protections social-media companies enjoy under
Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which gives
them broad legal immunity for posted content and their efforts to
moderate it. Mr. Trump says the law has been used to censor
conservative viewpoints.
Mr. Trump called for repeal of Section 230 in a Sept. 8 tweet,
echoing a position Mr. Biden took earlier this year with a very
different motivation. Even so, the law is considered foundational
to the internet and has bipartisan support.
Mr. Trump ordered regulatory agencies this year to consider
tougher oversight of online companies under Section 230 when they
don't moderate users' speech fairly or fail to live up to their
promises relating to free speech.
"It's become evident that Big Tech believes they are the
arbiters of truth online -- but they have a clear blind spot when
it comes to their bias against conservative voices," said Samantha
Zager, a Trump campaign spokeswoman. "President Trump will continue
to advocate for an internet that embraces free speech over
censorship."
As a sign of the issue's importance to the White House, Mr.
Trump recently withdrew the renomination of a Republican
commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission after he
expressed concern about the legal basis for Mr. Trump's tougher
line on Section 230. The White House has also pressured the
Republican chairman of the FTC, Joseph Simons, to take more action
to support the effort, according to people familiar with the
matter.
Mr. Biden surprised the tech world when he called for revoking
Section 230. But unlike conservatives, Mr. Biden says some
social-media platforms do too little policing, not too much.
His campaign website devoted an entire page to criticizing
Facebook and its relatively hands-off policy when it comes to
policing political speech. Some critics say that policy benefits
Mr. Trump. Mr. Biden has termed the company irresponsible.
Mr. Biden hasn't outlined what new policy might replace Section
230, but he appears to want social-media companies to be more
active, not less, in taking down content -- especially what the
Biden campaign views as false information promoted by pro-Trump
groups. Facebook says it is important to allow voters to see the
statements of political candidates.
Mr. Trump and other Republicans have their own frustrations with
Facebook, which has removed some Trump campaign ads and some of the
president's statements about the coronavirus.
But they have also at times praised the company's decisions,
such as when it declined to join rivals such as Twitter Inc. in
labeling and shielding from public view a post from Mr. Trump about
violent protests.
Job protections
Mr. Biden has expressed concerns about the potential impacts of
many tech innovations, such as self-driving vehicles, on people
with middle-class jobs. "Whether your predictions are true about
automation and self-driving trucks, these folks aren't stupid," he
said in a speech in 2018 at the Brookings Institution in
Washington. "They listen, they understand and they're scared to
death." Among Mr. Biden's proposed solutions are such ideas as
providing extra government aid to help workers who have been
dislocated by tech.
The former vice president has also been outspoken about using
government regulation to force "gig economy" businesses to pay
benefits to their independent contractors, by reclassifying them as
employees.
California adopted such a law last year and debate continues
about its efficacy. Ride-hailing companies have said their drivers
aren't covered, while state legislators modified the law in
response to job losses in other industries.
In a New York Times interview early this year, Mr. Biden
described meeting as vice president with tech leaders -- "little
creeps," he called them -- touting their industry's economic
benefit.
"'You have fewer people on your payroll than all the losses that
General Motors just faced in the last quarter, of employees. So
don't lecture me about how you've created all this employment,'"
Mr. Biden said he responded.
The Trump campaign said policies like California's gig-worker
law "take away workers' opportunity to make their own schedules and
participate in a free and open gig economy."
The Labor Department, which is led by a Trump appointee, last
year said people offering services on online sites or apps should
be considered employees of the consumer who hires them, not the
virtual marketplace. That policy could make it harder for gig
workers to win labor disputes.
The Trump administration has also sought to expand the
availability of worker training through apprenticeships, in part by
making it easier for businesses to run their own apprentice
programs.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com and Ryan
Tracy at ryan.tracy@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 18, 2020 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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