Silicon Valley’s Congressman wants to rein in Big Tech in 3 areas
Facebook parent Meta (FB) took a huge earnings hit last week in part because of privacy changes Apple (AAPL) made to its iOS platform, but lawmakers may be poised to force Big Tech to take additional steps to protect users' privacy.
In a new interview with Yahoo Finance Live, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif), whose district is in the heart of Silicon Valley, outlined three areas that lawmakers should focus on when it comes to tech regulation: privacy, antitrust regulation, and free speech.
On the regulation front, he points to instances where private companies have “done more than the United States Congress.” But, he added, "We have to go further."
‘Oversight is critical’
On the issue of privacy, Khanna says a federal law is needed to enshrine the right of users to only opt in before a company may use and profit from their personal information. Khanna’s home state of California enacted privacy bills in 2018 and 2020 that advocates hope will set the stage for nationwide legislation in the years ahead.
Apple’s new privacy policy requiring iPhone owners to opt in before apps can track their activity across the web makes the company a leader when it comes to privacy, acknowledged Khanna, who has a new book out called “Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us.” But he says he wants to ensure “that Congress passes what Apple has started to do.”
Second, Khanna wants to make sure tech giants compete fairly with one another and with smaller companies. The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have embarked on a series of efforts to rein in Big Tech’s overall power with lawsuits that could proceed in the years ahead. And bills on Capitol Hill like the American Innovation and Choice Online Act are moving gradually forward to limit the ability of tech companies to disadvantage their rivals in forums like the App Store.
Some of the efforts are “poorly drafted … by people who I think don’t understand technology,” Khanna says. But he says he's working with his colleagues on “enforceable” antitrust legislation.
Third, he wants to ensure consumers can speak freely on platforms unless they're posting misinformation or incitement to violence. Tech companies have a moral responsibility to remove certain speech from their sites, Khanna says. Still, he's wary of efforts to fully roll back Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act, which allows platforms to operate without being held liable for content posted on their platform by third parties.
Apple’s (AAPL) headquarters sit inside of Khanna’s district as do Intel's (INTC) and Yahoo's. The headquarters for Google (GOOG) and Meta Platforms (FB) are just a few minutes away. It's fitting that Khanna represents this district, as he counted tech companies as clients when he worked as a lawyer.
But he doesn't want Silicon Valley to have a monopoly on tech jobs. In his book, Khanna writes about decentralizing tech geographically to bring more of the high paying jobs in his district to “people left out with economic opportunity in the digital economy.”
Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.
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