White House Puts Forth Six Principles to Reform the Tech Sector
Biden’s calls for tech reforms, a bit indefinite and unclear on the details, come right before the midterms.
The White House recently proposed reforms for the technology sector based on six principles for “enhancing competition and tech platform accountability.” The six principles are based on suggestions from industry experts and practitioners who spoke on the need for tech companies to have more accountability for the harms they cause in society.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has recently proposed six principles to mitigate the damage done by the technology industry. These principles, which are intended to increase responsibility in the tech sector, are as follows:
- Competition
- Privacy
- Youth mental health
- Misinformation and disinformation
- Illegal and abusive conduct, including sexual exploitation
- Algorithmic discrimination and lack of transparency
Anti-competitive business practices and privacy violations at the expense of average users were two of the most important issues discussed by experts in the listening session at the White House last week.
Today, however, a small number of dominant internet platforms use their power to exclude market entrants, to engage in rent-seeking, and to gather intimate personal information that they can use for their own advantage,” the White House release on the subject reads.
An example pertinent to this is the promotion of/higher ranked products developed by Google, Amazon, etc., in search results on platforms they own (Google search, Amazon.com, etc.). Beyond advertising, bundling services by larger providers to disadvantage smaller players is a concern. For example, Slack filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft for bundling Teams with Microsoft 365.
“We need clear rules of the road to ensure small and mid-size businesses and entrepreneurs can compete on a level playing field, which will promote innovation for American consumers and ensure continued U.S. leadership in global technology.”
See More: Respite for Big Tech as Senate Vote on Antitrust Bill Gets Delayed Until Fall
Additionally, the experts outlined how the dissemination of misinformation, or incorrect information, and disinformation, i.e., the deliberate obfuscation of facts with deceptive intent, maximize user engagement with the end goal of higher profitability with sensational headlines, extreme views, and polarizing opinions, have shaped the political, social, environmental, and other discourse.
However, tech platforms aren’t usually treated as the publisher of damaging or sensationalizing content, a legal provision provided under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The White House called for “fundamental reforms” on the legislation, which is different from his calls to revoke it when he was campaigning for the presidency in 2020.
“Their decisions about what content to display to a given user and when and how to remove content from their sites affect Americans’ lives and American society in profound ways. However, platforms are failing to provide sufficient transparency to allow the public and researchers to understand how and why such decisions are made, their potential effects on users, and the very real dangers these decisions may pose,” the White House continued.
The session also called on to ban discriminatory algorithmic decision-making, especially when it costs protected groups in any way and institute better privacy and online protections for children, adolescents, and teenagers.
Biden’s calls for tech reforms, a bit indefinite and unclear on the details, come right before the midterms. It is highly unlikely that the proposed reforms will come in the 2022 calendar year.
Let us know if you enjoyed reading this news on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. We would love to hear from you!
MORE ON TECH LEGISLATION/REFORMS
- Google Could Derail Antitrust Probe by Splitting Up Ad Business With Alphabet: WSJ
- EU to Crack Down on Deepfakes via New Code of Practice Aimed at Social Media Giants
- Big Tech Using an Army of Lobbyists to Defang Privacy Laws, Claims New Report
- IAPP Global Privacy Summit: Calls for a Federal Privacy Law Gain Momentum
