Will Congress Pass New Regulation on Big Technology? Time May Be Running

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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are preparing to push for bills aimed at curbing the power of the nation’s biggest tech companies, as they see the window of opportunity closing fast before the midterm elections.

A Senate committee is expected to vote on a bill on Thursday that would ban companies like Amazon, Apple and Google from promoting their own products over competitors’ products. Many Members of Parliament antitrust bills pack that would make it easier to smash the tech giants. Others are making their latest efforts to pass bills designed to strengthen privacy, protect children online, curb misinformation, rein in targeted advertising, and regulate artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies.

Most of the proposals before Congress are long plans. President Biden and top Democrats They said that tapping into the strength of the industry in Congress was a high priority, but many other topics rank even higher on their lists. These include enacting voting rights legislation, correcting workforce and supply chain restrictions, enacting a social service package, and getting the nation out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Still, the next few months are probably the best chance for a while. After that, attention will be drawn to the midterm elections, and Democrats, who support tech efforts far more than Republicans, could lose control of Congress.

“It’s a problem that’s been brewing for a long time, and it’s become pretty obvious to everyone,” said Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is spearheading the push for tougher laws on tech companies. But when you come fall it will be very difficult to get things done because it’s all about the election.”

Congress has united around a growing concern about tech giants over the past few years. Still, dozens of bills failedeven many other countries have strengthened their regulations for the sector.

When Mr. Biden took office last year, he promised to bring more competition to the economy, especially in the tech sector. He appointed vocal tech critics to lead antitrust agencies, and this month his press secretary said the president is “encouraged to get bipartisan attention from Congress in passing legislation to address the power of tech platforms through antitrust legislation.”

Bruce Reed, the White House deputy chief of staff, and Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, met on Wednesday with executives at companies like Yelp and Sonos, which are lobbying for antitrust action against the tech giants. The White House discussed “the challenges entrepreneurs, retailers, and other businesses face in competing in industries dominated by several major platforms.” The administration said it expects to work with Congress, but has not passed any of the specific legislation for corporations.

The complexity is that while the two parties broadly agree that Congress must do something, they often disagree on what that should be.

Dozens of privacy, speech, security, and antitrust bills have faded over the past few years amid disagreements over how to balance protecting consumers while spurring Silicon Valley growth. Some bills, such as those for online content control, are particularly polarizing: Democrats have called for measures to force companies to remove more misinformation and content that harms the real world from their sites. Republicans supported legislation to force companies to release more content.

“With Big Tech, everyone has a choice, but when it comes to getting something done, bipartisanship dissolves,” said Rebecca Allensworth, a Vanderbilt Law School professor who specializes in antitrust law.

“At the end of the day, regulation is regulation,” he said, “so you’re going to have a hard time getting a lot of Republicans on board for a bill that’s seen as a heavily aggressive takedown through Big Tech regulation.”

For example, the bill, which the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to pass on Thursday, could prevent Amazon from directing shoppers to Amazon-branded toilet paper and socks, making it harder to find comparisons for those products from other brands. It could force Apple to allow alternatives to Apple Pay in iPhone apps. It can also prevent Google from placing its own services, such as travel prices, restaurant reviews, and shopping results, at the top of search results.

Introduced by Ms. Klobuchar and Iowa Republican Senator Charles E. Grassley, the legislation aims to address concerns that a handful of tech giants are acting as gatekeepers for digital goods and services. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Facebook have a combined market capitalization of $7 trillion.

“In recent years, Big Tech has taken on an increasingly large role in determining what Americans buy, hear, see and say online,” Grassley said in a statement. He added that the legislation aims to “bring more fairness for small businesses and greater transparency for consumers to these dominant online platforms.”

A coalition of consumer groups and dozens of tech startups support the bill. Some consumer advocates have likened the legislation to a law that compels monopoly TV providers to offer access to all networks to cable customers. They say this action did not lead to the death of the cable television business, but prevented monopoly providers from stifling competition.

“Consumers will benefit from this bill by making it easier to install, choose and use alternative apps and online services,” said Sumit Sharma, senior researcher for technology competition at Consumer Reports, “making it easier for both consumers and small businesses to switch services from different providers. ecosystems by mixing and matching.”

Silicon Valley lobbyists battled the bill in published opinion papers, ad campaigns, and one-on-one appeals. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, have urged lawmakers to oppose the bill.

The companies’ lobbyists argued that the legislation could make it harder to prevent malware and bugs on devices and make their services less useful. In blog post On Tuesday, Google’s chief legal officer, Kent Walker, drew a grim vision of the implications he and other bills could have: If the law passed, the company might have to stop including maps of vaccine sites in search results. It may need to stop spam blocking on Gmail. It may not show someone seeking medical help “clear information” and “may instead be asked to refer you to a mix of low quality results”.

The companies have also said that bids that focus on their size will hurt small businesses. In recent months, Amazon has urged merchants selling products through its marketplace to contact lawmakers about their concerns about invoices.

The company’s vice president of public policy, Brian Huseman, said in a statement that the legislation could jeopardize Amazon’s ability to offer these sellers Prime shipping benefits or allow them access to its platform.

Ms. Klobuchar’s bill specifically targets a growing business for Amazon: to compete directly with outside merchants by offering their own products, such as the Amazon Basics line.

He argues that many major retailers, such as Amazon, Costco, and Walmart, are doing the same. “The bill authors seem to target common retail practices and, disturbingly, choose Amazon while giving preferential treatment to other major retailers engaged in the same practices,” Huseman said.

If the Judiciary Committee supports Ms. Klobuchar’s bill on Thursday, her sponsors will face an even greater challenge as 60 senators support her. In the House, advocates of antitrust bills need to get enough Republicans on board to account for Democrats who oppose the proposals.

“They talked about the array of legislative possibilities,” said William E. Kovacic, former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. “None of them happened. And the clock is ticking.”

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