In an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, President Joe Biden called on Democrats and Republicans in Congress to come together what he called “Big Tech abuses” and urged lawmakers to pass “strong bipartisan legislation to hold” technology companies “accountable”
“The risks Big Tech poses for ordinary Americans are clear. Big Tech companies collect huge amounts of data on the things we buy, on the websites we visit, on the places we go and, most troubling of all, on our children,” the president wrote. “As I said last year in my State of the Union address, millions of young people are struggling with bullying, violence, trauma and mental health.
“We must hold social-media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit,” he added.
The president praised the nation’s tech industry as “the most innovative in the world,” hailing its accomplishments and the Americans who work in the field, but acknowledged that he is “concerned about how some in the industry collect, share and exploit our most personal data, deepen extremism and polarization in our country, tilt our economy’s playing field, violate the civil rights of women and minorities, and even put our children at risk.”
Biden went on to accuse tech companies of using personal data to “direct” users to “extreme and polarizing content that is likely to keep them logged on and clicking.”
“All too often, tragic violence has been linked to toxic online echo chambers,” the president said.
Biden also accused some web and social media platforms of allowing “abusive and even criminal conduct, like cyberstalking, child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual pornography, and sales of dangerous drugs” as well as putting small businesses at a disadvantage and stifling competition.
Biden said that he has embraced “three broad principles for reform,” including:
- Enacting federal protections for Americans’ privacy;
- Reforming Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in an effort to make tech companies take responsibility for the content on their platforms, and;
- Boosting competition in the technology sector
The Section 230 aspect in particular could be one where the president garners bipartisan support. A number of Republicans have called to eliminate or alter the code, which shields providers from immunity from content posted on their platforms, including Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.
In 2020, Trump vetoed the must-pass annual defense spending bill because it did not contain language to repeal Section 230; lawmakers ultimately overrode Trump’s veto.
Additionally, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month over the extent to which federal law protects the tech industry from such claims when social media algorithms push potentially harmful content.
In the cases the high court agreed to hear, relatives of people killed in terrorist attacks in France and Turkey had sued Google, Twitter, and Facebook. They accused the companies of helping terrorists spread their message and radicalize new recruits.
In his op-ed, Biden touted the efforts his administration has done to rein in the technology sector — including developing new privacy rules for commercial data and securing enhanced funding for antitrust enforcement — but acknowledged that the executive branch’s power is limited without Congressional action.
“We need bipartisan action from Congress to hold Big Tech accountable,” Biden wrote. “We’ve heard a lot of talk about creating committees. It’s time to walk the walk and get something done.”
“There will be many policy issues we disagree on in the new Congress, but bipartisan proposals to protect our privacy and our children; to prevent discrimination, sexual exploitation, and cyberstalking; and to tackle anticompetitive conduct shouldn’t separate us,” Biden concluded. “Let’s unite behind our shared values and show the nation we can work together to get the job done.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.