Tech Policy Is a Public Health Issue

To enable social distancing, institutions including schools, governments, workplaces, and libraries are moving many of their daily functions online. The successes — and failures — of these efforts can tell us a lot about how tech policy is (or isn’t) working in America, and where it needs to go. The biggest hurdle is access to broadband at home. Without a stable connection, it’s difficult-to-impossible to work or attend classes remotely. And if your internet service provider can discriminate against certain kinds of traffic or services, teleworking and remote education software — from Zoom to bespoke remote connection setups — is completely at the mercy of your ISP. Plus, telehealth is increasingly understood not just as a way for people who are too far from a doctor to get help, but as a way for doctors to see more people quickly, and to reduce contamination risk. Vital, bandwidth-intensive services like telehealth shouldn’t need special deals with ISPs to avoid being throttled, or subject to discriminatory data caps. In short, the infrastructure has to be in place, it has to be affordable, and it has to be open.