Upcoming policy issue

Open Markets Institute calls on Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to immediately investigate how to protect America’s independent news media from the power and predatory business models of Google and Facebook.

Leaders of Japan, South Africa, China and Germany issued a series of calls for global oversight of the tech sector, in a clear signal of growing international interest in seizing greater regulatory supervision of an industry led by the United States. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said his country would use its chairmanship of the Group of 20 nations to push forward a new international system for the oversight of how data is used.

The Trump administration’s so-called “race” with China to build new fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks is speeding toward a network vulnerable to Chinese (and other) cyberattacks. So far, the Trump administration has focused on blocking Chinese companies from being a part of the network, but these efforts are far from sufficient.

House Democrats want to use the coming months to execute a bold tech agenda ahead of the 2020 presidential election, but they may need to make peace with each other first. While Democrats insist they bring a unified front to the issue of online privacy, they're kicking off this year with a clash between Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a thought leader on privacy issues, and House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who's committee is responsible for shepherding any such legislation. “If Democrats can’t agree with each other, how can they come to a single position with the Republicans?"

A majority of the new Democrats in the House have made public statements supporting network neutrality, giving advocates hope that the new members of Congress will have the issue in mind moving forward. Past statements from all 64 new Democrats indicate that at least 45 of them publicly supported net neutrality.

Fight for the Future is taking issue with Democratic leaders’ proposal to develop a “technological wall” to counter Trump’s demand for a physical barrier along the southern US border. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) proposed that funding on border security would be best spent investing in technology to scan cars for drugs and other contraband at legal points of entry into the country. “The positive, shall we say almost technological wall that can be built is what we should be doing,” she said.

Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) offered up an early look at how Democrats in the House may approach net neutrality legislation in the new Congress.

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) has blasted US wireless carriers for continuing to sell their users' location data after they promised to end the practice in June 2018. Sen Wyden renewed calls for Senate to adopt his legislation to ban carriers from selling mobile subscribers' location after a Motherboard report revealed that T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint continue to sell location data to third-party aggregators that are allowing the data to be resold on the black market to anyone willing to pay. 

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a Request for Comments (RFC) seeking public input on the development of a comprehensive, long-term National Spectrum Strategy. The strategy must accomplish several goals, including increasing spectrum access, improving spectrum sharing, enhancing spectrum management, and leveraging ongoing research and development activities.

This was the year when Big Tech companies were humbled, their reputations tarnished, and their share prices clobbered by a tidal wave of political outrage over misinformation, censorship, and data abuse. This public flogging may go too far.