By Sarah E. Needleman and Deepa Seetharaman
As a candidate, Joe Biden lambasted Facebook Inc. for what he
considered failures to contain the spread of misinformation. His
presidential election win puts him in a position to do something
about it.
Facebook, Apple Inc., Google and other tech giants are bracing
for continued attention on their operations in a Biden
administration, with issues such as competition, innovation and
social-media platforms' policing of content likely to be in focus,
according to industry executives, analysts and academics.
Companies are watching for hints of a Biden administration's
disposition toward Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency
Act, which provides legal protections to internet platforms for
content that users post. Mr. Biden called earlier this year for
revoking the liability shield for platform owners.
"Biden will be under significant progressive pressure to crack
down on large platforms," said Darrell West, a senior fellow at
Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation.
A potentially divided Congress may limit Mr. Biden's efforts to
pursue any policy overhaul. Industry observers have said his
administration could turn to executive orders or federal agencies
to push for changes at companies. Last month a Democrat-led House
panel released a report scrutinizing four of the major tech
companies -- Apple, Amazon.com Inc., Facebook and Alphabet Inc.'s
Google -- and the market power they wield.
In a separate hearing, senators questioned the chief executives
of Google, Facebook and Twitter Inc. on prospects for Section 230
changes.
With a divided government, Big Tech has "avoided some risk
legislatively, " said Bradley Tusk, a tech investor and chief
executive of the early-stage investment firm Tusk Ventures.
Mr. Biden will enter the White House following a shift in the
way U.S. government officials view Silicon Valley. The nation's
biggest tech companies were once embraced as economic engines and
U.S. success stories, but Democratic and Republican lawmakers now
view their clout with suspicion, and recent polls suggest people
who use their products feel similarly.
Like President Trump, Mr. Biden has criticized Big Tech's market
power and has said he would support stricter antitrust oversight,
though industry observers have said they expect the president-elect
to focus, at least initially, on battling the coronavirus pandemic,
which he identified as a priority during his victory speech.
Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and critic of tech
platforms, said he hopes the Biden administration will scrutinize
the companies' approaches to competition, data privacy and consumer
safety. He also hopes the administration will bolster funding for
agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and Justice
Department's antitrust division, which could help support existing
regulatory probes into tech giants.
Mr. Biden will inherit the Justice Department's antitrust
lawsuit against Google, which alleges that the company uses
anticompetitive tactics to preserve a monopoly for its flagship
search engine and related advertising business. Google's legal
chief, Kent Walker, said last month that the lawsuit was deeply
flawed. Mr. Biden's campaign didn't respond to a request for
comment on the matter.
Separately, Facebook, Apple and Amazon are facing antitrust
scrutiny. Chief executives from all three companies have defended
their practices and said they face competition across their
respective businesses.
Mr. Biden has expressed concern about the effect tech
innovations such as self-driving vehicles could have on people with
middle-class jobs, and he has been outspoken about using regulation
to force businesses including Uber Technologies Inc. to reclassify
their independent contractors as employees. California voters
approved a ballot measure exempting Uber, Lyft Inc., DoorDash Inc.
and similar companies from a state law requiring drivers to be
classified as employees, a move that potentially sets the tone for
gig-worker regulation across the U.S.
Aaron Levie, chief executive of software maker Box Inc., said he
expects improved relations between Big Tech and Mr. Biden's
administration. "We're in for a new era of how the White House will
collaborate with the technology industry," he said.
Mr. Levie, a critic of Mr. Trump, said the voices of tech
companies haven't been heard over the past four years on matters
such as immigration, consumer privacy, data security and China.
"There have been no meaningful conversations on these topics," he
said.
Early efforts by big tech companies and Mr. Trump to work
together were quickly strained by the travel ban enacted in the
first weeks of his administration. Tech leaders were among the
earliest and most vocal critics of Mr. Trump's immigration order.
Mr. Trump and his appointees went on to enact broad-scale
regulatory scrutiny of tech companies, including allegations of
anticonservative bias online, antitrust investigations of internet
giants and actions against Chinese-owned apps such as TikTok and
WeChat. The administration has underscored its aggressive efforts
to improve the business climate, including for Silicon Valley, and
to boost job creation.
The White House had a cordial relationship with Silicon Valley
when Mr. Biden served as vice president, and the Obama
administration chose not to pursue antitrust complaints against
Google and other large tech firms. The vice-president-elect,
California Sen. Kamala Harris, also has strong ties to executives
behind the nation's technology giants.
Yet tech companies face significant regulatory risks, according
to analysts. Tech companies in recent years have ramped up spending
on federal lobbying, and that activity is expected to continue in
the years ahead, analysts have said.
"Biden will be tougher than Obama on the tech sector because the
party has shifted to the left on that issue," said Brookings's Mr.
West.
Tech companies expect a warmer reception with a Biden
administration on issues such as immigration after battling Mr.
Trump over H-1B visa restrictions. The president-elect could undo
some changes pushed by the Trump administration, though business
groups have said Mr. Biden might favor stricter policies regulating
H-1B visas to boost recruitment of workers already in the U.S. for
in-demand occupations.
Okta Inc. CEO Todd McKinnon said the cloud identity-management
company has shifted some research and development outside the U.S.
during Mr. Trump's term. He said he is hopeful that Mr. Biden will
make recruiting foreign talent easier.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com and Deepa
Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 09, 2020 11:26 ET (16:26 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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