For more than a decade, lawmakers and regulators have taken a straightforward approach to Silicon Valley. For big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter, this is likely to change as those in charge in Washington try to contain their power and influence.
Politicians and policymakers on both sides of the aisle are increasingly alarmed about the power these companies wield - how it could harm consumers by allowing companies to stifle competition from smaller players, use personal data for profit, and the media to distort and consumed online.
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Some on Capitol Hill are calling for a full reset. In October, the House Judiciary Committee released a damning 449-page report that found that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have turned into monopoly powerhouses.
"Companies that were once seedy, inferior startups that challenged the status quo have become monopolies that we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons," the report said.
Many Democrats in Congress support laws to dissolve technology monopolies. In the past two months, dozens of states across the country have indicted Google and Facebook. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's Justice Department is tracking Google, and a Republican-led Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Facebook.
As President-elect Joe Biden prepares for office in January and a new Congress gets to work, the days of unchecked power appear to be numbered for big tech.
"Everyone agrees that there is a serious problem that needs to be addressed," said Rep. David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island and chairman of the House Antitrust Subcommittee (who wrote the October report), during a panel discussion on New York Times month. "The era of self-regulation is over and action by Congress is needed," he said.
Here's a look at the three big problems Big Tech will face in the coming year.
Antitrust law
The antitrust target on some of the largest tech companies in the world is growing. Google and Facebook have already faced multiple lawsuits from federal and state law enforcement agencies as well as regulatory agencies.
And it's likely to get worse. Here is a quick overview:
Google
In October, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit alleging Google used anti-competitive tactics to keep its search engine business going. On December 17, 38 states filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company, accusing it of operating an illegal monopoly on digital advertising and of winning Facebook over to run ad auctions. These states also claim that Google manipulated the digital advertising markets in violation of antitrust laws. Another group of attorneys general, led by Colorado, is also expected to file antitrust proceedings against Google.
Facebook
The social media giant is facing a lawsuit from the FTC and a coalition of more than 40 states and territories. The suit accuses the company of illegally stifling innovation and stifling competition by buying and crushing smaller startups. The suit requires Facebook to handle its WhatsApp and Instagram acquisitions.
Apple and Amazon
So far, neither Apple nor Amazon have been sued by the US government or states, but the Justice Department's report singled them out for their conduct as well. The report accuses Amazon of having monopoly power over third-party providers on its website. And it accuses Apple of having a monopoly over its app store.
As the litigation continues, lawmakers' appetite grows in both parties to take legislative action against antitrust law that extends well beyond the tech industry and could affect all concentrated industries.
"It's not just the big technology companies that will be affected by these reforms," said Gigi Sohn, who served as advisor to former Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler and a distinguished associate at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy is. "It would also have a big impact on other industries that have concentrated energy, like pharmaceuticals and airlines."
Sohn added that the centrality of the Internet in our economy "has left gaping gaps in our laws" and that it is up to Congress to fill those gaps. How far the reforms could go depends largely on who is in Congress and whether Democrats and Republicans can resolve their differences on these issues.
Some key areas that Democrats and Republicans could agree on include more funding for antitrust agencies like the FTC and a change in the burden of proof on proposed mergers so that companies that exceed a certain market share are considered monopolies and have to prove their business doesn't hurt . Other areas where an agreement can be reached are data portability requirements for platforms that allow consumers to take their information with them when they go to competing services and introduce bans on platform bias, or preference platforms advertise themselves if they display their own entries above those of a competitor.
These were all ideas that emerged from the report of the House Subcommittee on Justice.
Section 230 and freedom of speech online
Calls for changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act 1996 grew louder in 2020. Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill agree that legislative changes are needed that will protect large social media companies like Facebook and Twitter from complaints about the content their users post on their platforms.
However, their views differ widely when it comes to exactly what they see as problems of the law.
Democrats are concerned about the rampant flow of hate speech and disinformation on social media, including foreign interference in the 2020 US presidential election. Biden has called for the law to be repealed.
Republicans, led by Trump, claim their speech is censored by social media sites. Earlier this year, Trump issued an executive order to get the FCC to look into how the agency can ensure social media companies don't censor content on their websites. To draw more attention to the subject, Trump vetoed a critical defense finance bill because it did not involve the removal of protection.
Meanwhile, tech companies say Section 230 protection was key to keeping their services flourishing. The liability protection gave them the choice of which content they restrict and how.
After years of resisting changes to Section 230, some companies like Facebook and Twitter say they are open to changes in the law. At a Senate trade committee hearing in October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that social media platforms "have responsibilities and it may make sense to be responsible for some content on the platform".
In the same hearing, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, proposed regulations that companies need to make their moderation processes more transparent. He also said companies could develop clear ways for users to challenge their content moderation decisions and give users more choices in how algorithms sort their content.
Still, he warned lawmakers not to go too far with their reforms. And he warned that a persistent approach could stifle smaller startups in particular.
"Most of all, we want to make sure that new businesses can continue to contribute to the Internet and conversation," said Dorsey.
privacy
Who owns your personal information and how should companies protect the information they collect about you? That's the big question that many people hope Congress will answer in 2021.
2020 should be the year that Congress passed federal data protection laws. There has been a lot of talk in Washington about comprehensive data protection laws under the European Union's 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which significantly increased the requirements for storing and sharing consumer data. As the government dragged its feet and debated what the US should do, California followed the GDPR with its own consumer protection law, the CCPA, which went into effect January 1, 2020. Other states have taken similar steps. Although some proponents would say the CCPA doesn't go far enough, it is still the most comprehensive data protection act in the United States. And it could serve as a basis for federal protection.
But despite more than 20 data protection laws or bills being introduced and debated in Congress, there is still no law.
Experts agree that a step-by-step approach by states is not enough to adequately address consumer privacy. And they agree that this could create costly and complicated compliance requirements for individual companies. Sohn said there is already a vote on many privacy issues and she hopes something can be worked out in 2021.
In December, there were signs that Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee had begun to find common ground for legislation. Earlier this month the committee held a hearing containing testimony from a non-partisan group of former FTC commissioners, including three former chairmen. The main differences between Democrats and Republicans in terms of proposed legislation remain, but it appears that a federal data protection bill will be a major topic for the next Congress.
The FTC is also putting pressure on businesses, soliciting several, including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and ByteDance, the owners of TikTok for information about how they collect and use their users' personal information. The FTC also wants to know how these companies sell this information to advertisers and how the practices affect children and adolescents.
"These digital products may have been introduced with the simple goal of connecting people or stimulating creativity," wrote FTC commissioners Rohit Chopra, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Christine Wilson in a statement in support of the requests. "In the decades since then, the industry model has shifted from supporting user activity to monetization."
The statement continues, "Never before has there been an industry that has been able to monitor and monetize so much of our personal lives. Social media and video streaming companies are now tracking users everywhere through apps on their ever-present ones Mobile devices. This constant access enables these companies to monitor where users go, what people they interact with, and what they do. "
What these companies do with the data remains "dangerously opaque", according to the commissioners.