Le nouveau président américain, Joe Biden, vient de prêter serment. Après une présidence Trump chahutée et critiquée dans laquelle les réseaux sociaux, et plus particulièrement Twitter, ont joué un rôle important, le 46ème Président des États-Unis est attendu sur plusieurs sujets dont la régulation des géants de la tech.
Un président déjà sous pression pour réguler les GAFAM
L'actu
President-elect Joe Biden is ascending to power after months of bipartisan momentum to expand antitrust enforcement against the tech industry and update existing competition laws for the digital era. Before even taking the oath of office, Biden and his staff are already under pressure to scale up that work.
"Basically, the Biden administration is inheriting a lot of momentum and a big opportunity to make online communications safe for democracy and fair in the commercial sphere", said Sarah Miller, who leads the American Economic Liberties Project. Article à lire dans the Washington Post.
L'Union Européenne tend la main à Washington
La main tendue
In a speech to the European Parliament today marking the inauguration of U.S. president Joe Biden, the president of the European Commission has called for Europe and the U.S. to join forces on regulating tech giants, warning of the risks of "unfiltered" hate speech and disinformation being weaponized to attack and undermine democracies.
"We must make sure that messages of hate and fake news can no longer be spread unchecked" , he added, reiterating the case for regulating social media by pressing the case for imposing "democratic limits on the untrammelled and uncontrolled political power of the internet giants”.
The European Commission has already set out its blueprint for overhauling the region’s digital rulebook when it unveiled the draft Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act last month. Although it won’t be including hard legal limits on disinformation in the package — preferring to continue with a voluntary, but beefed up code of conduct for content that falls into a grey area where it may be harmful but isn’t actually illegal. Article à lire dans Tech Crunch.
La loi Antitrust comme garde-fou
Le pouvoir
One of the biggest issues facing tech companies under President Biden will be reforms to antitrust law meant to rein in the biggest tech companies.
A scathing 449-page congressional report detailing abuses of market power by Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook likely foreshadows troubles ahead for tech firms under a Biden administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress. The report put together by a panel from the House Judiciary Committee laid out a road map for Congress to put the brakes on the dominance of the nation's four largest tech companies.
Google and Facebook are already facing multiple lawsuits from federal and state law enforcement as well as regulatory agencies.
It's unclear how far a Biden Justice Department will be willing to go in terms of antitrust enforcement and reforms. While Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts who ran for the Democratic nomination for president, pushed to break up big tech companies, Biden has said it's too early to talk about breaking up companies and instead has leaned toward regulation as a way to curb their power.
Biden critique les GAFAM mais n'en fait pas sa priorité
La position
In a revealing January 2020 interview with the New York Times editorial board, Biden said that he wanted to revoke Section 230; suggested that he disagreed with how friendly the Obama administration became with Silicon Valley; and referred to tech executives as "little creeps" who displayed an "overwhelming arrogance." But internet companies have also been among his campaign’s top 10 donors, technology industry insiders joined his campaign, and incoming vice president Kamala Harris has long-standing ties to Silicon Valley as a former district attorney in San Francisco.
Aside from broadband access, climate policy, and the coronavirus response, however, technology may not be high on Biden’s list of priorities, says Gigi Sohn, who served as counselor to Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler during the Obama administration. Article à lire dans MIT Technologie Review.
