U.S. President-elect Joe Biden held an online meeting with CEOs and union leaders of major corporations a week after giving the victory speech. The meeting was attended by Microsoft CEO Satia Nadella, who met Biden and Harris 'Tim' early and had the opportunity to anticipate the next four years. Nadella and others need to maintain good relations with the new government. The White House has now changed its owners, but the tough regulatory wave facing the IT industry remains.
At the time of the online meeting, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey were once again called to Congress and questioned by lawmakers. They were asked and had to answer questions about how their platform managed 'interference' and 'fake information' in previous elections. There have been many hearings of this kind before. Earlier this year, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Google's Sundar Pichai were called at a hearing on antitrust.
During President Trump's days, the spread of fake information, fake news, cybersecurity, and hacking issues drastically changed the perception and attitude toward large IT companies. These issues have served to highlight the image of a huge empire dominated by a handful of large IT companies. As a result, the EU has also prosecuted Google, Amazon, and Apple for reasons and charges of antitrust and taxes.
This trend was also formed in the United States. Accordingly, Biden and Harris governments are also expected to focus on the impact of IT on politics, national security, and the environment. The Justice Department prosecuted Google for antitrust charges weeks before the election. This is why Google illegally maintains its monopoly status through anti-competitive and exclusive activities. It has been known that the issue has been discussed in Washington DC for quite some time. Will the Biden administration continue to maintain this position? Or will they raise other issues or charges on their own? If the latter, Google could face a wider range of prosecutions or lawsuits threatening the business itself.
Angus Ward, CEO of SaaS company Bearing Point/Beyond, pointed out that it is not easy to bring antitrust charges or lawsuits against social media platforms. “The antitrust laws were not designed for products or services provided for free. However, social media is provided for free. The user does not pay for it. Monetize through data. Antitrust law targets markets with a market share of 30% or more. “It was a huge market that increased market share increased prices, and acquired monopoly status through acquisitions.”
IT-based world, discussions on new rules for fair competition and antitrust are active. There are a number of topics that the IT industry will have to discuss with the Biden government in the future.
China, technology 'arms competition'
Trump has attacked China over the past four years. It started a trade war with China targeting China's telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei. Huawei has been blacklisted. As a result, Huawei has hardly sold any devices or equipment to the United States, which is building 5G networks on a large scale. Hostile relations between the United States and China spread around the world, and the British followed the United States with a ban.
In 2020, there were many things, such as the deployment of 5G and the pandemic crisis. 2021 will be a very important year to rebuild infrastructure and run 5G networks for businesses and users. Biden emphasizes 'buy American'. Focusing on the government contracting and procurement sector, public agencies will be pressured to procure goods and services from US companies. New technology is particularly important. China is also such a new technology to invest heavily in.
"The US wants to be the leader in quantum computing, the 'Next Big Thing', so Biden will not suffocate the IT industry," Ward said. He hopes the United States will become the world's leading leader in some of these new technology fields. In particular, you will want to be ahead of China.”
There are also issues with TikTok. This summer, many thought that TikTok's US business would be sold under pressure from the Trump administration. Microsoft and Oracle were mentioned as companies to acquire TikTok. However, the deadline for banning the use of the TikTok app continues to be postponed.
In the future, these issues will be addressed in terms of the Biden and Harris administration's approach to China. Despite different motives, both Democrats and Republicans maintain a strong attitude toward China. This is one of the few issues that both parties agree on. Therefore, it is unlikely that Biden will show a tender attitude toward China. However, the language and tone will be different. They will show a more traditional diplomatic attitude. This is also what Huawei wants. They want an opportunity to 're-establish' the relationship.
Climate crisis
In addition to the pandemic, an important challenge for the Biden and Harris administrations to overcome is the climate crisis. New technologies will play an important role in the climate crisis, according to Francois Labore, head of the North American business unit at Cognite, which provides data management tools for the oil and gas, renewable energy, and heavy industries. “It's not clear what the government will do, but we do expect to focus on carbon emissions. This means oil and gas operators have to take responsibility for the amount of energy they use.”
This requires the use of more effective technologies to monitor and analyze vast amounts of data. “The US oil and gas operators and market participants need to be more transparent and focus more on sustainability to improve the way they operate. "This change will happen regardless of policy."
Privacy
Privacy (protecting personal information) will also be a significant issue. The state of California has enacted state laws, such as the GDPR, called the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). This seeks to strengthen regulations regarding the way California collects and manages data. You might think it's not a big deal because it's a law enacted in a particular state. However, different regulations from state to state can be a problem for companies. This is because different states must meet different legal requirements. This can be a headache for lawyers and compliance departments.
If another state enacts different privacy laws than the state of California, this problem becomes even more serious. This could lead to the enactment of privacy laws at the federal level. This is the US version of the GDPR that coordinates the laws of all states. IT companies may be concerned about tightening regulations at the federal level. However, it may be easier to manage one law than fifty ones.
Section 230
One of the many topics addressed in recent hearings for large IT companies is Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act (section 230). This is a law enacted a long time ago and is a legal provision that exempts the platform from liability for content posted by users. In the meantime, there has been a lot of debate about this. Trump was dissatisfied with the legal protection provision, and Biden also mentioned that Section 230 should be repealed. Therefore, this issue will continue to be controversial this year.
However, this requires a detailed approach. Eliminating this provision itself could lead to legal difficulties for many small and medium-sized sites. It is because there is no room to fight the lawsuit. Large IT platform companies will want to avoid increased responsibility.
However, many users have opposing views. To get rid of hate speech and fake information, we expect IT companies to put more effort into content management. In the Biden government, IT companies must find a 'middle zone'. One alternative is to agree to strengthen government oversight while maintaining legal immunity.
For the next four years, it is important to act in a balanced manner against these controversies. The White House and Silicon Valley should maintain a 'give and take' relationship. Although regulations for IT companies will be strengthened, cooperation from IT companies is required in relation to the climate crisis. In return, it would be possible to get help with issues such as immigration reform and visas for foreign workers. After all, a lot of debate and conversation is required.
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