Senators Elizabeth Warren (D) and Lindsey Graham (R) want to enforce this new regulator with a wide range of powers, such as issuing operating licenses to tech giants (via 9to5Mac). These licenses will be revoked in case a company does not obey the regulator’s rules repeatedly.
“Enough is enough”
“Enough is enough” is the title of a New York Times piece co-written by Warren and Graham, in which they outline their proposition and while acknowledging that tech has been of great help to humanity they say it also has “a dark side”. Their concerns are about the ways the digital world enhances sexual abuse, child exploitation, human and drug trafficking, bullying, promoting eating disorders and addictive behaviors, teen suicide and others.The authors of the bi-partisan proposal explicitly say one of the Big Tech names that would be aimed by this new federal regulator: Apple. “Apple forces entrepreneurs (and thereby consumers) to pay crushing commissions to use its App Store. A few Big Tech companies stifle all competition before it poses any serious threat”, say Warren and Graham.
A hard battle
The bi-partisan proposition sounds one hundred percent like a thunderous political statement, and likewise, it’s not something to place your trust in. Industry insiders comment that this is more of a friendly threat from the government to the Big Tech players, not a detailed plan that’s going to be actually carried out. Here’s some more from the two senators:
Enough is enough. It’s time to rein in Big Tech. And we can’t do it with a law that only nibbles around the edges of the problem. Piecemeal efforts to stop abusive and dangerous practices have failed. Congress is too slow, it lacks the tech expertise, and the army of Big Tech lobbyists can pick off individual efforts easier than shooting fish in a barrel. Meaningful change — the change worth engaging every member of Congress to fight for — is structural. […] Reining in tech giants will be hard, but it’s a fight worth fighting. If we win, Americans finally will have the tools they need to combat many online evils harming their children and ruining lives. And small businesses will have a fighting chance to innovate and compete in a world dominated by tech monopolies.
