Tech companies are currently facing a number of probes and investigations. Facebook and Google are currently facing probes from dozens of state attorneys general in separate cases amid broad concerns about the effects the companies have on competition and consumers. In addition, the House Judiciary Committee has also put the four Big Tech companies – Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google – under scrutiny over potential anti-competitive behavior.
A Biden-Harris administration, experts say, could signal a return to a friendly stance held during the Obama era – where Biden served as vice president – negatively affecting or even ending the ongoing probes. The pair, they note, has made little mention of antitrust or other tech industry concerns.
Biden-Harris would likely back down from harsh anti-trust punishments in favor of more transparency
Neither Biden nor Harris has made antitrust issues a key policy issue. While they have leveled some criticism against monopoly power, they've stopped short of calling for an outright breakup of Big Tech. (Related: Sen. Tom Cotton urges DOJ to investigate Google over antitrust violations.)
During Biden's tenure as vice president, President Barack Obama reportedly cultivated deep relationships with tech industry leaders such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley leaders. Since then, a number of Obama administration alumni have taken up high-ranking positions in Silicon Valley.
Harris, meanwhile, also cultivated relationships with the tech industry during her tenure as district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general in California. In addition, she has also sided with tech firms on issues such as net neutrality and taken a far less severe stance compared to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s call to break up Big Tech.
Experts believe that Harris is more likely to back up proposals that increase accountability and transparency among Big Tech firms, rather than harsh punishments that would break up business units. She and Biden may be more likely to support broader policies to rein in the companies' collective market power rather than single out any one of them.
In addition, both are likely to unwind many immigration policies implemented by President Donald Trump, who views immigration as a threat to the U.S. economy. Many tech companies rely heavily on high-skilled immigrant visas to recruit workers.
“I think she will find a middle that attempts to enforce more accountability versus breakup,” said Nicol Turner-Lee, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation, about Harris. “I would see her in support of transparency and visibility of Big Tech practices and pushing for more anti-discrimination frameworks and potentially putting in place regulation if it means more competition for small businesses.”
Biden-Harris would allow Big Tech to continue their censorship of conservatives
In light of a Biden-Harris administration's perceived friendliness to Big Tech, the Trump campaign has piled on their concerns about what would happen should they pair win. In particular, they continue to emphasize the anti-conservative bias shown by Silicon Valley.
“Big Tech has proven time and again its willingness to censor conservatives while turning a blind eye to Democrats,” stated Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary for Trump’s reelection campaign, in an interview with The Epoch Times on Sept. 17.
“It’s no secret that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have Big Tech in their pockets,” Zager said, adding that “across social media platforms, the arbitrary rules these companies create do not apply equally to every account and instead are used to silence any views in opposition to those held by the liberal coastal elites in Silicon Valley
Zager then emphasized that, should President Donald Trump be elected to a second term, he would continue to advocate for free speech on the internet. She said that a Biden-Harris victory “would enable the toxic cancel culture we’ve come to see online and allow Big Tech to silence free speech for millions of Americans.”
For more on how a Biden-Harris ticket would benefit Big Tech, follow TechGiants.news.
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