A blueprint for US tech policy
What direction might tech policy take in the next Trump Administration? What can we expect around data privacy, social media content moderation, artificial intelligence, and antitrust legislation?
Recently, policymakers from across the political spectrum have been taking action to rein in Big Tech. Both Red and Blue states—from Montana and Utah to California and New York—have passed an ambitious array of laws intended to protect children, give users more choice, protect free speech, and reduce censorship.
The Justice Department has deepened long-standing scrutiny of anticompetitive behavior by accused Big Tech monopolists, aggressively enforcing antitrust lawsuits that were initially brought against companies like Google and Meta during the first Trump Administration. And unless the courts, current Administration, and President-elect take the extraordinary step to delay a law passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, TikTok’s parent company will be forced to sell the platform to an owner without ties to the Chinese Communist Party—or cease its US operations early next year.
In the last week, other countries have also taken steps to protect children from internet harms and increase competition. Australia became the first country in the world to ban social media for children under 16 years old, though authorities are still working through how to ensure such a ban is enforceable. And Canada's Competition Bureau, its antitrust watchdog, is suing Alphabet (Google's parent company) over anti-competitive behavior related to its advertising business.
Will the bipartisan push to regulate Big Tech continue, or will we see a different approach to tech policy in the next four years? In this newsletter, we explore several issues that the new Administration will have to contend with from day one.
We also highlight Project Liberty's Policy Blueprint for the People’s Internet, a set of 17 actionable policy actions for states, the federal government, and US allies to start immediately addressing these issues—and in turn, give the people a voice, choice, and stake online.
// Tech policy for the next administration
The next Trump administration will confront a range of tech policy issues.
- Data Control and Privacy: The fate of the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), a bipartisan proposed bill that would establish a national consumer data privacy standard, remains uncertain. If there is a lack of progress at the federal level, states will likely continue passing their own laws that give individuals more agency over their information, protect kids, and safeguard privacy.
- Data Portability and Interoperability: Internet users are increasingly aware of the power in their personal digital data. From social graphs to health and biometric data, data interoperability, data portability, and data agency will increasingly be considered fundamental rights in the digital age.
- Content Moderation: There’s nuance in moderating content: moderate too little and the internet becomes unsafe, particularly for young users. But moderate too much and it could be perceived as censorship. One example of a bill is KOSA, the Kids Online Safety Act, which passed the Senate in July, but has yet to pass the house. Critics have argued that the proposed legislation overreaches, and the new Administration and lawmakers will inevitably grapple with the nuances and tension between safety, privacy, and speech.
- Antitrust Lawsuits & Enforcement: The new Administration will inherit ongoing antitrust lawsuits against Big Tech companies like Google and Meta (several of which began during Trump’s first term).
- Artificial Intelligence: One of the dominant tech stories in the last four years has been the explosion of AI chatbots, tools, and companies. It’s hard to predict where AI will be in the next four years, let alone the next four months, but the new Administration will face a range of opportunities and challenges—from addressing AI-generated misinformation to ensuring the global supply chain of semiconductors is secure.
- Web3 & crypto: The Trump victory was celebrated by the cryptocurrency industry, but it’s unclear exactly how the new Administration will influence the crypto and web3 space. The decentralized web ecosystem continues to garner attention and momentum, as new decentralized protocols and blockchains gain adoption.
- TikTok: A law signed earlier this year would force a sale of TikTok’s US operations by January 19 from its current Chinese owners. If courts delay that deadline into President-Elect Trump’s term, it is unclear what the Trump Administration might do. President Trump tried to block TikTok and force its sale in 2020, but his recent promise to “save Tiktok” could mean ensuring it survives with new American owners or negotiating changes to the law.
- The surge of policy activity at the state level: State lawmakers have been busy in 2024 advancing bills and passing laws around online privacy, safety, and speech. There are multiple opportunities to shape policy at the state level, and the next Administration will be confronted with a diversity of approaches that states have taken—from regulating to liberating what happens online.
Regardless of how the Trump Administration approaches tech policy, there is urgent work to be done to fix social media and the internet at large, with steps the new Administration can take starting on January 20th.
// A nonpartisan approach to building a better digital future
Long before the election, Project Liberty started developing a set of nonpartisan policy recommendations that the next administration could adopt to transition from the era of big tech to the era of the people’s internet.
The Policy Blueprint for the People’s Internet includes key policy actions that address the deeper, structural problems in today’s internet.
The Blueprint is based on four principles:
- People should control their identity, data, and online experiences: We must shift to a people-centric internet where individuals – not Big Tech platforms – have control of their digital lives and the personal information that animates it.
- Social networks should be interoperable and compete fairly. We must restore a competitive and open internet by enabling comprehensive data portability and allowing different platforms to work together seamlessly while realigning the economic incentives for internet platforms.
- Children should be healthy, safe, and supported to grow online: We must act to safeguard children from the physical and emotional harms magnified by the attention economy, while protecting their privacy and free speech.
- Democracies should come together to create an internet that respects democratic values and individual rights.
// A blueprint for a way forward
In service of these goals, the Blueprint enumerates a set of 17 policy actions. Here is a snapshot:
- Affirm the right for anyone to reclaim their social graph data.
- Adopt an interoperability standard that enables platforms to work together seamlessly.
- Ban targeted advertising to kids.
- Require platforms and device manufacturers to implement age verification and parental consent systems that protect children’s privacy.
- Establish consumer protection statutes that give consumers the right to understand why they’re being targeted in plain-English (algorithmic visibility) and the right to opt-out of social media curation.
- Recommit to a global internet embodying democratic values in international statements, standard-setting efforts, and multilateral efforts to establish rules of the road.
The next Administration can harness this policy momentum to make the internet what it was originally intended to be: a decentralized, democratized tool to expand opportunity and empower individuals. The Blueprint is just the start of Project Liberty’s nonpartisan work to make meaningful progress over the next four years.
You can read the full Blueprint here.
We’d love to hear from you. What achievable policy actions do you think should be pursued?
