Tech companies in Silicon Valley have a reputation for being partial to Democratic politicians. Conservatives believe Washington regulators have returned the favor in recent years by imposing policies favorable to tech giants like Facebook and Google, and they’re speculating about whether that could change if Republicans win the executive branch.
“It’s hard to tell where Silicon Valley ends and the White House begins when it comes to tech policy under this administration,” according to Drew Johnson, the executive director of nonprofit group Protect Internet Freedom. From a conservative perspective, he added, “The Obama administration is bought and paid for by Silicon Valley.”
Johnson cited two agencies that have been particularly active: the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. The FTC has declined opportunities to hit Google for alleged violations of antitrust law, while the FCC has been largely revolutionizing the regulatory landscape in a manner that critics believe is designed to help tech giants.
“Federal agencies have favored companies of all varieties over the years. The FCC, in particular, has been a hotbed of favoritism for one tech giant especially: Google,” said David Williams, the president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. “Google has used the FCC to advance their business interests.”
Williams and Johnson said that process was most apparent when the FCC voted last year to reclassify broadband Internet providers as common public utilities, but carved out companies like Google after company executives surreptitiously met with agency officials.
This year, the agency is considering whether to impose significant new restrictions that would limit how broadband providers can collect personal data on their customers. Critics say that move is also designed to benefit tech giants by giving them a monopoly on the power to collect information.
As Democratic regulators have worked to impose restrictions that would reduce competition for tech companies in one area, they have also been working to open a new market for them in the area of cable television. A proposal making its way through the FCC would allow companies like Apple, Google and Amazon to begin selling the set-top cable boxes that have traditionally been handled by satellite providers.
Critics believe the move is blatantly designed to help Democratic allies, especially after President Obama took the unusual step of calling on the FCC to act in April. The market, Obama said, wouldn’t work “if we get closed systems or if people are gaming the system.”
As a result, both Republicans and the industries being put at a disadvantage by the regulatory changes have concluded that Washington has been working to help Silicon Valley gain an unfair advantage. Observers are conflicted about whether that could change in the near future.
“There is no reason to believe that a Hillary Clinton administration will stop this cronyism and growth of the regulatory state, especially through the FCC,” Williams said. “A Donald Trump administration would be difficult to gauge considering his lack of specificity on policy issues, especially tech. A Gary Johnson administration would probably address some of these issues considering, his criticism of crony capitalism.”
Jon Leibowitz, who served as the FTC’s Democratic chairman from 2009-13, said his agency tends to be consistent regardless of the party in power.
“An independent agency like the FTC changes less than the executive branch does, because it has a balance of people from the president’s party and not,” said Leibowitz, who is now an attorney at Washington-based Davis Polk & Wardwell. “They’re always trying to find a consensus, and there is a consensus, I think, on the priorities for the agency, and I think that will continue.”
However, Johnson said the FCC’s growing influence meant that agency could experience a dramatic change if Republicans take power. “Silicon Valley’s influence would be reduced under a Republican administration because tech companies aren’t going to support a GOP candidate, and Silicon Valley simply hasn’t been reasonable towards Republicans during Obama’s tenure.”
“Tech companies have advocated and benefited from policies that pick winners and losers in the marketplace, give out ridiculous subsidies and harm companies and industries that don’t kowtow to progressive policies,” he added. “The GOP won’t forget that.”
