The Republican Party has for decades been cheerleaders for corporate America, limited regulations, and free market orthodoxy, but now it favors reining in Big Tech by expanding the role of government.
This anti-corporate evolution has come about due to monopolistic behavior by tech giants such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon and their muzzling of conservative voices online, starting with former President Donald Trump.
Whether it’s driving bipartisan legislation in Congress focused on the antitrust and data privacy issues of the tech giants or partisan bills at the state level scrutinizing social media companies’ censorship of conservatives, the GOP has taken unprecedented aim at the tech companies in the past few years.
Thanks in part to Trump and the advent of globalization, the party is far more populist and less libertarian than it was in 2010, particularly so when it comes to scrutinizing powerful corporations, including the Big Tech companies.
Trump’s administration pushed for significant antitrust enforcement of the tech giants, most prominently displayed in the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to sue Facebook for anti-competitive conduct.
There were also multiple investigations and lawsuits pertaining to Google, Amazon, and Apple that were started in 2020, during the last year of the Trump presidency, and have continued during the Biden administration.
Public demand across the board has also risen for the federal government to take more antitrust actions.
A majority of people, regardless of political affiliation, says tech giants are too big and should be regulated, according to a poll from earlier this year. Almost half says the government should break up the companies altogether.
Another key element that has pushed Republicans to bash on Big Tech is the content moderation rules of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, which the GOP says unfairly result in the censorship of conservatives.
Republican leadership in the House and Senate have been highly critical of social media companies for having what they call biased content moderation standards and for censoring content in a lopsided manner that benefits liberals.
Prominent examples of censorship that has hurt conservatives on Big Tech platforms recently include Trump’s widespread social media bans, the suppression of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden before the 2020 election, social media platform Parler being banned by Amazon, Apple, and Google earlier this year, and Google suppressing conservative news outlets in search results in the past few years.
Democrats and liberals, however, challenge conservative allegations of online bias, citing studies that have concluded social media companies don’t discriminate against conservatives and that the anti-conservative censorship claims are a form of disinformation or falsehood.
Most Republicans, including Trump, want to even the playing field online by amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the law that gives online platforms legal immunity for third-party content, to ensure content moderation decisions “are done in good faith, based on objectively reasonable criteria,” according to House Republicans’ Big Tech agenda.
Furthermore, many Republican-controlled legislatures around the country have passed laws or are pushing for bills that would restrict Big Tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter from moderating content or blocking users on their platforms.
Lawmakers in Texas and Florida have already passed laws that mandate greater transparency regarding content moderation and prevent social media platforms from canceling conservative speech. Arizona, North Dakota, Utah, and dozens of other states have introduced content-moderation bills in the past few months.
Some of the top Republicans in Congress have even gone so far as to say they support the break up of Big Tech companies, an idea that would be unthinkable less than a decade ago.
Holding Big Tech companies accountable for problematic behavior is one of the few issues that both parties are able to agree upon in the highly polarized political environment of today.
Six bipartisan anti-Big Tech bills that passed at the committee level over the summer will head to the House floor in the coming months, marking Washington’s most significant and serious attempt at reshaping the technology industry.
The legislative package represents the largest expansion of the federal government’s antitrust powers in generations.
