Last year was pivotal for the tech industry.
Twitter
underwent dramatic changes, and TikTok faced scrutiny for concerns related to Chinese espionage. However, perhaps the biggest trend in tech was the misguided effort to harm American technology companies and the security apparatuses they support.
As
Congress
and state legislatures worked to address issues from competition to privacy and security, Big Tech was positioned as the nation’s boogeyman. Before wasting another year proposing ill-advised legislation, it is time to realize that “big” doesn’t necessarily mean “bad.”
Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sought to tackle alleged anti-competitive practices by Google, Apple, Meta, and Amazon with the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICO). Leading security experts repeatedly argued the bill had serious cybersecurity problems. However, these concerns were never properly addressed because of the bill sponsors’ inability to hold a single legislative hearing on the measure. AICO placed a market cap for the tech companies it would affect. The actual market exposed a fatal flaw with this approach when, months after its introduction, Meta’s market cap dropped below that arbitrary threshold to the point where the company would no longer be affected.
The Open App Markets Act (OAMA), sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), also sought to break up Big Tech, this time undermining the security of Google and Apple’s app stores. OAMA throws aside consumer privacy and safety by forcing app store providers to allow consumers to download unverified, third-party applications on their devices. This would open a treasure trove of personal information to hackers, all in the name of “increased competition” in the marketplace. Similar bills popped up across state legislatures nationwide.
While neither of these bills became law, the pathos that motivated them makes little sense.
Lawmakers in Congress — and in state houses across the nation — should not be punishing successful American companies for providing useful products and services while keeping their infrastructure secure. App stores have created an ecosystem that connects startups, developers, and entrepreneurs to their respective audiences through increased market access. This gives these groups significant advantages that would not otherwise be possible. Additionally, the stores provide customers with trust through the privacy and security precautions built in by design.
Lawmakers championing tech-related legislation can no longer operate solely by the “big is bad” myth.
Targeting a company because of its market share alone removes the consumer, their preferences, and the benefits of the ecosystem from the equation. These companies are large precisely because so many consumers enjoy their services. Government officials need to address policy with their constituents in mind rather than focusing on legislation that would boost their political prospects. This especially includes privacy and security legislation that protects their data from malware and bad actors.
Congress worked to expand privacy and data protections for consumers with a version of the first nationwide privacy bill being introduced. States also made attempts to protect constituents from potentially harmful data practices. Last year, Virginia and Utah passed two pieces of
legislation
that dictate how companies can collect and share this data. There must be an emphasis on these protections moving forward and a turn away from breaking the protections tech companies already have in place on their devices and services.
Another item for Congress’s tech to-do list is expanding and protecting end-to-end encryption. This is a method of secure communication that prevents bad actors from accessing data while it is being transferred. The practice works to protect consumers and keep their lives — including their sensitive health and financial information — private on the devices they use every day.
Legislators can continue to go down the path of attacking some of America’s most successful companies merely because they are larger than most. Alternatively, they can better protect our cybersecurity interests. Most taxpayers will be hoping Congress chooses the latter course.
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Daniel Savickas is the Director of Policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation.
