Primer: Regulating Big Tech

This week Political Union will be considering a  timely resolution: should the government be imposing stricter regulations on big tech? 

Given Tik Tok’s recent stint as the focus of a congressional investigation [5 minute read]; scrutiny of Meta’s role in compromising election integrity [5 minute read] and mental health; and flip-flopping nervousness and excitement around the development of new artificial intelligence technologies [6 minute read]—it is no surprise that technology regulation is foremost on the minds of many legislators. These controversies provide ample reason for considering stricter regulations on big tech. Furthermore, there are concerns arising from its conglomerate power [20 minute read], which makes it difficult for consumers to “escape” or “resist” it. 

Some remain hesitant to regulate big tech, though. It will have impacts on industry that may compromise economic growth. There are also questions about how policy-makers will regulate speech. One could also argue that putting strict regulations on big tech would encourage companies to move abroad. Finally, there is some skepticism about the qualifications that government officials have to decide on these regulations. Though it may be fun to joke about congressmen asking whether Tik Tok needs to connect to home wifi [30 second watch], the sentiment behind these jokes is more serious. Are our government officials too old and unfamiliar with technology to be trusted writing this kind of legislation, and are they too power-hungry? The RESTRICT act [5 minute read] is the case-in-point.

We have listed some articles below that will give you some more context for this debate! 

You might want to start with this article from Harvard Business School about “The value and challenges of regulating Big Tech” [5 minute read]. The Brookings Institute makes an argument for why big tech needs to be regulated beyond antitrust [3 minute read] and for creating a “focused federal agency” to “oversee big tech” [20 minute read].

Also, take a look at these articles, one from the Washington Street Journal [15 minute read] and the other from the CATO Institute [5 minute read], discussing the impacts of social media on teenagers, as well as some thoughts on how (and how not) to go about addressing those impacts.

Finally, the Center for Strategic and International Studies argues against tech regulation for the sake of economic and national security [5 minute read].

“Regulation” by Nick Youngson is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

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