What happened and why With Trump out of the White House, America can breath again and rejoice in a new beginning, with Joe Biden as the 46th president of the USA. Sworn in just a couple of days ago, Biden has already jumped straight into business, undoing some of the ex-president’s mess and painting a new picture. And Tech is one of the main concerns on his agenda... 🇺🇸 Besides the obvious major challenge of a pandemic and a divided nation, the President will be hard at work in the coming days, having to pull through on some other pressing issues: 1. Big Tech, Mass Influence:Twitter and Facebook are leading the pack on this issue, with regulators focusing in on the seamless dissemination of misinformation to the masses. Hate speech, disinformation on election results, facilitating foreign interference in the elections… is just the tip of the iceberg. 2. AntitrustGoogle and Facebook are both facing antitrust lawsuits. The lawmaker’s conclusion? They’ve passed a growth limit and are abusing the market. So a few days ago, a new proposal from the House Democrats was submitted - to bar companies from acquiring any other competitors when owning 50% of the market share. And the Justice Department loved the sound of it. 3. Section 230Democrats and Republicans are finally seeing eye to eye on something: Section 230, which was endorsed back in the 90s. The law safeguards tech mammoths like Twitter, Facebook and Google from liability over the content posted by their users on their platforms. Biden sees revoking it as a necessary step, stating to the NY Times that it’s “propagating falsehoods”. 4. Rural broadband“The moral obligation of our time” is how Biden sees it. In the 21st century, providing everyone with high-speed broadband is core to the evolution of the USA. He’s stepping up his game with a $20bn investment in bringing access to broadband to all communities. 5. Trade wars with ChinaOut with the old and in with the new… The US President labeled Trump’s tariff war with China as a damaging deal. In Trump’s mandate, a 15% tariff on tech devices such as laptops, tables and phones has been implemented. Both Harris and Biden have criticised the negotiations, suggesting that a new set of rules and regulations for foreign trade deals has to be endorsed. The Takeaway Tech will be going through a lot of change under Biden’s mandate, part fixing Trump’s legacy, part getting America back to the table as a the leader of progressive globalisation.
