US Senator is reportedly set to establish a new commission to help police big tech. Senator Elizabeth Warren is now on the verge of building a new agency known as the Digital Consumer Protection Commission. This very new agency will serve as a check and balance on big tech.
US Senator to Police Big Tech
There is now a new bipartisan bill that will help to establish a new federal agency that is tasked with regulating online platforms.
The bill which is sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), would reportedly create a new agency that is called the Digital Consumer Protection Commission that would then be empowered to go after giant tech companies for a slew of anti-competitive behaviors as well as failing to protect consumer privacy.
What Sen. Graham Has To Say about the New Development
“For years I have been trying to find ways to empower consumers against Big Tech,” Graham in a statement Thursday stated. “I have heard too many stories from families who feel helpless in the face of Big Tech. Stories about children being bullied to the point of committing suicide. Human trafficking. Exploitation of minors. All the while the social media platforms look the other way.”
What the New Commission Is All About
The commission specifically would ban the largest tech companies such as Amazon, Meta, and Google from providing favorable treatment to their very own products on their platforms to those of their competitors, otherwise known as “self-preferencing.” And with Federal Trade Commission as well as the Justice Department, it would also be allowed to authorize merger proposals as well as even review past ones retroactively.
The agency on the privacy front, would however guarantee users the right to know when these big tech companies collect their data. The agency would also have the power to limit targeted advertising, thus restricting it to data that is collected from user activity on-platform and then leaving out information from outside services.
Expert Analysis of the Matter
“An independent regulatory commission tasked with challenging the monopolistic power of Big Tech companies will not only provide the additional oversight needed to keep the industry in check but also complement the work of our existing regulatory bodies,” Accountable Tech executive director and co-founder, Nicole Gill, in a statement to The Verge on Wednesday said.
The bill in question also targets national security risks that are posed by foreign ownership of tech platforms, such as TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance. And if approved, the agency would require platforms such as TikTok to sell their companies to an American owner or at the least have a US-based subsidiary.
Sen. Warren as you should know has helped to start new agencies before. Following the financial crisis of 2008, she championed the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency was then later authorized by the Dodd-Frank Act, which implemented an array of Wall Street reforms back in 2010.
Graham last fall, first made mentioned that he was working on a bill to help install a “regulatory environment with teeth” to help police social media companies and firms. And following OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s appearance before Congress back in May, lawmakers such as Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) have all proposed bills to create a new agency to help regulate artificial intelligence. Bennet prior to this backed an agency that is similar to the one that is proposed by Graham and Warren.
What the Senators Have To Do to Get the Bill Passed
And at this point, the senators really do not have any other co-sponsors on the bill, so they will need to win over more lawmakers and then push for a hearing just before it has a chance to pass.
“For too long, giant tech companies have exploited consumers’ data, invaded Americans’ privacy, threatened our national security, and stomped out competition in our economy,” Warren in a statement Thursday stated. “This bipartisan bill would create a new tech regulator and it makes clear that reining in Big Tech platforms is a top priority on both sides of the aisle.”
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