The year ahead for technology policy

Mack DeGeurin covers Gizmodo’s breaking news, focusing on politics and tech policy. Over the next year, Mack spoke with seven of his experts across the political and policy landscape, asking them to predict some of the key trends likely to emerge in 2023. You can follow Mac coverage. Here Email story ideas and tips mdegeurin@gizmodo.com.

Top story:

Republicans in the newly-ruling House of Representatives seek to disrupt years of Democratic-led, sometimes bipartisan, technology policy initiatives by drawing attention to one singular issue. Suspected censorship campaign It was implemented at the request of the Biden administration.

Republicans claim to be biased against conservatives, as nearly all academic research shows Not enough coherent evidence— Not new, but the party’s recent successes flip the house It means that the party’s fanatical dream suddenly got a huge political capital.Recent internal communications revealed in the so-called twitter filerefuted by many, terribly overwhelmedfueled the anger of Republican presided over the House Judiciary Committee, Former President Donald Trumpdesperately wants to convince public tech companies that they’re taking orders from Democrats.

All of this may seem like a bad thing for tech companies, but it’s actually a welcome pace from former Democratic leadership, which focused on business practices and investigations into antitrust violations. can be brought about as a change in Republicans may not say fun things about tech companies, but the Republican commitment to allegations of deep government complicity does less damage to tech companies than progressive attempts to control monopolies. We are all at a plethora of congressional hearings dominated by self-righteous lawmakers complaining about “shadowbanned” accounts and disappearing tweets.

What we are waiting for:

• A series of technology-related Supreme Court cases due in 2023 could fundamentally reshape online protections guaranteed by the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. First: Judges are likely to rule on the constitutionality of the so-called Platform Decommissioning Act introduced in 2018. texas When florida Tech companies are subject to lawsuits for removing certain political content. If courts favor Republican lawmakers, many other states may follow suit with their own copycat laws.
• At the 230 front, 2 anti-terrorist incidents—Twitter vs Taamneh When gonzalez vs google— determine whether algorithmically recommended content is subject to provisions that protect publishers from liability for third-party content; “The Supreme Court [Section 230] In that case, service providers may no longer allow third-party content, or people may have fewer opportunities to express themselves online. “Frankly, I got to see a very different internet.”
• at the same time, these days Advance Generative AI models for text and image creation have the potential to increase Congressional interest in adopting legislation that enacts rules that clarify the technology’s liability for copyright and defamation claims.

Unconventional Wisdom:

apart from growing trend Among governments considering expanding digital surveillance capabilities, multiple experts interviewed by Gizmodo said the unique convergence of political oddities means Congress could essentially kill the section. said to Article 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is one of the government’s powerful legislative tools for warrantless surveillance.

Even though it’s a rule Technically Critics such as the ACLU believe that data obtained via 702 is include communication Between targets and US citizens.Its wide net is legally questionable, as critics claim loophole For federal agencies to monitor Americans.

Center-left critics have long opposed Section 702 out of concern that government agencies could abuse their powers to target political dissidents and marginalized communities. , the FBI uses Section 702 to eavesdropping Carter Page, Trump’s foreign policy director. The president’s supporters were outraged following the December 2019 incident. report A Justice Department inspector general admitted that the FBI’s on-page spy application was riddled with “factual misrepresentations and omissions.” That mutual disrespect for Section 702, held for entirely different reasons, could lead to an unlikely alliance between Trump Republicans and the Congressional Left. It is possible that one of the most powerful surveillance tools in the United States could be relegated to the dustbin of history.

people to follow

• Lina Khan: The newest chairman of the Federal Trade Commission is expectations That she would take advantage of a new era of progressive antitrust reform and put a knife in the long-running Robert Bork-inspired figure. Principles of “consumer welfare”As a result of two major antitrust lawsuits filed against microsoft And and meta Determines both Khan’s own personal legacy as chief regulator and the future of regulatory power in an age of commerce inspired by the technology industry, where many goods and services are billed to consumers as “free” .
• Ted Cruz : At this rate, with a defeated presidential candidate self-proclaimed Libertarians serve as high-ranking Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee, and can thwart many technology-related bills, especially those related to privacy. Cruise beat the “conservative tech censorship” drummer harder than anyone else, but experts Gizmodo spoke to said Cruise’s actual views on specific tech policy issues are still surprisingly unclear. said it was.
• Amy Klobuchar: One of the leading senators responsible for drafting and advocating aggressive new antitrust laws targeting high-tech companies. she had her bills before, bipartisan supportKlobuchar will have to scramble to keep those bills alive.
• Peter Thiel: PayPal and Palantir Founders Changed far-right political tycoon He could use his large war chest to lobby for less restrictive tech policies and support candidates who oppose antitrust laws and other policies aimed at dominating tech platforms. increase.

Companies to watch:

• OpenAI: Advanced AI company at the forefront of cutting-edge text and image generation models. Legal and policy debates about AI’s liability for copyright infringement and defamation may involve the company’s immense popularity. Chat GPT When DALL-E model.
• Neuralink: Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company could begin human trials this year if it gets FDA approval. Neuralink isn’t the most impressive BCI company from a technical standpoint, but its high profile means the move to human trials has fueled debates about how to properly regulate devices that claim to enhance cognition. It means that there is a possibility of bringing excitement.
• Clearview AI: A controversial facial recognition company partnered with law enforcement.following the major legal defeat This year, the company announced The intention is thatclear view consent]face-to-face system school, banks and other private companies. Clearview’s notorious privacy reputation has rekindled debates about the ethical use of biometric technology in everyday life, and could revive state and federal privacy laws that currently hold a pattern.

Longshot bet:

Growing Anxiety About the Continuity of the Transportation Security Administration roll out The issue of facial recognition verification for domestic air travel may come to the fore in protecting digital privacy policies, especially as travel increases post-pandemic. India McKinney, director of Indian federal affairs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Gizmodo that the TSA’s rapid rollout of facial recognition is forcing travelers to choose between convenience and privacy. He says he is concerned that

This debate could lead to continued support for federal legislation requiring stricter regulation and additional transparency over how federal agencies obtain and store biometric data of U.S. citizens.