For years, there's been a lot of talk on Capitol Hill about cracking down on or "reining in" Big Tech, but after angry press conferences and spirited hearings where tech industry representatives were grilled, there remains no actual legislation passed. With 2022 here and the clock now ticking toward the midterm elections, some political observers are calling this the do or die moment for Congress to act against Big Tech.
Republicans and Democrats have both talked a lot about holding Big Tech accountable, but they're not talking about the same thing. "There's this illusion that there is bipartisan consensus on the issue of regulating Big Tech, and that's because lots of Republicans say they want to do something about Big Tech and lots of Democrats say the same thing," says Allum Bokhari, Breitbart Tech Correspondent and author of #DELETED: Big Tech's Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal the Election. "But they want very, very different things from the tech companies."
"Democrats want to use the power of the tech companies to control the political landscape even further than it is already being controlled," he continues. "Republicans, if they want to regulate Big Tech at all, really want a much more censorship-free discourse, like we had before 2016."
The one area of Big Tech law where there does appear to be agreement is antitrust legislation, with some bipartisan bills already introduced last year. But even in that area, Bokhari cautions the GOP to tread carefully. "Republicans who are considering getting on board with this antitrust legislation---even though it seems quite good on the face of it---you have to be wary about who you're giving that power to," he tells KTRH. "Because in this case it will be the Biden FTC doing all the enforcement."
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