Reuters today offers a look at the stances of Republican President Trump and his likely Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, on some key tech policy issues:
Apple CEO Tim Cook (left) confers with U.S. President Donald Trump in September 2019• Breaking Up Big Tech Companies: Biden, who was vice president during the Silicon Valley-friendly administration of President Barack Obama, has criticized Facebook and other tech giants during his campaign and proposed a minimum federal tax aimed at companies like Amazon.com Inc.
Trump, who has mixed relationships with tech companies, regularly bashing Amazon and its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, but meeting with Apple Inc’s Tim Cook, has said “there is something going on in terms of monopoly” when asked about big tech firms.
The Trump administration is conducting a wide-ranging antitrust probe into major tech companies, but both he and Biden have stopped short of calling for the companies to be broken up. Biden has said dismantling companies like Facebook was “something we should take a really hard look at.”
• Regulating Social Media: Both Biden and Trump have blasted social media companies over their handling of political content… After Twitter Inc put fact-checking labels on two of Trump’s tweets for the first time in May, the president said he would introduce legislation that may scrap or weaken Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law largely exempting online platforms from legal liability for the material their users post…
Biden, who has clashed with Facebook over its policies on political ads and manipulated videos, was the only Democratic presidential candidate who called for revoking Section 230.
• Digital Divide: Trump has said he is committed to ensuring “every citizen can have high-speed internet access”…
In January, the Federal Communications Commission approved a $20 billion rural broadband expansion fund. Biden said he also plans a $20 billion investment in rural broadband infrastructure and to triple funding to expand access in rural areas
MacDailyNews Take: As far as the tech issues covered by Reuters, there’s not much daylight between the two.
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I do know that Trump hates the notched iPhones and preferred Touch ID. That’s one of the very, very few things on which we agree. #EndTheNotch
Joe’s not sure where he is…let alone where he’s standing.
Biden is more likely to stand in his own pee.
I know where they are both in lock step:
Abolishing encryption.