Most Republicans readily agree they should use their forthcoming House majority to take on the so-called Big Tech companies that dominate everything from social media to online shopping.
But many disagree on how to do it.
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GOP lawmakers across the party’s ideological spectrum have clashed over which Big Tech overreach they consider the most offensive, in what order to tackle their policy priorities, and how to navigate the industry’s fierce opposition to regulatory changes that could curb its power.
Republicans have pledged to use their investigative abilities to examine the business practices of the largest technology platforms when they return to Washington in January. Their areas of interest are scattered enough that the Big Tech battle could end up dividing a GOP that is already facing even deeper rifts.
Here are the different pieces of the Republicans’ Big Tech agenda.
SECTION 230 REPEAL
Many Republicans, and even some Democrats, back at least modest reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Some GOP lawmakers have pushed to scrap it altogether.
Section 230 shields social media platforms from legal liability for the content posted on their sites.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently laid out the Democrats’ argument in favor of overhauling the measure, and it could collide squarely with the Republican quest to limit censorship.
He said the rise in antisemitic content online should give lawmakers a reason to revisit a law that prevents social media platforms from facing responsibility for allowing such content to exist.
But Republicans have argued that social media companies hide behind Section 230 to moderate content on a partisan basis.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced a bill in 2019 that would strip social media companies of their Section 230 protections unless they agree to allow a third-party review of their content moderation practices to ensure they’re politically neutral.
Other Section 230 reform proposals, some of them bipartisan, would make less dramatic changes to the provision, including by creating exemptions for certain types of content or preserving the overall liability shield for social media companies while raising the standards those companies must meet to be in compliance with the law.
COMMON CARRIAGE
Some Republicans have proposed labeling Big Tech platforms as common carriers, which would subject them to laws that prevent discrimination against users.
Common carrier laws force services such as railroads and telephone networks to serve all customers equally. All companies must be permitted to ship goods on railroads under common carrier laws, for example, and railroad companies can’t show bias against types of products.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas suggested last year in an opinion that social media platforms should receive common carrier protections and the obligations that come with them.
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) introduced a bill last year that would regulate Twitter, Facebook, and other dominant social media platforms as common carriers.
The GOP argument in favor of common carriage for social media giants is that the reform would address conservative concerns about censorship under a legal framework that already exists.
SELF-PREFERENCING
Censorship is just one Big Tech behavior Republicans want to target when they gain more influence in Congress.
They also aim to go after self-preferencing, a dynamic that occurs when major commerce platforms, such as Amazon or Google, list their own products higher than other sellers’ products in search results. That gives the Big Tech platform an unfair advantage — particularly when, in Republicans’ view, the platform has gotten so big that consumers have few reasonable alternatives.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers this year pushed a bill that would stop self-preferencing, and the bill’s prospects for becoming law are good.
APP STORE ADJUSTMENTS
Legislation that some advocates pushed to pass just before Congress left for the holidays would stop major app stores, in particular Apple’s and Google’s, from limiting the ability of third-party app developers to reach customers who use their platforms.
One element of the proposal would stop app stores from requiring developers to use the Apple or Google payment system as a condition of getting listed in the store, for example.
Interest in the power of app stores grew in recent weeks when new Twitter owner Elon Musk said Apple had threatened to pull Twitter from the app store if Musk proceeded with plans to stop the platform’s aggressive content moderation policies.
TRUST BUSTERS
Some Republicans and Democrats have found common ground on the idea that a handful of Big Tech companies have gotten so large that competition in their markets is no longer fair.
Bipartisan interest in antitrust reforms for platforms such as Google and Amazon has grown on Capitol Hill in recent years, although those efforts have taken different forms.
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Some have proposed limits on major technology corporations buying up smaller startups, and others have suggested breaking up existing corporations.
The tech industry has, perhaps unsurprisingly, fought aggressively against antitrust reforms, and Democrat-led efforts in this Congress to pass antitrust laws targeting Big Tech stalled.
