With Midterms Looming, Biden Should Listen to Voters on Tech Policy
At her first hearing as Chair of the Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights subcommittee, Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN) delivered an eleven-minute-long opening speech about regulating Big Tech — and she hasn't slowed down since. In fact, the Democratic Party has flooded the zone with antitrust efforts in the past few months.
With all the buzz around regulating the tech industry, this hot-button issue must have voters as riled up as Congress, right?
Not quite. In a series of five polls conducted by the Chamber of Progress across battleground states this winter, regulating tech companies was ranked dead last among voters' priorities. Even among the tech policies voters were asked about, cybersecurity and preventing hacks were the primary concern, with tech competition low on voters' list of worries.
With the midterm elections approaching this fall, it's critical President Biden set the Democratic agenda straight and make progress on issues voters actually care about. Politicians calling to "break up big tech" might earn likes on Twitter, but will fall flat among voters in battleground states like Georgia, Arizona, and Colorado.
The policy landscape is crowded right now, between ongoing battles over COVID-19 vaccines, stalled voting rights legislation, and inflation. Throw in Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a Supreme Court nomination, and it's clear that President Biden urgently needs to move the needle on something ahead of the midterm elections.
But Biden shouldn't hang his hat on Sen. Klobuchar's antitrust legislation. It's not popular among the electorate, and it would be a mistake to pass sweeping and controversial changes to popular consumer products ahead of a critical midterms season.
Instead, Biden should focus on what we know works. When it comes to tech, we know voters care about cybersecurity. Better yet, Biden already has a successful track record on this issue to build on.
President Biden's administration came in aggressively on cybersecurity early in his term, appointing the first White House national cyber director to coordinate cybersecurity across agencies along with a host of other initiatives. In May of last year, Biden enacted an executive order tightening cybersecurity standards for companies selling software to federal agencies and removing barriers in the way of private companies sharing data with the government. The order was met with positive coverage from cybersecurity experts, including praise from Obama's former chief cybersecurity adviser.
This is a winning issue. It's one voters are actually prioritizing, one they see impacting their communities and their workplaces. President Biden should lean in.
Compare that to antitrust. Beyond sitting low on voters' list of priorities, consensus on whether Sen. Klobuchar’s antitrust legislation will even be beneficial is widely debated among Democrats. Our polling showed that while initial support for passing new laws to increase competition against big technology companies is high, the support proves shallow, and deteriorates after respondents hear measured arguments for and against Sen. Klobuchar’s bill.
Democratic senators from Vermont to Delaware to California have also raised serious concerns about the legislation, citing privacy risks, economic concerns, and the fact that the bill may end up protecting hate speech and misinformation online.
Even if voters support antitrust legislation in theory, the real-world effects of Sen. Klobuchar’s bill — breaking or curtailing beloved services like Amazon Prime or Apple iMessage — will be felt widely. Politically, Democrats will be the ones to pay, particularly in swing states, during an election year with already tight margins.
It's time to go back to basics. With Democrats lagging in midterm polling, Biden must turn his attention to the real issues voters care about — so our party can win and stay winning long after the midterms are over.
Adam Kovacevich is a longtime Democratic congressional and campaign aide who is CEO of Chamber of Progress, a center-left tech industry association promoting technology’s progressive future.
