TL; DR
- The White House announced today that President Biden will sign an executive order that will attack Big Tech directly.
- The order will call for the reintroduction of net neutrality rules, an end to anti-competitive tactics and much more.
- She also calls for the establishment of so-called “right to repair” regulations, which, however, are primarily aimed at agriculture.
Earlier this week we heard rumors that US President Joe Biden was using his executive powers to push for some sweeping changes in technology. Today, the White House confirmed those rumors by announcing Biden’s intention to sign a regulation focusing almost entirely on the tech industry.
There are a total of 72 initiatives in the order. They range from the transportation sector to agriculture, healthcare, internet services and more. The initiatives send a strong signal to Big Tech that the Biden government is ready to step in.
Connected: FCC officially lifts the net neutrality rules: what now?
The biggest news in connection with the arrangement is Biden’s request to restore the net neutrality rules. These rules emerged during the Obama administration and called for broadband Internet services to be treated similarly to public utilities such as electricity, water, sewage, etc. The resolution of these rules was a major goal of the Trump administration. Ajit Pai, the then chairman of the FCC, managed to break most of the net neutrality after Trump appointed him to the position. Pai resigned as FCC chairman after Biden’s election.
The mandate also calls for a number of initiatives that target big tech directly.
Big Tech in Biden’s crosshairs
Since there are 72 initiatives in the mandate, we will not cover all of them here. However, here are some of the top big tech attacks in order:
- For Internet services, the ordinance prohibits “excessive fees for early termination” and ends “landlord exclusivity agreements that only give tenants a single Internet option”.
- Establish right-to-repair rules to “make it easier and cheaper to repair items you own by preventing manufacturers from prohibiting self-repair or third-party repairs to their products”. However, this order is specific to agriculture in the order, but could have implications for other areas.
- Call for stricter antitrust enforcement and, in particular, for antitrust authorities to challenge orders that have already been approved.
- Establish a White House Competition Council to monitor progress on all orders.
We highly recommend reading the full executive summary as it touches on many of the issues people have with big tech.
