Nextgov, November 11, 2020

By Frank Konkel

Based on what he’s seen so far, Aaron Cooper, vice president of global policy at BSA | The Software Alliance, said he expects the Biden administration to “take a serious look at how different parts of the tech industry behave.”

“I don’t think you’ll see a policy shift toward Silicon Valley or giving tech a free pass,” Cooper said. “There’s a lot of focus right now on making sure companies are acting responsibly. From an enterprise software perspective, that’s something companies take very seriously.”

Because there is bipartisan consensus that big tech requires regulation and federal privacy laws need revamping, Cooper said he’ll be looking to the “culture within the administration and Congress of people working together” for clues toward how much may be accomplished. Tech policy, he said, is one of the few areas where lawmakers in both parties tend to find significant agreement. The devil will be in the details, he said, and in whether partisan rancor hinders results.

“If there’s a really partisan next four years, overall it will be harder to find issues like privacy where we could find bipartisan consensus,” Cooper said. “But there’s an interest among members of Congress to work together where they can, and you can’t say that’s plausible about a lot of bills that get introduced into Congress.”

Read More >>

Original Posting: https://www.nextgov.com/policy/2020/11/bidens-top-priorities-offer-few-clues-technology-policies/169973/