This is an important discussion to protect America’s democracy. Most of our political discussion as a society happens online. The public square is now big online social media platforms, which are pretty shielded from competition due to network effects. This document leads with some loaded language, but I think its core ideas are true - technology companies have employees that are overwhelmingly left leaning and this shows up in their products - like their terms of service, content polices, moderation practices, etc. That skews our entire democratic process.
The recommendations on Page 10 are actually very mild. It’s basically pushing for transparency, and it’s hard to argue for something so basic. But I think the recommendations should actually go much further. Personally I think technology platforms above a certain number of users should just be treated like public utilities or common carriers and regulated to serve all users neutrally. Your power utility (even if privately operated) cannot cut you off based on your political opinion, and it shouldn’t be possible for big tech companies to do the same.
The recommendations on Page 10 are actually very mild. It’s basically pushing for transparency, and it’s hard to argue for something so basic. But I think the recommendations should actually go much further. Personally I think technology platforms above a certain number of users should just be treated like public utilities or common carriers and regulated to serve all users neutrally. Your power utility (even if privately operated) cannot cut you off based on your political opinion, and it shouldn’t be possible for big tech companies to do the same.