Year In Review: Five Notable Tech Bills Passed This Year As Silicon Valley Faces Populist Backlash
© Presented by the Washington ExaminerCongress has managed to pass a number of small but important tech bills amid growing populist hostility to Big Tech from the left over profit margins and from the right over culture war issues.
From improving US semiconductor manufacturing capacity to restricting access to TikTok data, the House and Senate have many successful bills that impact the world. There have also been attempts to pass larger legislative changes organized by critics of Big Tech that have been blocked or resisted by tech lobbyists and advocates.
Here are the tech bills that will pass and fail in 2022.
Did privacy laws help David or Goliath?
CHIPS Act. Lawmakers are taking major steps to reduce computer chip dependence on China by passing the CHIPS Act, which would give manufacturers billions of dollars to build semiconductor factories in the United States. The bill prompted several semiconductor companies to start new plants in Arizona, New York and Ohio.
TikTok ban. Congress is growing suspicious of TikTok and its Chinese owner ByteDance because of its ties to the Chinese Communist Party and reports that Chinese officials have access to US data. Those concerns prompted Congress to wisely pass a large spending bill to ban the app from being installed on government devices.
Notify the Consumer Law. The Consumer Information Act requires online marketplaces to collect personally identifiable information from online sellers. Collecting this data will help retailers combat sellers who resell stolen goods for profit, making decisions on behalf of retailers facing high theft rates. The House of Representatives approved the bill in October and it was included in the omnibus spending bill for quick passage.
Merger Registration Fees Update Act. this bill includes comprehensive spending and merger payment update bills. The updates are intended to give antitrust regulators more money and tools to control who can merge with or acquire other companies.
The Safe Calls Act. this small bill was signed into law in november and allows victims of domestic violence to request that their phone company easily disconnect their phone line from their partner's phone line if the partner is abusive or controlling.
Did privacy laws help David or Goliath?
The legislation was not adopted. lawmakers have pushed more significant legislation over the past year, including the Open App Marketplace Act, the US Online Choice and Innovation Act and others, that would challenge the tech giants' monopoly. Like Google and Facebook. The Open App Marketplace Act would prevent app providers like Apple and Google from engaging in "anti-competitive behavior" by allowing their users to download third-party apps. The American Online Choice and Innovation Act would allow the federal antitrust agency to impose civil penalties against tech giants like Amazon and Google for unfairly selecting their own products on their platforms.
The legislation was discussed in the committee, but was not voted on due to disagreements over the content.
There are also additional privacy rules, such as the Children's Online Safety Act, which would require social media companies to verify that a user is 18 or younger.
Several of these bills are slated for reconsideration in 2023, though it's unclear how well they will succeed because of divisions in Congress.
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Tags: 2022: Overview, News, Technology, TikTok, Data, Conference, Semiconductor
Original author: Christopher Hutton
ORIGINAL PLACE. Year in review. five high-profile tech bills passed this year as Silicon Valley faces public backlash
