The U.S. Needs a New Licensing Policy for Chinese Companies

The Biden administration inherited policies from the Trump administration that make it harder for U.S. businesses to operate in China and harder for Chinese businesses to operate in the United States. Many of those policies will lead to a wholesale decoupling between the United States and China with steep economic and strategic costs to the United States. As the Biden administration evaluates whether to continue those policies, it must grapple with how to distinguish low-risk business activities from those that threaten U.S. national security.

To Fight Online Misinformation, Criminalize Voter Suppression

Congress should salvage a provision buried in the rubble of HR1 that would hold platforms liable for election misinformation.

Self-Driving Cars Could Be Decades Away, No Matter What Elon Musk Said

Experts aren’t sure when, if ever, we’ll have truly autonomous vehicles that can drive anywhere without help. First, AI will need to get a lot smarter.

Section 230 Reform: A Typology of Platform Power

Most Section 230 reformers are motivated by a desire to constrain the power of large technology companies, but many proposals to reform Section 230 would do the opposite. They would shift power toward large technology platforms and away from people and governments, making it even harder for startups to compete with large platforms.

This paper provides a typology of these power shifts, examining the specific ways in which reform proposals could increase the power of large tech platforms. The paper then offers alternative proposals for addressing some of the concerns raised by legislators that would instead shift power in the opposite direction: away from platforms and toward people and governments.

By Matt Perault

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Well-Intentioned Section 230 Reform Could Entrench the Power of Big Tech

Despite legislators’ goal to take a bite out of Big Tech, most reform proposals would aggregate even more power in the hands of large technology platforms.