Post-Election Analysis 2020: Technology & Communications

Key Takeaways

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• President-elect Biden and Republican congressional leaders will find themselves on the opposite side of several key technology policy issues, including net neutrality, online privacy, autonomous vehicle regulation, and civil rights protections in connection with artificial intelligence and facial recognition. The executive branch likely can act alone to address some of these issues, including having the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reinstate the Obama-era net neutrality rules. Progress on longstanding congressional priorities such as online privacy legislation, however, will require congressional leaders to compromise on persistent political differences that may require a fresh approach.