What I Hope to Learn from the Tech Giants

Elected officials will have a chance to question those who run Silicon Valley tech giants. This public scrutiny comes at an important time, as Americans across the political spectrum debate the ever-increasing role of these massive companies in our economy and civic society. Here are a few things I hope to learn from these hearings:

1. Transparency: We get our news from digital platforms. We interact with our family and friends on them. But how do these companies make decisions about what we see and what we don’t? And who makes those decisions? We still don’t know.
2. Privacy: Tech giants have enormous and unprecedented insight into every part of our daily lives. Most consumers have no idea how this data is being used. Do we need greater transparency when it comes to these companies’ privacy practices? And should consumers have greater control over the use of their information?
3. Online expression: The promise of digital platforms is that Americans can express themselves online in a way they couldn’t in the analog age. But recent developments suggest that this town square may not be as open as it seems. 

We need to seriously think about whether the time has come for these companies to abide by new transparency obligations.