Election 2020: The presidential candidate’s views on tech

The role of Big Tech companies, the dangers of social media platforms, and the potential of a green future are all major issues in politics right now, and whoever wins the 2020 election will shape policies around them. Below are examples of where President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden stand on tech policy:

• Closing the Digital Divide
  • Joe Biden: Has made expanding broadband part of his platform. He wants to invest $20 billion in rural broadband infrastructure, and also promises to direct the federal government – especially the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the US Department of Agriculture – to support cities and towns that want to build municipally-owned broadband networks. He will encourage competition among providers, to increase speeds and decrease prices in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
  • President Trump: Earlier in 2020, it was said at a White House press briefing that “the president is committed to ensure that rural Americans are not left behind and that their communities have access to safe and reliable high-speed broadband.”
• The Future of 5G
  • Joe Biden: Platform maintains that investing in 5G is one of the keys to maintaining America’s position as a world leader, stating that “a Biden administration will join together with our democratic allies to develop secure, private sector-led 5G networks, leaving no community — rural or low-income — behind.”
  • President Trump: In 2019, stated his administration’s goal of “winning the race to be the world’s leading provider of 5G cellular communications networks,” adding that “secure 5G networks will absolutely be a vital link to America’s prosperity and national security in the 21st century … We cannot allow any other country to outcompete the United States in this powerful industry of the future … The race to 5G is a race America must win, and it’s a race, frankly, that our great companies are now involved in."
• Net Neutrality
  • Joe Biden: The Joe Biden-Bernie Sanders Unity Task Force touched on net neutrality in a list of policy proposals, indicating a Biden administration’s intent to “restore the FCC’s clear authority to take strong enforcement action against broadband providers who violate net neutrality principles through blocking, throttling, paid prioritization, or other measures that create artificial scarcity and raise consumer prices.”
  • President Trump: In 2019, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules (although the court also ruled that states can implement their own net neutrality rules). Afterward, President Trump tweeted a congratulation to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.