Digital Content

The 2010s are defined by our total absorption into the digital. Engaging online quickly became a necessary part of being a person. “As more people began to register their existence digitally, a past time turned into an imperative: you have to register digitally to exist,” journalist Jia Tolentino writes. With that, she said, came the commodification of self, which keeps us endlessly tethered to the web, either as a means of self-promotion or as a way of feeding the human compulsion to connect. As we’ve remained here, our internet selves have grown more robust.

China’s control over online content is likely to tighten further with a comprehensive set of rules that defines what is bad or illegal content, and what content is encouraged, and highlights the role that algorithms play in recommending content to users. The new rules, released by the Cyberspace Administration of China, target producers of online content, including individuals and operators of apps and other platforms. The rules are set to come into effect in March.

1. Social media sites have emerged as a go-to platform for connecting with others, finding news and engaging politically. 
2. Around the world and in the US, social media has become a key tool for activists, as well as those aligned against them.
3. Smartphones have altered the way many Americans go online. 
4. Growth in mobile and social media use has sparked debates about the impact of screen time on America’s youth – and others.
5. Data privacy and surveillance have become major concerns in the post-Snowden era.

Autorité de la concurrence, France's competition authority, fined Google €150 million ($166 million) for abusing its dominant position in online advertising. At issue are the ads that appear next to search results. France's competition authority says that Google rules governing how and when advertisers can show their ads next to search results are applied in an "unfair and random manner."

As of 2019, nine-in-ten U.S. adults say they go online, 81% say they own a smartphone and 72% say they use social media. Growth in adoption of some technologies has slowed in recent years, in some instances because there just aren’t many non-users left, especially among younger generations.

Companies, including US tech giants, should be blocked from transferring European users’ data in some cases if they can’t guarantee it will be handled in compliance with European Union privacy laws, an adviser to the EU’s top court recommended. The recommendation, if followed by the EU’s Court of Justice, could unleash a 

Every year, Pew Research Center publishes hundreds of reports, blog posts, digital essays and other studies on a wide range of topics. At the end of each year, we compile a list of some of our most noteworthy findings. These are a few striking findings related to tech policy:

Social media platforms will continue to be held harmless for third-party content on their web sites according to the compromise on the US Mexico Canada Agreement trade deal announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is pushing to strip out sweeping legal protections for online content in the new trade pact with Mexico and Canada, in what would be a blow for big technology companies. Internet firms lobbied hard to include the immunity language in the trade agreement, seeing it as a way to extend to Mexico and Canada the broad umbrella of legal protection they enjoy in the US.

Tech has been given surprisingly little airtime during the 2020 Democratic primaries. It has rarely come up on the debate stage. While candidates such as Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Andrew Yang, and Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) have made tech-related issues part of their platforms, the matter is often eclipsed by other political hot topics, including health care and taxes.