TechTank

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In this week's episode of the TechTank podcast, co-hosts Nicol Turner Lee and Darrell West kick

off 2024 with an insightful conversation on the state of tech policy with returning guests, Matt

Perault, Director of the Center on Science & Technology Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Scott

Brennen, the Head of Online Expression Policy at the Center on Technology Policy at UNC-

Chapel Hill. Together, they discuss the intricacies of state policy within the dynamic and ever-

evolving tech landscape, exploring key challenges and potential solutions that shape the future of

technology governance.

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In this week's episode of the TechTank podcast, co-host Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Stephen

Balkam, founder and CEO of FOSI, and Kara Sundby, Senior Director at KANTAR, to delve into

the findings of a new report focused on how teens and parents interact with generative AI.

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In this episode of The TechTank Podcast, co-host Darrell West engages in a conversation with

Elaine Kamarck, the Founding Director of the Center for Effective Public Management, and a

Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. Together, they explore the

transformative impact of AI on the political landscape and explore what lies ahead for the

upcoming election.

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In this episode of the #TechTank podcast, co-host Nicol Turner Lee talks with Congresswoman

Yvette D. Clarke about her prior and current legislative directives focused on AI regulation, and

the urgency given the explosion of generative AI systems. The Congresswoman is a Senior

Member of both the House Energy and Commerce Commission, and the House Committee on

Homeland Security.

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In this episode of the TechTank podcast, co-host Darrell M. West explores potential paths forward in the

safety of kids online with Matt Perault, a professor at UNC's School of Information and Library Science,

and Scott Brennen, the head of online expression policy at UNC's Center on Technology Policy. As co-

authors of the report "Keeping Kids Safe Online: How Should Policymakers Approach Age Verification",

both scholars will discuss current methods for age verification, consider the key trade-offs for each, and

share informed recommendations for policymakers.

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On this episode of the TechTank podcast, co-host Darrell M. West engages in an enlightening

conversation with Dr. Camille Busette, the interim Vice President of Governance Studies at the

Brookings Institution, and Dr. Andre Perry, a senior fellow in the Metro program and Director of

the Valuing Black Assets Initiative. As project co-leads, these esteemed researchers will share

their plans for the new Center and why they believe it will help us address issues of racial equity

and justice.

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With the 2024 elections around the corner, political tensions are running high, and there is

considerable concern about how generative AI will affect campaigns and election turnout. This

week, on the TechTank Podcast, co-host Darrell West will engage in a conversation on these

crucial matters with Sarah M.L. Bender, an accomplished JD candidate from the University of

Michigan and the author of the article titled "Algorithmic Elections" in the Michigan Law

Review.

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In the last year, bank failures have dominated the news cycle. On this episode of the TechTank podcast,

co-host Nicol Turner Lee will discuss why the technology sector has been particularly sensitive to recent

bank failures, and what the future of banking looks like in the digital age. Joining the TechTank podcast

to help discuss the future of banking is Aaron Klein, who is the Miriam K. Carliner Chair in Economic

Studies and Senior Fellow at the Center on Regulation and Markets at the Brookings Institution.

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On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host, Darrell West, dives into how

Wikipedia handles content moderation, disinformation, and bias. The site is a trusted source of

information for many people, but little is known about how it makes decisions and handles

controversies surrounding its material. Guests are Isabelle Langrock, a PhD candidate at the

Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, who is writing a

dissertation on Open Knowledge Production and Digital Access; and Kent Campbell, a

Strategist at Reputation X, a firm that researches Wikipedia references, talk pages, and historical

editing patterns.

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On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, guest host Mishaela Robison will sit down with Dr. Joan

Donovan, Research Director of Harvard Kennedy’s Shorenstein Center and Emily Dreyfuss, a journalist,

who leads the Shorenstein Center News Leaders Program, to discuss their book, Meme Wars: The Untold

Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022).

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On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host Nicol Turner Lee will discuss the

future of local news and the effects of the internet on traditional business models and the quality

of investigative journalism. The episode will also correlate rising levels of misinformation to an

eroding local news landscape. Podcast guests are Courtney Radsch, postdoctoral research fellow

at UCLA, and Steve Waldman, founder and president of Rebuild Local News.

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On this week’s episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-hosts Darrell West, and Nicol Turner Lee discuss the

future of Biden’s tech policy agenda under the new 118 th Congress, including broadband infrastructure,

anti-trust, big tech accountability, data privacy, and AI, among other issues. With a GOP majority in the

House of Representatives and a Democrat-led Senate, this episode dives into which policy areas show

the most promise for consensus, and where there may be challenges to gain cooperation within a

divided Congress.

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On this week’s episode of the TechTank Podcast, moderator Darrell West, Vice President of Governance

Studies at the Brookings Institution, will discuss if it's time for the Supreme Court to regulate social

media platforms and the search engines that have become prominent amongst society. To help with this

conversation, the Podcast is happily joined by John Villasenor, a Professor of Engineering, Law, and

Public Policy at UCLA and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings. Mark MacCarthy is a Senior Fellow

at the Institute for Technology, Law, and Policy at Georgetown University and a Nonresident Senior

Fellow at Brookings.

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On this episode, host Nicol Turner Lee explores technology adoption in Africa and universal access throughout the continent with guests Yolanda Jinxin Ma, head of Digital Policy and Global Partnerships at the United Nations Development Programme, Addisu Lashitew, Global Economy and Development nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Jane Munga, Africa Program fellow at Carnegie who focuses on technology policy. 

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In this episode of Tech Tank, co-host, Nicol Turner Lee, speaks with Rashawn Ray, Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution, and Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Lab for Applied Social Science Research, University of Maryland; and Kinnis Gosha, Executive Director and Chief Research Officer of the Center for Broadening Participation in Computing, Morehouse College. These experts discuss the current and future possibilities of AR/VR, and the metaverse and the impact on public sector applications. We also dive into how to attract more diverse developers and subscribers

on these spaces.

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Latino voters registered and voted in higher numbers in the 2020 presidential election than in prior years, according to a 2021 report, and recent findings from the Pew Research Center count 34.5 million eligible Latino voters, which is a significant increase since the last midterm elections. The results of the 2022 midterms will have lasting consequences on American politics and policy, making it critical to protect and amplify Latino voices along with the type of information they receive to make credible opinions about potential candidates and their platforms 

Tech Tank co-host, Nicol Turner Lee, spoke with Gabriel Sanchez, a David M. Rubenstein fellow in Governance Studies and faculty at the University of New Mexico, and Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights at Free Press, about the ecosystem of Spanish-language media. The experts discussed how the prevalence of mis- and disinformation can be better identified and mitigated to avoid potential voter suppression efforts impacting Latino voters as the midterm elections near. 

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To protect public integrity and faith our election, it is integral for the United States to work to combat

existing misinformation, protect the safety of election officials, and guarantee that existing cybersecurity

measures are adequate in protecting the vote of the American people. On TechTank, Darrell West is

joined by Elaine Kamarck and Elizabeth Howard to discuss these topics and more.

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On this episode of TechTank, host Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Undersecretary Xochitl Torres Small.

Together, they discuss the administration’s ongoing work to close the urban-rural digital divide, how IIJA

funding has helped the USDA expand programs such as the ReConnect program, and how the USDA has

been working to meet different communities’ hyperlocal needs.

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Spectrum policy has been essential in determining how to encourage communications technology

development, while ensuring equitable access. On TechTank, Nicol Turner Lee, Andrew Von Ah, Shane

Tews and Kathleen Burke discuss pressing topics in spectrum policy and interrogate if the lack of

available spectrum will be a dealbreaker in closing the digital divide.

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On TechTank, guest host Samantha Lai is joined by Lydia X.Z. Brown, Alex Engler and Henry Claypool to

discuss how people with disabilities are affected by existing technologies. They investigate issues with

privacy, AI bias, surveillance technology and more, and consider what is needed to rectify these wrongs.

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Not a single week of 2022 has passed without multiple mass shootings. 343 people have been killed

and 1,391 injured through July 4th of this year. On TechTank, host Dr. Nicol Turner Lee, Carol Graham and

Darrell West examine the role social media has played in past mass shootings and look into how the

public has reacted online to prospects of gun legislation and rising political polarization in the US.

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This year’s Pride Month comes at a difficult time for LGBTQ+ rights. Over the past year, there have been over 300 anti-LGBTQ bills proposed in at least 28 states, including Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill that aims to limit LGBTQ+ discussion in schools, and a bill in Ohio that would ban transgender women from participating in high school and college athletics that includes a “verification process” of checking the genitals of those accused of being transgender. 

On TechTank, Samantha Lai, guest host and research assistant at the Center for Technology Innovation, is joined by David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, and Chris Wood, executive director and co-founder of LGBT Tech, to discuss how technology concerns surrounding privacy, content moderation, facial recognition, and more shape the online experiences of the LGBTQ+ community. 

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Nicol Turner Lee speaks to Renee Cummings and Lisa Rice on biases in artificial intelligence and how

they disproportionately impact historically marginalized groups in financial services, hiring, policing, and

more. Together, they will conduct a deep dive into these difficult questions and offer insight on

remedies to this pressing question of equitable AI.

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Darrell West interviews Congressman Ro Khanna about his new book, Dignity in a Digital

Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us. They discuss challenges from the ever-widening scope of

the digital world: how it has accentuated inequality, widened our political divide, threatened

personal privacy and more, as well as how improved policy can address these issues.

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Darrell West interviews Dr. Amy Zegart, author of a new book entitled Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The

History and Future of American Intelligence. They discuss how digital technology is transforming

espionage and why America needs to move towards more open-source data gathering.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has facilitated the unprecedented growth of telehealth. What should

lawmakers keep in mind to create an equitable and inclusive healthcare system for all? On this episode

of TechTank, Brookings researcher and guest host Samantha Lai is joined by Nicol Turner Lee and Niam

Yaraghi to discuss these important questions.

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As the new school year begins, COVID cases are on the rise again – this time hitting K-12 students, especially those who are unvaccinated and under 12, placing them at risk of hospitalizations and dangerous complications. School closures may once again be imminent if the virus is not better controlled. But students without reliable access to the internet will be left behind once again, and unable to access remote classes and the resources necessary for them to continue their education. Have we closed the digital divide for students since the first wave of the pandemic? And what do schools need to do to ensure that technology is complementing traditional education? 

Brookings TechTank co-host Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Jon Valant, Amina Fazlullah, and Alejandro Roark to discuss these important questions. 

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As the AI economy grows, there is tremendous variation across local and regional economies in how

well-positioned cities are. Some metropolitan areas have tremendous assets and lots of AI-related

activity while others see little activity. Those variations raise interesting questions about which places

are doing well, why, and what other communities can do to boost technology innovation in their local

economies. To learn more, Darrell West is joined by Mark Muro and Sifan Liu, co-authors of a new paper

entitled “AI Cities: The Geography of the AI Economy.”

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Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government enacted a relief package designed to help Americans cope with the pandemic and resulting economic downturn. However, inadequate unemployment insurance programs left many people in need without help. To understand the challenges, Darrell West and Annelies Goger discuss the poor performance of unemployment insurance programs due to IT infrastructure, government procurement and inadequate data collection. 

You can listen to the episode and subscribe to the TechTank podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Acast.

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Vaccination rates are on the rise and several countries, including the United States, are relaxing public health restrictions as they steer toward a full reopening. Digital health certificates, or vaccine passports, are part of these efforts as a number of organizations are requiring proof of vaccination. But while digital health certificates may facilitate a safer reopening and faster economic recovery, technological solutions to vaccine verification also raise valid concerns about the privacy of personal health data and their potential to exacerbate racial and socioeconomic inequities. 

To discuss these issues, host Nicol Turner-Lee is joined by Mark Hall, Jay Stanley and Emily Skahill.

You can listen to the episode and subscribe to the TechTank podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Acast.

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The COVID pandemic forced many schools and universities to remote education where students logged onto video calls for their classes. At one level, technology was helpful in giving students opportunities to continue learning despite being limited to their homes. Yet during the pandemic, there was a startling increase in the use of online monitoring software designed to prevent student cheating on exams. To discuss these issues, host Darrell West is joined by David Rettinger and Lindsey Barrett. David is a professor of psychological science and director of academic integrity programs at the University of Mary Washington. He also is the president emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity. Lindsey is the Fritz Family Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center and the author of a paper entitled “Rejecting Test Surveillance in Higher Education”

You can listen to the episode and subscribe to the TechTank podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Acast.

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President Biden’s American Jobs Plan promises to generate more than 19 million jobs for U.S. workers, with an emphasis on blue collar occupations, rural communities, and communities most impacted by climate change. A key component of the plan is to expand high-quality and reliable broadband internet to all Americans. 

On this episode of the TechTank podcast, host Nicol Turner Lee talks with experts about economic trends associated with the critical infrastructure investments included in the plan, Why America Needs a Tech New Deal, and what opportunities and challenges exist for job growth in the tech sector.

Guests include Algernon Austin, senior researcher at the Thurgood Marshall Institute, Allison Scott, chief executive officer of the Kapor Center Foundation, and Rikin Thakker, chief technology officer of the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

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Should a powerful technology company such as Facebook have the power to ban public officials from its platform? 

On January 7th, the day after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building, Facebook temporarily banned then President Donald Trump on the grounds that he had used a video and online statement to incite violence. Since then, the company referred the Trump case to an oversight board composed of 20 independent experts to determine whether to make the ban permanent and to provide guidance for other world leaders.

Last week, the Facebook Oversight Board reached its decision and affirmed the initial ban — but turned the issue of a permanent ban back to Facebook, with a request the company issue a decision on Trump within the next six months. The case raises important questions regarding the actual decision itself as well as the governance model of having a board of experts make decisions about platform access for national political leaders.

In this episode, host Darrell West speaks with Quinta Jurecic, Senior Editor at Lawfare and a Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, about the appropriateness of the Facebook Oversight Board’s decision on Trump and the governance model represented by the board itself. 

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The nation’s current antitrust laws have historical regulatory and enforcement precedents. Recent hearings targeting Big Tech companies are beginning to question whether the existing laws are adaptable to current corporate behaviors and provide sufficient policing of deceptive or anti competitive behaviors or practices. In this episode of TechTank, host Nicol Turner Lee discusses the Biden administration's potential approach to antitrust and competition policies, particularly those affecting Big Tech, with Brookings Fellows Bill Baer and Tom Wheeler, and MIT Professor Nancy Rose.

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President Biden has put forth an agenda to Build Back Better that now includes physical infrastructure and job creation in an effort to stir economic recovery in the United States. Broadband infrastructure is included in his trillion dollar plan, alongside water, roads, and bridges, as well as the modernization of schools, and other institutional assets. Making high-speed broadband and the applications it enables available to all citizens are at the core of his agenda, which resonates with the recent proposal of a Tech New Deal by podcast co-host, Dr. Nicol Turner Lee. Prior to President Biden’s announcement, Congressman and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn released the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act with Senator Amy Klobuchar and other Democratic co-sponsors. The Act introduced comprehensive bicameral broadband infrastructure legislation to get high-speed broadband access to all Americans, with the specific focus on closing the digital divide. The proposed legislation will invest over $94 billion in infrastructure, and ensure internet access for citizens to learn, earn, and access telehealth from a viable broadband connection.

In this episode of TechTank, Dr. Nicol Turner Lee speaks with Congressman Jim Clyburn about his new legislation and former Federal Communications Commission Interim Acting Chair and Commissioner, Mignon Clyburn. The discussion will touch upon Dr. Turner Lee’s proposed Tech New Deal as a path for reaching the proposed legislative goals of the Majority Whip’s proposed legislation.

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In February, the latest US rover named Perseverance landed on Mars and began what is expected to be a historic exploration of the Red Planet. Equipped with high-resolution cameras, microphones, drills, scoopers, and a helicopter, the mission aims to find evidence of microbial life from 3.5 billion years and decipher what happened to that planet. Already, Perseverance is navigating its landing spot in Jezero Crater, finding rocks that appear to have been molded by water and wind, taking pictures of volcanic rocks, and starting to move around the crater.

In this episode of TechTank, Darrell West speaks with NASA specialist and planetary geologist Vicky Hamilton of the Southwest Research Institute. The two of them discuss the benefits of space exploration, what we have learned from past missions, and how scientists are testing for ancient life on Mars. 

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This podcast is part of a three-part series on the various parts of the Tech New Deal. This episode explores the necessity of digital service in the U.S. 

How do we establish programs that improve upon the tech pipeline, while at the same time, ensuring that we have enough workers to nourish and grow our burgeoning broadband networks and services?

Further, how do we ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate to make national service an over-arching bridge builder as we make our way out of this pandemic and the more prominent racial divides that we are currently experiencing?

In this episode of Tech Tank, Nicol Turner Lee speaks with Amanda Renteria and Nick Sinai about a digital service corps.

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Today, under the coronavirus quarantines and lockdowns, most of us are working from home. This transition to a virtual world has blurred the lines between professional and personal life… in more ways than one.

We’ve all heard some of the scarier versions of Big Brother. Companies installing technology in their employees’ chairs, that tracks how long they spend at their desks each day. Required employee tracking bracelets, which record how many minutes you spend on your lunch break. 

Though the pandemic has isolated us in so many ways, that doesn’t mean we’re entirely alone. In fact, some of us are being watched like never before. 

Darrell West invites attorney John Ella to the podcast, to discuss how companies surveil employees and what workers can do to protect themselves.

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In the days leading up to the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6, social media platforms were flooded with hate speech and misinformation. Months before, there were also denouncements by former President Donald J. Trump about the proposed content moderation practices of private companies, as well as their use of Section 230 protections. 

It took only days after armed mobs stormed the U.S. Capitol, for platforms like Facebook and Twitter to decide Trump’s tweets were more than just “saber rattling.” 

Relying on section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, for immunity from civil suit, Twitter permanently banned President Trump’s account, wiping out his contact with 88 million followers, and banned thousands of conservative social media accounts. Facebook banned Trump’s account “at least until his term was over.” Google and Apple blocked the conservative-leaning social networking service Parler from their stores, and Amazon Web Services denied Parler access to its cloud network. Parler was forced to shut down for a time.

To many, January 8 seemed two days, two years, or two decades too late. Nonetheless, the question remains: Should free speech be regulated online? And if so, what should the content moderation practices be of private companies? Further, what voices should be subjected to greater scrutiny, and will those from more marginalized populations be questioned? 

In this episode of Tech Tank, Nicol Turner Lee speaks with David Johns of the National Black Justice Coalition and CTI scholars John Morris and Tom Wheeler.

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At the end of 2020, reporting revealed the dramatic SolarWinds hack of major American businesses and government agencies. Russia broke into leading institutions and cybersecurity experts still are gauging the scope of the damage. But this isn’t the only hack that Americans need to be wary of. The pandemic has also revealed the weakness of private business and ordinary citizens to protect themselves against malware, phishing attacks, and unwanted intrusions. Taking advantage of the security lapses exposed by remote work, hackers have held whole cities and companies hostage. Ransomware skyrocketed over the last year and exposed our fundamental vulnerabilities.

In this situation, Congress and the Biden Administration must act to stop nation-state actors and lone wolf attackers that target Americans all the time. The United States needs a clear plan to combat cyber intrusions and ordinary people need to exercise much better digital hygiene. 

In this episode of Tech Tank, Darrell West speaks with Congressman Jim Langevin of Rhode Island on how government, business, and regular people can protect themselves from cybersecurity attacks.

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Online dating apps like Tinder collect a large amount of personal information on their users. Tinder’s privacy policy clearly states your data may be used to deliver “targeted advertising”. Even a step beyond that, the policy says “you should not expect that your personal information, chats, or other communications will always remain secure”. 

Your online data affects what job offers you have access to on LinkedIn, how much you pay for insuring your car, ads you will see on Youtube and if you can get approved for a loan. The lack of a national privacy standard and the weakness of security guidelines leave many online daters with inadequate protections and creates regulatory uncertainty for the dating apps and websites themselves. So in the meantime, how can people using online dating apps protect their privacy and security?

In this episode, Darrell West, Caitlin Chin, and Mishaela Robison discuss the risks of dating apps and what can be done to improve personal safety.

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Many people participate in jobs associated with the gig economy. This includes those who drive for ride-sharing services, deliver food, or otherwise get paid based on services or deliveries, or car rides, as opposed to a set salary or hourly basis.  

People take these jobs for all kinds of reasons. They need flexible work schedules or are in school and aren’t available for a traditional job. These positions provide extra cash and allows people to take care of young children or aging relatives. 

Yet others worry because such workers generally don't qualify for healthcare benefits, disability insurance, or retirement matches from their companies. While the gig economy might seem like a positive evolution for our workforce, we need to make sure gig workers are treated fairly and are able to get healthcare insurance and disability benefits. 

A gig job might allow you more flexibility and more freedom…but at what cost? 

In today’s episode, Darrell West discusses the implications of the gig economy with guests Makada Henri Nicky and Aaron Klein. 

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Within the coronavirus era, doctor’s visits have gone virtual--much like nearly every aspect of everyday life. So telehealth means a patient talks to their doctor right from the epicenter of their personal world. And those little things that make us human? They’re front and center.

And beyond the convenience of taking a check up from your living room, without having to pay for childcare or transportation, telehealth is helpful in lots of ways. Take, for example, its ability to connect rural hospitals with nurses or surgeons at huge medical centers during emergencies that don’t afford the time to transfer a patient. That’s built in teamwork, support, collaboration. Or, the fact that telehealth allows trans people to see their doctor without the often awkward or negative confrontations at a physical office. That’s insured protection, comfort, confidence. 

But, of course, the steady march of technology doesn’t stop at doctor to patient Zoom calls.

In this episode host Nicol Turner-Lee discusses the rise of telehealth and its implications, with Ross Friedberg and Niam Yaraghi. 

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The phrase “telecommuting” was first coined in the early 1970s by a NASA employee named Jack Nilles. Nilles claimed telecommuting could offset traffic congestion, promote resource conservation, and be a major convenience for those so engaged. In addition to the societal and environmental benefits, CEOs of major companies said it increased productivity and offered greater flexibility for workers, as workplaces across the country adopted it as an option. 

But when COVID-19 hit, telework quickly went from an option to a necessity. Overnight, more than half of Americans went to work over Zoom. Months into the pandemic, we’re starting to see the consequences. But in the current environment, many major companies have announced that their employees will work remotely on a long term basis. Are we ready for this?

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Early in March, the COVID-19 pandemic began burning a furious path across the U.S., shuttering schools and sending 50 million students home. Some of the nation’s largest public school districts, including New York City and Los Angeles, were the first to close their doors for the remainder of the academic year.

Many parents were forced to become educators for the first time in their lives. And school districts quickly tried to become fully equipped for distance learning - an experiment that laid bare the digital divide in America, and exposed a modern inequality exacerbated by the virus. 

As the effort to reopen schools happens across the country, one thing is certain: All will be forced to navigate this new normal in education while still in the middle of a public health crisis. But what does reopening look like, and how can it happen safely? And how will it evolve as COVID-19 remains uncontained in America? 

With the school year well underway, we need answers, good answers, and fast.

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With the 2020 presidential election about to take place, concerns about foreign interference, disinformation, mail ballot snafus, and voter suppression remain high. Already, there have been major phishing attacks against leading campaigns and Facebook has removed hundreds of thousands of fake accounts operated by foreign entities. With countries such as Russia, China, and Iran having a major stake in the outcome, what should U.S. election officials be doing to safeguard the election? Are American policymakers prepared for what likely will be the most important election in decades? 

In this episode, Brookings experts Elaine Kamarck, Chris Meserole, and Darrell West identify the major threats to our election system, highlight lessons learned from 2016 that could help protect voters, and discuss whether disinformation and voter suppression will enable President Donald Trump to win reelection.

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On June 20th, President Donald Trump showed up in Tulsa, Oklahoma for his first campaign rally after a three-month hiatus. Before the rally, the Trump campaign bragged about the million tickets that had been pre-requested. But when the rally started only 6200 people showed up at the arena, and the President addressed a sea of empty chairs. Politically active young people used TikTok to encourage others to reserve tickets but not show up, thereby forcing Trump to play to an empty room.

Soon thereafter, President Trump released an Executive Order banning Chinese applications TikTok and WeChat in the United States and ordering TikTok’s sale to an American company. He argued the companies could release personal data to the Chinese government and therefore represented a national security threat. TikTok now is in talks with Oracle for the sale of its American operations.

In this episode, we address the broader issues represented by these presidential actions and whether they signal a trend toward a fractured internet divided by national boundaries and security fears. If the President makes good on his order to ban these applications or force TikTok to be sold to a US firm, will the concept of an open, borderless internet vanish? These are the crucial questions that will shape the future of the internet and U.S. tech policy.

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In 1932, Senator Carter Glass and Congressman Henry Steagall joined forces to pass a new banking law that divided investment from commercial banking. They argued there was an inherent conflict of interest in banks performing both activities and that it was harmful to consumers. As we move into the digital world, there are firms that perform a number of different business functions and there are questions whether this hurts consumers and creates unfair advantages for particular firms.

Over the past year, the House Antitrust Committee has held a series of hearings and heard complaints from businesses about unfair practices by large internet platforms. In a recent hearing with CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, subcommittee chair David Cicilline outlined a number of abuses.

Now the subcommittee is finalizing its report, and Congressman Cicilline sat down with Brookings Vice President Darrell West for a candid conversation about problems in the digital economy and why America needs Glass-Steagall legislation for the internet. He explains why large internet platforms have unfair advantages and harm small and medium-sized businesses. He says it is time for Congress to enact new rules of the road for the digital economy.  

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As the pandemic spring has turned into the pandemic summer—and with no sign of abating once fall arrives—Americans are beginning to grapple with how the disease will change daily life forever. Across the country, empty streets and empty office towers don’t just mean a change in how we work—entire communities have relocated to new places.

“Reopen the economy” has entered the pantheon of American political catchphrases. And while white collar workers may reap the benefits of a post-COVID world—one in which employers recognize that—with a powerful enough internet connection, anyone can work from home—blue collar workers won’t see those benefits. 

But it’s not just in the workplace. Medicine and education are also being rethought in real time. Come September, school will look radically different than it did a year ago—but who are the students that stand to gain from at-home learning? How can we ensure that all students—regardless of race and family wealth—can thrive while learning digitally? And how do we make sure that doctor’s appointments conducted over the internet are accessible to everyone who needs care? 

One day the pandemic will end. But before that happens, we need to make sure that the world it leaves in its wake is a just and equitable one. Finding the answers to these questions is the first step.

In this episode, CTI Senior Fellow Darrell West hosts a conversation with Annelies Goger, a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program, and Makada Henry-Nickie, a fellow in Governance Studies. The three discuss how COVID-19 is impacting employment, healthcare, and education during pandemic-related shutdowns and how its effects may be felt in these areas long after the virus subsides.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.