US Senator Proposes Commission to Oversee Tech Companies
US Senator Michael Bennet on Thursday proposed new legislation(Opens in a new window) to establish a federal commission for overseeing digital platforms.
Bennet (D-CO) introduced the Digital Platform Commission Act(Opens in a new window) with the intent of creating an "expert" body to take on popular services like Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.
"As a country, we should take pride that most of the world's leading tech companies were founded in America. But they aren't start-ups anymore," Bennet said in a statement. "Today they rank among the most powerful companies in human history. It's past time for a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to regulating digital platforms that have amassed extraordinary power over our economy, society, and democracy."
Bennet's motivation, The Washington Post(Opens in a new window) reports, stems from personal experience with disinformation and "witnessing the effects that social media has had on his own children."
The Federal Digital Platform Commission, if approved, would feature five experts with backgrounds in computer science, software development, and technology policy—appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They'll have the authority to enforce rules, impose penalties, conduct investigations, and support research, as well as subject "systemically important digital platforms" to additional oversight.
"[This] bill is significant not only in the establishment of a new expert agency, but also in the new agile regulatory model the agency is to follow," Tom Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and former chairman of the FCC—itself the result of a 1934 Congressional act that transferred radio and telecom jurisdiction—said in a statement released by
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