WASHINGTON Weighty high-tech issues are likely to flummox Congress again this year, just as they did last year, when lengthy hearings with chief executives of Facebook and Google drew a spotlight to the deep unfamiliarity of some legislators with technology matters.
Rather than tackling issues head on about privacy, data protection and artificial intelligence, legislators may opt for lesser steps.
Democrats now in control of the House say they will heed growing public clamor about the use or misuse of personal data by social media platforms and other digital companies. But they acknowledge that little action may emerge from the divided Congress.
Rep. Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which covers an array of internet issues, said he will push policies that protect net neutrality, promote public safety, and provide meaningful privacy and data security protections that are seriously lacking today.
Will that lead to concrete legislation? Other Democrats set the bar low. I think its not impossible. … I dont think its out of the question, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state who sits on the House Judiciary Committee.
Some Republicans concur.
Its going to be around the edges. Its not going to be anything particularly substantive, said Rep. Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican and member of the conservative Freedom Caucus.
Industry experts voiced concern that inaction on Capitol Hill will allow the muscular lobbying arms of Big Tech companies to mold future regulation, and leave individual states and the European Union to continue with their own regulatory initiatives, bypassing Washington.
Other countries are defining the rules of the road for us right now, said Andrea L. Limbago, chief social scientist at Virtru, a Washington cybersecurity firm focused on digital privacy.
Only a handful of legislators have a deep understanding of digital technology, and they routinely are called upon to tutor other House members.
Im always shocked by the number of colleagues that come to me for advice and perspective, said Rep. Will Hurd, a Texas Republican who studied computer science at Texas A&M before joining the CIA.
Another legislator, Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, was scornful of a House Judiciary committee hearing Dec. 11 in which Google chief executive Sundar Pichai faced repeated complaints of bias, about how its search engine algorithms function.
Were not going to be doing those stupid hearings anymore, Lieu said.
During the Google hearing in December, one legislator appealed to Pichai to direct his company to offer more personalized tutorials. Another legislator posed a question to Pichai while holding up an iPhone, a device made by Apple, not Google, suffering ridicule on social media.
Legislators have not put their best foot forward, Limbago said.
