Breakout Session: Big Tech’s War with D.C.: Looming Antitrust and Content Control Battles

With increasing volume over the last several years, there have been calls from Washington, D.C. to “do something” about large technology platforms and their audience reach, financial power, and outsized influence. Elected officials, regulators, and advocates from both the left and the right of the political spectrum have expressed growing concern. Complaints about the major technology companies and platforms have ranged from perceived anti-competitive market power, election influence and misinformation, hate speech, misuse of customer data, to stifling free speech. As a new presidential administration and Congress begin, challenges to big tech have emerged as a key priority in regulation and enforcement. How will actions against these companies impact the regulatory frameworks that affect all corporations? Will antitrust enforcement fundamentally change, or will the antitrust laws undergo a sea change as a result of the concerns about big tech? Will national data privacy regulation finally take hold? How will these diverse issues affect innovation more generally? This panel will discuss the origin of the concerns about big tech, where regulation and enforcement may lead, and how corporations and boards should plan for potential outcomes in this space.