The Cyber Policy Center is a joint initiative of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford Law School.
Digital technologies have influenced all sectors of political and economic life in the 21st century. They have provided unprecedented benefits, but have also provoked massive power disruptions. These technologies are transforming governments, up-ending legal and political norms, reconfiguring economies and societies, and shifting geopolitical balances.
A new administration and Congress provide an opportunity to improve the governance of digital communication technologies. The problems posed by these technologies appear daunting: foreign-sponsored election interference, viral disinformation, online radicalization spilling into street violence, privacy violations, as well as the emergence of platform monopolies with unprecedented power over speech. Additionally, competition among governance regimes, specifically between the United States, Europe and China, has raised the stakes over whether democracies or authoritarian governments will set the rules for the internet. The policy choices made by the new administration will play a pivotal role in shaping our global future.
The following articles highlight technology policy priorities from a diverse array of leading experts. Some of the policy changes they recommend can be accomplished quickly; others may take years. Some must be implemented by government; others could be more quickly implemented by technology companies themselves. The explosion of research and expertise in these areas in recent years in academia, civil society, and the private sector can help guide the White House and Congress as they wrestle with the difficult trade-offs, and potential unintended consequences, inherent in governing the digital future.
This volume of essays is not intended as a comprehensive policy agenda for a new administration. Instead, it represents a compilation of priorities identified by a select group of experts. Some essays focus on one or two very specific recommendations, while other authors take a broader approach, identifying a larger set of priorities essential to the improvement of the digital technology ecosystem.
Despite this variation, several common themes emerge:
Specifically, contributors suggest:
Other contributors take a broader look, suggesting multiple priorities for reform, including:
Finally, because these chapters reflect the priorities of only this select group of authors, a range of critical topics remain unaddressed. The concluding Additional Priorities section, therefore, highlights other areas requiring urgent attention from federal policymakers.Some priorities are thoughtfully covered in other, related publications, including the Aspen Cybersecurity Group’s A National Cybersecurity Agenda for Resilient Digital Infrastructure, the German Marshall Fund’s #Tech2021 - Ideas for Digital Democracy, and the Cyberspace Solarium Commission’s 2020 Report. These additional priorities include: investing in a future US cybersecurity workforce, taking collaborative measures to secure the public core of the internet, developing functional cybersecurity metrics, improving the security of the digital supply chain, addressing growing concerns presented by algorithmic bias, and more.
In the coming months, the thought leaders included here, alongside many other experts from across the field, look forward to working with the next administration and Congress to address the impact that emerging technologies are having on global democracy, national security, society, markets and economies, and racial and economic inequality -- alongside other impacts we have yet to imagine. The Cyber Policy Center welcomes feedback and collaboration towards informing the new administration, and to ensure facts and research guide technology policies.