The Democratic platform is doubling down on tech antitrust and children’s online safety

While billionaires have pushed Kamala Harris to depart from President Joe Biden’s antitrust policy, the Democratic Party seems to be doubling down.

The word “competition” comes up 18 times in the party’s 2024 platform, compared to nine in the 2020 version. Other key policy areas, like tackling junk fees and noncompetes, are mentioned several times in the 2024 platform as well, compared to just one passing reference to noncompetes in the 2020 document. Notably, those are areas where the Federal Trade Commission, led by Lina Khan — a target of ire from more business-minded Democrats like Reid Hoffman — has been instrumental.

The platform is an indication of where Democrats stand on key issues, which will serve as an important signal to Harris about where the party base is. The document passed through committee before Biden decided not to run again and, in its present form, refers repeatedly to Biden’s “second term.” According to The Associated Press, convention platform committee cochair Regina Romero told delegates that, nevertheless, the platform includes input from many parts of the party and has a “forward-looking vision for our party that echoes the voice of all.”

Even though it predates Democrats’ swap of their leading candidate, the platform, along with some other early indicators, begins to paint a fuzzy picture of where Harris stands on tech policy. So far, it’s been difficult to pinpoint her specific views on topics like antitrust enforcement and a potential TikTok ban since she’s had little incentive to stray publicly from President Biden’s views.

Now that Harris is the nominee, it’s increasingly reasonable to assume that the Democratic Party’s platform and convention lineup are a reflection of her agenda.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who is viewed by many progressives as sympathetic to business interests, said in a speech on the first night of the Democratic National Convention that Harris would “forge an economy with fair competition, free from monopolies. Monopolies that crush workers and small businesses and startups.”

The 2024 Democratic platform also has a greater focus on protecting Americans from the potential harms of technology. There’s an entire section of the 2024 platform dedicated to “Protecting Kids Online, Strengthening Americans’ Data Privacy, & Promoting Competition.” Harris has already come out in support of the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA), which combines the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) with the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), a bill that passed with 91 votes out of the Senate. The platform makes clear such legislation will be a continued priority, including another area she’s been interested in since her time as prosecutor and senator: combating nonconsensual intimate images.

“Democrats will pass bipartisan legislation to protect kids’ privacy and to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on kids and teenagers online, ban targeted advertising to children, and put stricter limits on the personal data these companies collect on all of us,” the platform says. “And, the Administration has strengthened legal protections for survivors and victims of non-consensual intimate imagery, including those generated by AI, building on the federal civil cause of action established under the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2022.”

The platform again calls for new laws promoting competition and privacy in tech, echoing goals championed by a set of bills that passed the House Judiciary Committee in 2021. “Important policies include promoting interoperability between tech services and platforms, allowing users to control and transfer their data, and preventing large platforms from giving their own products and services an unfair advantage in the marketplace,” the document says. It also calls for stronger data privacy protections and “fundamentally” reforming Section 230, which shields platforms from being held liable for their users’ posts and for content moderation.

There’s also a section on “Seizing the Promise and Managing the Risks of AI,” that discusses combatting biases perpetuated by the technology and banning “voice impersonations.” In 2020, the technology was only mentioned as part of a broader discussion about technology and US competitiveness in the 2020 platform.

Republicans’ 2024 platform has just three references to “competition,” two of which refer to protecting Americans from “unfair Foreign Competition.” Their commitment on AI is to “repeal Joe Biden’s dangerous Executive Order that hinders AI Innovation, and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology.” They promise in exchange, “AI Development rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.”

“Our platform reflects our values, and after years of tech companies manipulating our economy, endangering people seeking reproductive care, and making the climate crisis worse, it’s clear that Democrats are now committed to holding them accountable,” Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project and veteran Democratic campaign strategist, said in a statement. “This is in large part due to President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership and willingness to stand up to tech monopolies over the past four years, and we look forward to continuing this work with a future Harris-Walz Administration.”