Innovation policy

The Promise and Perils of Interoperability

March 4, 2021 | Zach Graves

Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats now support increased regulation of the tech industry. Responding to this pressure, policymakers on both sides of the aisle have become increasingly critical of big tech, and are looking to advance new legislation. However, because their underlying grievances are different—with the right focusing on anti-conservative bias, and the left

February 24, 2021 | Zach Graves

Smartphone app store policies have come into focus recently, following a series of recent conflicts between app makers and app store operators (principally Apple and Google). These include the removal of conservative-oriented social media platforms Parler and Gab, and the ensuing debate about balancing free speech and harmful content. There have also been numerous conflicts

February 16, 2021 | Zach Graves

The following letter was sent to the Hill on February 16, 2021. To discuss this issue further, please contact: Charlotte Slaiman, Competition Policy Director at Public Knowledge at charlotte@publicknowledge.org; Chris Riley, Senior Fellow at the R Street Institute at criley@rstreet.org; and Zach Graves, Head of Policy for Lincoln Network at zach.graves@joinlincoln.org. Hon. Chris Van Hollen,

December 17, 2020 | Dan Lips

Click here to download a PDF version of this paper. Five years ago, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced a decade-long campaign dubbed “Made in 2025,” designed to secure for itself global dominance in ten key economic and national security sectors, including the crucial semiconductor industry, where an investment of more than $150 billion

September 17, 2020 | Garrett Johnson

Lincoln Network submitted comments to the FCC on RM-11862, the NTIA’s petition to “clarify” Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended. Authored by Garrett Johnson and Zach Graves. Click here to view the full comment in PDF format. We write: The Commission has been asked to respond to the National Telecommunications and

July 8, 2020 | Joel Thayer

Consumer Technology Association (CTA), a national trade organization representing more than 2,200 tech companies in the United States, recently submitted a petition for Rulemaking Or, In The Alternative, Waiver To Expand Marketing Opportunities For Innovative Technologies. Lincoln’s letter of support of the petition can be downloaded here Ms. Marlene H. Dortch Federal Communications Commission 445

How to Build

May 11, 2020 | Marshall Kosloff

In response to Marc Andreessen’s essay It’s Time to Build, Lincoln Network hosted A Time to Build? Institutional Failure and Reform After COVID-19. Marshall Kosloff, Lincoln’s director of outreach and media moderated the webinar panel with Eli Dourado, Mark Lutter, and Marci Harris. We believe that Andreessen’s call to build and reform our institutions has

May 1, 2020 | Alexiaa Jordan

Here at Lincoln, we believe technologists and innovators have an important role to play in addressing our nation’s most pressing problems. So we wanted to highlight tech companies that are supporting our nation and providing services to communities that are struggling. We’ve created a Wiki highlighting the ways that the industry has mobilized to confront the virus.

April 20, 2020 | Joel Thayer

By Joel Thayer and Garrett Johnson Shelter-in-place America depends on an internet economy powered by tech company innovations. However, digital innovation relies on the existence of strong broadband networks. With the adoption of 5G, tech companies need priority access arrangements for essential services such as autonomous vehicles and telemedicine to operate successfully. That said, if

How Platforms Drive Innovation

March 6, 2020 | Lars Schönander

One creates b2b software, the other disrupted the taxi industry. What Shopify and Uber share in common is the status as unicorn companies while they were private. Shopify at IPO was valued around $1 Billion Dollars, with Uber being valued around $72 billion dollars. Shopify has had a rewarding post IPO life, with the

March 4, 2020 | Mike Wacker

The following post was written by Mike Wacker, a software developer and ex-Google engineer based in Washington State. “Right now, if you Google the word ‘idiot’ under images, a picture of Donald Trump comes up. […] How would that happen?” When Rep. Zoe Logren (D-CA) asked this question to Google CEO Sundar Pichai in December

March 4, 2020 | Zach Graves

Conservatives are right to challenge libertarians, but they must avoid Hawleyism. The editors of influential conservative publications—including The American Mind, First Things, the American Conservative, and others—have called for a “tech new deal,” arguing the right has lost its ability to meet the challenges of the digital era. Like its original namesake, or the more

February 27, 2020 | Zach Graves

Eric Schmidt is right we need more R&D investment to beat China. But we also need more capacity to assess its efficiency and efficacy. Defense Innovation Board chairman and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has an excellent op-ed today in the New York Times (disclosure: Lincoln is a grantee of his foundation) making the case

Video: Protocols vs. Platforms

February 25, 2020 | Zach Graves

ABOUT THE EVENT The early Internet evolved around many different protocols. Email utilized Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), Post Office Protocol (POP), and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP); The web was accessed using Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), with data sent over Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP); and you could chat with

The Case Against Non-Competes

February 24, 2020 | Ryan Khurana

A recently introduced bill entitled the Workforce Mobility Act by a bipartisan coalition of Senators Todd Young (R-Ind) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn), and Representatives Scott Peters (CA-52), Mike Gallagher (WI-08), and Anna G. Eshoo (CA-18) offers the long overdue opportunity to limit the breadth and scope of non-compete agreements over American workers. Long has it

February 3, 2020 | Jess Miers

How expanding copyright protections for APIs could undermine the future of the web Application programming interfaces (APIs) are the building blocks of modern software development. Programmers rarely write code from scratch. Instead, programmers start with APIs to automate traditional routine processes and basic functionality. But besides providing a basic standard for software developers, APIs do

January 30, 2020 | Zach Graves

Lincoln head of policy Zach Graves discusses tech and innovation policy with Schmidt Futures’ Kumar Garg at the Day One Project conference at the National Academies of Sciences.

January 17, 2020 | Ryan Khurana

The American AI Initiative, created by the Trump Administration in February 2019, highlighted the White House’s priorities to make artificial intelligence a pivotal asset in shaping America’s future. While the initial plan was criticized for a lack of specifics, on January 7th the Office of Management and Budget released its “Guidance for Regulation of Artificial

January 16, 2020 | Will Upton

Lincoln Network’s Zach Graves recently appeared on a panel at CES entitled: “Should Big Tech be Broken Up?” You can check out the full panel below. Featuring: Moderator:Jamie Susskind VP Regulatory Affairs, CTA Panelists:Jennifer HuddlestonResearch Fellow, Mercatus Center Charlotte SlaimanPolicy Counsel, Public Knowledge Zach GravesHead of Policy, Lincoln Network Dr. Robert AtkinsonPresident, Information Technology and

November 26, 2019 | Garrett Johnson

Increasing science and technology advice would be an important first step Technological advancements are rapidly changing the American economy and workforce. At the same time, lawmakers increasingly appear to lack the capability to understand and respond effectively to this transformation. Flip phone-wielding lawmakers may have been cutting edge in the 1990s, but not in today’s Congress, which routinely grapples

Reviving Expertise in a Populist Age

November 25, 2019 | Zach Graves

Zach Graves is the head of policy at Lincoln Network and an associate fellow at the R Street Institute. M. Anthony Mills is associate vice president of policy and a senior fellow at the R Street Institute. Though we have heard laments for decades that American democracy is sliding into idiocracy, never has more ink been spilled on

Beware Big Tech’s Embrace Of Regulation

November 25, 2019 | Aaron Ginn

Major players worried about upstarts displacing them are hurrying to cement their market dominance. Silicon Valley has entered a downward spiral of metaphorical mob-like violence, accelerated by broader societal ills and its own mistakes. In an effort akin to taking a hammer to the problem, “breaking up Big Tech” has become one of the few

November 25, 2019 | Dan Lips

Government Watchdogs Can Use Data Analytics to Identify Billions in Taxpayer Savings While impeachment hearings and the 2020 election dominate the political headlines, several encouraging bipartisan efforts to reform Washington and improve governance are making progress below the radar. The result could be billions in taxpayer savings. This month, the House of Representatives extended the

October 1, 2019 | Will Upton

Today’s 2-1 ruling in Mozilla v. Federal Communications Commission from the D.C. Circuit largely reaffirms the FCC’s 2018 net neutrality framework, avoiding an innovation-crushing regulatory regime. However, as Lincoln Network co-founder Garrett Johnson argued, Congress still needs to step in to address the harmful regulatory uncertainty of the protracted fight over net neutrality: While some

Progress in closing the digital divide

August 6, 2019 | Garrett Johnson

The world has moved online. With just an internet connection, one can access a vast range of digital services, educational materials, and economic opportunities unimaginable by previous generations. Yet, many people who need these opportunities the most – such as low income people of color – have still been left behind. It’s clear that as

July 30, 2019 | Ryan Radia

Access to speedy, reliable broadband matters a lot to our economy, whether we’re at work, on our smartphone, or sitting on the couch. But it’s not always easy to measure how well we’re doing as a nation in terms of deploying speedy broadband. One sticking point is the gulf between speeds reported by Internet service

July 25, 2019 | Will Upton

Lincoln joined a coalition letter organized by the Institute for Liberty supporting the FCC’s efforts to curb excessive state and local cable franchise fees, as well as in-kind demands, that chill broadband deployment. The letter encourages the Commission to adopt the draft Third Report and Order on the implementation of Section 621 of the Cable Act during

Lincoln’s approach to policy

July 21, 2019 | Zach Graves

Make the future happen sooner. The mission of Lincoln’s policy project is to bridge the gap between innovators, technologists, and policymakers, and leverage that position to advance policy discussions that will help create a better, freer, and more abundant future. In the face of increasing backlash against science and technology, we are optimistic about the

July 19, 2019 | Ryan Khurana

On June 28th, 2019, after 46 years of regulatory dormancy, action was once again taken to make supersonic flight a reality in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a notice of proposed rulemaking that would allow for special flight reauthorizations for the testing and development supersonic aircraft. This came after bipartisan legislation

July 17, 2019 | Ryan Radia

Conservatives see the Constitution as their best defense online, but have they considered the broader consequences? Conservatives often accuse big tech companies of suppressing right-leaning voices and giving preferential treatment to left-wing commentators and news outlets. Google is the target of these latest allegations, which include a heavily edited video that seemingly depicts an executive suggesting

Principles for Amending Section 230

July 11, 2019 | Will Upton

Lincoln joined a broad, bipartisan coalition letter organized by our friends at TechFreedom. The letter outlines seven principles for amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The letter argues: Policymakers have expressed concern about both harmful online speech and the content moderation practices of tech companies. Section 230, enacted as part of the bipartisan

July 11, 2019 | Will Upton

Lincoln joined a center-right coalition letter urging policymakers to not be overly hasty in trying to regulate the Internet ecosystem. Signatories include Americans for Prosperity, Campaign for Liberty, FreedomWorks, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and others.

Silicon Valley vs. the post-Trump right

June 26, 2019 | Zach Graves

If tech companies and their allies want to meaningfully push back against this tide of conservatives turning against them, they need a new strategy.

June 16, 2019 | Ryan Radia

The following article originally appeared at FoxNews.com. Should the federal government break up big tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon? Last week, the House Judiciary Committee began investigating this question, marking Congress’s first major antitrust probe in decades. Members of both parties are understandably concerned about tech giants, with some politicians going so far as to push

June 5, 2019 | Zach Graves

The following article by Lincoln Network head of policy Zach Graves originally ran at Techdirt: In an article for Quillette titled, “It Isn’t Your Imagination: Twitter Treats Conservatives More Harshly Than Liberals,” Columbia University research fellow Richard Hanania offers us proof–once and for all–that social media companies are biased against conservatives. Either that, or it’s the latest