In his upcoming book, Tom Wheeler makes the case for a new government agency to take a more proactive approach to technology regulation.
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Barron’s Tech recently talked with Wheeler to discuss his views on the digital Gilded Age, what steps lawmakers can take, and how artificial intelligence plays into this debate. And in the Gilded Age, we the people got to a point where we said, ‘Enough!’ and prevailed upon policy makers to step up and put guardrails in place. And I think we are at that kind of a fringe moment today. It’s time to once again rebalance the public interest and private interests.
The second point, however, is that this is not an overnight process. The creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first federal regulatory agency, was in 1887. It was a process that began in 1867, with the organization of the Grange, which was farmers organizing against the abuses of the railroads in getting their products to market.
The big con was that companies convinced the government, particularly Congress, that digital technology was something that approached magic, and that if you touched it, you’d break the magic. What we have seen over time is that digital technology is not magic. And we have seen the effects of what happens when you believe it is magic.
It’s something that everybody missed. The job of the head of an agency like the FCC is to deal with the public interest, and to try and find what maximizes the public interest. And if at one point in time you were an advocate for a private interest, it hopefully will not be determinative as to what you do in your new position. And that was what I tried to live.I certainly know that all my friends in the industry took me off their Christmas card list.
I find that encouraging because it begins the debate. Instead of the debate being ‘to regulate or not to regulate,’ we’ve crossed the Rubicon and we’re now evolving into a debate of what’s the best kind of regulation. And that’s progress.
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