Republican leadership in the White House and at the FCC will likely see the rollback of consumer protection measures in both the tech and telecoms sectors
The next administration will inherit a legacy of national infrastructure investment and executive policymaking, much of which will be repealed, reformed or refocused
On 5 November 2024, former President Donald Trump was elected as the next President of the United States and is expected to introduce a new agenda for the tech and telecoms sectors. While his campaign offered limited policy proposals in these areas, President Trump’s first term in office, along with policy proposals unofficially published by key advisors and conservative policymakers, suggests that his administration is likely to pursue a largely deregulatory agenda that seeks to maximise economic growth and assert American dominance. Given that many of the core policies of the Biden Administration were enacted through executive action either by the President himself or through regulators such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), many of the consumer-focused rules of the past four years will likely be repealed. However, President Trump will inherit the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) as a key Biden achievement with established legislative standards for implementation, suggesting the public investment in the expansion of broadband throughout the US will see greater stability through this transition.
The FCC is likely to rescind net neutrality rules and Title II classifications for ISPs
Following the reintroduction of net neutrality rules by the FCC during the Biden Administration, it is highly likely that the regulator’s expected Republican majority to be appointed by President Trump will again repeal this regulation. Although often referred to as a debate on net neutrality, many ISPs and those in the Trump Administration will be more focused on how net neutrality rules empower the FCC through the Title II classifications of the 1934 Communications Act. The extension of Title II classifications to more ISPs allows for greater scrutiny and oversight from the FCC, granting it expanded outage monitoring powers and broadening vendor restrictions. The incoming Trump Administration is likely to argue that these rules are an example of the regulatory overreach it often accused the Biden-appointed, Democratic-led FCC of engaging in.
Public broadband investment will see less drastic change
The Biden Administration oversaw significant investment in the affordability and coverage of broadband through the Broadband Equity and Deployment (BEAD) Program and the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Both programmes were established through the IIJA and pledged a headline figure of $42.45bn (£32bn) for improving connectivity in unserved and underserved regions of the country, to be overseen by state-level authorities and awarded to operators through grants. Although there has been criticism of the programme’s funding process from some Republican leadership, particularly in relation to affordability standards attached to grants for operators, the incoming Trump Administration is unlikely to radically change the programme as its funding will already be underway. The future of the ACP is less clear. The direct consumer subsidy programme ended in June 2024 after it ran out of funding, but there has been consistent bipartisan support for its extension, including a proposal led by incoming Vice President, JD Vance. There is a chance that the programme could be extended under President Trump and a Republican-led Congress, although the priority placed on its funding remains unclear.
The future of the Universal Service Fund (USF) is also unclear, in part due to internal disagreements under conservative leaders on the programme. Similar to the ACP, there is broader bipartisan support for the USF, which funds ongoing investment in broadband deployment, but conservative activists have recently filed legal challenges against the programme, claiming that its funding methods are unconstitutional. Beyond its legal backing, the solvency of the USF and the potential for debates on network fees could emerge as a point of contention for the incoming administration. Brendan Carr (Senior Republican, FCC) is expected to be the top candidate for the role of FCC Chair and has previously argued that big tech platforms should have to pay for network development through contributions to the USF. Any change to the contribution base for the USF would require legislative approval, which would be complicated by a traditionally conservative scepticism of added taxation in the tech sector.
The FCC’s spectrum auction authority is likely to be restored
The FCC’s authority to auction spectrum expired in March 2023, but has been a continued topic of debate in Congress. Under a Republican-led Congress, including a Republican-chaired Commerce Committee likely led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, it is more likely that a bill reinstating the FCC’s auction authority will be advanced with requirements for the FCC to commit to auctioning a greater quantity of spectrum more quickly. Though the Biden Administration did commit to studying a large quantity of spectrum for repurposing from federal use, a lack of a commitment from the FCC to allocate this spectrum for commercial auction has been a point of partisan disagreement.
The President-elect sees AI as a tool for boosting economic growth and will repeal the Biden Administration’s executive order on AI safety
One of the very few specific proposals on tech regulation discussed during President Trump’s campaign was a promise to repeal the Biden Administration’s work on AI safety. The Executive Order on Safe, Secure and Trustworthy AI was introduced in October 2023 in coordination with the UK’s AI Summit at Bletchley Park, which emphasised the need to find the balance between seizing the opportunities and managing the risks associated with AI. The executive action advanced a restrained approach to the technology, establishing new standards for AI safety and security, promoting privacy protections, and embedding ‘equity’ in its algorithms, though remaining far less interventionist than the EU’s AI Act. In stark contrast, President Trump views AI as a primary sector for economic growth, especially in the context of competing with China in research and development. President Trump has referred to the Biden-era order as ‘dangerous’ and as actively hindering innovation. He previously introduced his own order on AI in 2019 during his first term in office, which underlined the strategic importance of the technology to the US’ future economic security and doubled federal investment into AI research. It is likely that President Trump will continue to emphasise the urgency of beating China in emerging technology markets through rollbacks in regulation.
Despite contentious rhetoric, President Trump is likely to green light mergers and acquisitions in tech, while reining in antitrust
The Biden Administration has perhaps most surprisingly worked to reform the US’ image as a leader in antitrust, particularly under the leadership of executive appointees Jonathan Kanter (Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice (DOJ)) and Lina Khan (Chair, FTC). The FTC and DOJ have taken on a particularly active role in pursuing action against Google, Apple, Amazon, Nvidia and Meta. Big tech leaders’ efforts to congratulate President Trump on his electoral victory reflects a new eagerness to engage with his administration and scale back the Biden Administration's more interventionist regulatory approach. Elon Musk will be the most influential of these tech-affiliated voices, having campaigned extensively with President Trump and been promised a role in managing governmental efficiency which will likely afford him some degree of oversight over the regulators that regulate his businesses, including X and Starlink. Khan’s term as FTC Chair ended in September – meaning she can either be reinstated or replaced by the incoming president – offering President Trump significant scope to set the tone for his new administration’s approach to antitrust. The incoming administration is also likely to advance a new approach to the continued operations of ByteDance and the presence of TikTok in the US. President Trump notedly reversed his opinion on the company’s forced divestment from the platform, even though the charge to ban the app began during his first term in office. He could attempt to refuse to enforce the ban even if ByteDance’s court appeals fail and the ban comes into effect the day before his inauguration.
