“As Trump tries to cement his legacy, he may see an opportunity to depart an enduring affect,” an skilled advised Euronews Subsequent.
commercialMany Massive Tech leaders congratulated Donald Trump upon his election victory this week, the incoming US president may have an effect on trade regulation.
Whereas it's nonetheless unclear how regulatory stress on corporations will change, specialists count on Trump's second administration to affect social media, European know-how and cryptocurrencies.
Euronews Subsequent takes a have a look at what we will count on for the tech sector within the US and Europe over the following 4 years.
Elon Musk and Massive Tech
The pinnacle of SpaceX, Tesla and X Elon Musk has been Trump's most vocal supporter in know-how even earlier than the election result’s introduced.
In August, Trump stated he would “undoubtedly” appoint Musk to a cupboard or advisory function if elected, including that the billionaire is “an excellent man.” It's unclear if that will occur, as there could also be authorized implications, however Musk will doubtless have the president-elect's ear.
In his victory speech, Trump stated “Let me let you know, now we have a brand new star…a star is born – Elon. He’s a rare man.”
However in terms of different Massive Tech corporations akin to Google and Meta, beneath Trump “we will count on a extremely selective strategy to coping with the tech giants,” stated Max von Thun, director for Europe and transatlantic partnerships at Institute for Open Markets in Brussels.
“Massive tech firms seen as 'woke' or 'liberal' like Google or Meta will proceed to face regulatory stress, whereas others will explicitly ally themselves with the administration or at the very least tacitly assist it — notably, Musk's X and, to a lesser extent, Bezos.” Amazon – it will probably get uncontrolled”.
He additionally stated that nationalistic arguments that painting tech giants as American “nationwide champions” in want of presidency safety would even have extra sway beneath the Trump administration.
President Joe Biden has tried to crack down on Massive Tech, along with his Justice Division launching antitrust investigations into Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft. Google additionally has an antitrust case from the earlier Trump administration.
Whereas it's unclear whether or not the Trump administration will proceed down that path, there will likely be a “main shift” on the antitrust physique, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC), and M&A exercise ought to improve, stated Bradley, the enterprise capitalist. and US political strategist. Tusk.
“Breaking apart the large tech monopolies is the place the far left and the far proper agree, so it's potential that the prosecutions towards Google, Meta and Amazon will proceed as they’re,” he advised Euronews Subsequent.
Social networks
Along with supporting Musk as an individual, Trump is prone to assist Musk's efforts on X in addition to his personal on Fact Social “to maintain social media platforms much less regulated and with little accountability for his or her operators, from content material viewpoint”. stated Mark Weinstein, tech entrepreneur and writer of Restoring Our Sanity On-line.
“Musk's political opinions, in addition to his stance on free speech and minimal moderation on X, align carefully with Trump's,” he advised Euronews Subsequent.
Trump is prone to hold Part 230 of the invoice, which says web platforms that host third-party content material are usually not accountable for what these third events submit, however may advance bipartisan US know-how laws.
commercialThe American Privateness Rights Act (APRA) and the Youngsters On-line Security Act (KOSA) are payments that “have sturdy assist from each Republicans and Democrats in Congress and will turn out to be crowning achievements of a brand new Trump administration,” stated Weinstein.
“As Trump seeks to cement his legacy, he might even see an opportunity to depart an enduring affect by measures that cut back biased moderation, strengthen privateness rights and shield youngsters on-line,” he added.
“A wake-up name” for European know-how
In his 2016 presidential marketing campaign, Trump introduced again the “America First” political agenda to emphasise US withdrawal from worldwide treaties and organizations.
This coverage implies that “Europe should unite and depend on itself to protect its sovereignty,” stated Marianne Tordeux Bitker, director of public affairs on the European start-up affiliation France Digitale.
commercial“Concretely, within the face of a Donald Trump who will play the protectionist sport, we should react and implement monetary, financial and regulatory implies that now we have not allowed ourselves to make use of till at the moment,” she added.
“We’re considering, for instance, of the large funding of disruptive applied sciences (AI, quantum) that play a key function in defending our pursuits, particularly our navy pursuits. We’re additionally occupied with the European desire in public procurement, in strategic areas akin to innovation”.
As for European regulators, a Trump administration will likely be very antagonistic to Europe's continued efforts to manage and govern Massive Tech monopolies, von Thun stated.
“Trump has already threatened to retaliate towards the EU for forcing Apple to repay billions in unlawful tax advantages, and is probably going to reply to different measures concentrating on Massive Tech companies – nonetheless justified – in the same means,” he stated .
commercialNonetheless, Trump can also search to take advantage of Europe's reliance on US tech giants to achieve geopolitical leverage, whether or not in commerce negotiations or on safety issues, von Thun stated.
“This ought to be an enormous wake-up name for Europe, which should lastly put its cash the place its mouth is in terms of so-called 'strategic autonomy'.”
On crypto
One other place the place Trump may form regulation is cryptocurrency, which he has made a large overhaul of.
Throughout his 2016 presidency, Trump referred to as crypto a “rip-off” and a “catastrophe ready to occur.” However in the latest presidential marketing campaign, the Republican Social gathering adopted a platform that helps crypto innovation.
commercial“Republicans will finish the unlawful and un-American repression of Democrats and oppose the creation of a Central Financial institution digital forex,” based on the doc.
“We are going to defend the proper to mine Bitcoin and make sure that each American has the proper to carry their digital belongings and commerce with out authorities oversight and management.”
Trump's victory in 2024 is “excellent information for crypto,” political analyst Tusk stated.
He stated that it is vitally potential that crypto will likely be regulated sooner or later by the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) as a commodity somewhat than as a safety by the Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC).
commercial“As a result of crypto is so new and there are so few legal guidelines on the books, Trump has a whole lot of latitude right here,” Tusk stated.