Free Markets are the Reason America Dominates Tech Innovation: ALEC on Voice of Reason Radio – American Legislative Exchange Council – American Legislative Exchange Council

ALEC’s Task Force Director of Communications and Technology, Jake Morabito, spoke on Voice of Reason Radio with host Andy Hooser. Morabito discussed ALEC’s new report: A Threat to American Tech Innovation: The European Union’s Digital Markets Act. In this report, Morabito looks at how the European Union’s heavy-handed regulatory scheme will have drastic consequences on America’s technology sector for years to come. Morabito makes the case the United States should not emulate it. 

Hooser: Talk about some of these regulations, what’s included in this madness?

Morabito: One of the things that they do is they are restricting specific behaviors. So essentially if the European Union declares that a company is a gatekeeper, all of a sudden they will be subject to these new restrictions on how data can be used across their different services. Alarming cybersecurity concerns even as far as mandates about messages. So that if it is not done right, it could expose people’s messages to bad actors online.

Hooser: Do you see a lot of these companies just stopping doing business in those countries that are wanting to actually implement this to where they just move elsewhere and just focus their attentions in other markets?

Morabito: In Congress and even at the state level, pieces of the Digital Markets Act and other similar legislation have been introduced and are actively being considered. At ALEC, our legislators have outlined six principles for communications and tech that should serve as a model to again allow free markets to guide government shouldn’t be interfering unnecessarily. Instead of imposing new restrictions on business, we should be looking at how government can help by removing some outdated or unnecessary regulation.

To Listen to the Full Interview  (20:00-31:00)